Back to Normal

For the past 7 weeks, life around our house has been a little different.  It started with Cheryl being here and then Ron bringing his mom to spend a month with us.  We enjoyed it so much.  Last Friday, we headed to Calgary to begin our trip to take Donna back home.  We spent the night at a hotel and then flew to Toronto the next afternoon.  We were so happy that Donna had been able to spend the month with us and that she did so well in travelling. 

We arrived in Napanee late Saturday night.  Sarah, our eldest granddaughter was spending the weekend at my parents.  She was quick to jump in bed with me in the morning.

Sunday morning, we travelled to Gananoque where we joined Jenn and three other of the grandchildren.  We enjoyed church there and were acknowledged from the platform as being associate pastors there....so long ago!

The rest of the kids went off to a kids church but Emma decided she wanted to stay with us.  There are so many great people in that church but none better than our dear friends, Howard and Hilda.  We went out for lunch with them and a few others.

The grandchildren love Howard and Hilda, just like our kids did.  After lunch, we loaded the kids in the van and off we went to a hotel for the night in Kingston.

After checking in, it wasn't long before we headed to the pool.

The kids had a great time swimming and going down the slide over and over again.  Finally, we headed back up to the room and they all jumped in the big tub to wash off the chlorine. 

Just before supper Jenn, Joe and Anthony arrived.

While Ron and Joe and the kids went to get groceries for our hotel stay, Jenn and I went to the hospital to visit a special aunt.  It felt like we were gowning up to do surgery.  It was great to see Aunt Joyce and know that she is doing so much better.

We then met the rest of the crew at Pizza Hut for a very active supper.

There was some hide and seek and dancing (even flossing...it's a dance) going on through the meal.  After supper, the three oldest stayed with us.  We headed back to the hotel.  Sarah and I claimed the pull out couch while Ron, Jacob and Emma settled into the King side bed.  Ron said that he had very little room for such a big bed.
The next day, we spent the morning having the pool to ourselves.  We then headed to the mall.  Ron and Emma got their hair cut and one of them got some pink in their hair.

After a little bit of shopping, it was time to re-energize.

We took the kids back to their house after a full day and then picked up Jenn and Anthony and headed back to Napanee.  The next morning, we were back in Kingston.  Anthony had to have an ultrasound and a doctor's appointment.  He only has one kidney and this was a follow-up appointment.  They found that he has a pocket in his bladder and it probably needs to removed.  They need to do another invasive test to be sure.  It wasn't what we had hoped to hear but at least his good kidney is functioning well.  We dropped Jenn and Anthony off at home after another full day and then had a visit with my cousin and her husband. 
The next morning, we headed towards Toronto.  On our way, we stopped to have a little visit with a retired pastor and his wife.  They had been a very supportive couple in our last church.
We had a fancy plane for our trip home.

We were chasing the sunset all the way home.

We stayed overnight in Calgary and then did some shopping the next day.  We had an appointment at Foothills Hospital with the Head Surgeon and the person that schedules surgeries.  They wanted to discuss the "mistake" in my thyroid surgery where the surgeon went right instead of left to remove the cancer that was found on the left side.  Their mistake found more cancer on the right side.  Their mistake was a blessing to me.  The total review will hopefully prevent wrong site surgeries but in my case it really was a good thing.  Our trip home was a little nasty.

It was so good to walk into our house and feel like life was back to normal.  Ron went to work today and I worked on college things and cleaned and did laundry.  We like adventure and visitors.  We enjoy travelling but it's always good when life is back to normal.