Our Holiday Weekend

When Morgan and I received the devastating news on Thursday about the progression of my cancer we were at a loss. We were thinking that maybe we wanted to "get away" for the holiday weekend, or take someone up on an offer to watch the kids and go sit on the beach in California holding hands. But after much thought and reflexion, we knew we needed to stay here. The kids needed us, and they already had plans that they were excited about and they needed stability, not parents who run away to be by themselves on a far away beach.
So, we ended up having a terrific weekend "staycation", even though temperatures reached a million and more! (o.k. maybe it was only about 110 degrees, but honesty, this is FALL and those temperatures sure aren't "fall"ing!)
Scroll thru the pictures to see what we did this extended weekend...
The girls were invited to a Camp Rock 2 party and had such a blast!! Thank you Jackson's for hosting such a wonderful (noisy) bunch of girls! Here is Cassidy and Sarah with their friends from school, Chloe, and Emily.

I love this picture because Sarah did NOT want to be in the picture all cuddled with the rest of the girls! Just look at that expression!!

And here they are being goofy!!!! What an adorable bunch!

So, what were we doing while the girls were at their party and the boys were hanging out with grandma and grandpa? Oh, we were enjoying a date of our own!! Here we are toasting our Italian soda and Diet Coke!

And would you check out my hot date!!!! Wahhhhoooo!!! And the food looks pretty wonderful as well!

And here I am hiding behind a huge slab of lasagna... Thank you Bucca Di Bepos!

And when we went to pick up the girls, everyone was rocking out! Even Will and Lund got in on the action!

Here you get a better view of what they are doing... playing "Just Dance" on the Wii. Such a fun game! We will have to get that one sometime, it is quite the workout!

And then the next evening we had another great experience!! We had an amazing BBQ with Buck and Judi Shumway and Buck's bum legs! We had Martinelli's to celebrate the holiday weekend and steak, hamburgers and yummy chicken as well!! Oh and shrimp and really great potato chips from Costco... and a melon salad and cookies... You get the point--It was AWESOME!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our last weekend here in the apartment, but we are really, really excited to move into our new house (finally) on Thursday!!!

Oh, poor bum legs!!!! Buck did enjoy floating around the pool for a bit. I think it helped to put the weight off his legs for a while. He also developed "kankles" while we sat there! I thought only pregnant women could pull that off!!!

Half way through our swim, Will decided to strip down and run around in the nude!!!! Oh boy, I had to catch him and make him put his trunks back on while everyone at the pool got quite a chuckle. Don't worry, I don't have any nude photos!

Then I got to do something EXTREMELY AWESOME!!! This is Breanna Pena who is fighting a very aggressive form of leukemia. She is the daughter of an old high school friend and we have been following her fight via the computer and her web page, (leukemiasucksbreannarocks.com), and she has been such an inspiration to me!!! This little gal, who is so beautiful and has the skin of a porcelain doll (can you tell I am a bit jealous about that), is such a fighter!!! On Monday morning, we got to go visit them at their home on a rare sabbatical from Phoenix Children's Hospital. I LOVED talking to her and just hanging out and understanding each other, and comparing different ports and comparing experiences... What a family, and what a girl!!!!!!!

Here we are together! She looks so tiny next to me! I bought her the hat that she is wearing and a made her a bunch of interchanging flowers like the one she has on, so she can have fun with hats like I do!! She put the hat right on an picked out the Sun Devil colored flower to start off with. And let me just tell you, she has the MOST BEAUTIFUL bald head I have ever seen!!! Truly, she could be a bald model!!!!

And while Morgan and I were visiting with the Pena family, Alisha graciously had volunteered to watch the kiddos overnight!! Thank you a million times over!!! Here they all are hanging out together!

.....and being goofy, which is their specialty!!!

Then we headed over to Bishop Brock's house for a BBQ and swim date!!! How fun, thanks for letting us be part of your evening!!! We are truly blessed with the greatest friends and family EVER!!

I just wanted to let you know that we had a marvelous weekend and feel soo blessed by the love we feel from all of you! Calls, emails, hugs, offers of service-- how truly blessed I am!

We are working with MD Anderson in Texas and might actually be flying out there for a consultation at some point in the near future. And if you didn't notice, after much deliberation on the phone on Morgan's part, we will be moving into our home this Thursday!!!!! Wahhhhooooo!!!!

I hope Morgan is ready to carry me over the threshold!!!!