A Busy Weekend

This past weekend, being Memorial weekend, we crammed a lot of activities into the three days.

Friday
I got off work early and we headed off to Chicago to visit Diane. Dorene's parents also went, driving separately. We basically just spent the weekend hanging out. This was the first time we had seen Diane since her chemotherapy treatments had begun. She had just recently lost all her hair. When she greeted us at the door, she was wearing a pink wig, which the kids laughed at. They didn't seem to mind that she didn't have her long curly locks. Before we left, she asked if they wanted to see her bald head and both said yeah. Anna rubbed it and thought it was no big deal. Cameron wasn't sure, but she is still "Aunt Dee Dee," so in the end it didn't really matter.

We also celebrated Cameron's birthday that evening, with cake and presents. Cameron got a couple puzzles, a bat and ball, and a John Deere snowglobe for his room. Plus, a leaf blower. Not a toy kind, but a real one. In addition, he got a real extension cord to power it. When we were leaving the next day, Cameron carried the leaf blower in one hand and power cord in the other. Looked like he was leaving a construction site, and loving every minute of it.

Saturday
A big long lazy day. We just slept in, then stayed at Diane's condo all day long. Helped her plant some flowers and eventually went out for ice cream, but otherwise just stayed there. Early in the evening, we headed home, with John aboard this time. Carlene decided to stay for the whole weekend with Diane.

Sunday
Nothing too special. We went to church, then came home and stayed out of the heat, because it was HOT! Took the kids to a park with a water playground.

Monday
Headed off to Stu and Joyce's house for a Memorial Day cookout and birthday celebration #2 for Cameron. Stu cooked up some burgers, brats and dogs. Mom brought her great baked beans. We really wanted to play some intense volleyball, but the heat was just a little too much. We played a couple games in the heat of the day but it wore us all out. When it cooled off, we got in a couple more games, but that was it as people had begun to disperse.

For this birthday, Cameron got everything he'd possibly want. A motorcycle and some guns. That is, a battery powered motorcyle that he could ride and some squirt guns. He basically stayed on the motorcyle the rest of the afternoon.

Anna, we didn't hear much from all day. We brought along Tatum, one of her classmates from Veritas. We'll be doing this a lot. Anna is very, very social and likes to have someone to play with. Cameron doesn't really care, he just kind of does his thing.

We didn't get back home until about 12:30 p.m., so getting up for work Tuesday morning was not the easiest, but we made it. All in all, a very fun weekend. The next time we're all together, we say goodbye to Paula Dennie and hello to Mrs. Paula Merkle.