Happy Diwali (dog)

All before 10 a.m.

 Marley chewed up a pool toy, Olivia's Spongebob kickball and a nerf ball all in one short morning...  and you see who her accomplice was....

We have never grown, nor tried to grow pumpkins in our yard, yet after the pool was put up back in June a vine started to grow along the perimeter.  It grew, and grew, and flowered ... and then we had several volunteer (ornimental) pumpkins!  Olivia and I picked them a few days ago and this is the only one left that Marley hasn't eaten.  Neat huh?

 Yes, Gavin is asleep in both of these pictures.  Hee hee.

NY to be close to the Melvilles

 Um, Gavin, rule number 1 ... never turn your head when there is a dinosaur on the loose!

Road trip to see the NY Melvilles.  Yay.  Reason for the roadtrip... not yay.  :-(

Hurricane Irene did some major damage to the newly purchased house (like owned it 16 days) that Mike's brother Dan and his family were getting ready to move into.  Bad news right?  Well it gets worse.  This happened pretty much simultaneously with Dan and Keisha learning that one of the twin boys Keisha is carrying had passed away.  Oh my gosh.  When Mike hung up from learning what had happened we sat and cried.  We both realized there was nothing we could do to UNdo what had already happened but the need we felt to at least be with his family while they went through this was strong.  A few hours later, we were in the car headed north.

When we arrived we found Dan over at his new house surveying the damage.  He took some time out to love on Gavin.  Is it just me or are they making the same face?

This next picture shows just how extensive the damage to the house is.  The foundation is completely missing here and you can see how the basement is flooded to the point that it is up even with the ground!  The foundation on 3 sides of the house was like this.  Gas, electric, water, septic, furnace... it all needs replacing.

How about something happier ...

It's a good thing Dan has a big lap b/c it's where these two always wanted to be.

Keisha and her beautiful bump! 

Sunshine giving Gavin a bath in the sink.  Look at the love in his eyes! 

Joy with Mike and below looking out at Chadwick Lake.

Cousins!!!

Something I enjoyed about this visit is how much more time I was able to spend with Yvonna, Joy and Madison.  School had not started yet so we were not limited to weekends.

Forsyth Park

Ruscitti Park

Hiking Overlook Mountain, Woodstock NY

Another thing I really enjoyed during this visit was all the time the kids and I got to spend with Mary.  Since we have an unspoken agreement about not posting pictures of one another, you will not see her in the following pictures, but know that she was the reason for all of the smiles.  =-)

We took a great day trip to a local farm for tractor rides, a few apples, and animals.

Olivia was very particular about which apples she wanted.  Spotted them, inspected them, and sometimes really struggled to free them from the tree. 

Pony ride!

Break time.

I'd say it's a good day when Olivia plays so hard that she falls asleep before we leave the parking lot.

We went to Bear Mountain Zoo with Mary but I am ashamed to say that I did not get one good picture of any of the animals.  I do have a great video of the bears wrestling but uploading on here takes so long that you will have to take my word for it.

Bobby Bobby Bobby was all Olivia could talk about after seeing him but then after Alek spent the day with us it changed to Alek Alek where is Alek?  They were both so sweet to her.

I guess I don't need to tell you what Gavin would be saying after seeing him steal this kiss from Joannie.  Joannie Joannie Where is my Joannie?

The Montgomery Street Day was a lot of fun too.  Great weather, face painting, Alek (had to throw that in there), and another pony ride!

With the way Olivia gives 100% to everything including fun, it is no surprise that there is the occassional accident and/or time when he body just needs to recooperate.  This was the not so fun part of the visit.  While playing and running in the living room Olivia tripped over a toy and went head first into the rocking chair.  OUCH!

A few days later she spiked a fever over 102 and was complaining of side pain so we spent the day at Urgent Care. Several tests were run, an IV was given but no answers as to the exact reason for the fever and/or side pain.

The next few days looked like this.... Olivia tired and healing.

Before long she was back to her normal self.  Fearless and climbing trees. 

Most of you reading this already know what an amazing family Mike has, but for those of you not fortunate enough to have met them, they are truely wonderful people.  Mike did not even ask if we could come and stay with them during such a crazy time in their lives, we basically just showed up and stayed.... and stayed.... and stayed... and yet always felt welcome.  My heart hurts for what they are going through.  It is truely awful.  So now, we wait.  Wait for news that things are turning around, that there are answers.