The nieces visit Oregon

Our awesome nieces Wyp and Nico, as they are known for short, honored us with a short and very pleasant visit. They arrived last Thursday evening after hopping around the US on three airplanes each coming from Ithaca NY and Colorado Springs CO. Amazingly, both arrived more or less on time at PDX airport with their luggage. While the rest of the US was melting away in record heat, Oregon was blessed with cool mornings and pleasant sunny afternoons.

Nico and Wyp took full advantage of the Pacific Northwest by sampling nearly every beer available in the region, drinking the local wines, doing some sight seeing in the short time they were here, relaxing and swimming in the lake. In good family tradition plates of food were photographed and shown to the world. The reason for this tradition is unknown, but it does prove one gets fed at our house.

A cool morning at Vista House in the
 Columbia Gorge

The nieces at Multnomah Falls

Waiting 45 minutes in line to
 purchase the world famous Voodoo
Doughnuts in Portland Oregon

Amazingly, old Ithaca friend Katie and her husband
 Ryan managed to find us at the Saturday Art Fair
in Portland and we enjoyed a pleasant
 dinner at the Bridgeport Brewery in the Pearl.

Round Four Update

Yesterday Barend completed round 4 of Chemo and received the results of the brain MRI.  The brain lesions (spots, tumors) have nearly disappeared so the laser knife surgery will not be necessary at this time.  The chemo went, as it usually does, slowly. Still this is made bearable by the good news that it is working well.  Side effects have also diminished so it is also less dreaded than the earliest experiences.  It was an unusually busy day in the infusion room, so for the first time I had to vacate my cushy patient lounge chair for a visitor upright during the second half of the day.  I opted for errands and have a very clean car.

Since Barend is fairing so well on chemo, it was decided that if all went well this time that two more rounds would be completed before transitioning to the maintenance regimen of one drug every three weeks.

Our next visitors, Nico and Wyp (nieces) arrive tomorrow for a short visit which includes Alexandra's birthday party on Saturday.  So time again for fun, family and life on the lake.

Summer Camp Opa & Oma

It is the first week of July, the weather is still gorgeous and we enjoyed the company of Jacqueline and Adam and their kids, who flew in from California for an extended 4^th of July vacation. Alexandra and Emmett joined the party for the first couple of days, and we had a houseful of happy kids and adults. 

Bonnie had arranged Pony Camp for the girls, and the next morning they went to the stables at the end of the road in their brand new cowboy boots. They had riding lessons, pony grooming, arts and crafts projects and pic-nics.

The afternoons were spent on the lake. Sara had provided us with a six person floating raft which was a gigantic hit, despite the absence of the six cup holders we had expected. The biggest attraction for the grandkids was not the leisurely float in the middle of the lake, but Life Guard Adam who would suddenly appear out of the depths of the lake, and throw everyone in the lake.

While the girls were at Pony Camp, Adam and I went to the neighborhood golf course and managed to complete 18 holes. The course was in nice shape and the Oregon weather is total perfect for this game. The results were more than satisfactory because I came home with the same ball with which I started and managed to (just) break 100. Adam did a lot better at 90 while getting used to the course and this was only a prelude to what happened the next day: He scored a life time best of 79!

Jacqueline meanwhile stayed in shape in the local gym, Emmett was entertained by Bonnie or built a gnome house with only a little help from Opa.

We celebrated the 4^th of July in Molalla Oregon where we visited the Molalla Buckaroo, the annual rodeo and fair. We did all the things one would expect to do on the fourth of July, including the rides at the fair (Bonnie and I skipped that part), ate gourmet festival food such as pulled pork, fries and funnel cakes, cheered the cowboys at the rodeo, and watched the fireworks that concluded the show. It was a lot of fun and it felt like the real American 4^th of July celebration. 

Adam and Jacqueline had invited their Portland friends Bruce and Vicky to visit us the next day. They also brought their two kids and we had a capacity crowd on the 6 person float.

The parents went home on Saturday while the grand-kids stayed on for a couple more days.  We had a fantastic time and were glad everyone was able to join us.