It's been quite the June and July around here. Sometimes summer vacation cruises along as expected- and sometimes it does not. Mid June our beloved Gram Gram had a health crisis affecting her mobility and memory, and leaving her unable to manage her medications or live on her own. The rest of June saw us in crisis mode as we scrambled to ensure her safety, help her recover, and figure out what was going on for her. We had a crash course in diabetes management and navigating MyChart, demanding medical appointments, and stepping in to someone else's financial life as we helped her with daily living, medications, and her finances. A visit to a neurologist helped to discover a diagnosis to explain my mom's symptoms- vascular dementia secondary to long term diabetes and high blood pressure. With this disagnosis came the reommendation for 24-7 care and July was spent figuring out options for her long term living arrangments (turns out staying in our kids' old nursery in our crowded and busy house was NOT her favorite choice!). Becca was able to come and help with touring apartments and decision making, and we were so grateful for her help! As we head to the end of the month, my mom is settling in to her new apartment at Rose Senior Living, and thankfully feeling much more like herself than she did in June. She still struggles with temporal memory (making her unable to manage her insulin and medications on her own), is not making new long term memories very easily, and she is still weak with limited mobility, so we are grateful that she has access to caregivers to support her memory and nurses to support her medications and diabetes. We've been visiting a lot, and learning to navigate the best ways to communicate with caregivers and help her acclimate to a new place while struggling with her memory, and also dealing with the sale of her beautiful home in Lakewood.
So yeah. To say this has been a challenging and sad month is just a bit of an understatement.
Meanwhile summer vacation has continued to tick by without slowing. I stayed pretty close to home from June 17-July 20, as my mom needed someone with her pretty much all day every day, but we did get some bike rides and lake visits in, and the kids continued their swim season. Ivy spent a week at overnight camp, and Nat and the kids were able to get some lake time in, with a 4th of July celebration at the Point. Then Ivy stayed on with her Lulu for a couple of weeks there while Nat and Jack returned home to help with moving Gram into her new place. We were able to squeze in one long weekend with all of us at the Point, and while half of our stay was rainy, it was good to be in our happy place. Also we were grateful to make it to a family reunion of sorts, with Nat's Uncle and Denver cousins visiting. Our neighbor Barb made sure we got the most out of our 1.5 sunny days with lots of boating and waterskiing action for the kids.
Back at home this week we've been playing catchup around the house, toting boxes and furniture back and forth, and doing a fair amount of evening lap swimming at our pool. Two weeks of vacation left for me, with one of them to be spent camping on the Upper Peninsula with our friends. Here's a photo review of the time since we last checked in.
Father's day celebration.
Family dinner in Strasburg. Also a reunion for these two feline siblings. Who hissed at each other.
I just love how Grandma Gertie's house never really changes.
Ivy, always the pied piper...
We got to meet Emma's newest little one, Anderson. SO tiny and cute!
Bike ride to Horseshoe Park.
Drive-by sunset viewing.
We explored the new path and bridge at Whiskey Island, and loved it.... and then got rained on. Next time, bikes and exploring all the way across the bridge.
Auntie Becca was in town to see one of the kids' swim meets. What a treat!
Sticking close to home isn't the worst, when this is the view...
Beach day with some friends.
And Ivy is off to camp!
She reported that she had a great time, but maye just three days would be good in the future. She was SO tired... but had lots of great camp stories to tell.
Picked her up a week later... then sent her off again with Nat and Jack and the animals, for our scheduled time at the Point. Photo credits to Nat...
Here on the home front we did our best to have a festive holiday.
Thank goodness for the Somerton parade. It's been a while since we've been home for the 4th, and I'd almost forgotten just how sweet this neighborhood celebration is.
That's a pet bird he's got on his back.
Mom and I had dinner for three, with my friend Alex joining us. We had a feast, and a fun time together.
Out lovely neighbors, who invited me to join their family celebration for a bit in the afternoon. The kindness and love of our village has really been amazing during this time.
Back at Farley's:
Waterfall jumping...
...a typewrite rescued from trash day...
...paddleboarding...
... playing with point friends and puppies and kitties...
Nat and Jack returned in time for a visit to the Cain Park Art Fest. First time in many years we've been home for this event. It was so fun that Nat and I visited a second time on Saturday.
My mom told us she'd never been to Whiskey Island, so we decided to remedy that. On pretty much the windiest evening ever.
And then it was moving day! Of course it rained all day... but a few lovely friends and a couple of hired moving helpder, and we got mom's furniture moved to her new place.
And because why NOT start another project right when you are juggling what feels like the whole world already... Jack suddenly found motivation to redo his room. He was able to take one of the beds from my mom's house to "upsize" from his twin daybed, and we set to work patching and repainting his walls...
It took a few days to get all the paperwork in order for my mom to officially move in- but we were able to take her to visit a few times to acclimate. I was so pleased and proud of how well the rooms came together.
Becca was able to come to town for another weekend to help with our mom's house, and to keep her company during her first weekend in a new place.
Nat and Jack and I took the opportunity to head to the lake, to fetch our Ivy girl and spend just a few days with our New York family.
Sarah and Joe got a new puppy! We are in love with Clover.
The triplets got a new car! How are they old enough to drive???
Teaching his neices and nephew to play poker, like any good uncle should.
Lake besties. Can you handle it?
Rainy day.
Its fun to visit waterfalls when its been so wet.
Hair washing in the lake at sunset...
Randall family reunion.
I love that after dinner walks at big family gatherings are kind of a thing.
One lovely lake day to get me through.
Nat and I got in a quick date to Seneca Falls to celebrate our anniversary.
The day ended with a strange haze and a red sun- apparently smoke from Canadian wildfires? It was surreal- rather than setting the sun just kind of...disappeared.
The island is being overtaken by cormorants, who roost in the trees and gradually kill them. Between the birds and the haze, the island was pretty creepy...
Last day ski.
Kids seem to be outgrowing the lion chair...
Home again home again...
In between visits to Gram and catching up on cleaning, we enjoyed plenty of summer fun.
Date night with my boys to Cilantro Taqueria, which is now one of my favorite local restaurants.
Sunsets at Euclid Beach...
"Japanese Day" for these two sweet friends.
A lovely gathering with our Hiram family, where we got to see some kiddos we've not spent time with for over a year. Turns out, they can really grow up in that amout of time...
And all of a sudden the 2021 Tigersharks season has come to an end. Championships weekend looked a little different this year-- just our little team, and done in one morning instead of two full days. So in this case, different was kind of better. The coaches did such a great job making the day feel special, with decorations, music blasting, prizes, and pictures on the podium.
So proud of these kiddos. They both swam hard, and Jack did his 100 breast in 1:21. So excited to see where he goes with this sport in high school.
We took Gram out for mini golf this weekend, to the traditional spot she likes to take the kids. She felt sad to not be able to play with them, but it was nice to be out doing summer, all together.
Spent the day today helping our friends with their new shed.
Then we stole their girls for an overnight, and ran off to the beach to cool down after a hot day of work (or standing around watching the work, as was the case for me.)
Love these sweeties.
And this lake.
And summertime. I just love summertime.
