A great weekend!

This past weekend was a great one! My cousin, Bridgette, and her son, Bryden, came to visit! Bridgette and I had so much fun playing together as little girls. But, we rarely got to see each other as she lived in Chicago. She still lives in Chicago. But, decided sort of last minute to fly to Oregon with her oldest son, Bryden. Her parents, my Aunt Karen and Uncle Dave have been staying with my parents for the past several weeks. Dave is installing a roll-in shower for my parents so that they will be able to more easily shower Ryan! This is something we will need to do soon for our home as well as Ryan is getting bigger and harder and harder to lower into a tub! Thankfully, I have a husband who is able to do this for me as he has become too heavy for me to lower into the bathtub anymore!

In all the years that I have lived in Bend, I've never gone inner-tubing at Mt Bachelor. We decided that it would be a fun activity to do while my cousin was here. So, Steve and I took Jorie as well as my dad, aunt and uncle and Bridgette and her son up to go inner-tubing. Jorie and Bryden were fearless! Those tubes go FAST down that hill!! We all enjoyed ourselves and the time together. My Aunt Karen has been diagnosed with Alzheimers and is in the end stages of the disease. She is still in her 50's and it's very hard seeing her this way. She is slowly forgetting how to do even the simplest of tasks. And even inner-tubing was hard for her. We had to really help her and show her how to sit in the tube and how to get back out again when it reached the top of the hill. Although this disease is devastating, we have enjoyed spending time with her as she and my uncle have come to Oregon many times over the past couple of years since her diagnosis. My uncle wants her to be around her family as much as possible while she still remembers everyone. We will cherish these last few years that we have with her and try to squeeze every minute out of them. She seems so young to have such a condition. So, that seems to make it extra tough on everyone.

On Sunday, Steve's sister and family came over to visit. We enjoyed time with them as well. We see them about every 2 to 3 months or so. The kids really enjoy their time together as they are very close in age and share similar interests. Joshua enjoys playing with the big kids too!