Sigh

Coming off of a great vacation, and a great marathon experience, the week got pretty tough for us all. On Wednesday we lost a good friend of the family, Dave Yurgaitis. Our hearts go out to his family, and especially to Uncle Randy. Please visit his blog to keep up with the family… Friends of Dave.

In addition, Liam spent 24 hours at MassGeneral… once again, I think we forget the fact that he still needs a while for his body to fully recover from the effects of the last year and a half. A week in Myrtle Beach, a lot of time outside, and his lingering cold combined to develop into the beginning stages of pneumonia. Some hefty antibiotics and a few days later, he seems to be in good shape, we just need to periodically remind ourselves that it will be several more months until his immune system has fully recovered.

A lot of other little issues this week, but we’re keeping it all in perspective.

2008 Boston Marathon

Cheering the runners through Newton

Post Marathon Party at Nancy's in Brookline ...

5 Minutes after leaving Brookline...

The Maration Dinner

Well we made it home by 11am, Saturday. The trip was great, and it was awesome to see Liam running around, swimming, mixing it up with his cousins, and just discovering the world. Adding Myrtle Beach to the annual vacation list.

Tonight we had the marathon dinner in Boston, and are looking forward to cheering on all the runners tomorrow. You can track Julie (Bib 23951) and Nancy (Bib 23991) at the Boston Marathon website.

Thanks Aunt Claire for the boys outfits!!!

Awsome week...ended with some great beach days. Packed up and hit the road around 6pm this evening. Just finished dinner in North Carolina, the first episode of Curious George has just started .....hope to be in Mansfield by noon tomorrow.

Having fun in Myrtle Beach

The Aquarium

The beach

Ice cream

Margaritaville

Surfing

Action shot...floating down the lazy river

Even on vacation, the kids (Liam and Troy) have us up early, but that's ok, this is the view from our room.

Southern Bound

We hit the road approximately two hours ago; we are driving through the night towards Myrtle Beach. The plan is to keep going until the kids wake up. The good news is that they were all asleep by the time we hit Rhode Island, and we only had to watch one episode of Diego...looking forward to our 1st vacation in what feels like a while. Hope for good weather, a safe trip, and that we make it back home on time for the Marathon on the 21st!

Thanks to the Blue Team and Silver Team

Through bake sales and donations, the 6th graders raised $1,000 to support Julie and the MassGeneral Hospital Marathon team!

Liam's Aunt Tee-Tee is the BEST! Thank you soooooooo much!

Team Liam Day at DePaolo

Over in the hemock clinic...Liam still a bit groggy...Talking to Doctor Friedmann....SCAN LOOKS GOOD!

Time to go celebrate Owen's 5th Birthday!

In recovery now....here for a couple more hours......

Scan day underway...

Currently hanging out in the playroom signing consent forms... Hurry up and wait, Hurry up and wait...that will be the gist of today.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

and Happy Birthday to Poppa too!

Moving forward

We've got Liam's new scan date; March 27th.

So I've come to the realization that we can't keep putting things "on hold" until after each scan... things like celebrating the end of chemo, birthday parties, vacation planning, etc... so from this moment on, I'll try to keep moving forward and not get hung up on the fact that every three months, for the next two years we'll be doing scans... It then drops to every four months for a year, then every six, etc... until we hit the five year mark.

In the mean time, it's time to get moving on the to-do list, including putting away the last of the Christmas decorations.