Mid summer update

It's been a few weeks since Kevin's surgery now. Kevin's been doing quite well. He's been enjoying the summer, and seeing his many friends. Today he spent a few hours with his friend Kyle (neighbor boy who's same age and lives a few houses away). They were riding bikes, and rough housing in the basement with light sabers and any other weapon they could get their hands on. Kyle seems to really bring the energy out in Kevin, which we all appreciate. Tomorrow Kevin goes to Cub Scout camp, which will include a lot of fun activities (day camp). He's really excited about it, and many of his friends will be there. Our next St. Jude visit is coming very soon. We fly out a week from this upcoming Wednesday. Seeing that they did CT scans before and after his surgery I'm very optimistic his upcoming MRI's will be clear. The MRI certainly is a much clearer and more magnified picture then CT scans, so nothing's a given....Saying that I'm feeling optimistic about the upcoming trip. Kevin's appearance is good sicne the surgery. You can still tell were the incision was (his hair's very thin their), but he's unbothered by it. It's to the point now that his friends don't even bring up the word "cancer" and that's all Kevin ever wanted. On a personal note I'm sleeping better, and still trying to find my path in our post St. Jude's world. Kevin and I have suffered a big loss, in that my engagement has ended. Kevin was really down for a good week or so (he really was close with Tabby, her 10 year old daughter). I couldn't help but feel terrible guilt, as he was really down for a while due to grown up issues out his control. He still misses both my ex-fiance and her daughter terribly, but he's improved significantly. I on the other hand am still stuggling, but this site is about Kevin not Eric's soap opera of a life. At any rate, all of us are going this time around to St. Jude (Rachel, Scotty, Jake, myself and of course Kevin). Memphis is still a second home for me, and I'm looking forward to going back. We're going to make sure (predicated on the MRI's) to have a good time, and go to some of our favorite places (Beal St., Pink Palace, Zoo, BW's, and hopefully the cheescake restaurant). I want to really thank Rachel, who's really helped me pick up the pieces from my recent events. She's a great mom, and the best ex-wife a guy could ever ask for. Kevin, Mike, the kids and I are all lucky to have her prominantly in our lives. I hope everybody is enjoying the summer.

Eric

Beach Vacation

We were fortunate to be able to go on our annual family beach vacation. Kevin really missed it last year and during chemo when Kevin was really sick we promised him two beach vacations this summer because it is something he enjoys so much.

We drove from Michigan to northern Virgina where we stayed with Mike's sister's family and the kids enjoyed a sleep over with their cousins who are close in age to them. The next day we headed out to Maryland where we had lunch with my sister's family and then headed up to Pennsylvaina where we had dinner with Mike's grandparents, his uncle and his family. Then headed back to the Maryland and over to the Atlantic coast. We got to enjoy almost a full week of beach time. The weather was fabulous , which is unusual, there is typically one rain day. We have been going on this beach vacation (except last year of course) for 7 years.

Kevin enjoyed making sand castles, reading and flirting with the ocean's edge. He isn't strong enough for the waves of the ocean yet.

Scotty spent lots of time swimming in the ocean. And Jake loved putting his toes in. Jake even sliped away but fortunatly someone found him quickly and returned him to us. While swiming in the ocean we also saw a small brown shark come close to the shore (while we were swimming close by). We also got to see a beach rescue on the 4th. There weren't that many people at the beach until the 4th of July, then it was packed.

Overall it was a much needed vacation for all of us.

Rachel