The relatives came

Is that puppy real?

Looking at animal web cam sites

    Before and after our week at Manzanita, the relatives came to  our house.  Late Friday night we had three little grandsons sleeping on air mattresses on the floor of my study.  What happiness to have their  presence in the house!
      The next morning I set Paul and Tina to the task of figuring out which of Paul's school photos came from which grade. Judy picked up the cousins at the train station.  After  basketball and tacos and lots of arranging luggage in trunks, everybody drove off to the beach.   Judy and I re-made the beds for David and family, who came in on Sunday.

Vonnie meets Arnie

Simone's special spot on the hearth

Cole and Bianca

Cousin Andy

     After our glorious beach week, we had another happy  coming- and- going Saturday.  Courtney and the girls were staying here.  Paul and family made a cameo appearance before we dropped them off at the airport.  Judy retrieved the cousins from the rental car place, and we sent them on their sightseeing way in our white car.  We took Maxine and Simone to the local aquarium, where  Simone fed sharks and Maxine stood very still while a parrot perched on her shoulder.

Paul

Dulcimer lesson

   The next day, Vonnie and Ernie and Cole and Bianca came in.  The Armstrong cousins joined us for dinner, along with the neighbors, who brought good dog Arnie. Vonnnie's family left early Monday morning.
     The Armstrongs came to dinner Monday afternoon.

Puzzle meister

 Judy taught Mary Ellen how to play the dulcimer.  Cousin Peter, who loves cars, began a detail job on the Prius.  Andy and Glen moved the armchairs back into my study.  That night,  I dropped the cousins off at the airport.  I returned to a house of just the two of us, and started missing everybody.
     Not for long.  The last relatives left on Monday night .  On Wednesday we drove  to the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle for Judy to consult with one of the top pulmonology researchers in the country.   The doctors in Portland hoped that Dr. Ragu would recommend  drug or management trials that might make Judy feel better and prolong her life. The options Dr. Ragu talked about are not appealing:

John off to the marmot count

1.  A drug trial sponsored by a pharmaceutical company in which you inject yourself with a mystery drug every week for three years, in order to discover if the drug is safe for humans.
2.  A study sponsored by NIH at the University of Washington, where you travel to Seattle in twice  a week for three months to inhale a small amount of carbon monoxide.  (Judy says, "I could just hook myself up to a tailpipe.")  It is a double blind study, so you could be driving to Seattle twice a week  to inhale air.

Kate and son Josh

    After Judy's appointment we took the ferry across Puget Sound to Rose and John's house in Sequim  for an evening with old friends.  John's brother Chas and Kris were there, talking jigsaw puzzles.  Kate, friend since high school days, was visiting from the east coast.  The next morning the house was filled with John's hiking buddies, as they prepared for four days of counting marmots in the Olympic Mountains.
     We came home and began packing up the toys and picture books to store them in the garage. I deflated the air mattresses and put them away.   I kept on my dresser top the puzzle Maxine and I had put together the night before she left.  She was singing the whole time.