Well, it's been a long time coming, but I think Amy and I are both still exhausted from last week.  We've been talking about blogging this entire week, but I just haven't been up for it until now.  I hope it's not too anticlimactic!

So July 10th began much as it did last year, though not quite as early!  Instead of sending up Evan's balloon at 4:21, we just did it when we got up and ready.  Unfortunately, we forgot to include a message from his little sister.  But I'm pretty sure he knows she was involved too.  We left for CHP to deliver the care packages around noon.  And right off the bat, I forgot to get the candy for the waiting rooms out of the fridge (of course, I didn't realize that until we were there)!  Then the 1-hour trip to Pittsburgh took almost 2, as we stopped to console and feed the little one at least twice.  Those are the breaks I guess.  We were scheduled to meet Rose (the CICU receptionist) in the lobby at 1.  It was her day off and she was coming in specially to see us.  And since we were late, she left.  Fortunately, she didn't get too far away, so she was able to get back pretty quickly.  It's always good to see her and all our CHP "family."  A couple women from Volunteer Services then came by to pick up the care packages in the tote bags.  They were very nice and oogled quite a bit over Cara.  They even took a group picture for us!  After that, we headed upstairs to the NICU waiting room to set up the food and drinks.  Here was problem #2 on the day.  I left a case of water that was meant for the cabin party!  Strike 2...I forgot the candy and then left something I wasn't even supposed to take in.  Oh well, better leaving it there than forgetting it altogether.  After a few more pictures, we headed over to the CICU once again to say hi...and nobody was at the desk!  3 employees, none of whom we recognized, went in while we stood.  We peered in for about 30 seconds, hoping to see someone we might be able to say hi to, but it looked pretty quiet, and nobody poked their heads out.  Nothing like last year at all, when it seemed almost everyone we would have wanted to see was in the unit when we arrived.  That was OK though...we had done what we came for, and I'm sure we'll have the opportunity to talk to many of them again.

After CHP, we headed over to Trinity to visit Evan's memorial site.  Amy put a note from all of us on his plaque, and we spent a few moments talking to him and introducing Cara.  We did take a few pictures of her with his plaque, which I'm sure we'll post soon.

Finally, we took off for the cabin.  And once again, a 1 1/2 hour trip took 2 1/2...take a wild guess!  Yep, Cara screamed for probably an hour of driving time.  We stopped several times to comfort her, but it became a lost cause.  So we eventually just bore down and accepted the screaming for the last 45 minutes or so.  Amy even took a short video as proof of how inconsolable she was, just so people wouldn't think we were crazy!  When we arrived at the cabin, we had some time to relax and had an awesome birthday celebration with my mom & dad, Crammy & Cramps, and our good friend (Craig) Fink and his son Wyatt.  We sang Happy Birthday to Evan, and everyone certainly got their fill of sweets!  Crammy & Cramps even had a birthday gift for Cara in honor of Evan...Trunky II (Amy will explain the 2)!  It was probably the best part of his birthday this year, once we got to the cabin, at least as far as feeling a bit upbeat.  For whatever reason, just missing our Bubba I guess, plus all the little malfunctions, this year's birthday didn't quite feel as good as last year's.  But hey, we really needed it to be what it was last year...God was really looking out for us!  This year, we were better able to handle the fact that everything wasn't "perfect."  Our emotions are more under control, and our purposes for what we did were all fulfilled, even if not exactly the way we would have hoped.

Last Friday, cabin weekend kicked off.  Jill, Dennis, and Joey joined the Finks and us.  Then on Saturday, we saw the Ginsburgs, Collinses, and my cousins Stephanie and Pat.  It was an absolutely beautiful weekend...not a drop of rain!  Needless to say, we were at the lake for the vast majority of it.  We swam (Wyatt loved swimming once he was convinced there were no alligators!), ate, took lots of pictures, played ladder golf, and just generally had a good time in the sun.  As always, we're looking forward to another great cabin weekend next summer!

And now for the grand finale (hopefully, you've made it this far!).  Our neighbors have been driving us nuts, as many of you surely have heard, with mowing into our yard, letting trash and other objects lay in our yard, leaving piles upon piles of trash that never seems to get picked up by the garbage men, watching everything we do, etc.  All of these things combined with the obnoxious pool next to our yard has led us to talk about some landscaping in the back yard.  Yesterday, we finally got to it!  My brother Christopher came down to help us pick out some grasses and shrubs to plant, then helped us get them in the ground.  The plants are all young, so the border is now there, but it will take some time for them to get full enough to block the "scenery."  The plants are all fast growers though, so hopefully we'll have some decent blockage by next summer!  We're pretty excited about how our back yard looks now, and we'll be sure to post a picture or two soon!

Well, I think that might be it...quite a bit to say based on the past week and a half!  Thanks for reading and take care!!!