Dallas - August 2012

As I mentioned in my last post, Marino and I went to Dallas last week to visit my brother. You may remember from other posts (I visited by myself in December and March) that my brother is battling cancer. I wish I could say this battle was over, but this cancer is very aggressive and continues to multiply throughout his body. He has stopped chemo and started hospice this week.

I really wanted he and Marino to spend some time together, although, unfortunately, Brendan has limited use of his arms, hands, and difficulty to speaking, so it was a bit of a challenge...Marino kept asking "Uncle Brendan, can you play Transformers with me?" and Brendan, truly, physically, cannot play. It broke my heart because if Brendan was healthy, he and Marino would have a blast together. They both love cars, motorcycles, aliens, etc. Marino definitely also did not understand the permanence of Brendan's condition. Each day, he'd ask "Uncle Brendan, are you STILL sick?!" Regardless of his current limitations, we all love Brendan and I'm so glad we got a chance to spend time together. My mom was visiting last week, too, so it was nice for all of us to be together.

Here's Brendan and Holly, my mom and Marino.

I am fortunate to have some friends with kids Marino's age in Dallas, so we were able to arrange some playdates with friends while we were there.

We spent a really great afternoon at an indoor safari/playplace with my college friend Daniela. We hadn't seen each other since we graduated, but it was really great to see her and meet her gorgeous kids: Kiara, Soleil and baby EJ.

These 3 got along great and in no time had made up some "school" game where Kiara (on the left) was the teacher. Are those girls gorgeous, or what? Such sweethearts!

So adorable!!

Marino is still talking about his new friends and the fun we had!

We then had dinner with my friend Aria and her baby Grant. I know, she's gorgeous! She's also a oncology nutritionist, so she has lots of insight on what Brendan is experiencing.

We sent this picture to Daddy that night. Marino won this ball out a claw machine at the playplace. I was impressed!

We also met up with our friends Amie, Taylor, Baby Luke, Jaime and Annalise at the Galleria in Dallas. They have a very fun playplace on the 3rd floor - Marino had a blast running around and jumping off of the soft play structures.

Here's a picture of Taylor and Marino (and some green giraffe legs).

Both Taylor and Annalise are much more shy than Marino, but as you can see, they eventually warmed up to him.

Holly and I took Marino to see Paranorman
She and I enjoyed it. Marino said he thought it was scary, but I think it was more confusing for him than it was scary. He literally asked me a question about the movie every 45 seconds.

Here he is riding a ATV after the movie.

We saw my dad a couple days later and when he saw this movie poster, he launched into a dramatic explanation of the movie.

While it is hard to see Brendan in so much pain, it was still wonderful to see him. We love him so much and think of him constantly and hope and pray for his healing.

First Time Flier

Marino and I went to Dallas last week to visit my brother.  This was Marino's first time flying and he was beyond excited. He asked me about it every night for weeks; "When I wake up, can we go on the airplane?" I was a bit worried that he would find it scary once we actually took off, but that worry was for nothing. He loved every minute of it. 

We arrived at the airport to find our flight had been cancelled (I still have no idea why). The ticket counter booked us on the next flight (2 hours later than our original flight). Luckily, he was perfectly happy to check out all the planes and didn't complain at all about being there for extra time.  We even made some new friends while waiting at the gate - Marino shared his toys for a bit, before we headed to Fudrucker's for burgers before boarding the plane.

No one had as much fun on that plane as Marino did. I myself need to take a healthy dose of Klonopin to get on a plane, but this guy has no fear. When we hit turbulence, he announced "This is awesome!" and when we landed he said "Yay!! That was bumpy! And now we're in TEXAS!"

A Facebook friend had posted a couple days we left with a picture of her son in the cockpit. After our flight, I asked the stewardess if Marino could take a picture in the cockpit and she happily introduced us to the pilot. The pilot was very gracious, he let Marino sit in the co-pilot seat, showed him what all the different controls were for, etc. It was very cool -  I had never seen the inside of a cockpit before! I had a great picture of Marino with the pilot, but he accidentally deleted it from my camera :( I still have this one, though. How cool is this?

The way back he was crankier (tired) but he still was a good traveler. Here he is looking very grown up with his headphones...

We ended up sitting next to an Air Force pilot on the way back who showed us pictures of the planes he flies and told us about flying. All in all, a great first experience flying! 

Daddy picked us up from the airport and we went to our favorite restaurant and had dinner outside :)

More about our trip coming soon!!

March 2012 Trip to Dallas

The first weekend in March, my mother and I went to Dallas to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Both of them turned 40 in the last month, and we wanted to celebrate with them. As I've mentioned before, my brother is battling a very aggressive cancer. Thankfully, he is feeling a lot better than when I saw him in December and he was in wonderful spirits when we were there.

It was fun to get to spend time alone with my mom. Every time we get together these days, we have Marino with us, so it was nice to spend some time with just the two of us. The first day we were there, we took a walk on the Redding Trail in Addison.  This is such an innovative idea...the city built a trail along the power lines. So, they took this underutilized space and made it into a functional and beautiful park, complete with running/walking/biking trails, public gathering spaces (with shade), a great playground (with shaded picnic tables). I went back the next morning for a run there - I just loved it!

We went to Addison Circle Park the next beautiful day. I love love Addison! It's very well planned - everything is very intentional - from the art deco street lights to the public art to the outdoor gathering spaces, its a walking planning lesson!

Here's a picture of my mom with some public art. The sculpture is not amazingly attractive, but you can see it from a mile away, so it creates an identity for Addison. Isn't my mom cute?

Here we are facing the other side of the park. It was a gorgeous day - perfect weather for a walk!

Closer picture of the sculpture and the streetscape. 

Great mix of daytime and nighttime businesses and public seating.

Beautiful park with great tree cover - it felt like we were somewhere more exotic than Texas!

Who needs a fence when you can create public seating instead?

Brendan wanted to check out the Cavanaugh Flight Museum for his birthday. It was good trip for us, since it was a manageable size with lots of cool things to check out.

Holly and Brendan - so nice to see him up and happy!

Holly and her sister (and our family lifesaver) Sally making new friends...

My big bro and I

Brendan and Holly's new dog, Mona. We took her to a great dog park and she was in heaven.

It was a great trip and wonderful to spend time with my family.  

Marino did great without me, in spite of recovering from strep throat.