Time with all six

We had a wonderful weekend in Sharon, spending time with each of our six grandchildren.

Hearing the weather forecasts for Friday, we were able to rearrange our schedules a bit and headed up from New York on Thursday afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to put the finishing touches on the meals we were planning to serve. Dina and Aaron and the two little ones came over on Friday night; Joshua was with a friend and Ella was away at the Bat Mitzvah celebration of a fellow Maimonides student. Simmie and Ronen and the girls joined us for lunch on Saturday, along with Maya’s friend Becca.

Maya came back to our apartment on Saturday evening where we watched the movie “Benji” (Maya loves movies about dogs) and then watched a Netflix show called “Nailed It,” where amateur bakers who aren't exactly great at baking try to recreate ridiculous cakes in a timed competition. Apparently, Ella and Maya had discovered this show when they were with us together last summer. One of the competitions was to bake a cake of the bust of our current president.

Maya’s delightful giggle was a wonderful response to this silliness, and she made her parents watch it a couple of times when they came to pick her up.

On Sunday we had a chance to spend some time with the two older children. Ella came over and we watched “Home Alone,” which she had never seen, and then played some games. Joshua then joined us and we had some lunch and the boys settled in to watch football.

All in all, it was a terrific weekend, marred only by some difficulties I am having that are almost certainly late side effects of the radiation to my bladder. Let’s just say that the drive both ways took quite a bit longer than usual, and we are becoming experts on the rest stops along the route from New York to Boston. Perhaps some day we will learn why there are three highway rest stops in Connecticut relatively close to each other along I-95, at exits 41, 52, and 66. There is also an area very close to exit 93 that is a good place to stop. Beyond those, travelling northbound through Rhode Island there are rather long gaps and you are pretty much forced to exit the highway and drive some distance to find a fast food restaurant or gasoline station, not all of which have bathrooms available. Going through southwestern Connecticut, we usually take the Merritt Parkway which comes into I-95 at exit 37 and has reasonably frequent rest areas.

You now know more than you ever wanted to know about bathrooms on the New York to Boston corridor!

Meanwhile, when we returned to New York I managed to get in to see my urologist, just to make sure that there is not anything going on that needs to be or can be addressed, and everything looks pretty much the same. We are a bit puzzled about the recent flare-up of symptoms but I am also trying to make some dietary changes based on things we have read that may help.

Have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca