Grandma's Birthday Ride

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Rob's mom's birthday. We had the normal cake and ice cream...

the kids played with cousins... Tara snuggled Abby... We all laughed as we watched the kids play games...

then came the unexpected!! Friends of the family, Dennis and Gail (and most of their kids) had come for the party. Gail had decided that Shirley (Rob's mom) should do something wild and crazy to celebrate her birthday- like ride a motorcycle!!! Yes, Rob's mom that hates anything fast, crazy, loud or fun- for example, when they went to Magic Mountain (Six Flags), she sat in the car and read a book the entire time, rather than ride on rides. At Disneyland, I only saw her ride on Pirates, and we forced her on Soaring over CA. Now Gail doesn't take no for an answer, so before she knew it, Shirley was decked out in Gail's helmet and leathers (and even her socks and shoes- she didn't want Shirley out of her sight for even a second to get her own shoes.)

As we walked out of the house, I asked Shirley if she was nervous. She said, "I'm not nervous, I just think this is silly." Silly or not, we had a great time watching it! In this picture, you can see how pleased Gail is.YIPPEEEE, off they go.

We all laughed and laughed. Thanks for the great memories Gail and Dennis.

Of course I had to have a ride on Dennis' Yamaha 650 as well. I'm not a motorcycle person at all, but I have to say it was pretty fun.

I think Grandpa got a pretty good kick out of it too. I'm sure he'd never imagined that he'd see his wife do anything crazy like this. Happy Birthday Grandma!Update on Grandpa:

Rob's dad is doing really well. He's in remission from his leukemia and awaiting a transplant. They were never able to find a bone marrow match for him, but they were able to find two matches of cord blood, so they are doing a stem-cell transplant using cord blood. I guess it's from blood banked from umbilical cords. The doctor is really pleased and optimistic. They are awaiting the cord blood to arrive from Slovakia and Australia (crazy huh?!). When they get here, he will be admitted to the hospital and given another round of chemo and radiation before beginning the transplant. He'll then have to be in the hospital for 6 to 8 weeks, and then will have to stay within 15 minutes of the hospital for another 100 days. The doctor is giving him a 40% chance of success. There is a huge risk of infection, rejection, and graft vs. host disease, so it's pretty scary. Hopefully there is another miracle out there for him. It's amazing he is still around for this procedure. It's been a whole year now since he was diagnosed with AML, and the doctors didn't even think he would make it through the first round of chemo, let alone make it a whole year. He is one tough cookie. Keep him in your prayers.