Trips after Marie's last, Sept 2022 chemo treatment

After Marie's last chemo, we had to wait until Nov 1st to have another scan and determine next steps. I needed some distraction. And some fun!

First of the fun, a trip to Chicago over NDEA in October.

Eva, Erika, Tracey Buckhouse (Nolan's wife), Ellisyn (my niece), and Marie.  Wicked at the Nederland Theater was amazing!

We went to tour Eva's campus the next day. Somehow Ellisyn and marie wore exactly the same thing. 

Tracey and Ellisyn.

Marie, Eva, mom

The fruit lady!  We've heard so much about the fruit lady from Eva. I get a lot of texts about the fruit lady. Finally, we were able to get some goods from the fruit lady! (we got fruit)

And drinks.

I made homemade enchilada sauce to make Eva chicken enchiladas while there. And then the fridge shelf broke and my glass jar of enchilada sauce broke and spilled all over her not-clean-college floor.  

Meanwhile, Luke hung out with the cousins and Grandma Tree's.

Joe, Eleanor, Lydia, Halle, Marshall and Luke

Luke and Marshall

The Bean. Marie and Erika

The Bean. Marie and Ellisyn

We had such beautiful weather that fall weekend. The city was magical. 

Tracey, Ellisyn and Marie on the River walk. 

Tracey, Ellisyn and Eva

Found out about Eva's newest art while out for pizza that night.  She put my birth year (and Chris') on her arm. Can't be mad about that!

Saying goodbye until Thanksgiving. 

And then we went to Florida to see the Zaks. Right before we did that, Marie has a Landon's light photo shoot.  There is a group of teenage girls all going through cancer this year. 

Briley, Marie, Lauren, Clara and Brooklyn. (Emma and Amelia couldn't make it)

Delia Simms and her mom, Elise, came with us to Florida. This is Lisa's house. 

And Lisa is fancy. And she helps me be fancy. She got me fancy red lipstick and this fancy necklace for my birthday. 

We spent a morning at Clearwater beach.

Elise, Lisa, Delia, Marie, me, Svea, Ingrid

Svea (Ingrid's daughter), Marie and Delia are all the same age. Lisa, Ingrid and Elise all went to High School in Hallock together.

Why would I be surprised that they're all wearing the same clothes? That's what middle schoolers do. 

Nelson (Lisa's son, one year younger than the girls), Marie, Svea and Delia. 

Marie, Erika, Delia, Ingrid, Elise, Svea, Lisa, Nelson

Travis senior Homecoming, New Years 2022-23 with Evens, Christmas 2022, Luna

 Sept 20th was Marie's last chemo. (Read caringbridge if you want to read more about that.)

It is Travis' senior year! His group of buddies made a

homecoming van. 

Breaking Bad. 

Sorry, but I thought the Hannah Montana van that his friend Lily made just couldn't be beat. 

Lily and Travis

Marie's birthday was two days after her last chemo. So she didn't feel awesome. But she became a teenager cancer-free!

She was able to have a slumber party birthday the next week.  And because she was still holding the cancer-card, she got the most expensive birthday party any of our kids have ever gotten at Suite Shots.  Remember, I'm the mom that does HOME PARTIES and plays silly games and paints pots for plants. 

She also did some tailgating. Things started to get back to normal. 

We really knew things were getting normal when we forgot to pick Marie up after school or practice one day. We didn't answer her phone calls either. Whoops! Elise brought her home and bought this poor, forgotten kid ice cream.  

Marie made a lot of bracelets. I think they're amazing!

Lots of normal. Like the condition of Luke's room. 

Eva spent an entire Tuesday (luckily aligned with her day of no class) and was able to get Taylor Swift tickets.  Behind the stage, almost top row, but she got them!

Travis flew to visit Eva in Chicago (UIC) and go to a Gorillaz concert with Eva's friend Graham. 

Yay! Someone to help her carry groceries!

Over Thanksgiving, my Godson Alex Althoff married Amanda Oberg. We had all the cousins and family over for Friday Thanksgiving lunch. 

This is what I can look like with the mostest effort; I paid to have my hair and makeup done because I don't know how. 

Me and Chris, Gerry and Tree, Sheena and Adam, Tracey and Nolan.

Gerry, Tree, me, Nolan, Adam Buckhouse

No kids were invited to this wedding. But my teenagers were!?!?!  Look at how nice they clean up!?!?!

Don't forget this picture. We usually walk out to the front steps in whatever we happen to have on for the Christmas card. 

We had Christmas break. Travis got a lot of food. 

Marie and I went to Courts Plus over break. She said "nice hand-me-downs." I realized I'm wearing Eva's sweatshirt, Luke's tshirt, Travis' pants, and Marie's boots. 

Our dog Luna died over Christmas break 😢. 

She was so obedient.  So well-trained. We put so much work into that dog (Down Dog Studio) and she was fantastic. I had never had anything but lab or retriever mixes as dogs, and it took some calming of my fears in Luna’s first year of life to really appreciate the uniqueness and difference of Luna. I certainly never had a dog that looked at me like she wanted to do algebra!?!?!? Such a worker! So easy to teach tricks. And my companion on outdoor walks nearly everyday since March 2020. Why go back to the gym when I had that outdoor buddy?  

She loved Granda Gerry so much. Luna never demanded to be pet. She actually only tolerated pets. We had a sign on her kennel that said "I don't like warm hugs." She didn't want to cuddle. She just wanted to guard you and sit at your feet. 

Always my guard. Again, never ever ever annoying me for pets or attention. Never sneaking away like Toni did. Just keeping watch. I'm probably going to be constantly getting stung by bees this summer without my protector. 

This picture is of Luna's twin sister, Zoey, that we visited after we lost Luna. Carson Mitchell was friends with this dog, Zoey’s, owner. And Carson said “that looks like Luna.” So Carson’s mom (Aimee) contacted Zoey’s mom (Lisa) and connected us. We had gotten twin puppies from 4 Luv of Dog Rescue in May of 2017! The Hamilton’s were our puppies’ fosters, and our twin puppies were Judy and Ramona; mom Regina. It healed our heart to see how Zoey tolerated our pets, but she loved her people the most. Just like Luna. 

Some skiing was done over break with the Zaks and Evens: 

Norah, Marie, Travis, Andrew

Marie and Norah

Eva took LOTS of naps over break. Louise was in cozy-heaven. 

Hanson-Evens crew for New Years!  Leech Lake cabin. 

Too many kids that are bigger than us, so we're at the kids' table!

Sue and I did some cross country skiing. Beautiful weekend of weather. 

Norah, Andrew, Madden and Marie

There are not many friends that you'd want to hang out, kids+adults, all in the same space on the same couch in the same room. But this was a super New Years Eve; Love the cozy. Love the Evens. 

Marie Norah and Chuck built this fort on the lake. 

It was very fun to saw these blocks out of the snow. The snow was like styrafoam. 

Marie, Chuck, Norah

Luke and  noise maker.  Interesting idea I had. 

Eva 19, Luke 15, Norah 14, Travis 17, Marie 13, Andrew 16

Chris did lots of fishing on Leech Lake.  I like to try to pull all his gear in the sled with the harness, like a dog?  It's fun! Fishing....not so fun to me. 

This was one of the only fish he caught for about two day. Then all of a sudden....

BAM! The Vikings were losing so he left and called about this!

Two of them! One for Chuck, one for him. 

And since I was sad about my own dog, Lily (Evens' dog) reminded me that she's the cutest anyways, so don't be sad.