The fun update

Just do you know, it's not all doom and gloom over here at the Love Shack.

Last week, Vic's son, Bryan, and his family came for a visit, and we did a lot of fun things together!

We had a little swimming party at my mom's pool.
That's Vic's sister, Patty, sitting on the edge; our grandson,
Brady, crouching on the other side; and my mom waaay
in the back. Then in the pool, L to R, our great niece,
GiGi; our niece, Lisa; our great niece, Zoe; Bryan; our
granddaughter, Katy; our grandson, Ryan; and me!

And this is Katy and me on our pool noodles. P.S. Pool noodles. Great invention.

We also went to a Rockies game, where Vic's sister, Alice, got a suite for the day. It. Was. Awesome. Such a great way to experience a game as a group. We got to meet Dinger, the Rockies' mascot.

L to R: Zoe, Lisa, Patty, Brady, GiGi, Katie, Alice, me, and Bryan's wife, Liz.

And bonus—the Rockies won! It was great to be able to spend so much time with the whole family, but especially Bryan, Liz, Brady, Katy, and Ryan, who we haven't seen in quite a while.

Now, I want to write a disclaimer here. Vic did not get cancer so people would give him gifts, and this is not an advertisement for more gifts, but Vic has been getting some gifts because he has cancer. 😉

And they're all pretty cool gifts, so I want to showcase them here and give credit where credit is due.

We start with tayberry jam from our friend GerRee. GerRee has been making jam for Vic for, I wanna say, a decade. (And no, she is not making jam for Vic. She is making jam, and Vic gets some. But it still feels like she is making jam for Vic.) The tayberry jam is the most coveted of all the jam GerRee makes, and she gave him not a small jar, not a medium jar, not even a just large jar. She gave him the last jar of tayberry jam in her stores. (And it happened to be a large jar, so, cool.)

Next we have a quilt from our friends Chris and Larry. Chris made this quilt herself (as a math teacher, she has all the maths needed to create a perfect quilt) just for Vic. We are really touched by her generosity—and impressed by her skill. This quilt is gorgeous on one side and just soft and squishy on the other. It's perfect. Vic is cold a lot (he has no fat on his body and he is not going through menopause, unlike "some" people), so this quilt will get used a lot.

Then today, we had lunch with my friend Linda, who made Vic the cutest amigurumi dog and heart. She knows Wags can't be with him physically (especially in the hospital, where he probably shouldn't take her ashes 😂) and was hoping this little puppy—made with love for Love—could help a little. Add to that a hilarious card and wrap it all up in a Superman bag (she is convinced that he is a Man of Steel, given all the challenges he's surmounted in the past), and you have this:

There really are no words to say how grateful we are for not just these gifts but also the cards that we've received and the multitudes of well wishes. I do hate to sound like a broken record, but we really have the best family and friends in all the universe. ❤️