Family and Friends

(Rob:) Whew! You would not believe the day we've had, even if I were to type up a description of it, illustrate it with digital still photos and movie clips, and then publish it on a website. Well, maybe you would, so I'll at least give it a try:

The day began, as many do, with breakfast. Tessa Jean (with a little help from her mom) whipped up a breakfast of breakfasts, complete with scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and a heaping mound of toast. Here Grampa Smith and longtime family friend Guffey make their blog debut at the feast:

Grampa and Guffey were in town for the weekend along with 25,000 other Cardinal fans for the 3-game series with the Royals. This was on the heels of another road trip to St. Louis to see the Cardinals play the Cubs (these guys are hardcore). Today it rained all morning and it looked like the game might be rained out, so they decided to head home instead of get soaked at the stadium. As so often happens, as soon as they left it stopped raining and the game got played after a 1 hour delay (the Royals got trounced again.)

Grampa and the Peach

Later this afternoon my brother Cody, Amy and Jude came back from Iowa to get their stuff moved out of the apartment over the garage and into their new house in Des Moines. They've had a tough week with a lot of uncertainty about whether the house deal was going to happen, but it looks like things have worked out well in the end and they will be able to move in tomorrow after all. Tonight they came over for takeout Chinese food, which is a Smith tradition on rainy Sunday nights. Here's the happy Smiths on the eve of moving in to Smith Manor North:

As a brief interlude, here's Tessa Jean in front of the flowers outside the kitchen door:

Finally, we took a trip to visit some friends in Lawrence, KS this evening. Among all of the other activities this weekend, there was a reunion of urologists who trained at the Kansas University Medical Center (like me!) I wasn't able to attend any of the meetings or festivities because of everything else that was going on, but we were able to go visit our friends Kevin and Nicoel and their kids Ellen, Alex and Emma, here from Colorado for the weekend. They are staying in Lawrence with friends Jon and Barb and their kids Rachel and Harrison. Jon and Kevin and I all trained as KU urology residents at about the same time 7 or 8 years ago.

Rob, Jon and Kevin
(I apologize for not having a picture with our wives, which would have made for far more pleasant viewing)

We had a great time catching up and reminiscing, and the kids all got along well. Here's Tessa Jean with Rachel and Ellen:

Just as we were getting ready to head home, an impromptu children's parade broke out:
Click HERE for parade

All-in-all, quite a full day, made rich by the presence of our friends and family, for whom we are truly thankful.

Comments

[Jon]

We're honored to be in the blog! It was great to see you guys Sunday night. I agree that a snapshot of the women would have been much more pleasant. My grotesque appearance was only worsened by having to squint - I was looking directly into the sun.
The parade was a classic. the ONLY thing missing was the nude clowns...

[Gramma Judy]

Wow! What a busy day! It looked like lots and lots of fun.

I am kind of catching up on blogs I missed while we were out of town, so I don't have much more to add on this one, except that I am glad to see all those smiles and happiness. That's truly neat stuff.

Love,
Gramma Judy

[Karen Moriarity]

I don't have the blog at home, so I catch up on the weekend blogs Monday mornings.
After reading Susan's (or Rob's) comments on the tears shed at the sight of your baby hooked up to monitors, I just want to comment again on what you parents have gone through and how bravely you've done it, to keep Tessa's spirits up. Three cheers for you!! You deserve it!

And three cheers for all the bloggers whose comments have helped this family get through this and continue to go through it. Three cheers for the supportive grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, classmates, teachers and if I've left anyone out, YOU TOO!