Saddness and Happiness

One morning last week we received a call from our cousin June in Houston. She called to tell us cousin Bob (her husband) had passed away. We were heart broken. He had seemed to be getting better when we last saw them in April. We are so glad that we made time to visit them while we were at the CARE Center last fall, and in April on the way home. He was so happy to have us there. His funeral was on Saturday, and because June and the family had brought him home to upstate New York, we were able to attend. It was a beautiful service and a fond farewell. May he rest in peace.
Our happiness is that we picked up Connor on the way back to Emily. We also picked up Jax because he had stayed will Robin and George. Connor stayed till Monday night. Both Mom and Dad are teachers, and he doesn't start school till today. Of course he was excited to be going back. He is in 1st grade now. He is quick to tell you. We all had lots of fun. We made som'mores and had a colored fire. I will explain in another post. He is a great card player. He loves to play Uno Attack. He can beat us both. We also played games of Wack A Mole. We all love that one. I took him up to the pool for some swimming. We spent the better part of the afternoon up there. We had a very good time. Tom and Connor took some nice long walks around the camp ground with Jax. He said he went to places he never went to before. I think he just forgot.
Connor spotted a downy woodpecker at the suet we have hanging from our tree. He came and went all day. Our neighbor Joan has lots of titmouses over at her feeder. Or is it titmice? I think I'll take some pictures. They were around ours one day and never came back. The chippies have a grand old time at our feeder. Stuffing their little cheeks full of the stuff and hustling off to store it away.
We took Connor down the mountain last night. We know he probably won't be back up to stay again before we leave for the south. He has so much fun here. Now he has school, soccer and practice. He'll be too busy to even think about coming up. We'll catch a couple of soccer games before we go, and that will make him happy.
Jax is looking very fuzzy and nice nice now that his hair is all back. He's cute as a button. We are training him to stay home alone without much noise. WE HOPE!!!! I gathered the info on how to do it from the computer. He seems to be doing OK. We don't want to get kicked out of campgrounds because of a barking dog. We go out for a walk every night and leave him home. We hope to graduate to taking the car soon. We wish we knew his history. He must have been left alone for an extended periods of time. That is the only fault he has. He is your typical lap dog. He doesn't beg for food, and is great with kids of all ages, and loves to play with other dogs. He just wants to be loved. Well, he has that.
Only a few weeks till we get going. We want to take the Natchez Trace on thr way. We hope the darn hurricanes stop. We'll be back in Texas in October. Can't wait.