Save The Date. Save The Date. Save The Date.

Attention friends, neighbors, co-workers, enemies,

relatives, in-laws, out-laws, family, stragglers....

We are having a special event here at the Nielson household.

On Sunday September 7, 2014 we are celebrating

18 Months PLUS One Day!

What is this "one day", you ask?

When Kyle was first diagnosed with cancer in March of 

2013, he was told he had "6-18 months"....you know...

to live.

Well, we are SO thrilled and happy and joyful and gleeful

and overjoyed and excited and ecstatic and happy and 

rapturous and jubilant and euphoric and giddy and elated

(and that's as many synonyms as I could think of without

a thesaurus) that we are CELEBRATING this milestone!!!!

(The 18 months PLUS ONE DAY!!! milestone!)

We are having "Salsa Sunday" at our home 

Sunday Sept. 7 from 6 PM onward.

Come give the old guy a hug and tell him you're glad

he's still here and you love him.

Everyone likes to be told they're loved and get

a hug when they've defied the odds (and even

when they haven't!)

Stay for 5 seconds, or 5 minutes or 5 hours... 

(although we all have work and/or school the next day 

so we may leave you alone in the backyard after a certain

point alone....all by yourself...but if you're good

with that?  Stay for 5 hours.)  

All are welcome.

Our home is your home.

Please bring a favorite salsa or dessert to share 

if you would like to....we would love it!

-----------------------------------

On a little more serious note, Kyle has scans next

week and results on Weds.  (you know that bloody

awful PET scan, the one where they peek inside and

see what the *#&#&@ cancer is doing inside his body)

Ya, that one.

The ones that makes me nauseous and get hives while

I wait to hear the news.  

Yup, the very same one.

Anyway, we will keep people posted.

This is where we hear how well Y 90 worked...

it's a crap shoot like always, so we keep rolling

the dice and playing the game....

Trying to embrace any extra time we've been

given.

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So lets forget about PET scans for a minute and

remember Sunday September 7 @ 6 PM here at our

house for Salsa Sunday!

YAY for salsa!

Yay for parties!

Yay for beating the odds!

Yay for Kyle!

Save The date.

That's what I've got folks, that's what I've got!

 Kyle really really wants you to come hug him!

And this is Ruby's pitiful sad face if you DON'T

come love on her daddy daddy!  Don't make Ruby sad....

We're ALIVE!!!!!

The good news is that Kyle survived Y-90 and 

the subsequent pain and hospital stay.

And so that next Friday we packed up and headed off

to our annual beach trip in California.

It's the best.

We had all of his siblings and spouses and lots

of cousins and his parents, and my sister and family

stopped by for a day on the beach as well.

We did nothing but relax, eat, play in the sand and

ocean and build sand sculptures.

It was a top notch week.

Kyle and I were lucky enough to grab breakfast one day

with another Cholangio (new) friend Paul and his wife

Angela...she made some killer quilts for Kyle's 

Fundraiser and sent one to us as a spare.  She does

great work and it was fabulous to sit and chat with

her and her husband and hear their journey.  

They were lovely people and fingers crossed that

maybe we will all meet up again next year over 

breakfast again.

In the meantime, here are a "few" of the 1082 pictures

I took on my Iphone.  I should be embarrassed, but

I'm not. 

I like taking pictures.

In no particular order, here is our week at the beach.

We loved every.single.minute of it.

Thanks California for the great weather, the sound

of ocean waves to go to sleep to every night, sun

and laughter.

It's always so hard to leave this great place.

 Sand Tower

 Kyle's happy place

 Sand prep

 Pier Sunsets

 Kyle and his sister planning the days sand art

 Kyle LOVES (wink wink) a cheesy photo.

 Cousins contemplating life

 This was our view the night we drove in....THEE most gorgeous sky I have ever seen

 Kyle working on Sand Darth

 Street Fair Magic

 Boogie Boarding fool

 How many people does it take to build a sand sculpture? 

 Footprints in the sand

 Sand tools

 C C C Cousins

 White kids can or cannot jump

 What should I build today? He asks

 Life under the umbrella

 The night life, good times.

 Daily view, not too shabby

 Fine tuning 

 Sunsets at the Pier

 Sand Doodle

 What mom?

 Kyle and his (not twin) brother Bud.

 Victory!

 Finished products

 Chillaxin'

 Those tools did a good job today

 The Tower

 Fish Tacos...worth a 12 hour drive for

 Grace and Puddy

 Like Father, like Son

 We love Phils BBQ

 Kyle at rest

 The whole damn family

 Sand turtle, which I may or may not have fallen on and crushed

 Super Kyle

 He's in the zone

 Fabulous flowers

 Dad Grace and Olivia

 Ice cream at the Harbor is a MUST (several times, of course)

 27 for dinner at Phils? Yes please.

 Josh and Kyle working on something

And last but not least MY VERY FAVORITE picture of Kyle.

I love how good he looks!  (He was actually starving
and exhausted here, but he pretends well and we got
some food in his belly right after this picture!)

--------------------------------------------

Just FYI: 

Save the Date for Sunday Sept 7, 2014.

This will be Kyle's 18 month PLUS one day mark with cancer.

He was originally give 6-18 months to live when he
was diagnosed.....and we plan on him still being here
in two weeks.

Now he's not one for parties, weddings, birthdays or
funerals...but you had better be SURE we are celebrating
18 months and ONE DAY in this case!

We will be having "Salsa Sunday" at our house 6 pm
onward that day. 

We will provide the chips and salsa and some 
other stuff....

Open House style, bring a dessert to share.

More details to come....but we would love anyone who
wants to (and we hope SOME people want to) to come
by and hug Kyle and celebrate the fact he's still
here, when technically doctors told him he shouldn't be.

That's worth celebrating in our opinion.

So here's to beach trips!

And here's to "Salsa Sunday on September 7" (I like the
alliteration of it all....lots of "S's")

And that's what I've got for today!