From Rochester to Albany

On Tuesday, November 14th, we drove from Rochester to Albany for a few days' visit with our youngest daughter, Molly, and her husband Mark, and of course to see our two youngest grandchildren, Iris (4) and Cameron (1). Iris doesn't actually turn 4 until December 7th, but already she is being very good at helping her Mommy with Cameron and treating him with humour and affection. Here she is entertaining us all, much to Cameron's amused bewilderment.

Our eldest daughter, Shara, happened to be in Albany while we were there so we got to see her as well as her daughter, Brittanie. They both look terriffic. Shara discovered earlier this year that she has an intolerance for both dairy products and gluten. Since eliminating them both from her diet, she has lost weight and, more importantly, felt better than she has felt for decades.

We haven't seen Shara look this good since she came to live with us in Reston back when she was 19 years old, the same age that Brittanie (left) is now. Brittanie is a student at Hudson Valley Community College where she is enjoying her studies and earning good grades. She also has two part-time jobs, one as a restaurant hostess and another as an assistant ballet teacher to young girls. With an active social life--and a boyfriend, of course--she keeps very busy. We were fortunate to get to see her at all.

We ordered in Chinese (number 5 on the New York state food group list) and had a good time catching up and playing with the wee ones.

Now that Cameron has arrived, Molly and Mark have no guest room, so we stayed in a Victorian B&B about 5 minutes away. It was a great afternoon and evening visiting with the children.

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Don has played his 18 holes of golf this morning, and a fine morning it was too. Now, though, the sky has turned dark although the sun is still shining, making for a very interesting if eerie light. I must confess to having slept until after 10 this morning! I guess I am still catching up on my rest, especially as yesterday was a very busy day what with baking in the morning, Thursday Club lunch, book group in the afternoon, and then a long chorus rehearsal last night. The rehearsal went well and so we look forward to a good concert tomorrow night.