Surprise gift basket!

A surprise box showed up with our mail today! The return address was the Make-A-Wish office in Buffalo and once opened Sawyer discovered a basket filled with sports-related gifts, home baked chocolate chip cookies and lemon poppy seed bread, and a couple of gift cards! We later found out that one of the Allstate Insurance offices in Buffalo wanted to put together a few wish baskets and they received Sawyer's name along with a list of his interests. They did a super job picking things out! And such a thoughtful thing to do! I'll have to keep this idea in mind for something my office can do in the future. It would be easy to do and can make a big difference in a child's day.

We're almost packed and ready to leave early Thursday morning for the cruise. Tomorrow will be a day for cleaning the house and last minute details. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep well even though we're super excited!

Lake George and Cruise Preparation

We had a great week at Lake George! Couldn't have picked a better week: high 90s, high humidity, no breeze. Water temps were perfect, food was great and it was wonderful to have a week with long-time friends.

We visited Green Mountain College in Vermont before getting to the lake. Sawyer liked it there but thought it was too much like Alfred and he wants something a bit different. Mark and I, on the other hand, are ready to move there, get jobs and take a bunch of their classes!

We just met with the Make-A-Wish volunteers who delivered some more details about our Alaskan cruise. We leave on Thursday morning! Still wondering how a limousine is actually going to make it up our road and/or to our house!

We will fly to Vancouver on Thursday, board the ship on Friday morning, cruise north hopefully seeing glaciers, and all sorts of wildlife. And trying not to overeat along the way! We end in Seward on August 2nd and fly home from there. I'll post a few photos and an update when we get back.

Our hugs and prayers go out to friends of ours whose son will shortly be beginning his own cancer "journey" - luckily prognosis is good but we know the six months he'll receive treatment will be challenging. Sawyer had a chance to talk with them a bit and move into the role of advisor and supporter. I expect he'll have more opportunity to do that in the future.

Boys State

It was a busy week for Sawyer at Boys State, held on the Morrisville campus. Over 1000 boys from all across the state were bussed in and housed in the campus residence halls. Each floor was a town, each hall a county. All together they make up Boys State, a fictitious place designed to reflect the governmental and political process in New York State.

Overall he liked the experience. He knows that only a small handful of are chosen to attend and he liked the insight into how things work. Everyone is assigned or elected into a position of some sort. He was the Parks Commissioner for his town. He didn't have to do anything specific but that was his title. Others who are more outspoken or politically ambitious were able to run for public office, and one gets elected governor.

The only aspect Sawyer didn't like was the boot camp atmosphere. Marines are part of Boys State (which is run and sponsored by the American Legion: Sawyer and another boy from Alfred were sponsored by the Almond American Legion). Sawyer understood before going that the Marines were there to help facilitate the movement of 1000 boys and knew there would be some type of military aspect. But he was unprepared for the extent of it. He thought the Marine assigned to his floor was a bit too harsh and demanding. He had backed off a bit by the end of the week but it left a sour taste in Sawyer's mouth.

I imagine, like many things, it will take some time for him to reflect on the experience before he truly understands the impact and what he learned.

Now we're in middle of packing for our annual camping trip to Lake George. About 30 of us (almost all with Alfred U. degrees) converge on the lake for primitive camping, communal meals, relaxing, time in and on the water, and ignoring the realities of life. It's our 10th year of what we call PirateFest. Let the shenanigans begin!

Luckily, each of Sawyer's treatments is falling at a convenient time in our summer schedule, although his one later this month did need to be moved a week to accommodate our upcoming Make-A-Wish Alaskan cruise!