Happy Birthday Bert!

Bert turned 14!!!!  He had a rough summer.  We have been unable to control his diabetes and his blood sugar has been high all summer even though his insulin has been increased.  He spent 3 weeks in the ICU at UGA while we were gone.  He had radiation to his pituitary gland because the doctor thought that a tumor on his pituitary glad had caused Bert to have acromegaly and that was why his blood sugar was so high.  I'm discouraged because the radiation did not seem to help and we are still struggling to get his blood sugar down.  He continues to be a great cat and has a great attitude.  He throughly enjoyed his birthday party!!!  Emma, Sophie and Abby came to help celebrate!

Edit:  Three years later Bert is almost 17 and his blood sugar is completely normal! It took a couple of months for it to return to normal but the radiation worked and he is a happy, healthy guy!

Back to school

First day of 10th grade.  Hard to believe!   These two went to kindergarten together!

Summer Vacation Part Three

We were using miles for our trip and because we changed plans a couple of times we ended up an extra week after leaving Capri.  We took the train to Milan and picked up a car and drove to Lugano.  We took advantage of the time we had to look at a small university in Lugano, Franklin University.  K decided that the school is too small for her.  Her high school class is over 300 and this school is only 500 people.  We drove from Lugano to Megeve, France to see a leg of the Tour de France.  I decided that we would drive over the mountains because I was nervous about going through the Mont Blanc tunnel.  It was a long day but the drive was spectacular.  We got stuck in Tour de France traffic-something I had not accounted for and a 5 hour drive turned into an 8 hour drive.  From Megeve and we drove to Lyon in search of paintings and then worked our way to Venice, via Turin,  for our flight home.

The top of the mountain.  Moments before we saw a sheepherder with beautiful long horn sheep.  Still kicking myself for not getting a picture.

Once we finally got to our hotel we were shocked to see that the team from Astana was staying in our hotel!  How cool is that???

I love the food in Europe but sometimes I get a tired of the lack of variety.  I was happily surprised to see fajitas on the menu.  The green beans and corn were interesting.  Overall, they were really good!

Lining up for the parade at the start of the Tour de France.

Love the Madeline pan and the guy standing in the bag of flour.

Staging area for the racers and their support teams.

Megeve is a very sweet little town.  And you know how I love a French pharmacy.

The people sitting on the ground are watching the Tour de France on a big screen.

Views from our hotel room in Venice. 

Views while having dinner

Water taxi on the way to the airport.  

Capri

We continued on to Capri for a few days.  More eating and shopping.  Perfect weather and wonderful food and wine!  And more aperols!!

I think K (who doesn't like to shop!) had had enough!

So sad to say good bye to Capri and Bev.  

Summer Vacation-Part 2

We turned in our rental car in Como and got on a train to Naples.  BFF Bev from Chicago met us and the next day a driver picked us up to go to Positano.  Bev had been in the UK and requested that we not see any castles or go to any museums.  So shopping and eating it was!

We took a cooking class in Ravello

Larry Elison's helicopter landing on his yacht

K finds animal friends wherever she goes

Bev's new favorite drink 

Breakfast was served on our terrace every morning

Bev bought so much stuff she had to buy another suitcase

We took the boat to Amalfi one day

View from where we had lunch

Breakfast in our hotel

View looking up from our hotel

Loved the kitchen in our hotel.  Beautiful tiles.