GREAT NEWS! Plus end-of-summer fun

We have been anxiously awaiting the results of the biopsies taken last Friday... looking forward to (while at the same time dreading) the call from Dr. Whiting. Well, he called tonight and gave us the best news we could have asked for -- neither polyp showed any signs of cancer! Whew! To say we've been walking on pins and needles the last few days would be a major understatement.

We went out to dinner to celebrate, and filled Acey in on the good news. We don't ever keep anything from him, but we were holding off on talking to him about all of this until we knew what we were actually dealing with. I must say, that just might have been the best Mexican food we've ever had (and we've spent our fair share of time in Mexico). On the ferry ride home from work tonight (just prior to Dr. Whiting's call), I watched the most incredible, vibrant sunset I've ever seen over the Olympics. It just felt like good news was on the way.

The second polyp still needs to be removed. Dr. Whiting said that, left unchecked, the polyp could eventually develop into cancer. He's not worried about anything in the short-term, though, and he will likely schedule the surgery for mid-November. What kind of surgery still remains to be seen. We are hoping that the polyp can be removed laparoscopically, but we're still waiting to hear back from the UW surgical department that specializes in that type of procedure.

On to the fun stuff...

We've been busy getting Acey back into "school mode" (he's doing great in school, by the way) while squeezing in as much end-of-summer fun as possible. We spent a killer weekend up at my sister Meridee's cabin on the Skagit River (about 1 1/2 hours Northeast of Seattle). Merd picked Acey up a couple days early and the two of them had a good 'ol time all by themselves -- with no adult supervision. Hiking, cooking, playing with Tonka, driving Merd's car... Yep, our 9-year-old learned how to drive a stick-shift!

Me and Gidget (and Daphne) joined them on Friday and stayed until Sunday afternoon. We went white-water rafting on the Skagit on Saturday (Merd's combined B-day present to me and Acey) and had a ball.

Gidget did pretty good (energy-wise) on the river, but crashed hard as soon as we got back to the car, and for the rest of the afternoon at the cabin. Her energy level is taking a long time to return to normal. We all had a blast, though, and then on Sunday me, Merd and Acey went for a hike up a creek to a gorgeous waterfall. I took a header off a slippery boulder at the base of the waterfall and ended up with a pretty gnarly-looking shiner, but it was worth the pain. Here are a couple more photos from the weekend (the rest are on our Flickr site):

We also made our tenth-consecutive Labor Day weekend camping trip to Packwood, whose claim to fame is that the population swells from a few hundred... to over 100,000 people over Labor Day weekend. That last number was probably true back in the "glory days," but I suspect the number of participants has fallen in recent years. Still, it's a lot of people and a heck of a lot of fun. Every available inch of real estate in the little town (fields, back yards, sidewalks, garages...) is turned into one gimungous flea market.

There are booths with new merchandise, old merchandise, antiques, food, DVD's/CD's, etc. In never ends, and every price is negotiable. It really is a blast! And, when the crowds start to wear on us, we head back to the Cascade Peaks Campground -- about ten miles out of town -- where they have all sorts of fun stuff to do. There's a river along the back of the campground for exploring and fishing, acres and acres of woods to explore and hike, bike trails, a golf course, rope swings and a zip-line for the kids (and big kids).

I posted some more Packwood photos here.