Visit to Appleton and Oshkosh

Mattie and I drove up to Appleton to vist my friend Kurt Hoffman who had a stroke in August. It's totally amazing he's alive. I went to college with him and he has worked for Intel for quite some time. He's married and has 2 boys, Alex and Aaron. They lived in England at the time and Kurt was in San Jose on business when he collasped in a hotel hallway trying to get help. He spent at least on month in the hospital where he had major brain surgery in which a chunk of his brain had to be remove (about the size of a quarter) to remove a blood clot and it saved his life. He's had to re learn just about everything from the begining. Talking, walking everything. He's made unbelievable strides but will have to struggle with speach, memory and vision problems for a long time. His family has moved back to Appleton to stay with his parents while he recovers for the next year. It was great to see him and Mattie had a blast playing with the other kids in the park:

After our visit in Appleton we stopped in Oshkosh so we could see Mattie's cousin Melissa Carmody. We had a nice dinner at Red Robin and Mattie made a new friend with the "Big Red Bird"!