Some more time at "Happy Lab Acres" (Donna Reece's Ridge View Labradors)

Brent drove his Dad's Jeep home last Monday. We've been trying to decide what to do with the vehicle (an '09 with 11,000 miles on it) but since we just realized that both crates fit perfectly in the back, we will probably keep it! 
Friday, we took my power chair over to Brunswick (over an hour away to the southwest) for some repairs and my van down to Akron (about an hour away to the southeast) for repairs to the air conditioning lines and to the ramp, which won't come back into the van. We were heading to St Louis Saturday for Dad's funeral, to sort stuff and arrange for some of it to come to Cleveland so we took the Labs out to Donna Reece's Friday evening. We had thought about taking Hardy but decided not to because he seems to be going through a bit of a fear period and we thought that might not be the best time for his first airplane flight! Instead, we left both Laurel & Hardy out at Ridge View Labradors. The nice thing is that whenever we pull up at Donna's house, both of them run to the front door excited to be there again!
The flight to St Louis went well on Saturday and we spent the day sorting and looking through boxes. Dad had moved from his house of 65+ years in March - he had over 100 unopened boxes in the basement alone which we thought we'd have to ship to us in  to sort. We also found some lovely brand new furniture - Dad had been "living" in the basement with a TV and a broken recliner. I suppose he was waiting to move upstairs until he had completed all the renovating and remodeling. Being there and seeing the loving care with which he did the work, we became quite fond of the house and decided that we should use the furniture since he never had the chance to. It was still a difficult decision because although it was beautiful, much of it isn't to our taste and we have a house full of our own. 
Sunday, we did more sorting and finalized things for the funeral home visitation, the funeral and the internment at the national cemetery. Monday was a long day with a "private viewing"; four hours of visitation; a Masonic service; the funeral service, which Brent and I performed (Brent gave a lovely eulogy which honored his Dad but was still truthful); then the procession to Jefferson Barracks, ending in a short but lovely military service. Afterwards, we went out to dinner with some other family members at a local restaurant. That evening, we finished looking through all the boxes except those in the garage. 
Tuesday morning, the packer came and it looked like she did a great job. We headed to the airport about two hours before the flight was supposed to take off. Unfortunately, it was delayed and we got in to Cleveland about an hour and a half late. We had to stop home before heading out to pick up Laurel and Hardy.
The Labs had a wonderful time with Donna and their Lab and Mastiff friends. We're still glad that we didn't take Hardy with us although we'd like an opportunity to take take him on a flight sometime soon. But, we'd like to do that when we can focus on the training with patience. And although they were delighted to come home with us, it was obvious that they had had a blast!
This week, we will be busy preparing our house and basement for all the stuff coming on the moving van. We hadn't planned on the furniture but now we have to swap it with what we already have in our bedroom and office, the family room, living room, and Devin and Kristen's bedrooms! 
And now, having had to do this for Brent's Dad, we've made a commitment to not leave all our stuff for our children to have to sort and decide what might have some value. Hence, while we get our stuff ready to move, we are sorting it into different piles: garage sale, keep, donate and trash.  Poor Laurel and Hardy probably won't appreciate the time we spend doing all that though! Sometimes it's just tough work being a Labrador!