Our Baby Boy Turned 33!!

Wow...it is hard to believe that 33 years ago today I had my first baby, a darling little boy. What a joy it was to finally be a parent!

And what to name him, hmmmm.....well we thought it should be a significant family name. Doug had his father Murray's name as his middle name so we decided to follow that tradition and name him Jonathan Douglas.

 

What a fun, gregarious little guy he grew to be, so cute with his curly blond hair! Today that little guy is grown up and is now 33!! So hard to believe how fast time flies. And that Doug and I could actually be the parents of a 33 year old!

To celebrate with him on his 'birthday weekend', we drove down to Canmore on Thursday night, and Jon met up with us on Friday morning so he and Doug could go skiing together at Sunshine. They had a wonderful day of skiing, lots of fresh snow and sunshine and no lines!

 

 

I spent some time relaxing and did a little Christmas Shopping in Banff. It is such a neat little town to roam around in, so many quaint little shops.

Jon and Doug returned safely, I was a little worried as this was there first trip out the season. Jon had to drive back to Airdrie and be the daddy and pick up the kids from day care!!

 

On Saturday we drive into Jon's place and met up with him and Tiff, Ava and Josh. We went out for Japanese food for lunch and had quite a good time watching Josh eat 'pickled radish' and 'pickled ginger'...and Ava particularly liked the Miso soup! It is always an adventure going out to eat with a three year and a one year old. So fun! These are times never to be forgotten. It was great for us to be with Jon and see him now with his own little 'babies'. There really is a 'Circle of Life".

After lunch we went back to Jon's place and he opened his birthday gifts. He was like a little kid again, opening his presents with excitement and having his kids 'helping' him. Josh loved the bumper cars Jon got and once he got his hands on it he wouldn't let go...a small battle ensued between Josh and Jon as to who was going to be the first one to play with the bumper cars.

This was also a very significant day for Ava because she got her very first pair of glasses on Saturday. They look so cute and she can see so much better!! She loved playing her dad's birthday harmonica.

Jon looks kinda bushy with his 'Movember' beard and mustache. It's now so soft, Ava loves to touch it and runb her hands along her daddy's face.

 

Josh is almost walking!!! He takes about three steps before he reaches out for something to support him. I give him two weeks before he is running!! He has gone from a baby to a toddler almost overnight!

Well, we left jon's around 5 and met up with Mark for dinner. He is doing good and actually beginning to enjoy his teaching job!

We left Calgary around 8:00 pm and drove to the cabin. We stayed overnight there to check on everything and make sure all was well. It was so beautiful there with the snow framing the cabin. It was so peaceful and quiet...a wonderful place to sleepover!

It was wonderful to celebrate with Jon this weekend, and even though he is getting older...we aren't!!

 

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To Utah...for family, food, and fun!

Several weeks ago I was beginning to think that it was time for me to go to Utah again. I love driving down to Utah to visit my family, but it was getting late in the Fall and I wasn't sure I should go. I mentioned the trip to my dear friend, Eileen Hallett, and she said she would be very happy and excited to go with me...her daughter moved to Utah last February!

Well, that was all I needed to go...a good co-pilot! So we set a date to go, and looked forward to it with fun anticipation! We left early Wednesday morning (on Halloween), stopping by Doug's office to say good-bye to everyone. Lindsay was working that day, and gave us some delicious homemade pumpkin muffins for our breakfast!! It was a great way to start to our trip!

The weather was a little snowy as we drove through Red Deer and into Calgary. We had arranged to meet up with Eileen's daughter, Leslie, at a designated meeting place, but she got slowed down by fog!! She finally made it, and we had a great visit...she brought us a delicious lunch! She has a catering business, and had made us some wonderful food! Eileen had brought a cooler with sandwiches...so we had a great feast all the way into Montana!!

We managed to drive all the way down to Butte the first day, a very beautiful drive, especially through the 'Gates of the Mountains' along the Missouri River. We arrived just as it was getting dark. We settled in and watched the news in our hotel room about 'Hurricane Sandy', as well as what was happening with the election!

Thursday morning we started on our way again, but first enjoyed the hotel's complimentary breakfast of pumpkin waffles! It was a beautiful day in Montana, fairly warm and sunny, perfect for driving!! We arrived in Bountiful at Arlene and Ron's condo around 5:00. P.M. Eileen's daughter, Monique, met us to pick up Eileen and we enjoyed visiting with her!

It was good to see Ron and Arlene again, I love their condo in Bountiful, it is always fun to meet up with them there! They are both doing so well, Arlene is walking 3 miles everyday, except Sunday...wish I was doing that! Ron's health is so much better now, they bought a cute little trailer for their property up in Logan Canyon.

Friday morning Arlene and I were up early and off to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. There we met up with Eileen and the three of us had a special 'training meeting' on the new program 'Family Tree'. It was great to be able to ask questions and receive one on one help with the church's newest family history program! The temple, just across the street looked beautiful!

Friday afternoon, Arlene and I returned to Bountiful, and had a lovely dinner with Michele and Bobby and Brian and Julie. Brian and Julie had come all the way up from Logan to Bountiful for their granddaughter's baptism on Saturday. It was so fun to see them again, they slept over and we had a lot of fun catching up on our families and everything!

Saturday morning I left Bountiful and headed down to Provo. I went to see my mom at Orem Nursing and Rehab. We went out together and had milkshakes and drove up Spanish Fork Canyon. It was so good to be with her again! She doesn't say much these days, but sometimes her eyes can really communicate what she is feeling. I left mom at her nursing home and drive over to Karla's house. Karla's son Justin and his wife just had their little boy, Miken Dale, last Monday...so they were very excited, this is Karla's daughter Erika with the new baby!

Kevin and Joeen drove up from St. George on Sat. afternoon, it was so wonderful to see them again! We all gathered at Karla and Bryan's, and with their kids, Jace and Erika, went over to Justin and Chelsey's home for a BBQ...and to hold that new baby! Sunday morning, we went up to see mom and to get a few pictures. She was so happy to see us all there together. The next day Karla and I had a great meeting with mom's caregiver's at the nursing home and came away very happy to know that mom is being taken care of by wonderful doctors and nurses!!

Monday at noon I drove back up to Salt Lake City and picked up Eileen and we started home to Canada! We made it all the way up to Great Falls that night, and saw the most breathtaking sunset in Idaho on the way! Tuesday we continued our trip home and arrived here just as the American election results were starting to come in. It is a very interesting time for the U.S.!!

I am so glad that I took the time to go down to Utah and to see my family there. I love them dearly, and it means so much to me to actually see them, and know how they are doing!! I also watched some great American football, and had a little Mexican food... It was a great trip!

 

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The Calgary Temple...and friends and family

Another road trip...this time down to Calgary to tour the Calgary Temple. We had invited our dear friends, Ron and Eileen Hallett to go with us, and it was a good time for us to celebrate their birthdays! On the drive down to Calgary Thursday evening we had balloons, birthday plates and napkins, even fun favors and a picnic! I'm not sure Ron was as enthused and happy to celebrate his birthday as I was, but we had fun! We had booked a hotel near Canmore and planned to stay until Saturday. We enjoyed our time together, and spent a lot of time visiting and just relaxing. It is so beautiful there in the mountains!

Friday morning we were booked for the Temple Tour at 11:30 and we met up there with Jon and Tiff and Ava and Josh. It was so amazing to see the Temple, it is so beautiful, inside and out! It was exciting for us to show Ron the temple, he is not a member and really seemed to enjoy the visit. The spirit of the Temple was very special, I am so grateful to have another Temple in Alberta!

After our visit to the Temple, we drove back to Airdrie, to Jon and Tiff's place. On the way we stopped at Cross Iron Mall and gave Ron a quick tour of the Bass Pro Shop Store there. He is an avid outdoorsman, and he and Doug thoroughly enjoyed all the cool stuff there. Of course they had to try out their skills at the shooting gallery!!

 

When we arrived at Jon's, Mark was there waiting for us. He had to teach school until 3:00, so he couldn't join us for the Temple tour and lunch. We had promised him that we would bring him some lunch from our visit to 'Smash Burger' after the Temple (they do have great burgers)! It was good to see him again. Ava had fun playing with 'Uncle Mark' and 'Grandpa Ron'. It was so cute to watch them play together!!

We left Airdrie, and headed back to Canmore late afternoon. We had planned to take Ron and Eileen out for their birthday dinner at the Stoney Nakota Lodge, where they offer a Steak and Lobster Buffet. It was delicious and we were so full when we left that we were moving pretty slow! However, it looks like Eileen shrank a bit during the meal!

We returned home from our trip on Saturday and Lindsay and James and his two brother's Jeremiah and Sam were there. They had spent the afternoon out at the cabin taking out the boat dock for us. It snowed Saturday morning, so it was a pretty cold job! We really appreciated the time and effort they took to help us with getting that out before it gets any colder!

That evening we attended the adult session of our Stake Conference. Our new Stake Presidency have been in just over a year, and we are blessed to be guided by them! The meeting was very uplifting! Sunday was our Stake Conference so I took Doug's mom, Helen. We enjoyed going together and took good notes for Doug.

Doug and Lindsay had signed up several months ago to help at the annual 'Homeless Connect' project that runs twice yearly in Edmonton. Doug donates time doing Dentistry and Lindsay doing hygiene patients all day! They really love it, and have done it for several years now. Many different businesses donate supplies time or skills to help out low income and homeless people in Edmonton.

Tonight we had a Phillipino family in our home to celebrate their son, Myron's birthday. Myron has been in Doug's teacher's Quorum this past 2 years. It was fun to have them here and to get to know them better, they are a very humble, sweet family. They have only lived in Canada for a few years and came here from Manila. A lot of immigrants struggle to make a life here, even in the church!

 

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Southern California...here we come!

Several months ago Jon called us and invited us to go to Disneyland with him and his family. We hadn't been there for about 20 years so it sounded like fun! Well, then the planning started! Jon got a great deal on seats, and Tiff booked a hotel near Disneyland. Things were coming together!

Well, as the time came to go...Cam and D's baby decided it was time to come! It was good timing! We already had time off, we just needed to make a few changes to our travel plans. We drove down to Missoula, Montana and flew to Phoenix from there on Friday. How fun it was to spend 4 days with Cam's family during the time D had little Brynnlee! It was wonderful to see her!

 

Then, Monday evening, we flew over to Los Angeles to meet up with Jon, Tiif, Ava and Josh. We joined up with them at the airport that evening and drove strait to the hotel, we were all very tired! The next morning, Tuesday, we decided to drive down to San Diego. We went and saw the San Diego Temple, it is so beautiful!

We had a great lunch on the bay watching a little seal entertain us as we ate. We then went over to Sea World and enjoyed several hours there. Ava and Josh especially liked playing in the open water aquarium. That evening, just as we were settling the kids we heard 'boom...boom...boom'! It was so cool...we went out on to the balcony and there were fireworks shooting up in a magnificent display.

 

Wednesday and it was off to Disneyland. Tiff had some good tips for us, she is a real Disneyland fan, and knew that we needed to get up early to beat the crowds. It worked! However, once we got there, we couldn't get Doug off the merry go round!

 

 

 

We enjoyed riding on several rides without having to wait too long. The weather was perfect! It was fun watching Josh and Ava point and say "ohhhh' and "awww"! But it makes you wonder what Grandpa and Ava were thinking??

 

We loved the fun carnival atmosphere and enjoyed dinner in a New Orleans themed restaurant.

Ava danced and loved the musicians music, and they were very entertained by her!

Thursday was our day to go to California Adventure, just across from Disneyland. It is a little bit of a smaller theme park. We really enjoyed the show put on by the green toy army soldiers from 'Toy Story'.

Doug and Jon had a blast at the shooting and fishing galleries, and were very successful. We went home with quite a few stuffed animals!

We enjoyed a few 'scary' rides...'Hollywood Tower Hotel' and 'California Screamin' really got us all, especially me ...screaming!

Overall it was a great day! Josh and Ava were great little troopers as we spent about 8 hours walking and riding and playing. We really loved meeting 'Dug' from the movie 'Up'!

Well, by Friday we were sad to leave California, it was such a wonderful time to be there with the warm weather and fun theme parks! However, we had to fly back to Missoula that afternoon.

Saturday morning, before driving home, we decided we wanted to get some Romney/Ryan bumper stickers. (Doug now has one on his truck and I think Jon is giving a few out at work in Calgary...funny!)

 

So, we drove home from Missoula on Saturday and stopped in Calgary on the way home to visit with Mark. He told us all about his teaching adventures, both good and bad, but he is fairly content and was even happier when we gave his a Mickey Mouse 'stuffy'!!

 

We finally made it home around midnight and Lindsay and James were there to greet us...they had been staying at our house taking care of our dog, Rachel, while we were gone. We sure appreciate them, and we brought them a 'stuffy', too!

It was a great week, we saw all of all kids and grandkids...Even our newest addition! it just doesn't get better than that!

 

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Walking and Waiting for Brynnlee!

We were excited when we got a call from Cam a week ago Thursday. He said that Deana's doctor was going to take her off the medication she was taking to prevent her from going into labor. She had been having contractions for several weeks, but her baby wasn't due until the first week of November! Well, it seemed that it was now safe to let that baby come!

 

Luckily we had planned some time off, and we're just going south to spend some time with Jon and his family at Disneyland, so we changed our plans, drove to Missoula, Montana that Thursday night...and flew down to Phoenix on Friday! We arrived late in the afternoon, we were greeted at the airport by Cam, D and the kids... So fun so see than again! We all went for dinner at Cafe Rio :-)...and then headed home. It was a quiet evening Friday night, D and I walked and talked trying to induce labor... but no luck!

Saturday, Cam was up early and went to work and to school to study. It was General Conference so the rest of us stayed home and watched the first session. How wonderful it was to hear the Conference speakers and especially the announcement of missionaries being able to now go on their missions at 18!!

We decided between sessions of Conference to go for lunch and shopping at the Anthem Outlets. It was so fun, we ate, and watched the kids play at the little park, and we shopped and walked some more!! No contractions so we returned home and watched part of the second session of Conference.

 

For dinner, we were wanting some comfort food, so we made up some chicken pot pie! It really hit the spot!! After dinner Cam and Doug went off to the Priesthood session of Conference and D, Brooke, Mckinley and I gave each other pedicures! We decided it was important for D to have beautiful toes for her delivery!! It was interesting trying to keep the bottles upright with little Mckinley 'helping' us, however, we all managed to get nice pedicures...and manicures! When the boys came home we enjoyed some fresh peaches and ice cream!!

Well Sunday morning and no change to D's condition, so we settled in and watched Conference. Cam made us a delicious brunch of breakfast burritos. I am amazed...he is such a good cook! After the second session of Conference was over, we enjoyed a full turkey dinner, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, buns, salad, veggies, etc. We celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving!

After our Thanksgiving dinner and the dishes were all done, which D mostly did, still trying to be on her feet, to see if that would help...we all went on another walk! About halfway through Brooke and Mckinley needed to head back, but D and I kept walking... we were determined to bring on labor... I think it was beginning to work!

 

Her doctor wanted her to go in to the hospital Sunday night to see how she was progressing. Cam took her up around 9:00 PM and a few hours later we got a text from Cam saying that she wasn't dialated quite far enough, so they wanted her to go on a WALK to see if it would move her along...poor D!! So they walked some more, and yeah! When she returned they said they would keep her over night and monitor her progress. We were excited for them.

We had stayed up late hoping to hear something, but finally got the kids settled and went to bed. However, by the next morning we still had heard nothing, so we called them, but no answer...we found out later that Cam was sleeping! D had progressed very slowly through the night! Well, we decided to feed the kids and take them back to the Anthem outlets, better than just hanging around home. Well, we had been there for just a short time when we get a call just after 11:00 AM that D had had the baby!! We were thrilled for them!

We got the kids some lunch and finally made our way up to see this beautiful new addition! Mckinley had a cold so we dropped her off at a friend's house, but Brooke was so excited to see her new little sister! By the time we arrived she was having some respiratory problems, so she was in a special nursery that didn't allow children to visit.

So Brooke pressed her nose up against that big glass window, trying to get as close as she could! After some hugs from dad and mom, she understood that her sister needed special help from her doctors to get better. She was born a month early and her lungs and heart have a little more developing to do...but she will be fine!!

 

We were so happy to have been there when she was born. We weren't able to hold her, but we touched her and tried to send lots of 'love vibes' to her. We were also glad that D was OK! We asked what her name was, but Cam and D didn't have one. It took a few days, but they have named her Brynnlee Kathryn. We are so happy for them and welcome our new little addition to the family! We flew out Monday night to meet up with Jon, Tiff and their kids at Disneyland... but our prayers were constantly with them, especially Brynnlee!

 

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Fun at Home!

It has been fun being back home after our Japan trip. We arrived home a few days after Mark's birthday, so when we got home on Sunday, Lindsay had made a birthday dinner for Mark and invited several of his friends over, along with Grandma Stringham. It was good to be home with everybody again. We talked with Jon and Tiff and Cam and D and told them about our trip, and had a chance to catch up with everything with them and the kids!

It didn't take long to get back into the routine of work and a busy life. We are so lucky to still be able to work and thoroughly enjoyed returning to work to see our staff and share with them 'treats' and stories from Japan. It was fun to be back at work...but the first week was very hard because we were very 'jet-lagged' and not getting much sleep during the nights. But things are getting back to normal now, with sleep and our usual routine.

Of course, just as things start to settle into normal, something always seems to happen. Well, last Wednesday evening, just as we were finishing our temple shift, we got a panicked call from Lindsay! James was in the hospital, he had just been hit by a van as he crossed the crosswalk a block from his home. The first vehicle had stopped for him, but the second didn't and hit him going 50 km an hour!

We picked up Lindsay at her home and rushed to the hospital. When we saw James he was in shock and severely hurt. The doctors did several tests and x-rays throughout the evening, and after each test or x-ray they would come in and say... "Everything looks good." We were amazed!! James came through that accident without any broken bones, internal injuries, or even a concussion!! However his face was a mess from the 'road rash', but even that is healing up quickly. He is so positive! He said he really thinks this happened so Heavenly Father could show him how much he loves him... I think that is wonderful! More of us need to think like that!

However, there was some good news for Lindsay and James this weekend. They are building a house about 10 km east of us, and have been putting together the financing and details of it for several months over the summer. They found out on Friday that their hole was dug and a foundation framework was in place. They were so excited, so we drove out together to have a look. It is becoming very real for them now to actually see the whole thing starting to happen! It should be done in the Spring.

We had a fun time on Saturday. We went down to Calgary to celebrate Joshua's first birthday. It was a great time, we spent time together playing with Josh and Ava.

 

For being just one Josh really knew how to 'operate' the tow truck and back hoe that he got as presents. I think Jon was having as much fun as Josh!

 

 

 

 

Tiffany's parent's came up as well and brought pumpkins from the farm in Taber. Ava loved the little ones, and lined them all up and said, "Thank you grandma, these are the prettiest pumpkins , I just love them!" It was a cute moment!