Category — Family

On Thursday morning we headed down to Kelowna for a pre-Christmas visit to see Zachary (Oh! Ya; and his parents). Had a great dinner with Jeff and Lindsay and had all sorts of time to hold baby Zachary, which even gave his Mom and Dad a chance to run downtown to do a few errands.

Little baby Zachary is now 5 weeks old and growing really fast. Obviously the feeding machine (a.k.a. Mom) has got some real high quality milk because the little guy is really bulking up. There are a couple pictures that show the change. The first one is from our visit when he was 1 week old and a similar shot from this recent visit; you can really see how much he has grown from looking at the difference in size against the couch seat.

Some extra special pictures of Zachary are attached of him wearing his Santa outfit that Aunty Tamara and Uncle Kevin gave him when they visited……… adorable EH!

We are pretty blessed and lucky Grandparents. All of our grand children are very special.

You have probably noticed that the picture(s) at the start of our Blog has been updated; in fact it changes randomly each time you sign on to our web site.

Thanks to Jeff and his computer wizardry we have pictures from our Holland trip and our visit to the Keukenoff as our opening view…….. amazing pic’s EH!

So how did Jeff do it? Well it started by him getting me to download FileZilla (whatever that is) and then after he was finished cooking dinner he got into the set up portion which involved computer stuff way above my head. Anyway, in the end the changes are pretty cool…… don’t ya think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF – on the Sunday after our visit to Princeton We drove over to Kelowna and lucky for us we were to be able to celebrate Jeff’s 32nd birthday. Jeff cooked some steaks and zucchini on the bar-b-que with potatoes from the oven and it was a great birthday dinner. 

Baby Zachary was so precious to hold and was an absolute angel while we visited. Pictures are attached.

On Saturday morning we drove down to Princeton to celebrate Sage’s 5th Birthday. Her actual birth date is a couple days earlier and on Friday night she had a pyjama party sleepover with 5 of her friends. Can you imagine a house filled with 6 five year old girls? So, Saturday was a good safe day to head down to Princeton.

After opening a few presents from us and great gramma & great grampa we had a project for Sage & Conrad. For kids their age (or kids of all ages) there is no better project at this time of the year than a Christmas House made out of gingerbread or in this case graham wafers. Friday afternoon Brenda and I got everything prepared by building the house part with royal icing which we stuck to small cardboard trays which were covered in tinfoil. That meant all the kids had to do was apply the candy decorations and it was a free for all as they managed to use (and or test taste) the five bags of candy that we had for them.

Pictures are attached and their creations certainly look delectable and very eatable; don’t they?

This week we (Brenda & I & Great-Gramma)  headed down to Kelowna to see Zachary for the first time.

Talk about adorable and precious…. he is all of that and more. New born babies are so special and we are fortunate to have Zachary as our newest grandchild; Jeff and Lindsay’s first.

We didn’t stay very long as the parents are still trying to get bits of sleep here and there as Zachary gets his days and nights figured out. However we all got a chance to hold baby Zachary and we’re pretty sure he felt like a football being passed from one person to the next. It was a special time for all and we are very proud grandparents.

Extra special adorable pictures are attached.

On Friday we took a day trip to Kelowna. We went down for a couple reasons.

#1. Was to take Gramma and Grampa to see Jeff & Lindsay’s new home. We had planned to take them for a day trip visit a couple of other times, but it never worked out. However everything did for this Friday. The kids have done a great job on landscaping and generally getting the house and yard where they are very happy with it. Baby Hip-Hip is growing and doing the Watusi and supposedly specialized yoga moves….. mostly at night when Lindsay is trying to sleep.

#2. Reason was to take my “Nike – Canada” Golf Bag back to Golf Town in Kelowna. The top fabric divider where the woods sit was worn through to the plastic protector and that’s only after 2 months of use. Anyway, Golf Town was amazing to deal with, they said I could get the same bag or change it for another brand. In the end I selected a Sun Mountain 3.5 Ultralight. Pretty sweet golf bag.

After the quick visit and house tour we went out for lunch (thanks Grampa & Gramma) and then headed home. A great day.

This week we headed to Princeton to look after the grand-kids while Mom & Dad headed off to Penticton to celebrate their 1st Anniversary. So, congrats to Kevin and Tamara on their  1st Anniversary…… the year has flown by and it won’t be long till you are off on your official honeymoon trip.

Another 1st this month has been Sage’s 1st year in Kindergarten. Yes, that’s correct our little Sage is already going to school. The first week of school was just for a couple hours as they got to meet the other kids and got to know the teacher. However as we left on Monday morning to return to Kamloops Tamara was busy racing Sage off to catch the bus and attend Kindergarten for the whole day. Hard to believe for a 4 1/2 year old. As well, Conrad is attending pre-school so he is busy from 9 – 11:30 a.m. and he is really excited about his first time at school and all the activities/crafts that come with it.

The attached pictures were provided by Tamara from their first week. Aren’t they the cutest?

Well It’s About Time…. or at least that’s what we think most people will say/think when they discover that we have finally done an update to our blog.

The ‘Readers Digest” version is as follows. Since Sage and Conrad visited the following are events from our busy retirement life: I played in a seniors golf tournament in Cache Creek; we had our grand-cat visit for one week while her parents were off to Toronto for a conference; our good friends Rick and Gayle and daughter Jeanine (who is expecting) came over for dinner; we went to Kelowna for a quick weekend visit; the Rube Band played a concert in the park; we had a coffee and visit with my cousin Trudi and her husband Norman from Victoria  along with my sister from Sechelt Donna, sister Lynda from Kamloops and Nieces Tricia and Lynette – it was great to reconnect; we were off to Princeton to get in a much needed grand-kid fix plus I was spoiled with a 57th birthday celebration by Tamara, Kevin and Brenda, we visited our good friends the Smith family in North Vancouver, we were able to get in many enjoyable bike rides (note: the hills back up to our house are getting easier – honest); we attended our Annual Friends Reunion – year # 31; this was hosted by Judy and Dean –  we visited Barkerville and stayed at Judy & Dean’s estate/mansion on the North Nechako River in Prince George; and finally at the end of August Jeff and Lindsay came for an Ultimate Tournament and they stayed over an extra day to make Salsa. 

So it’s been a busy and fast summer…… where has it gone. The pictures are in no real specific order and they are random.

Shuswap Lake Park

Visit to Lynn Valley Canyon in North Vancouver

With our Niece Sabrina at Second Cup Coffee

Well trust us it was too busy to do any updates, posts or anything that wasn’t grand-kid related. Sage and Conrad were great to have for the 5 days and we know that we probably worry and fuss more than their parents. However we did get a chance to take a bunch of pictures…. so here they are!

On July 1, 2010 we picked up Sage & Conrad in Merritt so they could come to our house for their summer vacation. We had them last year for a few days and it was a lot of fun for everyone. This year we have a lot more things planned to keep them entertained and so they will have fond memories of summer vacation at Namma’s and Grampa’s House.

 July 1st in Merritt is crazy busy at all the restaurants; however we we were lucky enough to find the Best Western where a tour bus had just left so it was fairly empty and the food was outstanding. Lots of leftovers for Kevin to take for his weekend shift at work.

After saying goodbye to Mom & Dad who where off to have some time together alone, we headed to Kamloops and almost as soon as we got there and got the car emptied we were off to Prince Charles Park Wading Pool…… it was a “must do” on Sage’s summer wish list. With the recent weather the wading pool was very cool, but there she was in swimming and having a great time. Conrad was a little more unsure of the freezing water and stayed nearer the edge and did not get wet past his knees. Anyway, lots more fun things to do in the days ahead.

A big belated Happy Birthday to our oldest son Kevin and our good friend Gayle……. we missed putting up a post amid the hustle and bustle of travel. Hope you both enjoyed your day. This morning we are off to Arles by SNCF Train, more adventures of Paris to be posted……. so stay tuned.