The last week of May and first week of June we went to Florida, for Graduations of two nieces, but we also got to visit Ronald and Tiffany, Hector's brothers Wailu, Fargo, Charlie, and sister Ruth
This is Wailu's youngest daughter Keisha, we had a big family celebration the day before her Grad.
This was the largest Graduating Class ever in the US, there were over 1200 in the class, but I can't remember what the exact number was.
The second Grad, one week later, was Krislyn, Hector's nephew's daughter, she is on the far left, followed by her mother Sandra (who stayed with us several years in Kelowna when she first came from Guyana), her sister Terrina, and her dad, Terry
We got back to Seattle after a long flight, picked up our car and drove all the way to Kelowna, on a Wednesday, and Friday by noon drove back to Walla Walla College for the Graduation of our friend Marleen's son, Jonathan. Our kids grew up with 14 other peers within our church family, and they are all as close as cousins, and call the adults Auntie & Uncle, so this was our nephew Jonathan.
We missed a turn, somewhere north of Pasco, and ended up seeing parts of Washington we had never seen before, this was just part of it.
My birthday brought a "Great Big Surprise" well actually... the littlest surprise on the road. My adorable little "Smart Car" I first saw them in Europe in the summer of 2000, and had to wait 9 years to finally get one. We loved it in many ways, and enjoyed it for the summer, getting up to 78 miles to the gallon. But we decided after several months, that we just didn't want that much money sunk into a car, when our yard is full of cars. So we advertised it and sold it near the end of November. I was sad to see it go, yet I was relieved to have the money back in the bank account to be used for purposes less vain. I have a 1965 Ford Falcon, my first car ever, still sitting waiting to be refurbished and put back on the road, and I have a 1972 convertible Cadillac Eldorado, which I love to drive. It is so smooth, and the horn sounds like a train, it just gives me goose bumps to hear it. I also have have 2 1991 Pontiac Firefly's (which get close to 60 mpg) and a 1991 Voyager, which has taken us to NY and Florida a number of times, and I still enjoy driving it too, so we decided to still the Smart Car while it was still under warranty, and we could still get our money back.
The following are what Royce calls "No shortage of Glamor Pictures of my Baby"
Ronald and Tiffany took a short ride in it when they were home this summer, and were well pleased with the space it has inside for tall people.
My attempt at bumper sticker humor!!!
The 4th of July weekend we went to Mount Hood for the wedding of our friend's John & Margie Ham's daughter's wedding. But we also did some other nice things. We spent some time with my cousin Karen, and Mai met up with a friend Judith who she had taught with in Saipan, and she also went on a rock climbing expedition with Karen's son George, and his wife Katie, and they took their 4 month old baby Tanner along for the day. Following are some beautiful sights.
Mount Hood
Mai & Judith
George working with the gear, he does the lead climbing, setting up the course for the others.
George and Tanner
Mai on a climb
The lovely little Bed & Breakfast we stayed at just outside of Hood River.
Our room
The flowers and birds were amazing
Mount Hood
We took an early morning hike before the wedding, and from our vantage point, we could see Mt. Hood, and also Mount Adams, and Mount St Helen's was in the far misty distance, but it didn't show up on the picture, it would be just to the right of Mt. Adams in this picture.
Mount Hood from a different vantage point.
Hood by Hook
Columbia River which divides Washington and Oregon
Just a cool picture of Mai, outside the Rehearsal Supper Restaurant.
We watched the 4th of July fireworks from a home high above the Columbia River on the Washington side.
Nissa and Andrew, from where they stood, the guests could clearly see Mount Hood in the background.
I don't think the fairy-tales say anything about kissing a salamander...
They were having a lot of fun.
Who needs a chair, when you have a best-man to sit on?
Mai and Tasha, buddies from small, because their mothers were friends from grade school and before that their grandmothers were friends as teenagers.
Mount Hood at the end of a perfect day.
The perfect ending to a perfect day!!!!
Weddings, Weddings, Weddings
Two weeks later, our friend Tanya married Jean (put a french accent on that for Jon)
Tanya's day was not as perfect as she would have wished. Her site was by the lake, to have a beautiful view for the guests, but once again, Kelowna was burning, and some of her guests were not able to make it due to fire lines, and evacuation alerts.
This is what a "Smoke Cloud" looks like, it looks so solid like you could walk on it and not fall through.
Camp Meeting 2009. Ronald and Tiffany joind us there on Thursday, and after a hike up to 3rd ledge, we left for home, with Ronald driving the motor home for the first time in his life. But before we got out of our camping space, we managed to swing the back of the unit far enough to break off the water tap, causing it to spray water all over, and we couldn't find a maintenance man, what a circus that was!!!
The hike...(while mom was packing everything up in the scorching heat)
The view from the top
Friday early we left for Albert to another wedding, along the way we stopped in Revelstoke to visit my aunt Ebba who had celebrated her 100th birthday in October of 2008.
Next stop was the summit of the Rogers Pass, which is between Revelstoke and Golden BC
Mai showing where we live on the map of Canada.
Royce showing off his muscles.
Well not really!!
A pretty pose of Tiffany.
A quick visit to Lake Louise.
Left to Right-Tiffany, Ronald, Hector, Beth, Royce, Mai-Rhea.
How can you deny that there was a flood when you see a huge granite wave like this?
A visit to their Alma Mater for Royce and Mai, but nostalgic for Ronald who attended for 1 year, and lived there for 2 more years. His first chance to show it to Tiffany.
The sundial, has been added since our kids left, so this was their firs time to see it.
The famous place for couples to have pictures taken when the boys come to pick up their dates for a banquet. Ronald now gets to pose with Tiffany, his lifetime date.
As we left CUC, and drove north to Wetaskwin we were battling a severe storm. When we drove into my cousin Judy's yard, her husband Reg told us we had just missed the excitement, and that their son's truck and trailer had just been picked up spun around and thrown in the ditch. We went to see the damage, and this is what we found. God was so good to them, they were able to drive the truck away with only a few scratches on it, and the family (with baby in car seat) were safe, just a little shook up from the trauma.
The neighbours yard looked like this.
My cousin Doyle had a birthday so we got to celebrate that too.
Sunday morning, Mai and Tiffany played with the kids at Judy's place. Judy has 6 foster children, her son Devin has 4, and her brother Doyle has 3, so there were plenty of kids to play with that weekend.
Plenty of pets too, Hector is trying to look like he is enjoying this encounter!!
We visited the farms of my Uncles. This is the house my Grandfather built around 1930. After the grandparents moved to BC, August my oldest uncle took over the family farm, and has been there for 50+ years.
At 92, Uncle August keeps a beautiful garden.
My next uncle, Sam's home, we had a nice visit with him and Auntie Mable
We got some really neat pictures, here is the barn that the walls fell out from under a few years ago.
My favorite spot is Auntie Mable's sweetpea patch.
On my computer, I superimposed my uncle into these pictures, taken by Mai the day we visited. I had fun doing it, and have enjoyed sharing the results.
Down the road a mile or so, we visited Uncle Sam's son Terry, wife Linda, and their daughter Janelle and her family who lives on the same yard with Terry and Linda. This is Janelle's youngest daughter, only a few days old at the time.
Her big sister Kirstin
Early morning Golf before the wedding.
Tyler and Jennalee the son of my cousins Rod & Judy Schafer.
This motorized hang-glider came buzzing overhead during the ceramony in my cousins yard. Everyone was wondering how rude could this guy be, but it turned out he was taking pictures from above.
Judy's show piece garden.
A very creative "Fruit Cake" designed by the Grooms aunts, Tammy and Karen Schafer.
Finally we got the 3 Tiffany's together for a picture. Left to right Tiffany Demitor, my cousin Judy's daughter-in-law, Tiffany Odiyar, my daughter-in-law, and Tiffany Demitor, Judy's foster daughter, who has been in the family since the day she came out of the hospital.
On our way home, we stopped in Calgary, to visit my cousin Fay, and were met there by a friend, we met in Mizoram India, back in 2003. He and Ronald are especially good friends.. Martin has been going to school in Michigan for several years, and was working in Alberta for the summer, so we were thrilled to see him that day.
Canadian Thanksgiving
This year Mai got to come home to help with the Grape Juice. I picked 6 boxes of grapes on Friday, and right after sundown on Saturday night we stemmed them all. Sunday morning, we started the rest of the process.
In the pot.
The finished product.
We had to cook Thanksgiving dinner on a 2 burner hot plate at the end of the table, the stove top was full of juice pots. Then our dinner was on 1/2 the table, with the juice bottles at the end.
October 24
Found us back in Revelstoke to celebrate with Ebba her 101 birthday.
The next day, my aunt Leatha (also my next door neighbour) and I went to Vernon, to celebrate My Uncle John's 90th birthday.
At 90 you deserve a sparkler!!
November 10 & 11
We drove to Vancouver to be there when Mai got out of school on the 10th, the day of her birthday. We had a supper and birthday party for her at Uncle Soljer's house. It was almost a surprise, but on the way over Royce managed to spill the beans.
On the 11th (a statutory holiday in Canada) we took these lovely autumn pictures, then we drove home to be there for bed that night.
But this was the scene on the way home.
