Thankful

"Family, like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one"  Anonymous

This quote nicely sums up my thoughts on another wonderful year and how, while the family continues to change, we always remain as one family.

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents and sisters.  Dinner this year was at my parent's home and it was yummy food with lively conversation.  Evan and Tori were so thrilled to be there... really they weren't to thrilled but they did enjoy the food.

Todd was helpful and carved the turkey for my Dad, while Dad stirred the gravy.  Delicious!

Three of my sisters were there.... someday it will be all of them.... until then we'll enjoy those that are with us.  We had Kayce, Nan, and Carol there.  Also in the picture is me and Mom.  It's amazing how sisters can be so different but yet so alike.  When we get together and talk it's like reading each others minds.  We can bounce around from subject to subject because we just know how the subjects connect even though those around us may be confused.  It's great! 

Spencer and his wife, Ashley, spent Thanksgiving with her family but then came to visit us over the weekend.  I'm always in heaven when all three of my children are with me.  Spencer had just given himself a lovely haircut and it fits his personality.  He's always been a bit of a rebel punk... love that boy.

My Dad was able to stop by for a visit with us also and spend some time catching up with my wonderful children. Yet, another year to be thankful for family and another year to focus on how swiftly time flies and to always be thankful for our precious time together.

Vancouver, B.C. part 2

It's time to finish up our experience visiting lovely Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  It really is a beautiful part of the world.  I must confess that I wasn't overly excited to visit, Canada just never seemed like a vacation destination to me but I've now changed my view.  It's gorgeous and unique and amazing.

Our hotel in Vancouver was just next to Stanley Park, a definite must see while visiting Vancouver.  It has gorgeous trees, beautiful gardens, some very cool totem poles representing the indigenous people, and great view points overlooking the bay.

We also took a little side trip to visit the North shore of Vancouver and took a short hike to visit the lighthouse.  This is a beautiful side of Vancouver and takes you outside the hustling city into some quiet neighborhoods and gorgeous view.

Of course our visit wouldn't be complete if we didn't visit the local ski resort, Grouse Mountain.  Todd and I were amazed at the beautiful mountain and huge number of ski runs at this resort.... would love to visit during the winter.  While at Grouse Mountain we saw some fantastic artwork, wood carvings of various figures.  Had to get a picture of Todd with the carving of a firefighter.  Pretty cool.

And last, but definitely not least, we stopped and visited the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  Yikes!  For someone who does not like heights, not at all, this was a very scary, yet exhilarating experience.   The main attraction of this park is the suspension bridge crossing over a very step chasm and river.  Once you cross over, there are walk ways up in the trees and along the side of the mountain.  It's incredible.  This is a must if you ever visit Vancouver.

Todd and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to British Columbia.  I loved learning about the history of the First Nation and their culture along with the stunning scenery.  A great place to visit.

Tori Takes a Vacation

There's much more to share from our travel to Vancouver but let's take a little break so I can share with you Tori's own little vacation.  She had the opportunity to travel to Connecticut and New York city this summer, all on her own. 

My younger sister had her third child early in the summer and we hatched up a fun plan for Tori to travel out to Connecticut for a few weeks to be my sister's unofficial nanny for a little while.  The goal was to have Tori help keep the older children, Jackson and Elise, entertained while my sister took care of their darling newborn, Andrew.  I think Tori did keep the kids entertained and the kids loved having her there but...... I think Tori had a hard time with the early mornings.  Tori is used to sleeping until well into the afternoon during the summer and with young Jackson and Elise she had to quickly adjust to early mornings.

You can see Jackson and Elise quickly fell in love with their cousin Tori.

They spent many of their days hanging out at the local pool, playing in the rain, eating yummy cupcakes, and being silly for the camera.

They also calmed down for a little bit to let my talented sister take some pictures of the whole crew.  Aren't they just the cutest bunch of kids?

Lillian, my sis, was so sweet and took a day off from the baby and Elise and took Tori and Jackson into New York city for the day.  A big thank you to Matt, her husband, for watching the younger kids.  Tori absolutely loved traveling into the city.

They arrived in Grand Central station and headed off to Dylan's Candystore, Serendipity for some yummy frozen, hot chocolate, and fabulous FAO Schwarz toy store.

Just before they left New York to head home after an exhausting, fun-filled day they took a little detour to find a New York city fire station.  Their hope was to get a picture inside with some of the crew for Tori's firefighter Dad back home.  Todd would have loved that Tori was able to see inside and meet some of the crew; unfortunately, everyone was gone but they did get a great picture of the cool fire station door.

Tori made it home safe and sound after her two week visit and handled traveling out there and back on her own just fine.  This little girl of mine is just growing up so fast.  I'm glad she had this opportunity to have fun with her cousins.

Travel to Beautiful Vancouver B.C.

Todd and I had the opportunity to travel to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada this summer.  I had a brief visit to Canada a few years ago when we did the tourist thing at Niagara Falls and walked across the border for a few hours, but haven't really seen the beautiful country.  And the Vancouver area is really a beautiful part of that country.  We enjoyed every minute and the experience makes me want to do more of a tour across Canada.

We flew into Seattle, Washington and drove across the border as a way to see the sights from the ground and enjoyed every minute of the drive.  Washington state is gorgeous all they way to the Canadian border and Canada gets even better.

Our first excursion while visiting Vancouver, was hopping on a ferry to travel over to Victoria Island and doing a whale watching site-seeing tour.  Love it!  Check out these great photos of our view while on the ferry and then beautiful Victoria Island.

As I mentioned, while we were visiting lovely Victoria Island we went on a whale watching excursion and, whew, it was quite an experience.  We took the tour on what is call a zodiac which is a small, motorized boat that looks like a raft.  We were all required to wear flotation suits that were just so much fun to wear (not at all).  Much of the tour was the boat traveling at a very high speed until we finally found the whales.  Just a few minutes watching the whales - very spectacular and beautiful - and then traveling back at a very high speed.  All in all the tour was about three hours.  Beautiful and breathtaking and tiring.

Here I am at the beginning of our trip in the lovely flotation suit.

Gorgeous view during our excursion.

Todd actually got a great photo of a killer whale jumping out of the water.  This particular whale jumped several times, it was just gorgeous.

Victoria Island was just lovely and thoroughly enjoyable.  We were lucky to have gorgeous weather the entire day.  This was a great way to start off our visit to Canada.  More highlights or our trip in my next post.

Time Flies Quickly

Is it already September?  Has it really been over a month since my last post?  Time flies by much, much to quickly. 

There are so many things to share about our family that I really must be better at posting on my blog.  Todd and I had a wonderful trip to Canada with some great photos from the trip that I really want to share and the family has had some fun times boating this summer and some great pictures of my athletic children.  Also, Evan and Tori have started back to school and I have some great recipes I want to share.

First, I'll start with back to school.  Talking about how quickly times flies, it's really hard to believe the summer is over and the kids are now in school.  The days are growing shorter and we're starting to feel a chill in the air each morning.  At the start of each year, it's a tradition to take a picture of the kids on their first day of school and this year was no different - even though they are both of the opinion that this particular tradition is pointless.

Evan, as always, was very accommodation and patient with his Mom and stopped for a few minutes to let me snap a photo.  Evan is now a Senior this year.  He's decided this year that he wants to be a computer engineer, which I think he is well suited for this type of career.  Love this boy of mine.

Tori isn't so patient with her Mom when it comes to first-day-of-school photos.  Actually, she's not so patient with Mom taking any photos.  Here she is frantically getting ready for her first day because it was much, much to early in the morning to get up on time.  Tori is Junior this year and is ready to take on the world - I think this girl was born ready to take on the world.  Love her tons and tons.

I've got to track down some pictures of these two on their first day of kindergarten and do some trips down memory lane.  These two have grown so much and it seems like just yesterday I was cradling them in my arms as little babies.  The same goes for my grown up boy, Spencer, who is now 25.  We love him and cherish him and his sweet smile and loving personality.

Celebrating Evan

Happy 18th Birthday to Evan!  It's hard to believe this sweet boy of ours is 18, the years have flown by.  Evan is such an amazing young man.  I love his quiet, calm confidence, great sense of humor, and his willingness to let his Mom take pictures.

We celebrated his big day by taking him out to dinner.  We traditionally do a family dinner but I thought I would surprise this great kid of ours by inviting his friends to dinner with us.  The surprise turned out perfectly.  We all sat down for dinner at the restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings, Evan's favorite, and his friends showed up about ten minutes later.  They all walked up behind him and surprised him with birthday wishes and "what up dude".  Evan's face and happiness was priceless.

We had a great birthday celebration - celebrating this wonderful young man.  We love you Evan!

Celebrating Marriage

Another year of marriage has come and gone and I would be missing out on an opportunity to celebrate our marriage if I didn't take time to write up a post about our anniversary.  Todd and I have celebrated 19 years of marriage as of the this June 2012.

We celebrated this momentous event by spending the night in lovely Park City, Utah.  Have you ever visited?  It's lovely, especially in June.  We first ate a yummy dinner at Ruth's Chris restaurant and took a little tour of the beautiful Park City hotel.  Here's a lovely self-portrait of me and my wonderful hubby waiting for our dinner.

The following day, which was absolutely perfect weather, we took a stroll through old Park City.  I could spend all day there window shopping and, of course, actual shopping but Todd preferred to eat a yummy breakfast of eggs benedict and then quickly leaving before I'm able to whip out the credit card.  So, as in all successful marriages, we compromised and did a little of both.

Here's to looking forward to many, many more years of marriage.