Great weekend.

Things around here are finally starting to feel normal again.  We have little stress in our lives which we are truly thankful for.  It's been such a rough summer.  We had a huge to-do list  from the spring and we didn't accomplish any of it so we feel like we are 6 months behind, and here it is winter now.

Oh well, now we just press forward and do what we can do.


My good friend Kevin's birthday is monday, so for his celebration he wanted to go to the SAIT lounge to see Delhi 2 Dublin.   http://www.delhi2dublin.com/  A crazy fusion band from Vancouver.  An Irish Fiddler, Hindi Singer, DJ, Indian drummer and Korean guy on the Sitar.  Fusing Hindi rock with Irish/Celtic bonded by electronica.  WTF?  SO AWESOME!  We had a lot of fun!

The next morning something crazy happened.  The night before I was the designated driver so I only had two pints of beer at the beginning of the night.  I was fine when we left and got home at 1:30am.  Saturday morning, Lair got up with Quinn.  They kept trying to wake me up  but I just couldn't wake up.  Like seriously, I just couldn't open my eyes.  I laid in bed till 1pm.  I have no idea what that was all about.  It sure wasn't a hang over.  Maybe my body just shut down cuz it needed some good solid rest?

Last night was my company Christmas Party.  It was at the Deerfoot Casino.  The food was amazing.  We had a good table, both won door prizes and had a good time.  We bailed around 11pm to go home and change so we could catch the end of a party our friends were throwing.  Glad we did as we had fun!

While we were at the parties, Ivy had her 6th birthday party, so Lisa/Ursula took Quinn to the party (to see the movie Tangled), then to have a sleepover.  It was a nice night out for us and for Quinn.

This morning we dragged our buts out of bed to go for breakfast at Lisa's and have a visit with good friends.  It was a super weekend!

"Does this River go to Heaven?"

Danny passed away on Wed. Oct 20 with Goldie by his side.  The news was expected, and such a feeling of calm came over me, so relieved that his suffering had finally ended...  Lawrence headed to Medicine Hat after dinner to be with his mom & sister.

Quinn took it pretty hard... He and I had a quiet night of cuddles.

I took Thursday off work.  I took Quinn to his school bus.  He had his first school field trip and begged to go.  Lair came home Thursday night.

Because I knew I needed days off for the funeral, I went to work on Friday... I should have stayed home.  I was miserable, crying all day and stressed out trying to arrange coverage for the days off I needed.

We had a Chill weekend.  Just stayed in and enjoyed our little family.

Mon-Thurs, is was hard at work mostly caused by the stress covering my leave.  My boss wasn't managing the situation very well which caused me great anxiety and I was irrationally emotional.

I left work at noon Thursday and we headed to Edmonton...  On the way, we stopped in Airdrie to see Dave Lymburner at the cemetery....  His ashes were put in a column thing - and we were quite surprised that it had no memorial plaque!??   I don't know what we wanted stopping there, but we left feeling like we never have to go there again, as he is not there, but with us always in our hearts...

Friday morning we headed up to Valleyview, 4.5 hours north of edmonton.  This is where Lawrence grew up.  Man is it ever a tint town!  Was neat to see his old stomping grounds and hear his childhood stories.  We met up with all his family at a new hotel.  I took Quinn to bed at 8pm and Lair visited with family.

Saturday, a beautiful day, we all drove about an hour north to a spot along a river where Danny wanted his ashes scattered.  It was a most beautiful spot.   We played some music.  All had red carnations and Kerri poured his ashes into the River.... It was tranquil....

That's when Quinn looked up at me and said "Mommy, is this River going to take Grampa to Heaven?" ...  I couldn't answer him.   We then threw the flowers into the river and Danny's favorite hat.  Quinn asked me again "Mommy, does this river go to Heaven?".... and again, I just couldn't answer him... I just hugged him.

We all then had a glass of Red Wine in Danny's honour and all took a moment to say a few words.


It was truly the most beautiful and moving Memorial/Funeral I've ever been to.


That evening, some close friends of the family opened there home for a Celebration.  Food, Friends, Family and drinks.  It was a lot of fun!

Lawrence read the Eulogy.  He worked long and hard on it.  When he stood up to speak Quinn stood up with him and held onto his leg.  It was a beautiful moment.

EVERYONE got pretty drunk!  Especially me an Lair.  But it was a good drunk.  We had fun and got to talk with family and have a good old time.

That is of course, until Sunday morning.  Oh my gosh we were both So hungover!!  But we had to get our buts in gear as it was Halloween and we had a 4.5 hr drive to get to Edmonton in time to go trick or treating with Ursula.  She bought Quinn an awesome costume - a Clone Trooper (new age star wars thing?).

The kids had a blast.  The love and support from Albert & Ursula was exactly what we needed after our exhausting weekend.


Monday afternoon we packed up and headed back to Calgary.

Upon arrival, it was late so we put Quinn straight to bed.  I was mortified to discover Quinn's fish & snail (Johnny & zippy) had passed away while we were gone....  :(  What?   How is it they totally survived for 10 days when we were on holidays, then the croak when we're away for 3.5 days?  I was pretty upset (I was very attached to them)....

Lair flushed them and I tossed the tank.  I didn't know how to tell Quinn....  So we didn't....  And he hasn't even noticed they are gone!?   Crazy.

Epic family vacation 2010

We finally made it to Disneyland!  I will try to keep this somewhat short....

Oct 7 - was a travel day.   Quinn figured out pretty quick it wasn't a normal day when we told him he wasn't going to school.  Then he saw the suit cases in the back of the truck.  He guessed Edmonton, Mexico and Vancouver.  We decided to tell him while we were in line to check our luggage.  Lawrence said 'Where does Mickey Mouse Live'  Quinn answered DISNEYLAND!  And he jumped up and down and hugged us and thanked us.  Calgary to Vancouver, Vancouver to LAX was an uneventful trip.  We then took the 'Disneyland express' from LAX to our hotel - the Howard Johnson.
   

We arrived and got settled, grabbed some dinner and were in bed by 10  :)

Oct 8 - Disney!  First 3 rides we did were Peter pan, snow white and Pinocchio, and all 3 scared him lots!  Admittedly, I agree, the stories do have some dark under tones and in the dark with loud noises I can see how he was afraid....  Unfortunately he then became afraid of every ride!  So we had a motto - Try everything once, and if you don't like it you don't have to do it again...   Highlights:  Toon Town, pirates of Caribbean, Nemo submarine, home of the future, buzz lightyear, and our favorite, Indiana Jones!  

  

Oct 9 - Disney & California Adventure Land.

Highlights Disney = haunted house, space mountain

Highlights California Adventure Land:  Muppets 4D,  Monster Inc., a Bug's Land, Pixar parade,

ElecTRONica (Electronic Dance party!! What?!) (Movie to be posted on Facebook)

(Mom - you can click in the pics to see a bigger one)

  

Oct 10 -  We took a 1 hour coach ride to LEGOLAND.  We left our hotel at 8:30am and returned at 6.  It was an ok day.  A cute and interesting park, geared toward little guys (ages 4-8?).  Quinn had a blast, but we were a little disappointed with the $$$ we paid for the day trip.  On our way home the bus passed Bubba Gumps! Oh my Gosh I was so excited!  We went back there for dinner and had a blast!  The restaurant is all about Forrest Gump filled with pictures and items and quirks from the movie - just awesome!  We had a few drinks and got giggly and pigged out on shrimp shrimp and more shrimp.

  

   

Oct 11 - we did both Disney; California Adventure Land.  Did the Indiana Jones ride again, ate at the Rainforest cafe, saw The World of Color (good show but couldn't see much from where we were :( ).

Oct 12 - we did both Disney; California Adventure Land.  Ate in Downtown Disney.

Oct 13 - we did both Disney; California Adventure Land.  Ate at Bubba Gumps again!!

Every night we were home and in the hot tub by 8pm.  Quinn would either join us or play in the splash park beside the hot tub.  We could see the Fireworks well from the hot tub!  I think almost every night we were in bed by 10.

Oct 14 - all good things must come to an end.  We took the Disneyland Express to LAX - had a good flight to YVR, but had rough ride to YYC, we had to circle a few times, Lair was green, and Quinn was starting to feel green.  Once the plane stopped - Quinn grabbed a barf bag and filled it half way  :(  Poor little guy.   We waited till everyone was off the place then got off ourselves.  On the way out I passed the Pilot the barf bag and said "... every ride in Disney and the plane does him in... ".




It was so nice to be home and sleep in our own bed!

  

   

  



Oct 15 - We unpacked, did laundry, repacked, then headed off to Medicine Hat for Kerri & Jay's wedding.  We got settled in out hotel then went to the rehearsal dinner at Jay's folks place.

Oct 16 - The wedding was  awesome, beautiful, emotional and fun.  There was an underlying sadness not having Danny there;  he was 2 blocks away in the hospital :(   ....  We went for eats and beers in the afternoon and the reception was great.  Lawrence did a very nice Welcome to the family speech on behalf of his father.

Oct 17-  All the family members converged on the hospital to visit Danny.  Quinn had a cough so couldn't go up and I had a crazy festering/oozing rash on my wrist so opted to not go past the lobby in the hospital.  Then we headed home... It was hard on everyone as we knew this was indeed our final goodbyes to Danny.

Oct 18 - work...  Ug.