Always with us

On Friday, Lynn and I flew to Seattle to attend Keely's memorial service. Sure there were tears, but there was more laughter. There were about 100 people in attendance, including some people we hadn't seen in years. For those in attendance, Keely was our collective conscious. Several people mentioned WWKS/D bracelets were needed. Keely only met our girls 3-4 times, but she loved them dearly. So when she is not busy tapping us on the shoulder questioning our decisions, she will be looking out for the girls. We love you Keely (and you too Andy).

Farewell Rooster

Tomorrow (Sept. 10) we are sending Rooster to join Caesar in the big playground in the sky. He is 16 years old and is suffering from kidney failure. He has lost a lot of weight and his back legs are starting to fail. It seems just like yesterday when Lynn (unannounced) brought him home to our apartment in Tucson, as a friend for Caesar to play with and he promptly ran under the couch and hid. Lynn called him a chicken and I immediately responded "I'm not a chicken, I'm a rooster". The rest is history. With Caesar out of the picture for the last 3 years, Rooster had really blossomed. The girls loved to pet him, and he let them, even if they were a little rough. Laura doesn't understand what's happening, but Claire does. She knows that Rooster will be with Caesar and Auntie Kiki (Keely), who was allergic to cats. So, I'll take the kids to school and to Luzma's and Lynn will take Rooster to the vets. We will have him cremated and he will join Caesar's ashes on the mantle. I do want that $1000 titanium pin in his leg from the time he broke his leg though. Of course, Claire wants to get another cat. But the notion was quickly trumped by our desire to get our carpets professionally steam cleaned. We love you Rooster.

Our Angel

Our angel is back. Yes, Luzma returned this past Tuesday and the girls were sooooo excited to see her. It had been nearly 6 weeks - though at times it felt a lot longer - since we had seen Luzma. She was in the UK visiting her daughter and son-in-law. Claire finished week 3 of school and thus far has a perfect behavior record. Each day the students get evaluated on their behaviour and if they are good, they get a green dot in their calendar. Claire has received only green dots. Lynn said if she get a whole month of green dots, she will take Claire to Dairy Queen. I told Claire to hold out for more. Frankly, I am not sure who will be more disappointed if Claire does not get a green dot, Claire or Lynn. Here is a photo of Claire dressed up as an angel for angel day at school. Again, this is the handiwork of Lynn.

The past 3 weeks have been an adjustment for all of us. This getting up at 7am to get the girls ready and then take them to school and Luzma's is for the birds. And to think we have 15 more years of this. Thank goodness for weekends, when it's family time. Today we went to my hockey team's party. The girls went swimming with the kids of my teammates and we had hamburgers and beer. The girls came home and crashed.

Last weekend we did face/head/arm painting. Lynn is pretty creative, as you can see from the photo. Anyway, here are some new photos of the girls to tide you over until the next posting.

First day at school!

Yes, Monday was Claire's first official day at school at St. Michael the Archangel. She is in the bunny class. We got up early, ate a good breakfast, made her a healthy lunch and the four of us drove to school to drop her off. Admittedly, it was more emotional than I thought it would be. Our little girl who was barely the size of my shoe, who used to sleep on my chest, is now in school. Well, she had a great day at school and when I asked her what she did at school, she said "stuff". Yup, she's my girl!

Day 2 was not quite as smooth as day 1. I woke up and from a horizontal position, peered outside the window, believing I possessed the ability to deduce the time by the amount of ambient light outside. I figured it was about 6:30am. Plenty of time before we had to leave for school at 8:20am. But, I thought it better check the clock just in case. So much for that supposed ability. It was 8am and we had to get the kids dressed, fed and lunch made in 20 minutes. We made it out the door by 8:27am. After hitting every traffic light which turned red as we approached, I dropped Claire off at 8:55am with time to spare. I could have slept another 5 minutes.

Back from Maine

We just had two great trips this summer. As noted in the previous posting we traveled to British Columbia to visit my family. The trip to Kamloops was a long day for the girls - 16 hours in total which include 2 plane ride (5.5 hours) and a 5 hour drive to Kamloops from Vancouver. When we arrived we went to my friends Mike and Sue's place for dinner at 6pm, which was 9pm for the girls. they were such good little troopers. We spent the next 5 days visiting with Lola, Uncle Paul, Auntie Taya and Theo. The three cousins had a great time together whether it was at the water park or at the playground. Claire even went to 2 of Auntie Taya's soccer games and one of Uncle Paul's hockey games, where she got a puck. We also spent time with 2nd cousins Sam and Alex, and their parents Pam (my cousin) and Andrew.

Andrew and I even went on treasure hunt one evening. Here is Andrew at ground zero, the mother load. Spending all of this quality time with family, made us realize how lucky we are, especially the girls.

Lynn had to leave a couple of days early to go to Vancouver for work, which meant I was in charge (ok, it was really Auntie Taya and Lola) of the girls. Nobody broke any bones or furniture so I guess I did alright.

On Thursday, we caravan-ed down to Vancouver to spend a couple of days with my dad. It was his first time to see Laura in the flesh. We had a great time walking along the sea wall, going to the Science Center and just hanging out at the hotel because it rained a lot. It was too bad our time was so short because we had such a great time before you knew it we were on a plane heading back to Atlanta. Anyway, here are some photos from this trip.

We had enough time to do the laundry and repack before we were on a plane heading to Maine to spend time with Lynn's family. Grammy, Grampy and Uncle Larry were already there. The four of us shared a large bedroom and the girls had their own beds, but Laura would not fall asleep - she was such a stinker. Every night was a 2-3 hour battle to get her to go to sleep, or at least keep quiet.

We spent time at the beach with 2nd cousin Brennan and parents Mark (Lynn's cousin) and Erin. Lynn got sun burned pretty good. We had lobster 3 times and fortunately for us, neither girl liked it. We also took the girls to the fair to go on carnival rides. Laura was finally tall enough to go on several rides this year - she had a blast. The girls also met 2nd cousin Genevieve who was visiting from China with Uncle Jon and Aunt Xia Li. I know they won't remember any of this, but hopefully this blog will serve as a document recording their lives from day 1 onward. Anyway, we spent 8 days in Maine and we are now back in Atlanta. Here are some Maine photos.

Back from Canada

We will blog about our recent trip to Canada later today, but for now, here are some photos. Thanks Lola, Uncle Paul, Auntie Taya, Theo, and Grandad!

Happy Father's Day 2012

Last weekend the four of us went to Savannah. Lynn had a conference to attend, so most of our trip was paid for. On Saturday morning I took the girls to the beach. The water was much warmer than the beach at Maine, so the girls went right in.


 The trip was also interesting as the girls end up sharing a bed. Claire with me and Laura with Lynn. Claire and I were out like a light, but Laura kept getting in Lynn's face to see if Lynn was sleeping. Lynn said it was all she could do to stop laughing. Needless to say, Lynn and Laura didn't get much sleep. Here are some photos from the weekend.

On Monday morning, Lynn flew to Ottawa for work and then later in the week to Toronto, returning home on Friday. So it was me, the girls and Luzma. Ok, mainly Luzma. We all missed mom.

On Saturday morning, we washed Kayla in the driveway. Kayla didn't care for it, but the girls had fun. We think Kayla is deaf or close to it, as she doesn't not respond when Lynn calls her - maybe I am deaf too. Our original girl is 13 years old and showing her age. Rooster is not faring much better at 16 years. We already had a talk with Claire about the health of the animals. Anyway, I digress.

Father's day was a lazy day. Claire was interested in my tripod, which she calls a telescope. She asked me how it works. The result is below.


After a photo shoot, we went for a walk in the morning and then rode our bicycles in the cul-de-sac.  The girls enjoyed it, especially Lightning McClaire.

 

After the girls (and dad) had a nap, the girls wanted to put on a play for us called the Pirate and Tinkerbell. Yes, it was definitely an off, off, off, off broadway production, but the play was capped by Laura (who missed mom this past week) when she asked Lynn, "So, are you just visiting?" You can see the start of the play below.



Unfortunately for all of us, Lynn is off to Montreal and Halifax this week, and then Calgary next week. I did also mention that Lynn was awarded a prestigious Holder Award at work? She's going places, literally and figuratively. Anyway, enjoy some photos from this weekend.