Family

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega~



On Friday the 15th of August we welcomed a new member to the Stewart Clan....BOB!! You know that old saying..."if you do this right, and Bob's your uncle" well the kids think that's so funny because they have one now!! I was a bridesmaid, Dwayne was the speaker that got to do the ceremony and the kids rung the announcement bell. It was amazing to be so involved!!

You see, Char is Dwayne's youngest sibling and they are 9 years apart making them not perfect playmates but they now have such a great relationship. I got to know Char when she was eight...EIGHT!! It's been alot of years. I love her like my own youngest sibling and we have loved watching her grow and bloom into an amazing woman. (sniffle, sniffle!)

Congratulations to Bob and Charlotte on an amazing day and a truly spectacular start together. We wish you many blessings to come! ...and Char even made this cake!!

Aloha #3

Well our adventures and slow days are slowly coming to an end in Hawaii but thought I'd share what we've been up to the last few days.

On Tuesday, we got on a boat out to a secluded bay where the captain was searching for spinner dolphins. We found them!! All of us suited up and into the water to search for them. They are wild and while they were in resting mode for the daytime, their playing and jumping (aka, spinning) were amazing. If there were too many people in the water they'd move away until some people gave up and got out. We got to see babies with their mommy's and young ones practicing their spinning techniques. They don't come very close at all but I still managed to get some pictures.

Wednesday was a slow day. Shopping in the morning and then the pool in the afternoon. I like shopping days...sometimes! My shopping was frustrating with both kids! Found some great stuff and I was able to talk them out of a lot of other stuff that was 'Hawaii expensive'. This picture is taken in front of a huge banyan tree on Ali'i Drive.

Thursday we ventured to the other side of the island to Hilo and area and saw stuff! We stopped at Akaka Falls (falls 420feet!!) and then had an amazing lunch at Hilo Bay Cafe.

Side note...the book 'Hawaii Revealed' is THE book to get. Not one of the reviews has let us down, if they said it would suck it did (we only did one of those just to check the ratings!!). Hilo Bay Cafe is in a mall and looks like a subway type from the outside. Once you step in it's an amazing restaurant with crazy delish food...and totally cheap!!!

Okay back to the adventures...

We then met our tour at Hilo Hotel and jumped in a squished van with 8 other people. We were driven 45 minutes to our drop off point that was a nice downhill. We had been told that it was a downhill ride (yeah....except for all the uphill!!!!). When we stopped for our first rest (about 4 miles in) we were informed that Kilauea was on a 'pause'. WHAT??? For 30 years this volcano has been flowing and we decided to go and have a look and it 'paused'! Fred, our guide, tried to make it sound better by saying that we were witnessing history with the first pause in 30 years...yeah whatever Fred....stupid!! We ended up biking for 24 kilometers and didn't even get to see any lava...rip off! Nice sights though and incredible exercise (especially on the uphill parts!). Our drive back to home took us 2 hours and it was 11:15, which made it a looooong day after leaving the condo at 8am!

Friday was a home day as were were all exhausted from Thursday.

Saturday, Dwayne and I took off for our first dive of this trip (our last too!). We went with Jack's Dive Locker and they were great! Saw lots of neat stuff and loads of eels. Good fun!

Sunday (today) we have found out that Kilauea is flowing again so we are going to venture back to the other side of the island for our viewing of lava. It'll be a long day today too but well worth it!
We have just gotten back to the condo and spent an amazing evening at the ocean side watching crazy explosions!!Tomorrow, sadly, we are on a plane at 9:16pm and into Seattle at 5:52am....ick!! I just checked us in and we're ready to go. We fly from Seattle to Vancouver at 7:30am so we'll have just enough time for some breakfast. We're back for only 24 hours and then off to Kelowna for Char's wedding. Dwayne says it's the all '...ona' vacation (you know, Kona and Kelowna....I know, I know!)

Aloha...again!

Saturday we ventured as far north as we could go...seriously, to the end of the road in Pololu!! It has amazing cliffs and views. Truly gorgeous! The valley's that lead to the ocean were beautiful. If I was ever to go to Ireland, I imagine that's what it would look like....or....this is what it looks like at the end of Hwy 270 in Pololu!! We hiked down the 3 mile path for a bit and then aborted the mission as we'd already had a long afternoon. We had gone on an ATV adventure to hunt out waterfalls. They were gorgeous!! Sarah and Cam even braved it and swam in the large pond at the bottom of the 400 foot waterfall. We also stopped by the wind farm on the island. Up north near Hawi, surrounded by cows and calves...weird!
Sunday we spent just hanging out at the condo and catching up on sleep and some swimming in the pool.

Monday we again ventured north to Hapuna Bay State Park. Ok, seriously, the US knows how to do state parks!! We'd gone to the local shop and got a beach umbrella. Our condo had mats and even beach chairs (you know the ones with the little shorty legs!!). The bay was amazing...truly!! We had a turtle, we named him Crush, who swam with us for about 20 minutes and was so peaceful! We're good at eating at home alot and Dwayne has been bbq on each night (it's not charcoal, but it's still yummy!). We finished off our day with an amazing sunset!!

Off on another adventure today, I'll write about that in a couple of days!

Aloha!!

We are finishing our 4th full day in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island and loving it!! Weather has been good. A couple of overcast days and today has been beautiful, as was yesterday. We have been doing a lot of 'hanging' around with loads of time in the ocean and by the pool.

Tuesday, we spent exploring the area and stocking up our condo for the next 2 weeks. Dinner at Bubba Gumps on the rocks and then into bed.

On Wednesday night, we went snorkelling with the Manta Rays at night. The kids were tentative but thoroughly enjoyed it! We had 3 mantas including Lefty who we saw 4 years ago when Dwayne and I did it last. No pics on this yet, underwater digi camera doesn't download to this computer.

Thursday was spent at the pool and Dwayne and Sarah headed off the lava rocks out our back deck and snorkelled for an hour. In the evening we went to the movies! Cam and Dwayne saw Hancock and Sarah and I saw Mamma Mia...for those of you that don't know....I LOVE musicals!! It was great! Tears, laughter and good times singing along with the movie! I imagine the boys had as much fun and we had good fun without their comments about our movie!!

Today, we headed up to Waikaloa area to Mauna Kea Beach and snorkelled, boggie boarded and floated in the waves. There wasn't much shade (or any in fact) so we didn't stay for the day. We (Sarah and I) are of the fairer variety and we don't spend a lot of time in the sun.

Tonight, Dwayne is cooking and we've just come back from the pool. It'll be an early bed evening as we are all wiped!!

Uploading pic update...apparently Cam's camera is the only one that fits into Dwayne's computer...we haven't taken the majority with

Bye for now!!

Happy Canada Day

As tomorrow is Canada Day I thought I would search the top things that we think define us Canadians. The CBC did a survey and these are the things that they've come up with. It's interesting. What would you consider to be #1? Is your number 1 even listed? Tell me!!

1 Maple Leaf
2 Hockey
3 Vimy Ridge
4 Queen Elizabeth
5 Canadian Flag
6 Terry Fox
7 Universal Health Care
8 Peacekeeping
9 RCMP/ Mounties
10 Confederation
11 Diversity / Multiculturalism
12 Pierre Elliott Trudeau
13 Freedom
14 Wilderness
15 Tim Hortons
16 John A. Macdonald
17 Avro Arrow Project
18 The Rocky Mountains
19 Bilingualism in Canada
20 Canadian Beer
21 Canadarm
22 Wayne Gretzky
23 Frederick Banting / Insulin
24 Constitution / Charter
25 Toronto
26 Plains of Abraham
27 David Suzuki
28 Montreal
29 Loonie
30 Wildlife
31 Stephen Harper
32 Democratic Nation
33 Banff National Park
34 Rememberance Day
35 Maurice Richard
36 Snow
37 1972 Summit Series
38 National Anthem
39 Friendly / Polite Country
40 Victoria Day
41 The Prairies
42 Hudson Bay
43 Beaver
44 Canada Day
45 Niagara Falls
46 Parliament Hill
47 Ottawa
48 CN Tower
49 Quebec City
50 Bell / Telephone
51 World War One and Two
52 Stanley Cup
53 Calgary Stampede
54 Céline Dion
55 Canadian National Railway
56 Tommy Douglas
57 Quebec
58 Maple Syrup
59 Moose / Caribou
60 Lester Pearson
61 Grey Cup
62 Olympics
63 Expo 67
64 Vancouver
65 Quebec Winter Carnival
66 Hydroelectricity
67 St Lawrence Seaway
68 Curling
69 Trans-Canada Highway
70 Canada goose
71 Medicine / Science / Tech.
72 René Lévesque
73 Great Lakes
74 Chateau Frontenac
75 Immigration / Policies
76 Environmental Conservation
77 Bluenose
78 Oil
79 Bombardier
80 Montreal Jazz Festival
81 Jean Chretien
82 Don Cherry
83 War of 1812
84 2010 Vancouver Olympics
85 Charlottetown
86 Repatriation of Constitution
87 Polio Vaccine
88 Winter
89 Halifax
90 Anne Murray
91 Pierre Berton
92 Victoria
93 Quebec Referenda
94 Fleur de lys
95 National Parks
96 Olympic Stadium
97 Juno Awards
98 Rideau Canal
99 Aid to Other Countries
100 Space Explorations
101 Canadian Elections

Happy Mothers Day!!

It's Mothers Day and it started me thinking on some of the things that I have said to my kids or my Mom has said to us has kids. Below are some of the things I came up with!! I've also found some online and added those...these are fun!!


Money does not grow on trees.
Don't make that face or it'll freeze in that position.
If I talked to my mother like you talk to me....
Always change your underwear; you never know when you'll have an accident.
Be careful or you'll put your eye out.
What if everyone jumped off a cliff? Would you do it, too?
You have enough dirt in those ears to grow potatoes!
Close that door! Were you born in a barn?
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
Don't put that in your mouth; you don't know where it's been!
Be careful what you wish for, it might come true.
Don't eat those, they will stunt your growth.
If you don't eat those, you will stunt your growth.
What's meant to be, is meant to be. (Mom only used this when something bad happened or when you experienced a disappointment.)
It doesn't matter what you accomplish, I'll always be proud of you.
I hope that when you grow up, you have kids "Just Like you"! (Also known as the "Mother's Curse")
Because I'm your mother that's why.
This is why we can't have nice things.
If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times.
Eat your vegetables, those children in China (Africa, Vietnam) would be happy to have some broccoli to eat!
If you fall out of that tree and break you leg , don't come running to me.
"Cheer up, the worst is yet to come." Usually said in advance of grounding.
Someday your face is going to stick like that.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Yes, I *AM* the boss of you.
Because I said so.
Just wait till your father gets home.
No dessert till you clean off your plate.
I brought you into this world and I can take you OUT !!
I've got eyes in the back of my head, that's how
Get that thing out of your mouth! (or nose)
Just you wait until you have kids of your own - then you'll understand
You tell that bully to cut it out or you'll tell the teacher...
I slave for hours over a hot stove and this is the thanks I get?!
Honestly... You'd lose your head if it wasn't screwed on!
Honestly, that cardigan looks great on you - the girls had better watch out with you around!
Bored! How can you be bored? I was never bored at your age.
Who'll end up walking, bathing and feeding it...?

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Diane-Fest!

This was a weekend to remember! Turning the 'next number old' has always been a bit daunting for me but not this time! For some reason I was totally excited about this birthday age and planned to do what I wanted to do most....scrapbooking with friends. In fairness, Kristin came up with this idea for her day in February and I was totally envious. When her's didn't go ahead it was fair game to become mine ;0P I have scrapbooked and made cards for about 15years, my Dad is a great scrapbooker and he is big on memorabilia in the albums too!

Jenn and Kristin joined me in our amazing room. There was enough room for about 20 people (jammed in!) but we had it all! Our men were great with the idea and brought us sustinance and fun notes in the bottom of lunch bags for our humor. The weekend was fun as we all had fun stories and complaints and nothing seemed to be off-limits. What is said in the scrapb0oking room stays in the scrapbooking room!!

Dinner on Friday night was at the Rim Rock Cafe and was so much fun. We managed to drive out the sour-puss people in the corner with our laughter (they were jealous!!!). On Saturday we were at Bearfoot Bistro, which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants. The 5 course chefs tasting menu was enjoyed by all and to my absolute delight they had my favorite sweet wine on hand for the Fois Gras course, Brandenburg No 3 by the Venturi-Schultz winery. The entire evening was AMAZING!!! The weekend was UNFORGETTABLE and I still have a smile on my face when I think of it!!

Blogger currency

This is taken, sort of, from Kristin's blog.

We like to know who's visiting us. Make sure you leave us a little message to let us know. I've enjoyed blogging but seriously, it's good to know that I've got people reading who care about us and what we do.

So tell us who you are...it's blogger currency you know!!

It's our time!

IT'S OUR TIME!!

That has been the catch phrase for the past few years as our community fights for University status. Today the Premier, flanked by his cronies, was at UCFV to announce that it is in fact our time! The University of the Fraser Valley is now an actual thing. YEAH! My Dad has been at the forefront of this battle and has put in many, many hours to achieve what I believe is for his grand kids. Dad, your efforts did not go unnoticed by those that love you (however the committee failed to recognize you) and we appreciate all you do on a daily basis for our city and our family! YEAH...it's our time!! (does that mean our kids will be living at home longer....eeeegads!).

Here is a video of the announcment!

Time out....

Time out from the NYC blogging to bring you this important message....


Sarah got her braces off!!


We have been counting down for the last 48 days and it's finally here! A mere 17 months ago the brackets were attached and life with these began. It has been a trying time at some points for her with self-esteem and whatnot, but we continued to remind her that she is beautiful (because she is!).


She spent the morning checking out the 'new' teeth! It was great!

Way to go Sarah! You did this in record time and you have grown and changed so much in the 17 months since you got them on.

Still as beautiful as ever!!

New York journey

Here we are on April 9th overlooking Times Square at a great hotel. This has been a 'journey' so far. We arrived late on Sunday evening after a lovely (that's for you Dan!) flight, it truly was great. We flew Cathay from Vancouver to JFK with all the old fashioned service we used to get on flights. Upon going through customs and getting our first stamps in our new passports we picked up our luggage and got into the que for a taxi. Our driver was nice and got us to our hotel in about 1/2 an hour. We were booked into the Roosevelt Hotel. Very near Times Square and other places. Within an hour of checking in we had called the front desk to have maintenance come up and figure out what was wrong with our a/c unit. Needless to say, we moved rooms at 1:30am (keep in mind, Dwayne and I unpack everything as soon as entering a room!). On our first day out we scouted out a new hotel and moved on Monday afternoon. We are now at the W hotel at 47th and Broadway! It is lovely too Dan!


On Monday we picked up our pre-arranged tix for the double decker bus tour and did the uptown tour. It was brutally cold to be in the open top, but we bought gloves and saw lots!

Out for a nice dinner and to a club for a drink before turning in at 2am.


Tuesday, we took the bus again and stopped at the Empire State Building as well as Ground Zero. We toured through St. Pauls church that is adjacent to the site and was a 'clothing' up area for firefighters and police. We tried to take the subway back uptown but there was a track fire and the E train was delayed so we jumped in a cab.

Chicago was our destination for Tuesday night and Dwayne had once again surprised me (or maybe us both!!) with front row center tix. It was truly amazing. We had a great dinner at Bobby Vay's and then wandered back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we set off for more sightseeing but didn't get a whole lot done...sort of! We went to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Lady Liberty is beautiful and Ellis Island is a place where the wonder and amazement reigns. Dwayne had a great-grandfather (x3) come into Ellis Island so we were on a mission of discovery. Alas, we didn't find what we sought but it was amazing!

The EO group is now in town for tomorrow's session with Seth Godin so we met Chris and Shannon for dinner in Little Italy. Who needs to travel all that way when it's right here. Dwayne is sure a couple of the 'cousins' were talking in Italian about a recent hit!!!

I'm alone tomorrow to shop and hang out. Maybe a manicure is in order!

Great Adventures! Part 2

Our last posting left the Princesses and the Knights on adventures around Disney and Kennedy Space Center. This adventure posting will bring more Disney and fun with friends!


I totally forgot a really fun part of our trip to Disney Hollywood Studios. Cam got chosen to be a part of the Lights, Motors, Action show. It was so much fun!! He did well and was a very polite Canadian kid! He had his pin collecting lanyard and got a pin that only kids in the show get. So 3 a day are given out, you can't buy these babies!

The Langs joined us on Thursday with our first stop being Epcot. We were all totally lucky to have found the characters right away and got Emily, Ethan and Sarah in to meet Mickey, Minnie and friends right out of the gate! The boys got in line for Mission:Space and then we got our fast passes for the Test Track (my fave at Epcot). After a brief stop in Canada, a wander through the UK and France we decided to have lunch in Morocco. What a great way to explore the world! We even saw the Nemo undersea exhibit and went Soarin' over California (the Test Track is still the best!). As we were leaving Morocco we got to have pics taken with Princess Jasmine and the men (Dwayne and Dan) were happy to stand along side for a photo! After lunch we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. WOW and that was only 1/2 of the day!


Magic Kingdom....castles, Princesses, rides, sun...what more could a group of kids ask for! The boys even got to ride in the front of the monorail with the driver!! With Emily being so little she couldn't do all the rides so we took turns staying back with her. By far her favorite was Uncle Dwayne as he would take her to the shop and let her try on hats and wigs...and take pics along the way!

This is a mish-mosh of pics but it's fun!!

Great Adventures! Part 1

We arrived home (ok, into Seattle) on Saturday night/Sunday morning. It had been a long leg of the journey flying from Atlanta to Seattle with 6 kids! I was not surprised at with our arrival and snow falling....let me explain...you see whenever (and this has happened for the past 14 years) my parents leave on spring vacation, usually to Mexico, it snows. I know, it's crazy but it totally happens!! Needless to say, my parents flew out on Saturday morning!!

We started out journey on Friday March 14th with an overnight stay in Seattle. Our flight left at 7 am on Saturday and we stopped (ever so briefly) in Chicago. Once we arrived in Orlando our shuttle took us to our hotel at Disney's Saratoga Springs. We blitzed Disney on Sunday and Monday and took Tuesday to do a pre-planned trip to Kennedy Space Center. Dwayne loves to do museums on our trips so this counted, or at least we convinced him it did! It was fantastic. The mobile launch pad on the massive crawler (with launchpad A in the background) was making its way down the gravel road to prepare for the next launch on April 15th. On Wednesday, it was a day for being somewhat lazy and hanging around. I had pre-booked an amazing experience for Dwayne ('cause I'm amazing!) to do the Richard Petty driving experience.

He drove a Nascar around the track (following an hour of instruction etc) for 10 laps and managed to top speeds of 122.21 miles per hour. The afternoon saw us hanging in the spa for our hot stone massages and then to dinner with the kids. The Langs flew into Orlando but caught up on their sleep before joining us on Thursday.

Oh yes, and the weather was mostly fantastic too! We had a rainy day and I had prepared for all things with 2 umbrellas and 4 ponchos (which actually got used to keep Sarah and I dry on the Kali River Rapids, while Dwayne and Cam we entirely soaked!).

More adventures to come!

Getting ready for holidays!

Today was a great day! I got to spend some of it with my friend Jenn and our daughter Sarah. On Saturday our family is jetting off to Florida and next Wednesday the Langs are joining us for 2 days at Disney and a week at Club Med. How excited are we???

Today the 3 of us could be found at the Wild Orange Spa. We HAD to have pedicures. For anyone that knows me (or cares!) I have an issue with feet. People who don't have nicely maintained feet shouldn't EVER wear flip-flops or strappy shoes. It's just an issue!!

Here is the after shot of our pretty feet....Sarah is wearing Holy Pink Pagoda, I'm in Don't Socra-tease Me, and Jenn is in Bogota blackberry (my all time fave). We even got jewels to make us sparkle!!

Look at what else loves the sun!!

Today was possibly one of the most glorious days we have had in our new 2008 year. The temperature soared to 14* and the windows got opened to welcome a glimpse of spring....ahhhh! The only thing wrong with a lovely sunny day is the finger prints that appear on the windows....I'm sure they weren't there yesterday!! (for anyone that I have admitted to, fingerprints bring out the absolute OCD in me...hence they are all totally clear now!).

I got out to bootcamp this morning and Cam is out playing with friends in the neighborhood...all of them wearing shorts! I remember while living in Whistler, we would be in shorts at +3 and the non-locals would be in full parkas, I think they thought we were crazy. Nope, just getting every last bit of Vitamin D we could!

With all the birds out and happy, Mamma happy and the kids enjoying some sun...look at what else I found that came out to bask in the brightness?! My first little crocus(or is that crocii?)!! I wait all dreary winter for the little bit of color that will grace us...and it has arrived, early, just as the groundhog said it would!

Whistler Playing

It has never, ever happened that we as a family get away during the winter season. Snowclearing always takes up my time and the family doesn't get to play in return. This year we did things a bit differently though. With good staff in the office and in the field, we ventured to Whistler for a long weekend. What's that?? I know, we took time to play!!



The kids spent Saturday and Sunday in Adventure Camps learning to snowboard, they have never done that before either. Dwayne and I spent Saturday working on the biz you know, planning, structures, job descriptions etc etc. It was good to get it mostly done! We stayed in on Saturday night and hung out. On Sunday morning Dwayne and I continue with planning our family stuff and then he went skiing for the afternoon. After a bit of shopping, I was by the fireplace with my book enjoying the quiet. It was tough as I wasn't allowed to call the office or even find out about the weather, kinda like an intervention!!



We went to Ric's Grill for dinner and then headed home on Monday (Dwayne stayed up there for the ICSC conference). I did the night shift on Monday night and...well... my sleep patterns went downhill from there!!



It was a great weekend and the team did an amazing job!! Sadly (or happily) I realized that I am replacable and wasn't really needed....*sigh* !!

SNOWING!

IT'S SNOWING AGAIN!! It's lovely even as I sit at 5:30am and watch it out the window...simply lovely!