SPRING UPDATE

So much has happened since my last post. Our computer went nuts and we had to have it fixed. That took forever. It seems that since we got it back, things have been crazy and time has slipped away from me.

Here's an overview...

 

 

HAVING A YARN WITH PA

 

BROTHERS AND DESSERT

 

BROTHERS AND CARS

 

The Rotary Club organized a "Touch-A-Truck" event at the school in May. We went, of course, but it absolutely pelted rain and they shut down the event after we left. We were there about an hour and were completely soaked to the skin, but its not every day you get to crawl in and out of diggers and loaders at your heart's content. 

 

 

 

My brother and sister-in-law and three kids came in May. They decided to have Brynn's birthday party here since all her cousins live on Grand Manan. The kids had fun being together for such a wonderful occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The RCMP, fire department and ambulance crew held a meet-and-greet at the RCMP headquarters here. We had fun there, too, with the main attraction being the firetruck.

 

JUST HANGIN' ONTHE TRUCK

 

THEY LET HIM TURN ON THE SIREN OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

 

SLEEPY BOY AFTER A BUSY DAY

 

 



 Sherman and I had to make a daytrip to Saint John in June and we bought Kellan a new bike. My mum had him bathed and in his jammies when we got home but he had to see that bike, so on went the trusty boots. He still hasn't mastered pedalling but we'll keep practicing until he gets it.

 

 

 

We had a graduation bbq for Brady in June. There were 50ish family and friends here, with several coming from the mainland (thank-you) and we all had a really good time - especially my grandmother who tried out the plasma car (with a little help from Trent). Beautiful weather, hamburgers, lobster rolls, salads and cake, mixed with lots of people who love Brady, how can you beat it? It was a wonderful evening to celebrate our graduate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a grad/parent picnic at the school and also the Baccalaureate service to go to the following weekend. Brady read scripture at Baccalaureate and my mum had the prayer.

 

THERE WERE 37 GRADS, BUT THEY WEREN'T ALL AT THE PICNIC

 

THE SCRIPTURE VERSES HE READ WERE ON FRIENDSHIP

 

 Grand March night was lovely. The guys were so handsome and the girls were just beautiful. I held it together pretty good, even through the mother/son dance. The next day though - complete mess. I think I cried all day.

 

BEFORE HEADING OUT FOR HOURS OF PHOTOS - GOOD THING THIS ONLY HAPPENS ONCE

  

LOVED CHANDRA'S DRESS!

  

BROTHERS AND SHADES

 

 

Graduation Day started with a special breakfast. It was relaxed and fun. Brady did really well at the ceremony. He recieved the first annual Grand Manan Minor Hockey Scholarship for his dedication to coaching/playing over the past three years. It was presented by the teacher he had assisted and she read a very heartfelt speech before giving him his award. He received three other awards also, so they will all help with his tuition.

 

RECEIVING HIS HOCKEY AWARD FROM MS. WARD

 

 RECEIVING HIS DIPLOMA FROM MR. LLOYD

 

SO PROUD OF THIS BOY

 



 June 29th was the two-year anniversary of Kellan's moving into our home. Time certainly has flown. We marked the occasion with barbecued steak, mashed potatoes, salads and peanut butter pie, and a climb in Uncle Durlan's dump truck and backhoe. Perfect!

Since school has been out we've been to the beach or the pool every good day. We've had so much fun, spending days with Keely, Sahara and Keyaunnah and many other friends. Sherman bought him a special digger and dump truck just for the beach. They've had some use! Some days its been hard to keep him awake past 6:00, he's been so played out.

Around the first of July, Brady had to go secure an apartment and Sherman was wrapping up lobster fishing stuff so Kellan and I went to Moncton to visit my brother and his fam. We ended up staying 5 days, so that was fun. Trent took the kids to two fun splash parks. We ate at "AtDonald's" (which Kellan LOVES!) and played hard with Ainsley and Brynn. The girls love the movie Frozen, which we watched for the first time while we were there. They are always singing the song "Let It Go" from that movie. One day the two of us were in the car and a snip of that song came on the radio. Kellan said, "Ainsey and Bynn sing 'Wet It Doe', but I sing 'Wet It Dig' ", which he did and still does. That boy is all about trucks, diggers and loaders.

Next week we have 8 family members coming from Florida, as well as the Rotary Festival here, so things should stay pretty busy.

 

 

As you may have heard, our island was shattered by the terrible accident that happened here on July 13. Our family is very close to Danielle, Tammy, Michael and Hunter. We have watched our broken friends hug and comfort over 1400 grieving people who came to Danielle's visitations. We have listened to them offer words of hope and comfort to the more than 750 people at Danielle's funeral service. We have seen them support Brady and each of the other five young pallbearers, standing hand-in-hand at the foot of Danielle's casket. 

This family is remarkable, but we have known that for a long time. It is truly our privilege to be called their friends. We love them. We ache for them. We miss their daughter. We miss them with their daughter.

 

Without exaggeration, Danielle is one of the most amazing kids we know. She was Valedictorian of their class, top basketball player on the team, a beautiful singer and pianist, and a true friend to all. She made you feel like you were the most important person in the world (a trait she and Hunter inherited from their parents), and was loved and respected by so many - not just on Grand Manan but far beyond. I could write pages on the tributes people have passed on to the family concerning Danielle.

We are devastated by Danielle's death. We are devastated for Tammy, Michael and Hunter.

The world is truly a little less bright.

 

 

TAMMY AND MICHAEL AT BRADY'S GRAD PICNIC

 

 

BRADY'S CLOSEST GRADUATE FRIENDS ~ Jailen, Brade, Dani, Ashlynn & Cary-Lynn

 

DANI SANG TWO SONGS AT BACCALAUREATE ~ THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL

 

DANI AND BRADE, PROM, GRADE SEVEN

 

DANI AND BRADE, GRADE EIGHT PROM

 

DANI AND BRADE, GRADE TWELVE, GRAND MARCH

 

 DANIELLE SHAW PARK

AUGUST 6, 1996 - JULY 13, 2014

WE LOVE YOU, DANI.

SLEEP SWEET #9

EASTER

We're all recouperated from our drive back from Florida. It was tiring but worth it, for sure. I always make Brady a cheesecake for his birthday, so after we got back I got to work. Look Christopher, NO CRACKS! Brady's been busy with volleyball and scholarship applications. Mama's trying not think about the next couple of months and how much everything is going to change. Time goes too fast.

In the last month we've all had colds, passing it down the line from the oldest to the youngest. None of us were sick for long though. A few days before our little got sick, he decicied he wanted to sleep in the big bed. He picked out the pillow and pillowcase, friends he wanted with him, books he wanted at the foot of the bed, the works. We've never pushed this big bed thing, the bed was in his room when he started visiting and we've told him when he was ready he could try it out. He seemed to like it well enough, but as soon as he got sick, he wanted back in his crib and he's still there. He'll let us know when he's ready to try it again. When he did come down with his cold though, he said, "I not feel any good." Cutie!!! Another common phrase seemed to be, "I got snot." Nice. It does seem that not feeling well makes for some pretty obscure napping habits, though.

Winter's been pretty brutal this year and we've had three frequent visitors because of the amount of snow in the woods. We've had lots of storm days but hopefully that's over now and we're on to better weather. We want the beach! Actually we went to the Anchorage park last Saturday with Terry and the two girlies for almost three hours. And we've been out for a few walks lately, too. Thank goodness for fresh air and sunshine. It does a body good.

 

Time surely does fly. This marked our third Easter together. We started things off at the Island-Wide Easter Egg Hunt held at the North Head park. Keely, Saharra and Keyaunnah, Austin and Ryan and Braedan and Tripp were all there, and practically everybody else we know and lots of kids we don't. We found about 10 eggs before it was time to play on the equipment and enjoy the sun.

We decorated eggs on Saturday. This was fun and he took it quite seriously. His fingers still show signs of the dye we used but whatever. They were (in my opinion) a bit more colorful than the one he decorated at church last week with paint. When you mix ALL the colors together, you get black :) Maybe not your typical looking Easter egg, but creative none-the-less.

On Sunday, we were all up and at 'em by 6:00, thanks to our little. There were treats, gifts, clothes and of course, an egg hunt. We had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls and ham & cheese fritatta, and then played with the new T-ball set in our jammies in the front yard until it was time for church. The "baksit" of treats went everywhere. We had a big ham dinner at Mum and Dad's, with a loonie hunt (Brady's kind of hunt!) in the backyard afterward. Then it was home for a little snooze before visiting at my grandmother's. The weather was perfect. Another lovely Easter.

WINTER 2014

Winter is rolling right along...

We went to a pirate birthday party in January - Cooper's, who is affectionately referred to as Cooper-boy so as to not confuse him with our own Cooper-dog. It was lots of fun. Keely was there so that was great too.
We did Elmo Valentines for all the little friends and workers at daycare. We also made heart cookies to take in, and some to eat at home too.
We went to another birthday party in February - Braeden and Tripp's. There were three sets of twin boys born here in 2010. That class will be mostly boys from what I can tell. Hold on. Should be interesting.
Brady went to Ottawa for RCMP week through Encounters With Canada in February. He had a great time and made some really good friends out of the 180 kids there. He spent a day at a SWAT facility, rode a Musical Ride horse, did the PARE test and came in 2nd out of 17 other kids chosen to do it, and so much more. His days were packed with RCMP-related activities and he loved it. They had fun downtime too. He even got to skate the Rideau Canal with some of his friends.
We had so much snow in our driveway the week Brady was away that Sherman couldn't move it all and had to get a skid steer to come help. It got stuck. Something bigger came to pull it out and it got stuck. A loader came to pull them both out and couldn't move them so they got an excavator to come. By the time all was said and done, our boy was pretty excited. Bev (of Bev and Allan, his heroes who own the construction company here) took him for a ride in the loader, plowed a little, went to the store and bought him M&Ms and then brought him back home. He's still talking about it. It was THE BEST DAY EVER!
For March break we took a drive to Florida. We had great weather and lots of fun. We went with Keely's family (our two families rented a 4 bed, 3 1/2 bath house together at a resort we've stayed at before) and then another family who are also close friends came along with us too, and also stayed at the same resort. Our three families have done a lot together over the years. We all have big boys the same age, and now we all have littles the same age. It made for a wonderful vacation filled with good food, lots of swimming (even after dark which he thought was amazing), laughs and fun. He loved being with Keely and there was an abundance of cuteness going on. I have many pictures of them together that are just too sweet!
Brady turned 18 while we were there. We spent his birthday at Sea World, the one park that we've done every single time we've been to Florida but we thought the littles might like it so off we went again. It was a good day and we finished it off with pizza, birthday cake and a late-night swim at the resort pool for the big boys.
Now we're all trying to get back in the routine of work/school/daycare, waiting for some spring-like weather to perk things up a bit around here.

The first leg of trip - driving on the ferry.

Sleeping through Georgia.

Our first lizard - on  the way to the pool the first day there, many more lizards and trips to the pool to follow.

Waking up Brady with his birthday cards.

Walking up to the dolphin show.

 Loved the 3D show and glasses.

Cool penguins.

 Rode the train a few times.

 Our big and little.

 He was more interested in what Shamu was doing than in posing.

 Brothers.

 Getting a little tired by the time we got to the sharks.

GoKarts at Old Town.

Do you see me?

 So much traffic to look at and stuff to see.

Showing off at Outback.

He wanted his pic taken with his new digger shirt.

Really liked his new shirt from M&M World - and eating at Olive Garden.

We often relaxed on our back patio.

February 3rd marked our two year "first visit to Grand Manan" anniversary. We have come a long way. He is well-adjusted and secure and he's constantly learning and changing and accomplishing new things. Above all, he is a very happy little boy. The Early Intervention worker was here today and has decided to shift our visits to once a month because he's finally catching up enough to do this. Bless his heart!