Canada cont. . . . . 2nd day

 

We then went to Brandywine Falls and saw the falls from the river side before it falls.  From there we drove to Whistler Ski Resort.  We saw the stone "person" that was part of the Olympic logo.  

Lynda Ann noticed that people had built their own statues of the Olympic logo on top of the barriers.  

And yes, it started raining again, but we were at the end of our tour for that day.  

We then found a place to have dinner and drove back to the house for movies, popcorn and rest.  We saw a lot that day.  Saw this painted on the side of a garage.

The only logging truck we saw on the trip, which surprised me.  I thought we would be running into them more than we did.

O Canada Our Home and Native Land

 Lynda Ann and I spent some time in Seattle gathering genealogy and then on to Canada for three days or R and R.  What an amazing trip.  Lynda Ann has everything all researched and planned out so all I have to do is tag along and follow the script.  She does extensive research on every trip we go on so she knows the best sights to see and spend our time exploring.  

Seattle is where my mother was born.  She had a sister, Edith, who had a daughter, Sandy.  Sandy has been an avid genealogist and has gathered pages and pages of research on the Frye side as well as her dad's side.  Sandy is not a member of the church and has no use for people who want to take the names to the temple.  That being made clear a long time ago, Annie and I never brought up the real reason for gathering the genealogy records.  Sandy knew we were coming and had run lots of research off for me.  She made the comment, numerous times, that because Lynda Ann was not a blood relative, she wouldn't give the genealogy to her.  Don't ask me why that made a difference with her but it did.  We just had to smile and ignore the comments about DNA and blood line.  Sandy had let her younger brother, Jimmy, know that we would be there Wednesday morning and so he also came to see us.  I always love Jimmy.  We were absolute inseparable buddies growing up.

This is a picture of Jimmy (two years younger than me), Sandy (two years older and not a very happy person) and myself.  You can see the Frye family resemblance.

A big genealogy chart Sandy had on her wall.

This is a picture of Uncle Art, Uncle Henry, Aunt Edith and mother.  Uncle Henry was my favorite.  Annie remembers him giving her a bottle of dimes when she was on a trip with me when she was a little girl.  None of mother's siblings ever joined the church.  

We hung around at Sandy's until about 1 that afternoon and then said our goodbyes and headed off to the Canadian border.  It started raining and continued to rain hard the closer we got to the border.  Going in to Canada took us about 5 minutes.  I think there was only one car in front of us.

The Canadian flag in a huge flower garden.

Approaching the border crossing.

We made a stop at Costco as we were leaving Seattle to see if we could get Jeff a Seattle Seahawk sweat shirt.  From there we crossed the boarder and headed to our rental house in Britannia Beach, British Columbia.  We found a restaurant, had a bite to eat, back to the house and settled in for the night.  It was still raining hard and the weather was predicted to rain the whole time we were going to be there.

Thursday morning we got up early.  Annie had done her research and a hike was on our agenda for that morning.  We wanted to get the hike in before the rain started up again.  We drove to Shannon Falls and were able to see and take pictures without the rain.  We then walked a short distance to the Sea to Sky gondola.  Bought our tickets and boarded the gondola.  The wonderful thing was that we think the rain and the time of year kept people away from the sights.  We ran into very few people and had the gondola ride all to ourselves on the way up and on the way back down.  

We saw this gorgeous blue bird in the parking lot and had to take a picture.  Annie was able to take some great close ups.  It was as if he knew we were taking his picture and had to pause and pose for us.

Absolute gorgeous and massive water fall.  Pictures just don't get the majesty of the amount of water and height of the falls.

The forest areas around the falls was incredible.

Just prior to boarding the gondola.  

The amazing blessing was that it rain all the way up to the top but stopped when we got off the gondola.  The skies cleared and we were able to enjoy the beautiful workings of God's hands.  

We walked the panorama trail at the top and crossed the Suspension Bridge.

We saw this funny tree formation that looked like a moose to me.  An elephant to Lynda.

Neal's Surgery

 Remember that Neal fell off the ladder back in June.  Cracked his hip and hurt his shoulder.  All summer has been concentrated on getting the hip to heal and not having to do surgery.  After his hip was healed then they took a good look at the his shoulder and found that there was enough damage that they would have to go in and replace the rotator cuff.  So last Thursday was the operating day.  Jeff Jackson was his surgeon.  We went to St. Marks early on Thursday morning and I had him home by the early afternoon.  Amazing that most surgery are in and out kind of procedures.  As long as the patient has someone at home that can care for them, they let them go home.  This picture is him just getting ready to go home.  I talked with Jeff right after the surgery and he said that there was a lot of damage and a lot of arthritis.

Home and in his comfy recliner where he slept the day away.

Three days after surgery we could take the big padded bandages off and he could shower.  Neal is doing great and has very little pain or discomfort.  Hasn't had to take any pain pills so far.  He has only taken Tylenol and Ibuprofen.  

He begins therapy on his shoulder in two weeks.  I'm sure there will be a little pain at that point.

My Glasses

 Sprout has an affinity to my sewing glasses and my sun glasses.  I've done my best to keep them up where he can't get them but so far have failed at protecting them.  The first pair he got his little teeth on were my glasses that I only use when I'm stitching on linen.  While I was running some errands, he carefully took them off the foot stool where I keep my stitching.  When I got home he was under the bed feeling pretty proud of himself.  I had to grab my phone and get a picture.  I was laughing at him so hard I wasn't sure I could hold the camera steady.

When I came home from church today he was on the carpet with my sun glasses in his mouth!  Again, I started laughing and had to quickly get my phone and take a picture of him.  The little stinker.  But how can I get mad.  I can't.  I'm the one who leaves them where he can get them.  And his face is so innocent looking.  And yes, both glasses were ruined.  

We've also discovered that glasses are the only thing he loves to chew on.  I opened the back door the other day and there he was sitting by the door with one of Neal's flowers in his mouth.  Again, so cute and so innocent!  For some reason he loves this particular flower and has bitten all but three of them off at the stem.  He doesn't eat the flower, just the chews on the stem.  Funny puppy!  You can't help but love that face and those great big black eyes.  Just isn't possible to get mad at him.  

Swiss Days

 I just check back on my blog and I don't see that I wrote anything about Swiss Days.  This is an annual event that Lynda Ann and I have done for as long as I can remember.  We always went to Midway and spent the day with Lila Mae and going over to all the booths set up for Swiss Days.  Lila Mae would make cookies and bread to sell.  She sold her bread faster than she could possibly make it.  When her age made it impossible for her to go over to the park, Annie and I would continue the tradition of going each year.  Now it has grown to Annie and I and Annie's girls.  We always shop for a couple hours and then meet Susan in Heber for lunch.  Susan hates crowds so never goes over to wander the booths.  We always find stuff to buy.  Lynda Ann always gets wrapping paper first and then we wander up and down all the aisles looking for that treasure that we just can't live without.  I bought the sweatshirt that I have on.  The girls always look for the knitted or crocheted chickens.  Hayley has one in her hand and there is one at the top of Mallory's bag.  It was such a fun day with perfect weather.  As tradition calls, we met Susan for lunch in Heber.  Great times, but we sure miss our Lila Mae!

More Birthday Celebrations

 When I was serving as the stake Relief Society President, one of my counselors was Vicki Parry.  We found out that we shared the same birthday month so every August we get together for lunch.  It is a great time to catch up on each other lives, children and church stuff.  We usually give each other a little something.  This year I have her a ceramic pumpkin and had Lynda Ann make Vicki a bag with a pumpkin on it.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of either one of them.  Vicki and I went to lunch at Zuppas and chatted for a couple of hours.  She gave me these two darling bowls that can be used for any number of things.  I've chosen to use them for mine and Neal's midnight ice cream snack.  Well, maybe midnight is pushing it a bit but it is usually well in to the evening.  They are the perfect size and I love them.

A couple days later I met Maren for lunch out at Gourmandise.  It is a European cuisine type.  The food was delicious and we brought home some desserts.  It was so good to spend some 'just the two of us' time together.  We talked about many things.  Some trivial and some very personal.  Those mother/daughter times are always precious to me.  Maren also gave me my birthday gift.  I've already used it for a couple things and find that it is a very useful kitchen tool.  Thanks Maren for lunch, the visit, the present and especially your love.

The Fabulous Four

I have officially become a member of the Fabulous Four Group.  This is a bridge playing foursome that was started a couple years ago.  Just a few months ago one of the member past away suddenly.  I had been substituting for the group off and on and when Ellie died, they asked me to join the group.  When I told Annie about the group, she came up with a bag with our name on it "The Fabulous Four".  The bag is great because we meet at a restaurant, order lunch and then play bridge for 3 or 4 hours.  The person who is in charge that day has to bring the boards and the bidding boxes and so Annie made these bags so we can carry our bridge stuff.  The ladies love the bags and were so excited for them.  Thanks to my creative daughter who spent her time making these.  From left to right:  Yvonne, Kerma, Judy and me.

We meet about every other week and usually at The Olive Garden or the Spaghetti Factory.  I love being a part of the group.  Not sure I like knowing that I replaced someone who died!!  C'est la vie.

 

Catching Up

I haven't been as consistent at blogging as I should be.  It isn't for a lack of events or happenings in my life, it is just getting myself to sit down and do it.  I remember a motto that went around for a couple years that I think was started in the Mormon culture by President Spencer W. Kimball.  It is a good motto to have and I need to get my self in gear and "Do It"!  So here we go.

I'm pretty sure I already talked about Swiss Days.  But I will check back later and make sure that I did because that was a very fun day spent with Annie, Mallory and Hayley and then having lunch with Susan.

My next adventure was being invited up to Judy and Ron's cabin in Scofield for three days.  First time Neal has been up there because of his fall and hip healing.  We had a good time and relaxing.  Judy and Ron introduced us to a new game call Play Nine.  It is a silly game but a fun one and doesn't require a lot of head scratching trying to figure it out.  We played in a number of times and I decided to get Mallory to order it for me on Amazon.  Thinking I may give one to each family.  It is a great family game.

We usually just play bridge and nothing else because Judy does not like other games but she was willing to play this one a couple times and we had a great time with it.

We were in Scofield until Tuesday morning after Labor Day and then headed home to drop Neal off at the temple and then I picked up Sprout from the Pet Hotel.  He was and always is very happy to see his 'mommy' and be home again.

The next day, Neal and I went to St. Mark's and had a Calcium Scan of our arteries just to see how things looked and if there was any thing we need to be concerned or worried about.  We don't have the results back yet.  They should come this week.  They only let us in the room one at a time but I was able to sneak a picture of Neal just before the procedure.  

This is a picture of Sprout cuddled up next to Neal the morning we got back from Scofield.  He certainly misses us when we are gone.

And we certainly miss this little guy.  He has become such a huge part of our lives.  He can be a pill as most puppies can, but we sure love him.