More About the Fall

I am glad to see the 'Stretched and Ripped Off' a ways away now. It was a challenging summer in some ways and the summer left abruptly, much sooner than it should have, that's for sure! But we made plans to make up for our missing holiday. We bought a new van - a Toyota Previa, which I am in-love with. And the next day we loaded it up with a huge turkey, a huge leg of lamb, pumpkin, tomatoes, bike and suitcases and headed down to Nanaimo to my sister Katie's place for an extended Thanksgiving.

Let me tell you, Katie and Brent are great guests but they are even better hosts! The weather cooperated. In Vernon it was sunny and + 20 degrees leading up to our holiday. When we drove out of town on a Wednesday afternoon, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We stayed at Doug's in Mission that night and caught the 10am ferry the next morning. There were dolphins or porpoises leaping and doing flips in Horseshoe Bay. It was misty but the sun was peeking through every now and then. I loved smelling the sea air again. Andrew and I spent most of the time outside on the decks.

So we got to Katies around noon on Thursday. The weather in Nanaimo was pretty good, too. There was some rain, of course but that didn't stop us from enjoying time outside. There was glorious sunshine, too. Katie and Brent got right into the summer holiday mood. N and M took Friday off of school and Brent even took the day off of work. We went to Coombs and snooped around the shops, ate handfulls of bread and icecream, even though it was kind of cold. We stopped in Parksville briefly on the way home and I got some yarn and a not-as-good-as-expected yarn store to make Elizabeth a toque. It was super windy at the beach but we hung out for a little while.

Laura came that night and we had Basil's tasty leg which Brent cooked to extreme perfection - pretty good for the first time cooking lamb! It was all soooo good! Saturday we hiked around Piper's Lagoon in the rain. Laura has posted some awesome pics here (we left our camera on the table at home...). And the next day just Laura, Katie and I hung out at Sugar Loaf which I had never been to before. The turkey was fantastic, of course. Brent was involved, after all. I made a pumpkin pie from my pumpkin - two actually in pie crusts that Sarah had left behind. I made it with one of my french cooking pumpkins - a Galeux d'Eysines to be exact. It is the same as these but mine are a paler orange and not as warty with wonderfully textured, thick flesh.

Dean watched a lot of imax on Brent's surround sound and ate a lot of bacon that Brent cooked up and layed around reading his book. Rhiannon disappeared into her cousins' bedroom and surfaced occasionally to play wii. Drew tried out the skate park that was close to Katie's place, read his book, helped Brent make popcorn, watched girl movies with us and slept alot.

It was just an awesome visit. I am so blessed to have such great sisters and this great sister in particular. It was exactly what I needed. We stayed up late talking and watching movies that no one in my family would ever watch with me and laughing and laughing and laughing about the past, about each other, about other silly things. It was just so good. I went home feeling grateful and filled up and not ripped off at all.

Catching Up Part 2

Well, Sarah and co. arrived on Friday. On Tuesday the next wave arrived. First my sister Bethany with husband Ben and baby Owen arrived. Later in the evening my sister Katie with husband Brent and M, N and E arrived. It was a full house. Sarah had Kaetlyn's room as her suite. Now Andrew's room became Katie's suite with the girls in Rhiannon's bunk house. Bethany and Ben staked out the living room and Andrew good naturedly slept on the lazy boy in Dean's dungeon office.

It was so fun. We went for sisters midnight swim at Kal beach on the first night - it was scorching hot. Brent made supper and Ben and Brent made breakfast. I tell you, I have to have Brent come more often! He can cook for me anytime! We managed now to make to Juniper Bay which everyone loved except Brent who sat in his chair in jeans and a shirt. Juniper Bay is my favourite beach. Uncle Ben is always a huge hit with his nieces and he certainly lived up to his reputation at the beach!

I actually have no pictures of this time. I think I was just too busy to even pick up the camera. I loved having so many sisters here. There is nothing like having sisters in your house. I feel sorry for everyone who doesn't have 6 sisters. When my brothers come (mainly Jordan and Layne) I get to pamper them and make nice food and they sit back and enjoy. I like to pamper my sisters, too, but they pitch in and we share the kitchen. Bethany even managed to make a cheesecake. And I sewed up Katie's shorts. It was just so fun to be in my big kitchen with my sisters. It just was.

Eryn managed to make it over 2 nights for dinner and Kaetlyn came once. It just seemed there was always talking and doing and babies being passed around. And Brent and Ben were very good sports. And Dean? Well, remembering that in the 12 years we have been together, he has had 2 family get togethers and even if everyone of his extended family managed to make it, it would be only 11 other people - 17 counting us. There were now a total of 15 people staying in our house. Dean was having a rather low profile. He spent time in his office in the basement; he visited his parents; he was a little overwhelmed but a good sport nonetheless.

And that takes us up to Thursday morning...

Catching Up Part 1

SARAH'S VISIT

It has truly been a summer of Clarkes. It started a week before the family reunion that was scheduled for July 24 - 27 in the group camping at Fintry with the arrival of Sarah and her two boys. We had a little time to ourselves before more Clarkes arrived.

I noticed in uploading these pictures that there are A LOT of pictures of Adriel who was super cute and loved spending time with me - the sure way to an Auntie's heart. And somehow there are only a couple of super-cute-Sloan and none of me and Sarah together...sigh...

Here is Adriel in the chicken coop where he found an egg on the ground. He loved getting up early each morning and helping me to feed the chickens. Especially picking 'weedies' (which sounded a lot like "Wheaties") to give to all the animals...





Every day we went to the beach - usually Kal beach which is a good beach to go to when you have small children and you are going for a short time.







Here's Adriel in Rhiannon's goggles...













He didn't like to have sand in his shorts....

















And here is my gorgeous sister in her hot new bathing suit hiding in the water. (silly girl!) We all had a lot of fun at the beach - even Sloan.














Besides spraying things with my hose and making mud holes for the car Drew lent him to get stuck in, this was his favourite thing to do - drive Rhiannon's little battery operated car.




He even took Sloan for a ride. I love this picture of Sloan's chubby arm hanging onto his big brother as he drives him around. I think Sloan is at a stage of absolutely perfect chub-ness - the kind that makes you want to gobble him up!

It was so much fun to spend that time with Sarah, Adriel and Sloan. I seem to have 'the touch' with Sloan and I can usually get him to stop crying unless he is starving to death - in which case, I just don't cut it - my equipment is long past its due date... It was just so easy to be together and 'hang out'. Sarah wanted to make sure she got to eat the good food that others have blogged about on their visits. I think we got most of it made and eaten. And we made it to the ice cream parlour where we like to take guests - the Garden Parlour where they make all their own ice cream on site - soooo good!

My Sister is an Amazing Photographer

My sister Laura is an amazing photographer. Her blog is always full of great pictures. Lately she is into doing portraits and she has some really great ones. Her latest subjects are our parents. I stole some of my favourites but for the full effect go here.


When I see this one, I can see how some people think I look like my mother.











I think these series of pictures not only are great photos, they capture more than just my parents. I think they capture my sister's relationship with them as well and her goofy, quirky way of being with them. There is no artifice in their poses. There is genuine affection. Not just for each other but for her as well.

Now I've got to pick one to get as an 8x10 for my wall... so hard to choose!
























And this is the perfect one to finish with. This is so typically dad that I can hear, without any effort, the sounds he is making, as well!

Girls Weekend

editted to add that you can now see great pictures on Laura's blog here.

Well, I forgot my camera and no one else has posted pictures yet so I can't steal some for you. Girls Weekend happened. We left here right on time, Erin, Rhiannon and I, at 12:15. We drove without too much incident and my Dad's directions turned out to be pretty good so we pulled into my parents place just around 6. Everyone else started to arrive at pretty much the same time. Pretty soon the place was packed full of girls and babies and the fun began.

The food was fantastic - we took turns making meals, so each one was a feast. We took our largest chicken (9.9 lbs), Erin made a chocolate mousse torte from the Rebar Cookbook and Amy made yam fries and we had a yummy salad with "Little Creek" dressing from the Okanagan.

Friday afternoon we started with the crafting for those who were interested. We worked on Bethany's baby quilt and a rag quilt for Adriel (I'm waiting for that picture, Sarah!) and finishing the binding on Katie's "I Spy" quilt for Elizabeth. So there was lots of cutting and sewing. Thank goodness my aunt Mina was there or I am sure we would not have been able to finish.

Saturday morning was Rhiannon's favourite time. We went to the bird sanctuary in Ladner. We got to see some sandhill cranes which was pretty amazing and a different kind of heron and lots of different kinds of ducks and some hissing canada geese. Her favourite part, though was playing in the bird blinds with her cousins. They were pretending that they kept moving to bigger and better homes...heh.

I got to see my cousin I was very close to growing up. She came with her sister and mother for an afternoon visit. We went to BYU together and I hadn't seen her in years - around 20, I think. It was a happy, if brief, reunion.

Amazingly all the quilts got finished and some movies got watched while babies got held, food got made and the the kitchen got cleaned. We had about 25 people there for most of the time. I even made it to that yarn store in Steveston where Amy picked out some yarn for a hat. It was a very nice yarn store, I have to say but I think Art of Yarn in Kelowna is a close rival. I forgot to look for more yarn, though, to match the gorgeous yarn that Laura gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I had one adventure that involved going out to buy some peppers and ended up in me getting lost and crossing both the Queensboro and Alex Fraser bridges as I tried to return the few blocks to my parents place.... I still maintain that Vancouver is one of the poorest marked cities in North America!

We left Sunday morning, picked up a load of Erin's stuff from my brother's garage and made it home just after 3pm with a niece in tow for a week's visit. I am filled up with sister loving, mad quilting and good food. I am still tired! I try to think of what was the highlight for me, but I can't. Would it be the first night sleeping on an air mattress with my oldest daughter? Seeing her dark head beside me on a pillow? Was it holding my youngest nephew (3 weeks old) and having him fall asleep in my arms? Was it Carmen who so charmingly kept insisting for me to teach her how to knit? Was it hardly seeing Rhiannon as she was completely involved in many kinds of play with her cousins? It would probably be just being there with my sisters, laughing, talking, comparing boobs... a time worth having, that's for sure!

It All Evens Out In the End

I grew up with brothers. Lots of them. I am the firstborn in my family but at the tender age of 14 months, I got a brother. 20 months after that I got another one. Two years after that, I got another one. A handsome bunch I'm sure you will agree. But let me tell you... THREE brothers... That's enough for a tribe. A tribe I did not belong to. Sometimes I felt it was their tribal duty to torture me! Ah, don't get me wrong, I gave as good as I got and I love to tell Doug's kids the stories of the gross things he did as a kid.... And there were times that we got along... honest! But I yearned for a sister. A lot. I prayed and prayed and prayed for a sister. Every night. For years. When Layne (brother #3) was born, I was furious. Okay, turns out he is a great brother. But still...

The prayers began to pay off. I got my first sister just after my 7th birthday. And less than two years later I got another. So here in this picture at 12, I had 2 cute sisters. (and another brother, not shown)

Just before I left home for University, my parents had their 10th child - another sister. Things had finally evened out. There were 5 girls and 5 boys in my family. When I was 18 I had 4 sisters - Katie, age 11, Larua, age 9, Martha age 4 and Sarah who was a newborn. We didn't really get to swap clothes or have girls movie nights or talk about boys together.

Later, when I was almost 21 and 3 months pregnant with my own first daughter, my mom gave birth to twins - the last of our bunch - 2 girls. So the score settled at 7 girls and 5 boys. My younger sisters got to grow up amongst lots of sisters. I think they can thank my years of nightly prayers for that!

Now sometime when I was a 'too-cool' teenager, my mother instituted 'girls week-end' when our father and brothers were all gone for 'father-and-son-campouts'. I don't remember much of these first girls week ends, unfortunately - being so cool and so much older than my sisters. But girls week end went on after I left. Getting better and better, or so I have heard because I haven't been to one since I left home.

So today, I am packing. And my oldest and youngest daughters are packing. There is a frozen chocolate mousse torte that Erin made that we are packing, too. Along with all my knitting and crocheting stuff, and stuff to make lip balm and stuff for wearing to the bird sanctuary. We are heading to a girls week end tomorrow around noon at my mother's house. 5 of my 6 sisters will be there and 3 of my 4 sisters-in-law and many of my nieces and a cousin and aunt or two. Movies, good food and sisters.... I can tell you that it was worth it - all those years of praying! I think I have this coming, don't you?

I Lost Track of the Date...

Darn! I had this post planned for a loooong time! And then I lost track of the date and had some stuff to deal with with Kaetlyn and Drew's dad and wasn't in the mood. But 34 years ago, a most amazing thing happened to me.

As I have already talked about my fate of having 3 brothers are regular intervals right after me. By age 7, my mom was pregnant and I was surrounded by slobbery, farting brothers. (You do know that the now-dignified Doug and John used to have farting contests and would eat things on purpose to have the most and the stinkiest farts - and they would do this while we were travelling in an enclosed vehicle. Yes, it is true!) I had been praying for years for a sister. Two years earlier I had got my third brother instead of my hoped-for-sister.

But on August 22, 1972 while I was staying at my friend, Lin Huber's house and sleeping in their tent trailer, my dad called to wake me up at 2 in the morning or so and tell me that I finally got my baby sister.

In those days, hospitals didn't allow siblings to visit but my dad got me home a day early from my friend's and brought me with him to pick up my mom from the hospital. I remember the Sunday morning and waiting outside the church in PG for my dad who was in priesthood meeting (back in the day that priesthood meeting was before church on Sundays). I remember catching a grasshopper and letting it jump through my hands in the warm morning light. I remember getting to hold her for the first time and my awe and excitement to have my little sister. We went to lunch at the Red Lion in PG. My parents making an exception for a Sunday to celebrate their second daughter. So much of those days is so clear in my memory because it was so significant to me. And look at her! Isn't she cute?


Katherine Louise - called Katie-Lou and now just Katie. Her first steps were running after our mom. I can remember that day, too - in our house on Fir St in PG. And she was like that. So detirmined with a strong will. It was really difficult to get her to do anything that she didn't want to do. And you should have seen those curls shake when she was mad! We shared a room for several years and she used to wake me, calling "Aya, Aya, Up!" Until I got up at 6am and lifted her out of her crib. I remember her jumping to me from the stairs in our 910 Gillette house.

And she grew up to be such a smart and amazing and incredibly beautiful woman. She is the kind of woman who trains for marathons and runs them. When she makes up her mind to accomplish something, you can be sure that it will happen! I am so proud of my little sister. And still so grateful that I got to have the priviledge of being her sister. And she was deffinitely worth waiting 7 years and 3 brothers for! Kaetlyn is named for her. So, Happy Birthday, Katie! Sorry it's late!