Back to it

Well, after all those big dramatic posts, its hard to just pick up again and tell you about the everyday things I want to tell you about. Its been a very busy summer with lots of guests and lots of fun. Maybe a little too much fun. It has been wonderful to see people and spend time but it has been alot. I figured it out and from the time that Layne arrived on January 10, until last Monday we either had company or were company for all that time except for a total of 5 weeks. And that stress - most of the times a good stress - has taken its toll. Last weekend when we dropped my friend's daughter back in Calgary and spent a few days shopping and doing Calgary things and then came home, we were alone at last. We've just been quietly doing our thing. When I looked at the forecast and saw that just this past weekend would likely be the last good hot days of the summer, Rhiannon, Drew and I went to the beach every day. Just the three of us (well, Eryn and Tyler showed up on Sunday but they don't count). Dean was in Canmore with Redfish in case you are wondering. My garden has suffered and I haven't put up as much food as I usually have by now. We're getting back into the groove. Here are some images from our fun and very (overly) full summer.

End of May girls at the beach. Shopping marathon for mother-of-the-bride dress. (Thanks again, Ronni! I really couldn't have done it without you!)













George the disable chicken brought in to die in peace ends up outliving all his compatriots and even survives the wedding. He eventually died with full bowls of food and water in front of him on the evening of July 21. Dean buried him and shed a few tears...












Lots of cousin time over the wedding













and after














Lots of walks with Iris... we still miss you!











































Rabbits for sale!

















Lots of rabbit babies













Fantastic August weather and New Denver here we come! Beautiful lake, good friends, good food, lots of music and lots of talking over card games. Perfect holiday!


























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Rabbit time and rabbit projects!


















Friends hanging out and doing all the summer things - parties, water slides, matinees and the beach!













Calgary time: shopping, Callaway and the Calgary Corn Maze:














































Fanciest dinner ever! Can you say carnivore heaven?














Driving back to BC in the rain....

So About Winnipeg

It was the perfect vacation, really. Lots of activity but at a good pace with enough downtime in between. Having the Okanagan Science Centre membership was really nice. It got us into the Children's Museum for free which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel so we could go hang out for an hour or two as we felt like it and didn't have to worry about making the most out of paying to go once, if you know what I mean. It also got us into the Science Gallery downstairs of the Manitoba Museum. We also went to the Museum and the Zoo which we got to use Rhiannon's homeschooling money to get into. We connected with some of Ronni's old friends and my midwife who attended Andrew's birth. We got a lot done in those few days. And of course, I did my fabric shopping. Not quite the same as when I left it 16 years ago but pretty darn good! Oh how I hate Fabricland and the fact that it is the only fabric store in Vernon... Eryn wanted to go in there today to look at a sale and I just couldn't believe it... fabric I had just seen for $8 a metre on for $25. If Mitchell's can make money for 60 years as a family owned store, why does Fabricland have to sell their fabric like it is made of gold? It takes all the fun out of sewing for me. I like to feel like I am making something better and unique AND it is a bargain, too - like my effort is worth something. I felt a little frustrated standing in Mitchells and looking around... so many things I would like to make, so many projects I could do if I had a fabric store like that in my city. The upholstery fabric.... the fancy fabrics, the unbleached cotton, the netting, the tablecloth material.... ah... sigh.... I was even a bit angry! Why aren't there better fabric stores in Vernon! (So, you bet, Sarah, if you moved there, I would definitely come and visit you! I'd come in February and we could go to the Festival du Voyageur together and I'll show you all my favourite places! And I'll come in the summer and we'll go to Lake Winnipeg!) As it was, the empty suitcase I brought with me was full of fabric on the way home. And there is a stack of inspiration upstairs in my sewing room!

The kids were great. It was so fun to be with Ronni and Megan. We just had a great time. I forgot the camera and Drew's was acting up so there are not a lot. But it was one of those times when I preferred just being there and in the moment instead of documenting the moment. There are many images in my mind of the kids playing and talking to each other, listening to each other, caring about each other and making it fun for one another.

And wow, it was something to be back there after all this time. I revisited my old self. I could remember so clearly how it was when I came there; my sense of adventure. And it was a great 3 years. It is hard to put into words - so many feelings and deep thoughts. Life is such a journey. We think we are going one way but we end up somewhere else. I can't imagine my life without Dean who is my rock and Rhiannon. And they were here in BC. I am a BC girl. I was born in Vancouver and have lived my whole life all over this province. I have lived in every region except the Peace. And I needed to come back. I just didn't really realize it at the time.

And I arrived here in Vernon 16 years ago June 1. After I had been here about 3 years, I almost left. A single mom of 3 kids at that point, I applied for a job in Qualicum Beach and was interviewed. While I was pondering if I would really move there if I was offered the job, I decided it was time to stop moving. I wanted to know what it was like to live in a place for more than 5 years (my previous record - 5 years in Terrace, even in the same house). So I stayed. Now this is my kids' hometown. Kaetlyn and Drew can't remember living anywhere else and Rhiannon hasn't.

I've come to realize that it is a real investment to live somewhere for 16 years. There is a huge and complex web that holds us here. It is something that I never got to experience as a kid. I think it is something to live in a community where there are people who have known you since you were a little kid. It connects you in ways that can't be simulated in any other way. Over the years I have done so many different things - counselled, employment counselling, free seminars, the Inner World School, volunteering for minor sports, window washing, homeschooled, schooled, that it is pretty hard to go anywhere and not see someone that I know somehow. At this point, it would take a lot to get me to leave. Not to mention the weather, the climate and the growing season. At this point, I can't imagine why I would ever leave!

Anyways, I have been slowly recovering from our vacation. Processing what it all meant to me. And feeling grateful for how it all works - beyond our puny consciousness. I needed to go to Winnipeg. And then I needed to come back. And here I still am 16 years later.

Whip-an-egg

I'm in Winnipeg right now. Still operating on BC time, though so I am awake and everyone else is still sleeping so I am here blogging. Ronni and I concocted this trip last summer when I visited her in Calgary for some fun non-kid time. We met and became friends here and neither of us has been back here in a very long time. She left almost a year before me for another teaching position at another University.

I came to Winnipeg in 1991. Kaetlyn was a babe in arms. I had just graduated from University and I wanted to see more of Canada. And I wanted to be out of reach of a certain troublesome person from my past. So we packed up and left beautiful Sidney for this prairie town. It was a decision conceived of and executed within days. It was an adventure.

And I loved Winnipeg. The people, the city, the culture (the ballet!). It was a time of huge growth for me. I did my first counselling for a women's group. I started to really become myself. Its what you do in your 20's I think. I started homeschooling here and I had Andrew at home with an amazing midwife. And I left the church. All that in a space of just less than 3 years. We left just as suddenly in the spring of 1994. Andrew now a babe in arms. Another hasty decision.

Hard times followed and everything changed again. Bitterly hard times followed when I lost almost everything. And emerged much wiser and with greater understanding of myself.

Standing here is like visiting my other life. A life that started before I came here, flourished here and then petered out to nothing. My life is so different now that it is hard to find the threads that are stitched through them both. They are there, of course. It is like seeds planted when I was here are the trees in my life now. I had no idea at the time how it would all turn out.

A rather dull and philosophic post, I suppose. But it is what I am thinking about. What could have been. What was. What is. It is a wonderful city. So many things I have missed about this area.

It is so fun to be here with Ronni and Megan and Andrew and Rhiannon. It is just so easy to be together. Andrew, Rhiannon and Meg - all 'onlies' or 'babies' of the family to some extent are all so secure that the world revolves around them that there is no jostling for position. Andrew remembers how to play and Meg and Rhiannon are old enough these days that there are actually lots of things that they enjoy together. It just flows. The time together is easy. Its a magical time. All too soon these times will be memories. Our daughters will be teenagers and Andrew will be grown up. Times to hang on to.

What I love most about these vacation times is to watch my children together - with no other distractions, they play with each other. I see the love and affection they have for each other and it warms the cockles of my mother's heart. These little stolen moments out of everyday life that give me the chance to see that when you strip all the extraneous stuff away, what is there - what is true - is the love they have for each other. Andrew's kindness to the younger girls. Their adoration of him. Laughing. Goofing. Fun.

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Broadcast....

So, my reflections about my Northern visit were this: Prince George looks the same as it always does. I can still find my way around everywhere. It does look a little worn down. Roads are not very well taken care of and building needing fresh paint. I loved how much the same my Aunt's house was. My family moved a lot so it is nice to have that touchstone in my life.

When I went through Smithers 9 years ago (the last time I was up there), it seemed virtually unchanged from when I had lived there 16 years previously. This time it had changed. Businesses had spread to the other side of the highway. It seemed 3x bigger. The main downtown still had that cute Bavarian theme thing going on but the new stuff was mostly urban sprawl. Still it was good to see Smithers thriving.

Now Terrace seemed very depressed. When I was growing up, there were 4 mills right in downtown. When I returned 9 years ago, there were 2. Now there were none. Half of the shops in downtown and the mall were empty. Disappointingly there was now a WalMart on the edge of town. But something that I really noticed was that the aboriginal population was much more prominent. Of course there have always been a lot of Natives in Terrace. But when I was growing up, it was still reeling from the fall out of the residential schools. I knew adults less than 10 years older than me who had experienced the horrors of these residential schools. I have heard stories first hand about how they were rounded up without even a chance to say good bye to their families, how they were treated like animals and worse. When I was growing up, there really were alot of Natives with alcohol problems. You really would see them lying around, their houses and yards a mess. This time, I could see that there has been a lot of healing from that. In fact, I hardly saw any white people. It seems that the First Nations up there are reclaiming their traditional lands, are succeeding in business, are thriving. I noticed in Burns Lake as we drove through. You could still see the outline of where the letters used to be for Lake District Secondary School. Instead were new lettering in some aboriginal language with an English translation underneath "community gathering place". Somehow I felt heartened by that.

It seemed a lot more different this time than it did 9 years ago. Although then it had been 16 years since I lived there and 10 years since I had been back, it was like stepping back in time. This time, time had moved on. It was different. Better and worse in different ways. And as much as my soul longs to see those places and smell those smells and feel the vibe up there, it was so obvious that you can never go home. Sometimes I wish I had never left but I don't really wish to go back. And I reflected a lot on the effects of moving so often as a child and what as a result I have tried to do by living here in Vernon. I have wanted my children to have what I didn't - to grow up in a place. To have people know them their whole lives. I have lived in Vernon here for 14 years. That is a big investment. It is a grounding force that keeps me here. The sunshine and the lakes and the growing climate and the ski hills all help. I like it that my children can be hanging at the skate park and be pretty sure that someone who knows their mother will likely see them... I think it helps to hold them in place to know that there are people who know them and care about them who notice them in the community.

The end result? I really have to visit up North more often. I miss it so much, I need to get my fix a little closer together than 9 years.... And I love where I live and I'm not going anywhere.

Trip Reflections Part Three - Further West

The next morning we took it easy. I am always the first one up so I took the dogs and my journal to the beach. We were the only ones there except for the geese. I even found a wee patch of grass that wasn't covered in goose poop to sit on in the sun and write. Look at that? Isn't that a serene morning?







Kaetlyn wanted to see Terrace but Dean and Drew had had enough driving. So they hung out at Tyhee Lake and us girls headed another 2 hours Southwest. We stopped at all the spots. First one was Moricetown, just outside of Smithers. We got to watch some aboriginal fishermen catch salmon using only hand nets. Rhiannon walked down and put her hands in the Bulkley River. She put her hands in two of BC's great rivers on this trip.


It was a perfect day for a full view of the Seven Sisters.

And here is my first glimpse of the Skeena after 9 years...






Once we hit Terrace, first stop was here. The house I spent most of my teenage years in. The front yard used to be full of trees and shrubs and there were lots of flower beds. There are still 2 of the 4 cherry trees in the backyard.... and it is still white and green....

I went to see my jr high but it has been torn town. A new, very glamorous jr high now sits where the parking lot used to. They let me in to look around. Rhiannon and I walked on those same old streets that still looked the same!

We explored downtown to discover at least half of the stores empty, had ice cream and headed back to Smithers. Mission accomplished.
What was always spectacular about Terrace was not the shopping, anyways. It was the scenery - at the junction of 3 rivers (Nass, Kalum and Skeena) and with mountains on every side, it was green and majestic. I always felt so cradled, so safe inside that valley. Here is the view of two directions. I always remember it as beautiful there but every time I go back, I am in awe all over again at just how incredibly beautiful that spot is. It is easy to understand why the Tsiampsian have lived there for time immemorial.

The next morning we packed up again and headed toward home. Stopped in PG long enough to set off my Aunt's alarm and talk to the alarm company and the police.... We ended up in William's Lake for the night and ate delicious chicken at Bethany's place. We collected my youngest sister, Amy and squeezed into our van for the last stretch home. It got hotter and hotter as we got closer.

Trip Reflections Part Two - Further North

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and packed up and headed North to Prince George. After all these years, I still knew how to drive straight to my Aunt's house who lives in the same place she has since I was 5 or 6. And she keeps things in the same place, too. She doesn't like to change. So that was fun to still find the phone book in the same place after almost 40 years! There were a few changes, though and I made sure she knew I noticed! Auntie Heather was leaving the next day for Nanaimo so after lunch and some visiting, I took my kids on somewhat of a PG retrospective while she packed. I mean in grade 1 in PG, I went to 3 different schools. We moved ALOT! It would have taken a week to show them everything. So we did the highlights. First stop was 910 Gillette where Laura was born and then I zipped around the corner to find my childhood friend's parents in the house I left them in 25 years ago. We stopped and visited for about an hour and a half and was well hugged and reminded of how well loved I have been in my life. They were my home away from home. Even when we lived in Terrace, when I came into town, I was dropped off there on our way into PG.

Then it was over to Fir Street and Miller Addition and Fort George Park. Rhiannon sat in the old fire engine in the driver seat where me and my brothers sat before her. And we walked along the edge of the mighty Fraser which was looking rather lovely that evening, I will have to admit. Rhiannon and Dean went down to a little beach and Rhiannon put her hands in the Fraser and collected some river rocks. Kaetlyn took some great pics but she hasn't downloaded them yet. All that was left of the old fort was one tower.

After a swing buy the church I helped to build, we were back at my Aunt's for a BBQ with my cousin Bonnie and her husband, Mike. There were hamburgers and chips and some Portuguese golf and then it started to rain. And it rained and poured and we were snug inside my Aunt's house. After dinner, there was a very golden, dramatic sunset complete with 2 full rainbows. I drove them out to our house off of North Kelly - the last place we lived in PG when I was 17 - the house I left home from. And I talked about Jordan's dog, Cooter who was my walking companion and drove where I used to walk - up to Ferguson Lake which is now a preserve. And the sunset was spectacular and they really got to see PG at its best!

The next morning we packed up. Uncle Dennis improved on my packing system by strapping the food box and a cooler to the roof in true Uncle Dennis fashion, and admonished me not to go faster than 70 miles an hour with that stuff on top. Then we headed Northwest to Lake Tyhee in Telkwa just beside Smithers. We stopped in Houston for the traditional ice cream at the Husky station only to find it boarded up... How could they do that in the 9 years since the last time I was there?! We arrived by 3pm and had all our tents set up in record time so we could make K'San before it closed. In my memory, Hazelton was a mere 5 minutes away from Smithers. Turns out it is an hour drive...

K'San was great. It was raining when we got there and the weather was very moody and dramatic. Here is Stekyaden whose peak dominates the Hazeltons and K'San. And here is the Bulkley River has it flows the last few kilometres before flowing into the Skeena.














The moody sky and a view of a canyon that starts with H and I won't even try to spell...














And then back at our campsite, not a drop fell. It was a beautiful evening.

Trip Reflections Part One - Barkerville

I should have taken a picture of the loaded van as we left. Most people think that there is no way I could get all that stuff and the 5 of us into our minivan. Dean says of my packing "She believes anything is possible". It is true that I am a wizard of cramming stuff into our van... But I must say that it would all work better if my children were amputees. Those darn legs are such a nuisance. And I pack stuff into every conceivable place. How we got the two dogs in as well, is one of life's mysteries. We were aiming to leave at 6am but when I went to bed at 4am after finishing cleaning the living room where our housesitter would be sleeping, I knew that plan was not very practical... I woke up at 8am and we were out of here by 10am. We were supposed to meet my twin sisters and a husband at Barkerville for dinner that first night but being Clarkes as we are, we missed each other. Too bad, those were really excellent greek pork chops we brought, Bean!

The next day we were rather tired but we spent most of the day wandering around Barkerville. Then we all went back to the campsite and had naps before dinner. I loved that it was still so much the same as it was when I was a child. They brag that they haven't changed their displays in the 50 years since it opened (1958).

I especially remember this one - the "painless tooth extraction".
Kaetlyn and Drew explored together for most of the morning.








Rhiannon and I sat down a lot. Here she is in front of the last person who lived in Barkerville fulltime until he died in 1979. He was an active gold miner.

Dean and Rhiannon went for a stage coach ride together.











Drew claimed to be exhausted and Kaetlyn and I left him sitting on a bench to browse the jewelry store. The next thing we know, he passes us with 3! girls - all of them dressed in Chinese clothes!

Rhiannon's favourite part was the lesson she attended in the old schoolhouse.


We had spectacular Caribou weather. Sunny and cloudy in the low 20's and only a wee light sprinkling of rain one afternoon. The campsite (Lowhee) was beautiful and the people were friendly. Blueberries were growing everywhere. A good start to our holiday!

Why I have such a great appreciation for Okanagan weather....

It seems my children will really get to see what summers in Northern BC were like. Rain is forcasted for everyday we are away. Every time I check the environment Canada website, the forcast is worse! At last check, a high of 14 degrees forcasted for Monday in Smithers.... hmmm, going to go pack another fleece...

Summer Tripping

The place is a frenzy these days as we prepare to leave on our summer holidays. This will be the longest trek we have ever made as a family. And counter-intuitively, we are heading North. North to where I grew up - to show my children the places that were so formative to me. The first night we will be in Barkerville for two nights where we will also hook up with my sister (and blog design guru) Bethany and her husband. Then we will head to Prince George where I spent 7 years of my childhood and stay at my Aunt's house who still lives in the same house she did while I was growing up. Here I will show my children where I learned to ride a bike and to skate, where I went to kindergarten in a church before kindergarten was compulsory and part of the school system. Where I went for long walks with my brother, Jordan's dog. Where I used to walk home from school in the dark at 3pm. Then we are heading to Smithers where we are camping at Lake Tyee for 2 nights and visiting the village of K'san. I only lived outside of Smithers for 6 months but it had a profound effect on me. We lived on 10 acres beside the Bulkley River which is as beautiful as the Fraser is ugly (Oh, c'mon, it is mighty and awesome but it is the colour of mud from start to finish!) I had few friends and spent hours walking around in the wilderness outside my door. And the summer before we moved there as a family, I lived there and worked for RSF Energy as my dad's sales secretary. During the week I lived in a cabin that Swiss settlers had built in the middle of a hay field. After work, I helped the family cut the hay, winnow it and pitch it onto a hay wagon. I drove a 1938 tractor and helped in every part of the haying. I remember stomping down the hay in my black circle calico skirt that my grandma has sewed for me with the scratchy hay on my bare legs. I was 17 while staying in the cabin and living on yoghurt, fresh whole grain bread and carrots out of the garden with no windows and no electricity, at the foot of those awesome mountains that remind the Swiss of the Alps, I wrote this poem to try to express the wonder and the awe and how deeply spiritually moved I was by this majestic natural landscape:

A Witness

Here in this land where cloud lies heavy
Between the mountains trapped in cold,
Here where nature's friends are more than man,
We breathe a testimony to God.
Mountains rise with unmistakable power
Of a head held high.
Even the most self risen man
Is humbled in their presence.
To look upon their blue and noble towers,
Thrusting above a clearing of waving hay
Wrapped in the peaceful soliloquy
Of a bird's hymn,
Is to look upon a witness
And feel that knowing
Strong inside your breast --
God is nigh.
God is love.
Without words or eloquent hymns,
God is real.
No man can rebut --
God lives.

We'll make a day trip into Terrace where I spent my teen age years.

When I think of going North to those places that I love so much, I can hardly breathe. A piece of my heart has been there ever since. Those Northern, wild places I grew up made me who I am. I miss them everyday. If only they weren't so economically depressed and could grow canteloupes and peppers there.... Anytime I go back, I have a hard time leaving. It's been 9 years since I was back there.

July 7, 2008

I am 43 today! It couldn't have been more perfect. A morning spent with a friend, lunch with friends and our children. I ran once around the oval at Polson Park. (yes! ran!) and even had the courage for the first time in 7 years to run full out. It wasn't very fast but I ran. Weeding, cleaning and tea at my house and the most amazing cake I have ever had made with love by a loving friend and ate with good friends.

Then supper down at my favourite beach with all 5 of my favourite people in the entire world who were feeling good and taking silly pictures of each other. We ate sandwiches and chips and watched the sun go down. Rhiannon swam and I floated along on my tube looking up at the trees and the blue, blue sky. You know, that is one of the things I love about my birthday here in the Okanagan - it is almost always sunny. Previously to moving here, it rained on my birthday every year. And I mean every single year without fail, wherever I lived, it rained on July 7.

Hey look, someone even remembered to take a picture of me without me asking them to!
















Kaetlyn made me another cake - my traditional fare - cake with strawberries and whipped cream. She got all organic stuff. She knows me, my girl! Andrew arranged the candles in roman numerals for 43 (maybe he isn't illiterate after all...)






For me my birthday is always very significant. It is a time to assess what I have accomplished in the year and where I want to go next. A time to write in my journal and ponder what it all means. A time to surround myself with those I love and who love me. A time to clean out dusty cupboards in my mind and in my life. It was a great day!

Fieldtrip in Reflection

Day One:

It was Erin's day off from work to spend with us. We started with 2 hours at the Science Centre.



















And then walked through Chinatown and went for lunch.



















And after making an obligatory appearance at Erin's work to be introduced and buy some jeans, we had supper at a vegetarian hot spot, The Foundation.

And because we walked to almost all of those places at Erin's breakneck speed, after that, we crashed and were asleep before 9pm. But my heart was filled up. It was so fun to be in Erin's space and to have her with us for the day on our adventure. I was in heaven to have my kids around me, laughing, having fun in the sunshine in beautiful Vancouver.













Day Two:

Still rather exhausted from the first frenetic day, and after hitting the speciality BMX store to buy long planned bike parts, (and it was right beside MEC, so I finally bought myself a cushy seat for my bike) we took the bus to the Museum of Anthropology.


Cedar boxes... somehow it was heartbreaking to see these beautiful and useful boxes here... in a museum and I think of them being taken or bought from the people who made them or used them or who had died of the plagues the white people brought...

Rhiannon was excited to see this carving of the Waasco that we just finished reading about. This is a contemporary carving by Haida artist, Bill Reid. The Waasco is a supernatural monster that has the body of a wolf and the fins of a killer whale and is so huge that it carries a killer whale in his tale, with his front paws and in his mouth.



And here, an eerie mask from the Treasures of the Tsiampsian exhibit which was amazing but not very big. I am so glad we got a chance to see it!


An incredible carving of Bill Reid's illustrating the Haida creation myth (man hatching from a clam shell goaded by Raven, the trickster






Then we took the bus to the Vancouver Art Gallery to meet Laura. Unfortunately the Emily Carr exhibit was closed to change it but the Pictorial one was very interesting and the Tree one was fun, too. Then it was out for dinner for her birthday as we wandered all over downtown looking for the right kind of place. We found it - an all you can eat Japanese place. Very good food! I was stuffed until dinner the next night!

Day Three:

After 2 very busy days, we headed over to my brother, Jordan's house to hang with my nieces, talk homeschooling with their mom and chill. Rhiannon and I managed to squeeze in one more visit to Science World before going.


Here's Sweet Baby Jane in the hat I made her. I got to read her lots of stories and accept lots of toys from her generous hands.










Day Four:

The highlight was the Peter Pan Ballet dress rehearsal that we had tickets to. We took the bus and skytrain downtown.
Here are two gorgeous girls dressed up for the ballet on the skytrain. Although Maria was soooo disappointed when she found out that she was going to have to watch the ballet instead of be IN it! She had her heart set on being Tinkerbell.














Then it was over to grandma and grandpa's house for spaghetti and time to hang with other cousins. Can't you tell these two handsome, tall guys are cousins?!















Day Five:
A slower paced day to hang at the park and spend some time with my brother and to make Maria her hat. Drew got to hang with Grandpa and work on setting up his shop which Andrew said was his favourite part of his trip.

And here is us saying good bye. It was so fun getting to spend time with Jordan and his family and getting a chance to bond with my nieces. And Tracy is the Queen of breakfast! We were really spoiled. We headed for the bus for our trip home. At the bus depot, we met my brother Doug and added four of his (7) kids to our entourage who are here to visit for the next 2 weeks while their parents find a new house and pack up and move. So on to our next adventure - two weeks with Madelaine (10), Caleb (9), Mary (5) and Gabriel (3).