Elementary my dear Watson...

Last weekend we had a fabulous time in Ottawa visiting Daniel and Carlynne. Besides the obvious point of the visit (to see THEM), the weekend included three general themes:

1. Puppy Watson
2. Skating the Rideau Canal (and devouring BEAVER TAILS)
3. Daniel's birthday

1. Let's start with WATSON. He's an adorable 3-month old golden doodle, and pictures do NOT do his cuteness justice! Lowell and I were simply not prepared for just how tiny and ADORABLE he was. Just a bouncy little ball of fluff!

After we left the swings, a lone man in his 30s hopped on for a little ride. Watson was fascinated (as were we)...
Watson's half brother Rupert also came for a visit. He's very book-smart...

2. Skating the Rideau Canal! 6.5 kms of the canal was open, so we skated from start to finish and then back again. There were several Beaver Tail stands along the way which was a beautiful thing.

For you non-Canadians... Beaver Tails are a DELECTABLE Canadian treat (and not actually made from the tails of beavers)!

3. Daniel's Birthday! Putting together his birthday breakfast was a group effort (honest!), but Daniel WAS the one to make his own birthday eggs and sausage. At least he looks happy doing it...right?

He is 29 years young and he and the wifey are looking hot as ever if I do say so myself (PS- ten years later and Carlynne is still wearing her grade 12 grad dress!!)!

The weekend went by FAR too fast, and now we're back to real life. FUN FUN!

2010 in Pictures (and some words too)

2010 was a pretty big year for Lowell and me!

February: we got possession of our new house... and then continued to pour hours and hours of love and attention ( plus 70 zillion gallons of paint) into it...

March: BABIES!!

Lowell's sister, Lori, had TWINS Evelyn and Lynelle...

Aaaand the first G grandchild was born: Tyrn James the Great!

May: puppy Kumeu became part of our little family (and we proceeded to take several thousand pictures of him)...

June: We said good-bye to our long time G family vehicle... 'the van'

July: Lowell completed his masters of counseling psychology (!!!!) AND we completed our insane basement renovation!

August: FAMILY PHOTOS... with BOTH families!

The Gs...

The Ts...Also, we made all sorts of delicious goodies out of our very own cherries. I see many more cherry treats in our future.

September: Lowell declared legally blind status... I'd say that was pretty pivotal. We also went to Vancouver to resume his eye treatments (which turned out to be pretty darn encouraging!)

October: Hack job...

November: Movember. Yech.

December: AMAZING Hawaii vacay with the G fam...

Also December: Throughout the whole year we have reconnected with old friends, made new friends, and generally have felt SO BLESSED by all the amazing friendships we have. One friend in particular- Duane- demonstrated his amazing selflessness and love by living like Lowell for two weeks to raise money for Lowell's extremely pricey eye treatments. More on this to come another day...

One last thing for December: LOWELL GOT A JOB!! He didn't START in 2010, but on Christmas Eve he was hired as a University counselor. Merry Christmas to US!
He may be a career man now, but let's not kid ourselves... he's still our goofy lovable Lowell!

Here's to an adventurous, eventful, and AMAZING 2011. It's gonna be a gooder... I can feel it in my BONES!