Friday, August 14, 2015

MAJOR Maxism 2015!

So last weekend was my GG's "Celebration of Life" and we had a nice program and everything went very well.  At the end, my sister was explaining all of the food we had for the reception--it was ALL of GG's favorites.  She was talking about her favorite cupcakes--some kind of strawberry/pineapple cupcakes--that my GG always called, "BTS--Better Than Sex" cupcakes.  Well, after the explanation and RIGHT before the closing prayer, Max yells out--"I know what my Dad is thinking...He is thinking that there is NOTHING better than sex!!!"

Oh....my....GOSH!!!  I can't remember the last time I turned that red!!!  Chris and I looked at each other and could have just crawled under the couch at that moment.  Thankfully it was a pretty relaxed program--a few cuss words and lots of crazy memories--that everyone just roared out with laughter!  Seriously...can't take that boy anywhere!  I'm sure GG had a good laugh:)  Thanks Max:)
This was a Max "selfie" I found on my phone:)

My Sweet Grandmother--Jane Ann Beal

My Grandmother passed away on Monday, July 13, 2015.  This was actually a very good thing.  She was ready for it.  She out-lived my grandpa, Pooka, by 17 years.  While we were visiting over the 4th of July, my grandmother was admitted into the hospital (from the nursing home) for pneumonia.  She passed away 9 days later peacefully in her sleep with my mom by her side.

Instead of a funeral, we held a "Celebration of Life" on Saturday, August 8th which would have been her 93rd birthday.  We had the best time telling stories of our "GG."  She was the PERFECT grandmother and we all pretty much had the same memories of her "magical" home.  Swimming/skinny-dipping, sourdough toast, rides in the mustangs, shopping followed by fashion shows, and just everything that made her GG.  My most favorite memory of her was when I was in high school and I played the oboe.  The oboe is a difficult instrument to tackle on your own and the closest oboe teacher to me was in Albuquerque, NM--which was a 4 hour drive from Deming.  My grandma came to Deming during the summer and she and I drove to Albuquerque for 4 days so that I could get private instruction from the professor at UNM.  I have NO idea what this cost her--on top of the hotel room and food--but she was GLAD to do it and it was a trip that even she remembered well into her dementia years.  She was just so supportive of WHATEVER we did.  After this trip to Albuquerque, I made All-State my last 3 years of high school--ranking as the #2 oboist in the state of NM my senior year.  I could never thank her enough for this.

GG will be sorely missed but I am so happy to know that she is back with her Pooka.  Love you GG.
Beautiful inside and out:)

My grandparents eloped and this was their "wedding" picture:)


On our way home from Deming after her funeral, we stopped by my grandparent's old home in Tucson.  It sure seemed small and definitely didn't have the sparkle that it once had (and the current owners have killed every plant/tree that was once there:/) but I LOVED this home:


1st day of school--3 weeks apart!

My kids being in 2 different school systems start school at very different times.  Carlie and Ethan had an extra 22 days of summer!!!  It was kinda fun just having my older ones home for a while longer so I actually enjoyed the delayed start.  So here are my kids off on their first days of school:

Monday, July 20th:
Tatum--3rd Grade with Mrs. Lomardi
Max--5th Grade with Mrs. Askins

Wednesday, August 12th
Carlie--10th Grade
Ethan--8th Grade

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Seattle Part 2--Saturday, July 18th

So we got off the boat one last time in Seattle.  We had a couple of hours before our flight back to AZ so we decided to take in the "Seattle Underground" Tour.  SERIOUSLY CRAZY history!!!  There's no way that this town should have survived/thrived through the modern day!  Between high tides, floods, & fires the town should have been wiped out and left for dead!

The underground tour is actually underground because the town had to be re-built after a HUGE fire--the fire is actually credited for the town's survival and existence.  Because of being by the ocean, house were wiped out nearly every month for years.  After the fire, every had to re-build anyways...just about 15 feet higher!  The creepy/rumored haunted tour was very informative and very funny--funny because the tour guide knew her stuff and made it fun!



This is underneath a sidewalk that people walk on today


Just a beautiful Seattle day!
So our vacation was officially over:(  Seriously the BEST family vacation to date.  I loved every minute of this trip--so different than anything else we have ever done.  How will we ever top this?  Well...we shall see:)

Victoria, Canada--Friday, July 17th

Our final shore stop was in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  It was absolutely GORGEOUS and a  perfect day too!  After Skagway, the warmer weather was sure a nice treat:)  We didn't have a planned shore excursion this day, we just got off the boat and walked, and walked, and WALKED!!!  Seriously, our "health" app on our phones guesstimated that we walked just under 10 miles in this town and the kids were AWESOME!  I was actually the only one complaining at the end:) 

Here we are at the Fisher's Village

These Victorian-style homes are everywhere here!!!

Even the government buildings are BEAUTIFUL!
Our long journey led us to the most beautiful Craigdarroch Castle.  I LOVE castles and will walk just about anywhere if I know I can go in!  This one had a sad history of being built for Robert Dunsmuir and his family who had come into his wealth in coal mining.  He passed away before it was completed but his wife, 3 daughters, and 2 orphaned grandchildren lived there for a short time.  It was then used as a military, hospital, Victoria College, offices for the Victoria School Board, and now a museum.


This "wreath" is made out of human hair--kinda gross
but so intricate and detailed that I really did find
appreciation in it:)


The stained glass windows were exquisite!
There was an old square Steinway grand piano in the home that people were allowed to play on--if they had musical training.  So Carlie and I jumped at that of course!  Super cool!


This entire town was absolutely beautiful at every turn and we sure walked a ton of it!  I found myself taking pictures of the flower baskets probably because I attempted to grow a few of these in AZ and failed miserably!  So I call this my "flower-basket envy" collage: