Holidaying a Mile High

Hi Everyone,

No scrap booking challenges for November or December as we have been on holiday in the USA.

My youngest sister, the subject of the previous post, celebrated a significant birthday and we decided that, after attending a nieces wedding in Sydney, it would be the perfect opportunity for a trip to Denver to celebrate with her. I have been able to travel to Colorado several times before but this was the first opportunity for my husband to travel with me. It was important to me that he love holidaying in the USA as much as I do so I planned the trip around the things I thought he would enjoy and travelling on trains as much as possible.

We broke our trip in Hawaii so he could stretch his legs and were given the opportunity to view the US Arizona Memorial, a very moving experience. We had a day at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, a trip to San Diego to visit a friend, a tour of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Mesa Verde and the Miracle Staircase in Santa Fe before heading up to Denver to spend a week with my sister and the hope to see snow falling. The season is very late and although we went to Aspen, Vale and Breckenridge and saw snow on the ground, there was very little falling anywhere.

Hubby enjoyed the opportunity to hike in the mountains and took photos of signs warning him of wild cat and bear! The train through the Rockies and Sierra Nevada's gave us some stunning vistas and a couple of days in San Fransisco, including a walk across the iconic bridge, a couple of days in Disneyland and California Adventure completed our holiday before heading home.

We are delighted to also announce that we have also added two grandsons to our beautiful family in the past month and I look forward to the opportunity of scrap booking them in the new year.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone a safe and happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

 

 

Scrap Friends - Guest Design Team November

I was astounded and honoured, as a random winner, to be asked to produce a layout for the November Sketch Challenge for Scrap Friends.

This is my youngest sister, there is five years and another sister between us. I was old enough to remember Mum going into hospital but we were not allowed to visit in those days; we didn't meet our her until they came home from hospital.

Dad didn't hang around for long after each of us was born so it was not really a surprise that he left again when she was only months old; I still remember that day. Mum had to work part time after that and there were several baby sitters until my brother and I were old enough to look after the younger ones ourselves. This sister eventually completed year 10, came to work in the same retail store with me for a while and studied part time at night to achieve the required entry levels for Nursing School. She married whilst still studying and completed her nursing training while raising two small boys. Those two small boys are now grown men, one an air force pilot, the other a paramedic.

She is extremely artistic, a wonderful mother, keeps a spotless home and saves lives everyday with her training and experience in open heart and emergency room nursing, she is also an excellent teacher and mentor.

The family moved to the USA 14 years ago and we only get to see each other every three years or so. We keep in contact by email and text but don't talk often as we both end up in tears. This photo was taken when she came home for my youngest sons wedding in April 2010; should all go to plan I will be seeing her this November in the USA when my husband and I travel there to celebrate her birthday.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Bird is the Word Challenge - Touch

One of the great blessings I have in my life is the young men of our family, my four sons and the families they now have. They have each grown to be good, generous, hard working men who are not afraid to show their love for their families and each other. I love how much they love and care about each other and each others children.

It is very rare for the whole family to be able to get together these days due to two of the boys being FIFO and on different shifts. I find it difficult to cope with not having them all together in one place at one time and feel blessed for the rare times this does happen. They make a very conscious effort though to catch up with each other and sometimes I am able to be a part of that. What I have noticed, and what means so much to me, is to see them reaching for or playing with each others children. I will look up and see them all play wrestling or playing football or cricket with the older nephews on the lawn or sitting and chatting to each other whilst nursing one of the younger nephews or niece. I have so many photographic examples of this that it is hard to choose just one.

The eldest and third sons were very close and also married to sisters; when our eldest son died 6 months before his son was born, they moved in with his wife and helped her through that first year while their own house was being built next door. During that first year the uncle and nephew formed a very close bond.  This is our third son holding our eldest son's little boy on his 1st birthday. He was there to support his sister in law and the little boy until they were ready to stand on their own.

He now has a son of his own and another child due in a month but remains close to the little boy, his brothers son. There is so much joy and love in this photo.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Scrap Friends October Challenge - Camera Shy

Our fourth and youngest grandson; he is a lovely mix of both his parents, he has my sons hair, it stands straight up and waves in the breeze like a wheat field, big blue eyes and a cheeky grin. His mouth and chin are like his Mum's and at the moment he is shorter than usual for our family and may take after his Mum in height, we will have to wait for his 2nd birthday so we can measure him to get a guestimate of his height as an adult. All our boys are well over 6 feet.

His Mum is a teacher and spends many hours reading to him and playing with him and his Dad loves to pick him up, take him to the back fence and spend time looking over it watching the traffic go by and talking to him about his day and cars. Bath time is a shared activity but Mum has to dress him because he will not lie still for his Dad. Whenever we visit, we are met at the door by both of them and it is a race between my husband and I to get first cuddles. Pop always wins! This little fellow will have a brother or sister in 6 weeks PG so there will be one for each of us.

This photo was taken at his first birthday party and as you can see, he is anything but camera shy!

It is wonderful how big your heart gets when you have children and grandchildren; it always seems to grow enough to allow another to take up residence there.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

  

Scrapfriends Sketch Challenge - September

Our third grandson; born 6 months after his lovely Dad (see previous post) was killed in an accident. Our son saw him on his 12 week scan and was lost to us 2 days later. This little chap has been through an awful lot in his 2 and a half years when this photo was taken. 

He was rushed to hospital just before his second birthday and was diagnosed with meningitis; we considered ourselves fortunate that the only result of this dreadful illness was that it had left him very weak. It was not until a few weeks later that it was realised that he had also become profoundly deaf.  It wasn't picked up immediately as his language had not been affected greatly and he had already taught himself to lipread. Once discovered, he needed urgent surgery to implant two cochlea's. The surgeon was wonderful and pulled out all stops to perform the surgery quickly as any delay may have reduced the outcome.

Our little man recovered quickly and has not looked back in terms of speech and hearing. He has learnt though that, if he does not want to hear you telling him what to do or growling at him, he simply removes his aids!

As part of his recovery he has to attend occupational therapy; at one of these sessions he was on the flying fox and had safely landed into the foam pit two previous times. The third time he landed awkwardly and broke his femur.  Hospitalised yet again, his spirit shone through and when visiting him two days later, he showed me how he could grab the ropes holding the weights to his leg and swing his leg up and down!

This photo was taken 6 weeks later at his cousins 1st birthday; he was still in his box splint but happy to be a part of what was going on around him. He has since fully recovered and continues to keep his mother busy as he is as active and adventurous as his lovely Dad.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes

Bird is the Word Challenge - Spirit

Our eldest son, the first to call me Mum; he was one of those children that just cruised through childhood and his teenage years. No major health issues and no problems with school except the occasional day dream or distraction. He was a wonderful, if sometimes impatient, big brother to his three siblings but always looked out for them.

He was a bit of a daredevil when it came to heights. I found him on the roof of the house at 18 months and had to call the fire brigade to come and get him down as I was 9 months pregnant with our second child at the time. He had climbed to the top of a Norfolk Island Pine by the time he was 10, abseiled and climbed through his teenage Scouting years and abseiled Perth's tallest building for charity in his early 20's.

He was a very sociable person whose very generous character and smile drew people to him like a magnet. He was also a bit of a chameleon, comfortable and appropriately dressed for his mates in the motorcycling club, attending an eclectic range of music concerts, his role in horticultural management to the dapper young man who attended the races with his wife on his arm.  

Here he is dressed as his role as Best Man for his mates wedding and it was at this wedding that I realised he was a very accomplished public speaker and was later asked to speak at a Managers Breakfast Conference about managing the Gen Y's. His mentor knew he had chosen the right person when he arrived at his interview in a business suit and tie with his skateboard under his arm.

One of his passions was his motorbike and he was well known for his innovative design changes; I didn't like him riding but he was the most carefully prepared and careful rider. The posts on his motorcycle club and facebook pages after his accident only served to confirm that he was much loved, not only by his family but by people around the world who were touched by him in some way.

I miss him everyday.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.



Let's Get Shabby #38 - Doors and Windows

A beautiful Bo Bunny paper with louvered windows and a door on the bottom left;  I have cut and lifted them both but they may be a little hidden by the cluster of flowers! I may have gotten carried away!

This is our third son and his wife; our eldest son is married to her sister so don't be surprised when you look at another wedding when I get it done and think you are seeing double, the sisters are very alike.

These two had known each other for many years through their siblings and often went out as part of a group; it took us a little while to realise that they had become a couple. Our son had the ring hidden for some months before finally asking her to marry him on their favourite beach at sunset; the timing had to be right and he had delayed a little longer when our youngest son unexpectedly announced his engagement.

The OCD part of me was a little concerned that my sons would get married out of birth order but we had asked the youngest for a long engagement to be sure they were ready and these two were able to schedule theirs sooner rather than later and they married in December of 2009.

They are now the proud parents of a gorgeous little boy of 16 months and will be parents again in November of this year; they have chosen not to find out what they are having and we are looking forward to the announcement.

Thank you for looking and for any comments you may leave, best wishes