Family Day

A few years ago a new holiday surfaced in Canada.  The idea is perfect.  Family Day!  A special day for families to spend together.  Back in Ontario, my sister organized a family reunion and I saw some of the pictures.  On Facebook, there were lots of photos of family get-togethers.  Ron and I found ourselves on this year's family day, just the two of us.

So...we did some planning.

First, we planned a cross country ski trip with our son.  We booked an inn in Radium, BC in March.  It will be great.  I'm already planning the menu and looking forward to spending some special time with our boy and his boy, Tanker!

We then went skiing, just the two of us. 

It was a cold day but we dressed the weather.

We stopped at a lookout and my phone rang.  Jenn and the kids called on the way home from the family reunion.  It was so nice for them to call and for my phone to have service at the top of the mountain.

We really enjoyed the day.  The weather was great and my company was the best.

We stay together through a lot of the trails but at one point we split for him to go on the blue trails while I stay on the easy/green ones.  I decided to try a new route.  It was beautiful with the snow laying heavy on the branches.  As the wind blew the snow off of the trees there were times that it felt like I was in a snow globe.  I came around one corner and a "not so green" hill was in front of me.  I tried to snow plow but instead I plowed full speed down the hill and landed head first into a fortunately very soft snow bank.

I got up, dusted the snow off of my hat and continued on down the trail to meet my family...okay, it was just Ron.  He's good family.

On the way home from skiing, we stopped to pick up groceries and guess what?  Family Day is a good day to get Valentine's sales.

When we got home, we did some more family planning.  We booked tickets to go to Ontario at the end of June to pick up three of our grandchildren.

Family day turned out great.  Spending the day with my hubby, booking family get-togethers and eating chocolate!

Remembering

My father-in-law always kept a journal.  He would write down a few lines for each day so that he could remember what happened over the years.  I adopted that idea from him and in 1998 and started my journal.  So, for over 20 years, I have kept track of our days.  Sometimes it is very routine and others are more exciting.  Sometimes the memories make me smile and others not so much. 

 

So what happened in this day in history in the Clark family?

 

Oh, I won't bore you with all the details but it is interesting to see so many people that have come into our lives and so many that are still there.

 

In 2008, Jenn went for an ultrasound.  That's when it became real that we were going to be grandparents.



 

It's nice to remember that in 2014 we were in St. Thomas and spent the day snorkeling.  In 2016, we snorkeled in Belize.  Oh, they were good memories.

In 2017, my sister came to visit and we looked after my son's fur family.

We took them for dogs for a walk and Tanker knocked me over in the mud.  Good memory.....well, I think so.

Journaling is definitely a good hobby.  It involves living and experiencing life and then just jotting it down.  Life is full of ups and downs.  Looking over my journal there really are more ups then downs. The downs knock the breath out of us and the ups keep us going, help us look forward to the future and helps us get through those hard memories.

What will 2019 hold?  I'm sure there will be good and hard times.  Times of tears, joy, excitement, friendships and probably a lot of regular ho hum life will be found through the pages.  Looking forward to filling my pages by experiencing life with my family and friends.



Bentley Boy

It was early 2014 that we first heard that our son got a Bentley...not the car kind.  He was a little puppy that was left in a box in a parking lot and he won our son's heart.  Curley, his other dog was a small dog and was getting quite old.  The two dogs took to each other.  Bentley was a real comfort when Curley passed away.

Throughout that first year, Bentley destroyed cages, tore up anything that was left for him to wreck and had more energy than you could imagine.  I didn't get to meet him until May 2015 when we made our trip from the Yukon to Alberta.

By this time, Tanker had come to live with our son.  Tanker has his own story.  Bentley and Tanker trained each other.  Tanker settled Bentley down and Bentley taught Tanker how to play and enjoy being a pet.

Bentley could make you smile but he sure knew how to get into things.

He was well disciplined and became a very good dog but he still could get into things that made you wonder how he did that.  About a year ago, I had made a turkey casserole and covered it and put it at the back of the stove.  Somehow, he uncovered it, ate most of it without breaking the dish or moving it off of the stove.  There was a gluten-free one on the stove as well, but that wasn't touched.  Apparently, he was not into the gluten-free diet.
We have enjoyed so many adventures through the past few years ....hiking and skiing.

Whatever, Bentley did he went full out.  He ran fast, he played hard and he loved life. 

Our hearts were heavy last year when we heard that Bentley had lymphoma.  Our son, bit the bullet and pulled out his wallet to pay for six months of chemo.  We were all hopeful.  He went through the process so well and looked so healthy.

It wasn't long after the treatments that the lumps came back.  In October, the vet gave him two months to live.  Christmas came and Bentley was so healthy and strong looking.

On "our" Christmas morning, it seemed to be taking too long to wait to open the gifts.  Bentley was trying to be patient.

I went downstairs to check on something and he followed me down with one of his treats from his Christmas stocking.  He tried not to look too guilty and really, he just looked cute.

He made it through January and then February came and the disease took over.  The phone call came that we dreaded.  It was time to say goodbye.

The mood in the house was sad when we got there and Tanker got lots of hugs.  The next day, we went skiing.  Tanker pulled his weight but I am sure that he missed his partner and we, for sure. missed seeing him there.

Bentley Boy is and will be missed.  He was a loyal, loving pup.  He made his way into our hearts and his absence has left a huge hole.  I know that the days will come when his memory will make us smile more than cry but right now the tears are way too close.  My heart is heavy for his absence and for my boy who grieves for the loss of this special boy.

Bentley 2014-2019

4.5 Years of Smiles