Goodbye, eh?

Well, the magic day has arrived, and we are off to Canada on Friday. We have wished and planned for this day for a long time. Friday we fly to Vancouver, where we are staying at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, just south of Stanley Park. We will be there all day Saturday and Saturday night. Sunday morning we will take the ferry from Tsawassen to Victoria. We'll go to church in Victoria, then spend the day sightseeing. We are staying at the Spinnaker Victorian Guesthouse Sunday night through Wednesday morning. Monday we are taking a whale watching boat trip that drops us off at Butchart Gardens for an afternoon of sightseeing. Tuesday we will just wander around seeing whatever our feets takes us to. Wednesday morning we take the ferry to Port Angeles where our friends, the Wilcoxes, will pick us up. We will spend the next few days with them, ferrying in to Seattle to see the sights there, and then leave Saturday evening to fly back to Phoenix.

This is our first vacation alone together since our honeymoon 35 years ago, so we don't feel the least bit bad about making it a blowout occasion. We love you all, and we will post details and pictures upon our return, eh?

Family Reunion 2008

We held the 2nd Annual Brooksby Children & Descendents Exceptional Family Gathering ("ABCDEFG") at the Hiatt Cabin in Pine July 31-Aug 1. It was wonderful to have EVERYONE there, including both sets of great-grandparents. What a blessing to have a family like ours that loves one another and supports one another. We had planned to have a Hawaiian theme with structured activities, but once the grandkids got playing, all sense of structure was GONE, GONE, GONE! No theme next year; we'll wait until everyone is just a tad older before we try a theme.

It has been a hectic month, to say the least. We had Cynthia and Chris and Hannah from July 3 - July 7. On the 9th, Kent flew to Salt Lake to join Emily and the kids on a two-day drive down to Mesa. On the 11th, Emily, Melissa, Andrea, all the kiddos and Kent drove to Pinetop for a weekend (or week) together. The next weekend was the Hiatt reunion, with John and Anna and the boys coming to Pinetop for a week, then the ABCDEFG, followed by a drive back down to the Valley for Chris' graduation on August 2 (Congrats, Dr. Chris!). When Mom and I drove home early the morning of the 3rd, we spent the entire afternoon sleeping a deep and needed sleep. But what a joyous month, having so much time with so many family members.

The biggest news from Pinetop-Lakeside is that Jan and I are going to Vancouver/Seattle for 9 days at the end of the month! We are flying into Vancouver on Aug 29, riding the ferry to Victoria on the 31st. We go whale watching and tour Bouchart Gardens on Sep 1, and take the ferry to Port Angeles, WA on Sep 3. Our dear friends, the Wilcoxes, will meet us there. We'll spend 4 days seeing the sights of Washington State, and fly back to Phoenix on the evening of September 6. We are really looking forward to this trip, because it is the first real vacation we have taken alone together in a long, LONG TIME! It will cost a ton, but what are credit cards for?