Notes from the Promised Land, Days 1-3

[ciroccoj]

Day 1: Vancouver
Spent the first day settling in and meeting Emma, Trinh and Dennis. Emma's initial reaction: "I don't quite believe you're my sister." You and me both, kid ;)

She and the boys got along incredibly well. Before long they were laughing in the car, playing together outside, and having what certainly sounded like a heck of a good time outside. Meanwhile, we got settled in, met Trinh and Dennis and said hi to Mark, my 20-year old brother from my dad's second marriage. Trinh is great - friendly, interesting, great sense of humour. Dennis is fairly severely autistic and has some developmental delay, but he did make some eye contact, and he has a wonderful smile. Mark... well, the last time I'd seen him was about four years ago. Sixteen year olds don't generally have much by way of stubble or muscles, did you know? He kinda laughed at me and Chris (a lot) for being totally stunned at how much he'd changed :D :D

Had lunch. Trinh's also a great cook. Passed around old photographs, including a few of my dad's family. Saw a picture of my grandfather that I hadn't seen in years.

Day 2: Squamish
Saw batita! And her kids! We ended up at a beach at one point, and she said something like, "I feel like I'm giving you the lame tour of Squamish."

"Um, no," we said. "You weren't in our car as we were driving up here. There was a lot of open-mouth Holy **** being said in there."

Chris has always called BC the Promised Land, and claims it's the most gorgeous province in Canada. Um, yeah. Pretty much. It's a land in superlatives.


Castle built by Mr. batita Jr, Daniel and Justin. For a little kid, Mr. batita Jr has quite the imagination and organizational skills and seems quite confident working with much older, bigger kids. Kinda like his mom :)


OK, Ms. batita Jr? Is unbelievably cute. And although her mom claims she can have a wicked temper, we only saw the sunshine. And I got to play Barbies! That doesn't happen much in our house, believe it or not.


At the end of the visit, Mr. batita Jr read to Justin ("He reads a lot better than I do!" Justin pointed out) while Ms. batita Jr had her nightly medicine.

As for the grownups, we had a great time catching up on... well, about twenty years or so. That's a lot of history.

Day 3: Vancouver
Took Emma to the Aquarium. More running around and having fun with the Big Nephews. And were struck over and over again with how much Daniel and Emma look alike. She's tanned and he's freckled, but otherwise there's quite a kinship evident there. Although "I still don't quite believe you're my sister" was still said a number of times ;)

Comments

[owens-mom.livejournal.com]

Fun! and that is a bitchin' castle.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I also forgot to say that they were working with not a lot of sand, and what sand was there was rock-hard. They kept at it anyway, though they had to curtail their plans for a grander moat ;)

[batita.livejournal.com]

For a little kid, Mr. batita Jr has quite the imagination and organizational skills and seems quite confident working with much older, bigger kids. Kinda like his mom :)

In our family, the 'bigger kids' part is pretty much a given. It's what we're used to! ;)

It was great having you guys up. I keep telling people about how much fun your kids were to have visit. You are all welcome back anytime (apparently housing prices are dropping in the Lower Mainland. You know, in case you were interested!).

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

In our family, the 'bigger kids' part is pretty much a given. It's what we're used to! ;)
Yeah, I suppose so :)

It was great having you guys up. I keep telling people about how much fun your kids were to have visit.
Hee, same here :) :)

You are all welcome back anytime (apparently housing prices are dropping in the Lower Mainland. You know, in case you were interested!).
Must keep this knowledge from Chris, or he'll have us packed and ready to go within a week!

[batita.livejournal.com]

ummm.... not that it's related (d'ya believe me?),but what's Chris's email. you know, in case i had some vital information to impart. definately *not* about housing prices, really! ;D

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Hmm... my spider-sense is tingling, but here it is ;)

chris.rae@sympatico.ca

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

They do look very related!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Don't they? I hadn't expected that, as her picture didn't look much like him.

[mama-rana.livejournal.com]

Wait. That last picture is Emma, Daniel, and Justin? Good Goo, they could be twins except for the coloring! And the gender thing ;)

Good times! I'm loving the pics.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's them. I'm going to try to figure out Photoshops' colourizing doodads, because I bet they'd look even more alike :)