CELEBRATIONS!

June 27 (Monday)

Three weeks out of our 6 weeks break, gone already! Nice to be home for a couple weeks.

Emmy's grad is on Wednesday. Our Little Emmy Bun...graduating! She's grown up so fast into a beautiful young women. We are so proud of her. Emmy and I decided to go for mani/pedi's in preparation for her big day. It was fun just to have Grammy/Emmy time.

Monday is p-day in Hong Kong as well as in Lethbridge. Over the past few years, we have been giving free lunches at our Subway to all the missionaries on P-day. We thought it would be fun to greet them all today, since we feel like we are officially one of them.

Went for a big grocery shopping trip to stock up my fridge. It's so much fun shopping at home where food costs now seem so reasonable compared to what we've been paying in Hong Kong. We picked up my favorite Costco roasted chicken for dinner. I sure missed it.

Now that I'm home, it seems like we were never away. It's hard to believe that it's been over a year already. Not much has changed.

June 28 (Tuesday)

Today we start a string of appointments over the next two weeks. Doctors, dentist, chiropractor, massage therapist, optometrist, podiatrist, audiologist...between John, myself and my Mom, we have over 20 appointments. Most of them were for my Mom trying to fit a new pair of dentures.

I was to pick up my sister Jane from the airport at 5:00, but her flight was delayed due to thunder storms in Calgary. I had a girls night out engagement with my old high school friends, so John had to pick Jane up. I didn't see her till late that night. It was so much fun getting together with the old gang.

June 29 (Wednesday)

Happy Graduation Day...Congratulations Emmy! The day started out with Convocation at Lethbridge College. It couldn't have been a more beautiful perfect day. We saw many old friends there. It was so good to be home for this special occasion. Wayne treated us all out for lunch at Moxie's after. In the evening we returned to the college for the Grand March also known as the "Fashion Parade". This is when all the girls get to parade across the stage and show off their gown. This was followed by the dance.

  

Half way through the dance, the fire alarm went off. Everyone was asking, what's that sound? Finally, an announcement came on, "Yes, that is the fire alarm. Everyone please make your way to the exit." It was amazingly calm, no rushing or pushing. We all figured it was just a false alarm. Good thing it was, since no one was in any rush to get out of the building. That pretty much wound down the evening. Deb, John and I decided to go for ice cream.

We stopped by Jasmine's after, just in time to welcome Rylan as his family arrived from Idaho. Emmy's grad date was Ethan Chase, but she decided she didn't want to go to the grad party. Instead she wanted to be home for when the cousins arrived. I said, "Really?"

June 30 (Thursday)

Today, Mom had an appointment at the Galt Museum with Kevin McLean. He wanted to record any stories Mom had about the old days and women's role in the Kuo Min Tang and what it was like in Lethbridge back in the day when the KMT was thriving. Mom has an amazing memory for details. The museum has been trying to gather history on the Chinese people in Lethbridge.

Jane had accompanied Mom and me to the museum. We then went to Qoola for lunch. Qoola is a little frozen yogurt/lunch place owned by our friends Bill and Sharon Wong. We had chinese noodle soup and invited them to come to Mom's birthday party on July 2.

We decided we better pick up all the groceries for the party today, since tomorrow is a holiday, July 1, Canada Day. Better do it early and not be so rushed. 

Tonight we got together with some of our old FHE group and others. It was so great to see them. With all the excitement of getting together, we forgot to take a group picture! Dang! Those in attendance included Buzz and Vera Layton, Fern and DeWayne Duce, Chuck and Joan Poytress, Kent and Bernice Rolfson, Rex and BettyLou Forsyth, Jack and Anita Stockton, Richard and Anne Nelson, Dave and Anne Richards, Jeanine Colling, Sandy Burbank, Joyce Holt, and Liz Wilson. Thanks Vera for getting us all together and putting on a wonderful spread of refreshments as usual.

July 1 (Friday)

Happy Canada Day! We started the day by taking the kids to the Raymond Parade. This has been a tradition since John started teaching there many many years ago. All the floats throw out candy for the kids. It's more of a candy parade than anything. They were throwing out ice cream bars, ice cream drumsticks, popsicles, frizbees, and lots and lots of candy. The kids got quite a haul.

Jade's family arrived around noon, then we picked up Jongee our nephew and Diana his new wife mid afternoon. My heart is full having all my family home to help celebrate my Mom's 96th birthday.

Meeting Diana for the first time, Grandma, Jongee

With all of my family home, we decided to go to the research station park for a family photo shoot. It was good that Melisa and her friend Sherry also joined us to help with taking pictures.

The Junior Chan Clan #2

Clockwise: Brayden, Aubrey, Crew, Beckham, Addie

4 Generations - Goodmans

4 Generations - Burtons

Grandkids Selfie - Our 12 Grandchildren

Goodman Gang: Mike, Jade, Rhome, Rhett, Ellie

My kids - Rylan, Jasmine, Jade

The Family Tree: Chan Clan #1

The Burton Bunch: Emmy, Parker, Sawyer, Cardiff, Azia, Jasmine, Wayne

Swi-g... (cheesy family fun fotos)

July 2 (Saturday)

Rush, rush, rush. A hectic day ahead trying to prepare meals for the day. We decided to have baked ham, scalloped potatoes, house salad, corn, and pan buns for our luncheon menu. Dinner was BBQ boneless rib burgers, potato salad and chips. We definitely had plenty of food with enough left overs for Sunday dinner. Candace supplied an ice cream cake, custom designed to celebrate all the events that we were celebrating, not just Mom's 96th birthday. Rhome and Aubrey made little flags for the cake including:

    Birthdays -  PoiPoi, Jasmine, Cardiff and Aunt Ruth 

    Anniversary - Rylan & Molly

    Wedding - Jongee and Diana

    Graduation - Emmy 

    Retirement - Linda and Randy 

    New Babies - Beckham and Baby Chow 

Happy Birthday Jasmine, Poi Poi, and Cardiff

Load 'er up...

Audrey and Victor Burton (Wayne's parents), Jane (my sister)

Maddie, Hannah, Mitch, Myles

Poi Poi made a Minion pillow for Aunt Ruth, cousin Carol holding it.

Poi Poi Loves Minions!

Chillin' in the pool

Uke-sters: Jasmine, Azia, Emmy, Deb, Molly

Chan Clan

Goodman Gang

Burton Bunch

We had no special program planned, just eat and visit and visit and eat. We had about 51 people in attendance. Sharon and her daughters, Emily and Amanda came with 4 buckets of frozen yogurt. More eating. It was just a great day to be together and celebrate everyone and everything.

July 3 (Sunday)

With all our family here, we all attended church in Jasmine's ward at 11:00. Great to meet some old friends there, Had a few minutes to visit with Len and Roger Barnes and Deb Binning. Then John and I went to our own ward, Park Meadows at 1:00. Just like coming home! So good to see everyone.

We had a lot of ham left over from yesterday, so dinner was easy. Jas made up more potatoes and we ate again. Not going to lose any weight at home!