Well, the end of 2017 was very busy and full of amazing adventures. We spent Canadian Thanksgiving weekend at the farm and then I worked the Thanksgiving Monday - I traded with someone who wanted it off. Halloween was cold and rainy but the kids did get out for some good trick or treating in their costumes. Elva and Mary were Fairy Princesses and Caeleb was Aragon from Lord of the Rings. I love celebrating all the holidays with my kids and I do like Halloween (I like watching kid scary movies like Casper, Hocus Pocus and Goosebumps).
The kids and I spent November 11 at the farm making turtles. Camellia and Dad went to the Remembrance day service in Champion. Chris and I went to the kid's school Remembrance day assembly the day before. One guy played bag pipes and a teenage girl played the last post on her trumpet. I feel it is so important to Remember those who have sacrificed so much so that we can have our freedom. I hope my kids never forget to honor Remembrance day.
I had a tough shift the end of October where I had to send one of my patients to the ICU. I know I can not put the blame on myself and it all happened so fast (she went Septic) but I have a tendency of putting blame and stress on myself. That shift set me back and I was feeling discouraged. But I keep going back to work and I have had plenty of good shifts since then and I realize that there will always be more good days then bad and that I need to keep trying and trying and never give up. However, after that shift, my amazing - wonderful sister Camellia thought I needed some get away time and so she found a cheap ticket to Boston and sent me on my way there for 5 days - Thursday November 30th to Monday September 4th. Thank you so much Camellia!! On Thursday my flight left at 9:00 am and I flew from Calgary to Montreal and then ran through the airport to get on the plane to Boston. I arrived in Boston at 5:30 and my cousin Sarah picked me up at the airport. It was so good to see her and her family. Their house is beautiful (she is great at decorating) and the whole New England atmosphere is so appealing. We spent Friday touring downtown Boston, walking through the oldest park in America, walking many parts of the freedom trail, eating Cannolis in little Italy, learning about the Minute Men in the revolution, visiting a lot of ancient cemeteries and touring Louisa May Alcott's home in Concord.
Saturday, Sarah and I got up early and left the house for New York City at around 6:30 am. We went with 3 of Sarah's friends (her friend in Rhoda Island drove) and we were in New York around 1100. We drove by the Temple and took some pictures. We got some yummy cookies at Lavina's bakery. We parked a few blocks away from Central park (Cost was $53 for 12 hours) and we walked to the park from there. We did a Pedicab tour of the south 1/2 of central park (it was $30 per person if I remember right) and it was fun to have someone tell us about where the movie stars lived around central park and about the history of some structures in the park. We walked by the Plaza hotel (it was too busy to go in) and took the subway all the way under the strait to Brooklyn. We ate a yummy chain burger place in Brooklyn and then walked the Brooklyn bridge back to Manhattan (it probably took 45 minutes to walk the bridge and there were LOTS of people). We saw the statue of Liberty at a distance with the sun setting - it was beautiful. Then we took the subway north to Grand Central station and ate some banana pudding at a bakery called Magnolia. Then we did a lot of walking - walked to Macy's department store (lots of fun Christmas displays), past the Empire State building, to Saks department store (there was a fun light show on the side of Saks) and St. Patricks Cathedral across the street. The streets were so crowded! And it even got more crowded as we ventured into the Rockefeller plaza to see the big Christmas tree there. Then we walked another block or so to see the lights and crowds at Times square. We got pizza at Rays pizza which is near there. And I had to get a $2.00 hotdog (hotdog stands on every block). We then walked back to the Hotel that we parked at and left around 9:30. We got home around 1:00 am. I enjoyed my one day in New York. The shocking part of it was the crowds. There were many times in the evening when I thought I was lost from my group as the crowds pushed us in different directions. I am thinking that is a Christmas thing. I am so grateful that I have got to cross New York city off my bucket list!
Sunday, we went to 9:00 church and then took off to Rockport and Gloucester Mass. They are right on the coast of the Atlantic ocean. Gloucester is where the movie and book "The Perfect Storm" took place and Rockport is where much of "The Proposal" was filmed. It was my first time to the Atlantic ocean and I loved seeing the villages, beaches and lighthouses in the area.
We watched the LDS Christmas Devotional back at the Cole home. Sarah dropped me off at the airport around 6:30 the next morning and I flew to Toronto and then to Calgary (with a 2 hour delayed flight in Toronto). What a wonderful trip it was. It was so good to see my cousin and her family. But it was good to come home and see my family. I missed them. I am grateful for Mom and Camellia from watching Mary and Elva and for Chris and Nathan for watching Caeleb.
We celebrated Elva's birthday Wednesday December 6th after work (I am a horrible mom and was in Boston on her birthday December 3rd). We had a free pass to the flying Squirrel so we went there to celebrate and the kids loved that. Elva got a Barbie car and 2 barbies for her birthday (One from Aunty Camellia/Nana and Papa).
A week at home and 3 shifts later and we took off to Victoria at 4:00 a.m Monday morning (a few hours after my Sunday evening shift). The weather was beautiful in Calgary when we left and on the way out to Victoria. And since Chris was in an accident a few weeks before, the insurance company gave us a new Kia rental van for our drive out - free of charge - while our car was in the shop. What tender mercies we have seen!!! We even made it in time for the special Christmas Monday Watters get together. I have always wanted to go and it was fun to visit with family and eat yummy food. Chris spent the week working for the family company ( he is there IT guy). I entertained the kids and had fun visiting with relatives - we went to butterfly gardens - thanks LouAnn - we went downtown to the inner harbour and looked at a gingerbread house competition. We went out for supper downtown for Nathaniel's birthday and we went to the new Star Wars movie.
After 10:00 sacrament meeting on Sunday, we caught the 1:00 ferry. The weather was turning bad and we wanted to get on the road before we hit snowy weather. We slept at Chris' cousin Athena's house in Kamloops on Sunday night and ended up leaving at 4:30 on Monday morning as Mary got up early and was hard to settle. The roads were not great from Kamloops to Golden but we drove slow and got to Banff around 2:00. We stopped there for an hour for a Beaver tail treat (it was the kids first time to Banff and we had to take advantage of this Free 2017 year for national parks).
We got home around 4:00 and went straight to look at a new vehicle (They ended up writing off our vehicle the Saturday before and gave us until Thursday to give back our rental). I worked Tuesday and Wednesday day shifts while Chris went crazy on the vehicle search. We did find one at our local Kia dealership - 2012 Kia van, simple, yet roomy and just what we needed. The money we get for the Mazda from insurance will pay for the Kia and then we got a 3 year warranty on the Kia (as we had lots of fix ups with the Mazda and we did not want to chance that again). We picked up the van on Thursday just in time for Chris and I to go to the Nutcracker Ballet (Michelle gave us tickets as we have watched Max and Sebastian a few times this Fall). I am glad I got the opportunity to see a ballet. It was beautiful. Camellia and I used to go to sleep listening to Tchaikovsky's nutcracker. We ended the night with some wings and bubble tea at a favourite restaurant of ours on 16th ave - Bubblemania.
Well, I best end this now. I will continue writing about Christmas in a bit. I can hear the kids screaming upstairs.
