Greetings Friends and Family!

After a much needed break from blogging, I am back to report on the Adventures of the Futon Family. We hope that you are all doing well, have been enjoying some of your own adventures, and are looking forward to your next adventure!

The last year and a half, has given us pause to learn some very important things about ourselves, the people in our lives and all that is important at the end of the day. This has not been the easiest path for any of us to travel. Some of the most important things we have learned are:

Family is: everything, who and what you make it, it is worth fighting for. Love your family!

Friends: most come and go, true and good friends are rare things. Chereish your friends!

Happiness: find what makes you happy, fill your life with happiness, and don't be afraid to share it. Happiness does not just happen, it takes work, it is something you need to protect and it is not always easy, sometimes you need to choose to work at it. Find the happiness in your life and may it bring you love!

In the end, as the saying goes 'that which doesn't kill me only makes me stronger' best sums it up!

Where we are at: Please note*** all pictures can be clicked on to enlarge, you must then back click to return to the main blog page***

BabyJ has had a great year in preschool! Attending three days a week has taught her some French which she has enjoyed using. She also took up a new sport this year, golf. The "Big Dog" driver currently swings her as much as she swings it. All in all she is having a fun time with it, which is all we can hope for!

BeaverJ had good year in grade two. His french continues to blossom, he is enjoying science, improving in art, and learning to read both our national languages! This year he too, took up a new sport after enjoying it at school in physical education, Cricket. DaddyJ and I are doing our best to try and understand the many rules of game. BeaverJ continues to enjoy playing Cricket once a week. We hope this will continue as the sport is very interesting.

Living up to those Scottish middle names with the sports of Cricket, Golf and a little Football (soccer)! Who knew......

Recapping the Fall of 2008 to Easter of 2009:

BeaverJ's Birthday(s)

For the start of his birthday two weeks, BeaverJ had a very special birthday party and sleep over with one of his buddies. It was a great chance for him to have some special fun playing laser tag, watching movies until late and a sleep over. In the morning there was even a trip to Tim Horton's for muffins!

For BeaverJ's actual seventh birthday we took him to Legoland in San Diego California. It happened to be Star Wars Days while we were there. Very lucky since the Star Wars franchise was the hottest thing to happen to him since chocolate milk! We had a wonderful two days enjoying the park complete with BeaverJ's "It's my Birthday" pin, where all the staff wished him a very happy birthday.


His birthday dinner was his favourites from In-and-Out Burger: milkshake, cheese burger and fries. This ideal seven year old birthday meal was eaten, over looking the ocean in Oceanside. The roar of the waves, last surfers and setting sun were a perfect way to celebrate.






Upon our return, the turning seven festivities were capped off with Igor-riffic Clone Wars themed party with his school friends. A great time was had eating pizza and cupcakes before taking in the movie Igor (pull the switch) on opening weekend.

Thanksgiving/DaddyJ's Birthday



This year in celebration of DaddyJ's birthday we headed out to Kelowna for a weekend of fun on the Thanksgiving weekend. We took in some beautiful wineries, enjoyed our hotels outdoor watersilde and had a blast bowling!

Christmas BabyJ's Birthday

This year for a change of pace we did not go away for Christmas and BabyJ's birthday. It was instead BabyJ's first Christmas/Birthday at home. We all enjoyed the opportunity to enjoy the snow, home and I even enjoyed cooking Christmas dinner. It is nice to break out the Christmas china everyonce in a while!

Christmas 2008

BabyJ's 4th Birthday

BabyJ enjoyed a quiet and fun filled day of being the birthday girl. She had an "Enchanted" cake and received many of the things on her list. All in all, turning four seemed to be a great time for her.

Mid Winter Fun at Monster Trucks and Super Skills

Disney World 2009 Pictures

In March we were off to Florida for a visit to Disneyworld! This was BabyJ's first trip to this location after being lucky enough to have already visited Disneylands in California and Hong Kong. It proved to be just as magical a visit as wanted and remembered.

While in Orlando we stayed at the world's largets Marriott hotel. Even as seasoned Marriott travelers, it was MASSIVE. It was a great place to stay. The kids in particular enjoyed starting out their days with room service (Daddy) Starbucks from the lobby and ending their days in the million+ gallon pool systems.

Here is a sample of some of our pictures from the five parks we visited:

Magic Kingdom

Bilzzard Beach

Epcot

Typhoon Lagoon

Easter 2009

After returning from our respective trips it was wonderful to have to opportunity to spend time with Grandma at Easter. It was a wonderful pj wearing trip where we all shared in the fun of a holiday meal once we finally got dressed!

June brought us the opportunity to meet Grandma's new horse Bently, learn that BeaverJ would be heading off to grade three and excitingly that BabyJ would be heading into Kindergarten in September! YIKES, where has the time gone?

All in all we are looking forward to a low key summer. We hope to have a few adventures, explore new places and spend time with our loved ones.

We wish you all the very best and hope you too, enjoy a wonderful summer. Please check back soon to see our summer adventures.

Sincerely,

The 4J's

Good Bye for now.......

Well, in the spirit of new chapters in 2008, this blog will be coming to en end for the foreseeable future. It has been wonderful having you view the blog and keep up with the things going on in the house of the 4J's.

I wish each and everyone of you the very best in life!

Sincerely,
The 4J's

A new Chapter with BabyJ new sports adventures

BabyJ being less and less of a baby took up several new sports this year with a bit of joy, a few tears and a tonne of fun.

First on the list were skiing lessons over at our neighbourhood ski hill here in town. BabyJ took to skis and skiing like the preverbal duck to water. Luckily we had an outstanding instructor who was great with the little people, especially in the face of the very cool temperatures we faced on a few of the days. Thankfully I am confident that BabyJ will return to skiing this fall with zeal.

Next on the list was learning to skate. After we managed to find skates for BabyJ’s itty-bitty feet we headed down to Bowness Park to skate on the frozen pond. With the aid of a chair and a snowsuit MommyJ could use to hold onto, we were off and moving. I avoid using the term gliding as there was not a significant amount of time spent with her using her own feet to propel the chair. We had some great interludes where BabyJ did move under her own power or manage to balance on her own.

Unfortunately we did not get to the point this year where we had her skating on her own. Oh well that is what turning 4 is all about. All in all I think BabyJ was left with positive enough memories to be willing to go again this year, and after all that is the most we can hope for…

Finally this spring BabyJ started Soccer with our joint-community! BabyJ has a powerhouse kick when she lines it up and remarkable ball control. However like most three year olds, the attention span for an actual game is short when you could just run around having fun. It was a nice chance for her to meet some new friends and be introduced to a team sport. We are so lucky to have such dedicated volunteer organizers and coaches in our communities. All of their hard work makes the season a remarkable success each year and a pleasure for all of the kids.

Without a doubt BabyJ will continue on with Soccer this fall, and if BeaverJ chooses to play we will be on the field 4 nights a week! I hope I learn to love soccer soon. Actually if the truth be know I must admit that I very much enjoyed watching soccer at the Olympics this summer.

Ringing Out 2007

As has been our tradition, we rang out the year of 2007 with our dear friends the W’s. It was a lovely evening, enjoying the light displays of at the zoo and a fantastic fireworks show.

As we had just returned from Cancun we once again celebrated with Dick Clark at the W’s house. It was a funny evening of MommyW and DaddyJ building a friendship and DaddyW and I sitting back laughing at them.

BeaverW and BeaverJ played very well with BabyJ and all were sawing logs shortly after their sparkling apple juice at midnight. All in all it was a fantastic night despite several glowing articles of clothing as a result of leaky glow sticks. In an interesting turn of events I was actually familiar with the artists performing on the show this year to avoid last year’s humiliation! : )

I know I will always look at the pictures from this evening with great fondness and memories of an evening well spent.

In what would become the theme of 2008, we rang in the year in a new fashion. After a night in the guest room we proceeded to watch the Outdoor hockey game in Buffalo with Sidney Crosby. For those of you who know me, I was as colourful watching him play as I was touring Pearl Harbor. Not to mention that we all enjoyed bugging BrotherW who had rung in his first New Years Eve as a legal adult, needless to say he did not see the humor in our antics.

2008 the year of new chapters…..

Christmas in Cancun Double O'hhhh Seven

Well well well, life has been busy so it has taken me 9 months to update the FourJ’s blog, but here we go:

Our Christmas vacation to Cancun was outstanding. In a very un-FourJ fashion we spend the trip relaxing and doing nothing but having fun. There was no sight seeing, no going to museums, no historical sites of significance or anything else.

Basically for a week straight we gorged ourselves at the beautiful breakfast buffet each morning and then managed to drag our over stuffed bellies to the pools or beach. In particular DaddyJ loved his morning smoothies and nearly wept on the airplane as he realized the Jose was not going to be preparing him a fresh smoothie each morning, nor MommyJ. For me leaving the omelet station was almost as sad. Luckily the little J’s after gorging themselves on scrambled eggs, fruit and waffles had a much high probability of having those made for them upon their return home.

On the first evening of the day of our arrival the Maitre’d in fine dinning room preformed a trick for Julia’s entertainment. He made a linen serviette talk to her. From that point on Arturro, the Maitre’D of the main restaurant in our five star resort was referred to as ‘the talking serviette man’ by the children. I must say he was outstanding.
We have been very lucky on our Christmas/BabyJ Birthday vacations to have had the luxury of have the staff be an integral part of our wonderful experiences. Arturro, took the time to get to know the littleJ’s and went out of his way to make her birthday meal lovely. I would recommend the hotel on the basis of his wonderfully personalized service, the diplomatic and efficient way he manages his staff, and how he breezes through an incredibly busy time of year without once losing his smile.

Since we decided it was time to shake up the routine of going to Grand Cayman (after 4 out of the last 5 years) we picked a destination with a great looking hotel. It is difficult to branch out when you know that you are risking top notch service, people who know you and most of all people who are going to ensure that the Christmas and Birthday we celebrate while away are magnificent! I am pleased to report that we can now be assured of this at two destinations.

This year we chose to stay at the JW Marriott Cancun. Their pools were the hit of the entire trip. We spent no less than 6 hours a day in the pools. When we were not in the pools, the LittleJ’s were planning out what they were going to do in the pools tomorrow! We did manage to visit the beach, which was lovely despite the effects of a busy hurricane season. However, this was the trip the children decided to fall in love with swimming through the various pools. Thankfully their joy kept DaddyJ and I from getting board.

An important part of each Christmas trip is decorating our room for Christmas. The kids have a velcro tree they decorate themselves. Then we all participate in decorating a miniature tree with miniature ornaments and lights. This year we also tried making moonsand decorations which were more messy than festive. Oh well great fun was had by everyone.

Our Christmas Day was relaxed. We woke up and found that Santa had found us all the way in Cancun. There was some worry that he would head to Grand Cayman looking for us, but his trusty elves kept him apprised of our destination. Santa filled all of our stockings to near exploding. We all escaped receiving a lump of coal luckily! After we exchanged presents with each other it was off for a day in the sun, floating in the pools and digging on the beach. Ahhhhhhh how relaxing! Christmas Day dinner included a trip to the nearby Shrimp Bucket where gorged ourselves on shrimp. I think I might have gotten my annual fill of elements with all of the shrimp I at on our trip. The kids enjoyed that we ate out on a deck on top of the ocean water.

BabyJ’s birthday was wonderful. We spent the day exactly as she wanted. We had breakfast, went to the pool, proceeded to Kukulakan Kids to play, and then we went back to the hotel for more time in the pool and then we were off for a dinner of chocolate cake and singing. We lucked out and Arturo came to sing for BabyJ making her evening complete. Turning three in Cancun seems to have proved a great experience for her!

Our only adventures included: Two trips two Kukulakan Kids indoor playground which was a blast, A Submarine ride for BabyJ and DaddyJ, an outstandingly fun trip to Senor Frogs where we laughed out butts off (Especially when BabyJ was dancing on the stage, fearful indications of years to come & BeaverJ was the hit of the conga line) and Bubba Gump Shrimp. It would seem in my relaxed state I have even given in further to visiting those tourist traps.

DaddyJ and BabyJ on her 1St Submarine Trip

One thing, Senor Frogs was a fantastic place to take the kids for dinner. They had balloon artists, singing, dancing, water balloon tossing, swings, a waterslide through the restaurant and out into the ocean, and an indoor pool. The LittleJ’s were sure I had lost all of my marbles on the beach, to be allowed to play so hard during their meal. I admit despite the touristy nature of it, it made an impression on us, and will always be a part of our most excellent memories of Cancun

Christmas and BabyJ's Birthday would not be complete without a picture of the Snowmen!

Wintertime Zoo Fun and The Grade One Christmas Concert

Each year we enjoy the class' holiday production. The class' teacher and the music teacher work so hard to help the children feel confident in singing their songs. I suspect the music teacher has the patience of Job since she spends all fall helping the preschool to grade 3 students master their songs.

This year the children worked on small plays complete with costumes. BeaverJ was a Lutin (elf) in the play about Pere Noel having a headache which is not getting any better with the three Lutins bothering him about lost toy cars. It of course, turns out that the three cars in Pere Noel's hat are the cause of his headache!

We had a great time helping BeaverJ practice his lines for the play and even more fun seeing him say them with pride and confidence.

Additionally this year in the spirit of the three current official languages of focus at the school the class sang "Jingle Bells" in French, English and Spanish! Certainly it is an indication of things to come.

Singing Sonne les Cloches/Jingle Bells/Cascabel

BeaverJ enjoying the performance!

Singing Une Etoile de Noel and Quand le Pere Noel complete with actions

After the Christmas concert we returned to the classroom to enjoy a Christmas party complete with gifts, food and lots of laughter. BabyJ always loves to visit BeaverJ's room and check out what is in his desk.

Hanging with my Brother in his Classroom

Deep focus on the importance of eating cookies

Wintertime Fun at the Zoo!

As is our tradition during the Calgary Zoo Christmas Light spectacular we headed off to the zoo after school with one of BeaverJ's long time school buddies. We arrive early enough while there is still some light to see a few animals and then play at the playground. By that time it is getting to be dark out and we all head in for a dinner at the "cafe". After dinner much time must be spent sliding or as was this years theme, "Surfing the Slide". On the way out we take in a few of the lights just as the Zoo is getting busy.

BeaverJ and a school Buddy displaying their pleasure at being at the zoo!

BabyJ enjoying the park!

DaddyJ off in the dark distance checking out the boys' antics!

Happy Hippos and Warthogs


BabyJ taking a ride on the slide

The boys "surfing the rail" of the slide

Community Christmas Party

Our community puts on a Wine and Cheese Holiday party each December in our community hall. Since there are Wedding receptions or Christmas parties most weekends in the building it is always decorated festively and the catering staff presents a lovely selection of appetisers, desserts and beverages. It is a pleasant way to get out in your own community in the middle of a busy season.

This year the organisers had the great thought to bring in Santa in for a visit with the children! BeaverJ was very excited to sit with Santa and tell him all about what he wants for Christmas. BabyJ seems to have lost her fear of Santa and was willing to go talk to him while sitting on DaddyJ's lap. This is a wonderful improvement over last year and we can hope that by next year she will be willing to sit with Santa!

For both our Stampede Breakfast and Holiday party I am constantly impressed by the effort involved in making these events wonderful celebrations for the community.

The littleJ's by the Christmas tree in their "Santa" shirts.

BeaverJ's says "Santa doesn't have to know about this" and BabyJ's "I Heart Santa"

We hope this posting finds you all well and feeling ready for Christmas and New Years. We wish each of you a very happy holiday season and look forward to posting more about the 4jsadventures in 2008!

Best Wishes Always,

The 4 J's