Diary:Day 2 - History Lesson

On Saturday, after a good nights rest, we were ready to get going and do some sight seeing. I had been to Canada 16 years ago, in 1992 and we had gone to visit the house where my grandfather, his twin brother and two older brothers were raised. I was eager to go back and see it. I was warned that it wasn't in the best of shape and the gentleman that had bought it didn't want us on his property, so we stayed back and took pictures from the street.
They were right, the house wasn't in the best of shape and the out-house that used to be right off the back left hand side was gone. My great grandmother would have never let her house look like this. She was very particular and took pride in her house. I wish we would have been able to go inside. The last time we were there we at least able to get closer and see inside, but we understand.
This chicken coop was used to house the chickens and later was used as storage. At our previous visit, we went into the coop and retrieved many family photos, priceless belongings and some nice antiques. This time all I could do was look from afar and wonder what might still be in there. It doesn't look like much has been done to it, so there is no telling if there are belongings still left in there.

Our next stop was the cemetery where my great grandparents and their infant son are buried. In 1992, a white church stood next to the cemetery and in 1995 the church was destroyed by a plow wind.

Kopperud Lutheran Church was erected in 1910 and destroyed by a plow wind at 12:30 am on July 30, 1995. The cemetery grounds are now maintained by a local family and they do an amazing job!
This bell was once used at the church and is the only item that survived the plow wind.

This is the school that my grandfather and his brothers attended. They were so strict that they would not allow my grandfather to use his left hand and would often slap his hand with a stick to remind him to use his right hand. I was surprised that it was still standing, I took this picture from about 100 yards away, as there is no longer a road that leads to it.
Here is the old border crossing office. They have built a new one, this one is no longer in use. It is right across the street from my great grandparents house.
Our last stop was there cemetery where my Great Uncle Leonard is buried. Uncle Leonard passed away unexpectedly in 1989. He was watching t.v. fell asleep and never woke. Aunt Bette wanted to stop by and see him as she does very often.

After our tour of North Gate and North Portal we met back at Aunt Bette's house for a dinner and a chance for everyone to get together. We had a great time socializing and Cutter was the best entertainment we could have asked for. He had a great time playing with all this 3 rd cousins.

Cutter and Audra
This was entertaining watching him figure out how to get it off his head. It only took 4 times for him to figure out that the ring disappeared to the top of his head and how to get it off. He had a blast playing with Audra. The funny thing is is that at our last family reunion Audra was Cutters age and I was the one playing with her this way. Oh how the circle of life goes.
Nikole and Cutter
Grandma and Cathie
Nikole and Dorna

Welcome Frederick Blayne MacDonald

On Labor Day, September 4, 2008, my cousins wife, Quincy, gave birth to a 3rd generation of Frederick's. Frederick Blayne MacDonald entered the world at 11:30 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long. He was 4 weeks early and as healthy as we could have hoped for!
Before we went to Canada we got a chance to meet the new little Mac! He is just so precious and I can't believe that Cutter was once that little. Grandma enjoyed meeting him for the first time and she was just so smitten by him! Cutter is going to have so much fun having a cousin so close to his age.
Frederick Jay Mac with Blayne and Grandma
Blayne has the intials of our Great Grandfather, Frederick Beers MacDonald - what a great way to carry down such a great family tradition.
Welcome Blayne to this wild, crazy family! We love you and can't wait to watch you grow into a handsome young man!

Diary: First 24 hours!

About 3 months ago when Greg and I were discussing what we were going to do for our 3rd anniversary and my vacation I expressed concern that I wasn't quite ready to leave my little man for more than a couple of days. He agreed and we set out to find a place that we could go to as a family and still be "baby" friendly. I immediately phoned my family up in Canada and decided that we would go for a visit, they had yet to meet Cutter and I was eager for them to meet my handsome little man before he graduated high school. So away we went.

Before we left on our long journey to Canada, I needed Cutter to get out as much energy as possible, so I gave him his walker and let him loose in his Canada shirt that his Aunt Bette had sent him. He was just as anxious to get going as we were. We gave Cutter a bath, a bottle and off to the car seat he went. Before we were out of the block, he was sawing some zzzz's and slept til 6 a.m. the next morning, we were well into Nebraska by then. After a morning bottle, a few kisses and lots of smiles later, he drifted back off to sleep til about 1030.

By that time we were entering into South Dakota he was waking and ready to play. Luckily I had prepared for such a long drive, I loaded up on books, movies and lots of patience. Much to my surprise, little man is such a good car rider that not much patience was needed.

By noon, we were eating lunch and switching drivers. Daddy had driven all night long was getting pretty tired so it was mommy's turn at the wheel. While I was driving Daddy did a great job at keeping the little man occupied. Within 2 hours Daddy and Cutter had had a nap and Daddy was ready to take the wheel again. So I jumped back in the back and took over keeping him busy. I tried a new Winnie the Pooh video, but he just isn't into movies yet. So back to the books we went. I can't tell you how many times I read the same 10 books I brought. We went over our body parts - nose, eyes, ears, chin. I repeated it so many times that I thought by the end of our day he would be repeating it as well, but I was out of luck, he's still not saying it, can you believe it!?! :)

After a stop at Subway and another nap later in the afternoon we were arriving into Canada and our family was anxiously waiting to greet us. By 8 pm we were sitting and sharing stories about our drive to seem them.

Stay tuned for the next 9 days!

10 exhausting days, 2 - 24 hour car rides, and 24 new friends and family to love!

Over 300 pictures and many stories later, we are getting back into the groove of things after a 10 day trip to Canada. For the next week I will post a diary of our trip! We are exhausted and ready to get back on a schedule. Cutter is an amazing travler and everyone fell in love with him. We are so excited that we got to take him along to meet family and friends that were just as anxious to meet him. He was a total hit and just as good as I expected him to be.

Be on the look out for a day to day diary of our trip to Canada!

September 11, 2001

Yesterday as Greg and I were getting ready for today, September 11, we reflected upon how fast the past 7 years have gone by. I remember where I was (in Utah), what I was doing (getting ready for flight attendant training) and who I was (a merely 20 years old, with no direction in life).

I could still, to this day, tell you exactly how I felt when those terrorist attacks happened. I was numb, scared, I felt insecure, and was unsure of how my career choice was going to work out.

I had been contact by "my airline of choice" weeks before September 11 and had chose to attend training starting Oct 15. I was excited, scared, and looking forward to starting a new beginning. Then Tuesday, September 11 happened and by Friday they were calling me to tell me that training had been canceled and they were unsure how long it would be before they started training classes up again. Me being me, I told them I was still looking forward to going to training and to please let me know when they started again. About a week later they were calling to let me know they decided to keep going with the training and that my class would still start October 11, needless to say I was super excited. Deep down I was scared. I went on to complete training and became an official flight attendant on November 16, 2001.

Two months after September 11 I was up in the skies flying, I wasn't going to let those people (if that is what you want to call them), ruin what I wanted to do with my life. Initially I was scared, fearful that it would happen again, but now I feel safer than ever flying in the friendly skies.

In the last 7 years I have met, loved and married the man of my dreams. We have had a beautiful son, whom will never know the true feelings of such a terrible attack, but will know why his Uncle James is fighting for our freedom.

Life has gone on, but this day will never be forgotten! I will always reflect on where I was and how I felt, as I do not want to forget how uncertain I felt that day!

Echo.

Anyone in there??

Cutter loves hearing himself as he talks into this empty bucket. He continually goes for this toy when put down to play. I am assuming that he likes hearing the echo that comes along with hearing his voice. It is actually a bucket that has a top with the square, rectangle and triangle on top and then you place the coordinating block into that hole, but since Cutter isn't quite into placing the blocks in there yet, (I mean, I know my kid is a genius but hey I have to be realistic here), we took the top off. One day here soon, I will start teaching him that the blocks go into the top accordingly. Until then, he can enjoy the thrill that comes along with hearing his echo.

Ouch!

We have our first big boo-boo. On Friday Cutter was making his way over to our end table when he took a lunge and struck the corner with his nose. He cried, we cried and I continued to cry. At first it didn't look like it was going to be much of any thing, but by Saturday morning it looked like this. So I am Neosporian-ing it up at night hoping that it will heal up within no time.

I am baby proofing everything around here! I never knew crawling could be so dangerous! :)

Oh please, Oh PLEASE...

..tell me how I can get my kid to stop grinding his teeth! Two days after he got his bottom tooth he started grinding them non-stop and it is driving me insane! Grinding teeth to me are like finger nails on the chalk board - it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. He doesn't have much of a bottom tooth there yet, I don't know if it is because of the grinding or if it just hasn't made its way completely out there yet.

We have made forward progress on the crawling, Cutter had been either moving backward when he crawled or would crawl a few steps and then plop down on his belly, but as of yesterday he is moving full steam ahead. He is finally figuring out that he can follow me just about every where I go and can get to any toy (or couch) that he wants. The fireplace is my next thing to baby proof, I am going to attempt to make some kind of barrier to go there. I''ll show of my crafty side if it looks ok.

Cutter has also started clapping. I don't know if he picked it up from patty cake or if he saw me do it so many times when he did something new. If I say "Yea Cutter!!" he starts clapping! He is so proud of himself and he gets a huge toothy grin on his face that you just can't wipe away.

Next on our list of tricks to learn: Waving Bye-Bye!

Labor Day = Laundry Day

Since our usually scheduled laundry day was not spent at home, we made Monday the day to get it done! The last time we did laundry Cutter was not mobile, today was another story. Since Cutter has become more and more mobile by the day, getting him to sit still is nearly impossible. Today we (meaning I) attempted to fold the laundry while the little man played with his toys near by.

Yeah, what was I thinking? I dunno either!

So I gave him his own laundry to fold, err I mean, play with. What is more fun than a basket full of miss matched socks!?! This kid had a blast! I'm telling you he might have a carrer at the dry cleaners one day!










And the best picture yet of those two top teeth!!