What to do on a Cold day at the Beach?

The wind is howling and the waves are crashing and it is just miserable out there.  There is nothing more miserable than a beach on a cold day in my mind.  But on the positive side we have a great Buddy Heater and its toasty warm in the Ponderosa.  But what do we do on such a day.  Well today we caught up on all of the grandkids and kids on Facebook.  They are all busy doing something!!  So today I will talk about them cause we are just so proud of all of them.

So the next thing is what order to put them in.  Don't want to offend anyone so what I did was let my camera place them in the file and I am just picking them out as they come.  And I didn't count pictures so there may be more of one person than another.  So be it.  Doesn't mean we love you any less.  First up is Sheri and Dani.  They were at a balloon thing on the lake near them.  It looked like a fun day.

Then the crazy kids,  Dani, Donovan, and Rio when they were ice fishing not long ago.  I wrote a blog post about it.  Joey was missing from the picture.

Silas is a fun kid.  I think he is gonna have a good sense of humor and be the life of the party!  He and his cousin Grace are best of friends.  They went to the Brandon Winter Fair and got to hold some of the animals.

Dani again.  She loves to do the lemonade stands.  I think maybe she is pushing it a bit when the snow bank beside her is almost as tall as her.  Good luck Dani!!

Silas has thick hair like his dad and his grampa so he needs to have his ears lowered lots.  What a cutie and it was all worth while cause he got a lollipop.

Abby our little daredevil.  She was at the fair and strapped into the trampoline flying trapeze thingy.  Look how high she was jumping.  She will soon be ready for the Drop of Doom with Grampa!!!

And Joey who is one of our two new grandchildren.  He is a go getter and loves his hockey.  His team won silver in the Tournament of Champions!!  He was the goalie #20.  We are looking forward to getting to know him better this summer.

The Brandon Winter Fair is a great place to go for kids to have fun.  It is held indoors every March in Brandon.   Silas, Emma, Abby and Grace went and seemed to have fun.

Silas, Emma, Abby, Grace

And Abby picked out a fuzzy bunny rabbit to hold.  I think she needs one doesn't she.  She is growing so fast and is a little ray of sunshine in everyone's life.

Rio is the other newest grandchild and loves gymnastics.  We have gone to a couple of her practices and could see that this was something she loves.  She did so well at the gymnastics meet she just attended.  We are proud of you Rio!!   Rio is the girl in all black with the biggest smile.

You are flippin awesome!!

A family picture of the Alberta Gang.  Looking forward to Gord and Sheri's wedding next year!

Joey, Gord, Rio, Sheri, Dani, and Donovan

And our Angel Clayton! We think of him every single day and wonder what his accomplishments would have been.  He has already accomplished a lot in our lives, because he was the push for us to start the RV life sooner than we had planned.  We learned that we are not promised tomorrow on this earth so what we do today matters most. We have also learned that smiles count from Clayton.  He was always smiling.  This world would be so much better if we took more time to smile.  We have a wind chime that hangs in the Ponderosa and we call it Clayton. Every time we hear it ring we smile and say "we hear you Clayton"!   His mom Nicole has become a voice for the SUDC (Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood) organization and although Nicole and Derek have experienced the ultimate loss themselves, she supports other families who are going through the same trial.  We are proud of them for that as well as being the parents they are.

Clayton James is the little guy that our Ice Cream shop is named after. CJ's Snack Shack!!  Love and miss you!!!

And the newest member of our family Max.  Another smiley kid.  He is still mommas boy and hasn't accomplished much except to fill our hearts with love.   That is more than enough.

Grace is so proud of her little brother, unless he steals her thunder, then she will stand in front of him and say "I'm talking"!  It won't be long and all her toys will be fair game.  

Grace loves to talk and here is a picture of her telling me a story over a game of checkers outside Cracker Barrel this winter.  We just sat and rocked as she explained the rules of the game to me.  I found out I have been playing it wrong all these years!!  Apparently you see how tall you can stack them without them falling over!!  Who would have known?

And our littlest princess Emma. She is walking now and will be ready for Gramma and Grampa to fill her full of ice cream when we get back and open the shack.  Once again her smile is so wonderful.    We are blessed with a whole bunch of smiling grandchildren and children in our lives.

A picture of Dani showing off their latest pet Moose!!  He is so cute and cuddly now but should stop growing just short of the size of a horse.  See the size of the paws?  We look forward to meeting Moose in a few weeks.

And the newest driver in the family.  Donovan is practicing to be grampa's chauffeur this summer.  The hands are in the right place but the eyes are not!!  Eyes on the road please!!!

And while most hockey players are retiring in their mid thirties, Sheri is taking up the sport.  She played her first game ever this winter and said she liked it.  Good job!!  She never said how many goals she scored.

And Emma again proud to be driving a drag racer just like Grampa Waldon.  He is an avid drag racer and I would call him semi professional.  I'm sure he would be proud if she decided to take over driving for him in a few years.  She has already been to a few races.

And another family picture.  Derek and Nicole and family.  Its a year or so old.

Emma, Nicole, Clayton, Abby, Derek, Silas

Karalee has moved to Alberta and is hanging out with Sheri while she tries to put some money together to go to school.  Karalee is our free spirit kid and keeps us on our toes wondering what she will be up to next.  I always said that she is a go getter and will be the Prime Minister of Canada someday, and I'm thinking if she threw her name in the hat for the next election, she just might win!!!

She loves being an Auntie to all her nieces and nephews.   And there isn't a kid alive that doesn't want to hang with Auntie Karalee!

Grace, Karalee

Karalee, Abby

She is and always will be the baby of our family.  And because she doesn't have kids spread all over this post, she gets a couple extra pictures.

And another family picture.  Kaitlyn and Greg came to visit us this winter.  They are home now and are having a few nice days outside.  I think the trampoline will be busy this summer.

Grace, Kaitlyn, Greg, Max

Abby did some curling this winter.  I am always pleased to see my kids or grandkids curl because that was a sport I used to enjoy.  Between having a heart attack and being in the warm south when curling is on at home, it has been a bout 5 years since I have curled and I do miss it.  

Dani did some curling too!  Sorry but curling warrants a couple extra pictures.

Abby is a dancer too and I thinks she enjoys it a lot.  We got to see her recital a couple years and she danced up a storm.

And Dani is a horseback rider.  She has been riding horse for a couple years now.  This was her favorite horse and I think I remember his name as Snowball.

Donovan used to play hockey but with some knee injuries he has decided not to chance ruining his leg so now enjoys being a referee.  He had surgery on his knee this winter so we hope it won't bother him anymore.

He also served as Jr. Coach along with Gord on Joey's hockey team this year.  Good for him to get to know the ropes.  Here is a picture of the three of them after their silver medal win not long ago.

Dani and Abby have always been good buddie.  It is so nice when all the cousins seem to get along and because their ages are not that far apart, they all seem to have some like interests.

It has taken me a whole afternoon to put this post together but I have enjoyed every minute of it.  If you are not a family member, and have made it all the way down here to the bottom, thanks.  This is our family and we are really proud of each and every one of them.  Our family is what keeps us going in life and although many people envy us spending our winters in the warm south, there are times when it is hard and we wish we were home to hug them or to be hugged.  But they have all chosen their paths in life and they don't need us holding their hands all the time.  Modern technology allows us to share in all of their achievements in life and although we hate face book, it is the first thing we look at to see what is going on in their lives.  Keep up the good work guys.

So rather than a view out our window tonight you have to settle for a look into our hearts.