Huybers Retirement Adventure: 2013

Meet our granddaughter Piper!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with excitement and joy! Our daughter Elaine gave birth to our first grandchild! Piper Frances Wakely entered the world on October 25, 2013 weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz. with a full head of hair. We are thrilled with her arrival!

In anticipation of the birth of our granddaughter, I booked a flight for Ron to go and see her soon after she was born. Unfortunately, due to the fact we have a dog with no one to look after him, I had to stay home. I would have loved to have gone to see and hold Piper but we did the next best thing. Ron spent 3 days with Piper and he called, sent emails with photos and videos, and Skyped everyday he was there. I got to see live footage of Piper smiling, squirming, yawning and just being the sweet little girl she is. It was almost like being there!

Ron had a wonderful time meeting Piper and seeing Elaine and David as well. It’s not often that he gets to see his daughter Elaine, so it was really nice for the two of them to get together for a few days.

While Ron was there, Elaine had to run some errands so they packed up Piper and off they went. They went to a German store that carried a lot of food items from Holland. We used to go to the Dutch Store in Chilliwack all the time but Ron hadn’t been in one since we left a year and a half ago. He just had to call me and tell me what was there. I could tell he was drooling over all the Dutch goodies that were in the store. He was like a kid in a candy shop! While he was on the phone to me telling me all about it, I could hear him say to someone “ Oh I’m sorry … I’m new at this.” It turned out he was pushing Piper in the baby stroller and he was getting in the way of other shoppers. Of course when the people saw that it was a new baby, they all had to stop and ooh and aww over how cute she is. I could tell in the photos that were sent to me, and in Ron’s voice, that he was overjoyed with seeing and holding Piper. He is one proud Opa!

We are also thrilled to announce that in March we will be expecting the arrival of our second grandchild! Our son Adam and our daughter in-law Erica are expecting their first child on March 14, 2014. I do know the sex of the child, but some people reading this blog (my mother) may not, and therefore I won’t be disclosing this bit of information until the announcement is made to everyone by the parents. I guess you readers will just have to stay tuned!

She's finally here!

Lots of hair

Going home from hospital

Fancy Baby Rocker

Such a proud Opa!

Staring at her Opa

Big Yawn!!

Opa putting her to sleep.

I can sure stretch out!

I love my Opa.

I could sleep here all day!

Getting some cuddle time in

She definately IS the Apple of mom's eye!

Having tummy time.

I think I'm getting a diaper change!

I'm done ... I want up!

Wonder what she's thinking ... or doing!

See my big boots!

Happy Opa!

Nap time

Look at all that hair!

The Happy Proud Parents

Traffic on PEI is very light at the best of times, but on a Sunday it’s practically non existent. So today we thought it might be fun if we explored the east end of the island. It had been several years since we had driven to the eastern part of the island and it seemed like the perfect day to go. The leaves on the trees are starting to change color and the temperature was a comfortable (with a jacket) 15 degrees.

I packed a light lunch to take with us, bundled up the dog, took the GPS and off we went. We decided to head to Montague for our first stop. In order to get there, the GPS took us through Charlottetown. What we didn’t realize until we got there was that there was a major Marathon running through the streets of Charlottetown. They had a lot of police manning the intersections and some roads were blocked off completely. We decided to get off the main drag and go through some side streets to by pass the runners. Once we crossed the bridge from Charlottetown to Stratford it was clear sailing. Traffic returned to normal … which meant only one or two cars in sight.

The drive to Montague was very colorful with all the leaves changing. Since it’s close to Halloween a lot of properties along the way had their houses decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, witches etc. One place we passed was setting their front yard up to look like a graveyard. That’s one thing I notice on PEI … everyone gets into the holiday spirit (no pun intended) no matter what seasonal time it is.

We arrived in Montague and found a lovely spot to park, right on the water. It was a park like setting with a couple of picnic tables, a little playground area for the kids, a wooden gazebo and a wooden boardwalk that took you along the waters edge toward the Visitor’s Centre. Unfortunately it was closed for the season. They also had a Christmas Store there. Ron said that we would have to come back to Montague so I could go shopping there. Since it was Sunday … it was closed. L

We walked back to the car and had our lunch. We watched three men in a boat go by us. I wondered what they were going to fish for. By the time we finished our lunch the same three men motored back with a drum of something on the boat. I guess I’ll never know what was in that drum … but I can always use my imagination!

It was still early in the day so we thought we might continue exploring and head to Georgetown. The last time we went to Georgetown, we found it to be a very quiet little town. So quiet in fact that we only saw 2 people on the streets the whole time we were driving around. Today was not much different.

We rolled into Georgetown and the streets were empty. There doesn’t appear to be much to see or do in Georgetown. They have a post office, fire department, a school, a corner grocery store (small) and a theatre for plays. And that is it.

Georgetown is located right on the water. We found a nice little spot to park called Veteran’s Landing. PEI loves its wooden boardwalks because in this sleepy little town, there was another one. Maybe there’s a theme! What made this little spot unique was that someone had built and erected a wooden train. It had several cars attached to it and sat on wooden rails. Back in 1875, PEI’s railroad was opened for service which ultimately attracted tourists to the island. This train was a symbol of the olden days.

As we were walking around it started to sprinkle a bit of rain. We thought it was a good time to start to head home. It was a good thing as the rain drops got heavier and faster. Before we knew it, we were in a down pour. It reminded us of the BC weather that we left behind. By the time we got back to Kensington, the skies had parted a bit and the sun was peeking through. The streets were a lot drier too. As we drove onto our property, we couldn’t help but think, this was another great day on PEI, but it sure felt good to be back home. J