The Final Days and the First Days

It’s been a while since I blogged.  These were the last few days at the coast with family and the first few days at the park, all alone.

 

The last week in the Vancouver area is always a blur.  Last minute commitments and getting ready to head to our summer job.  Take all that and mix in Jason’s birthday, Sophie’s birthday and my birthday and it’s pretty hectic.  Add a couple more things that need to be done and, well you know, exhaustion.

 

                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                            Granddaughter Nico (17) made me a multi coloured birthday cake

                                                                               

Sophie was turning seven years old.  She had a big party happening at the Langley Events Center on Saturday.  Doug and I decided that we would rather do something more personal for her.  Just Grampa, Gramma and Sophie.  Turned out Jason came along but that was okay too.  We went to McDonald’s.  Cutest thing.  Upon arriving at McDonald’s, I asked Sophie what she wanted in her Happy Meal.  She replied “Oh no Gramma, there’s not enough food in a Happy Meal for me!”  She had a quarter pounder, fries and a drink and ate every morsel and then had a cupcake that I had brought along.  For us this is so refreshing.   Most of our grandchildren barely eat.

 

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                            Sophie doing “eenie, meenie” to decide which cupcake Dad could have

Wednesday night Jason, Michelle and Sophie brought an ice-cream cake for my birthday.   This time they got it from Marble Slab instead of Dairy Queen.   Raspberry cheesecake – Yum, yum, yum.

 

                                                                                                                                    

 

That night we finally got to give Sophie some of her Christmas gifts.  These gifts had been at daughter Niki’s house since before Christmas but Jason had just not had time to pick them up.  I had made Sophie a knitted hoodie for her gift.   She loved it.  Apparently she wore it to bed that night, to school the next day and was still wearing it on Easter morning to collect her eggs.  That thrills me.  This little girl has everything money can buy but she loves what Gramma made her.

 

                                                                                               

 

As my dear Grandmother used to say “There are no flies on this little girl”.  We were entertained with Sophie’s presentation of “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen.   Danced and performed by Sophie Allie Marie.  But alas, even though we have fiddled with this video and shrunk it, it will not load.

 

Friday morning,  we took a pancake breakfast to Graeme’s house so that we could watch ourselves on The Price is Right.  And there we were.   We had hoped that the outcome would be different on television and we had won a car or something.  Nope, didn’t happen.

 

On our final night in Langley we had dinner with our very dear friends, Sreedevi and Anil.  She made Indian food for us and kept it reasonably mild.  We have such fun with this couple, we always do.

 

                                                                                                            

 

 

Saturday morning we headed up the mighty Coquahalla highway, expecting the roads to be troublesome.  Not so.  Barely any snow at all and

easy going.

                            

                                                                                          

 

Made it to the park in good time.   The contract on our park is now sold.  Our new contractor is a very nice, very young fellow.  So much good news.    We have a near new truck in the park and two beautiful golf carts with roofs.   The park has practically been cleared of everything.   New stuff is starting to arrive.  Phones are connected.  Internet is not.  Water is not on until tomorrow.  Electricity is on.   We have fourteen campers in the park and they get to camp for free until Friday afternoon when we start collecting fees.  We have a lot of work to do to get the park up and running.  Winter snows bring down trees and there are gazillions of pine needles to be raked.  We will be here completely alone until next weekend when the other staff arrives.   So we have been busy already.

 

             The gatehouse is practically empty                                                                           The compound is empty                                                                                  No one is here except us

 

We have a new visitor though.   Last year, campers reported seeing a lake beaver. Lake beavers are not very common.   We have one though and he/she has been busy, really, really busy.