Jimmy – Page 2 – wee little lovelys

Jimmy got an award!

October 20, 2016

Jimmy was nominated by his Camosun college professors for the Andrea Van Rheenan award:

To honour graduates who show dedication and leadership in supporting people who have significant challenges, and through his/her actions, inspires others to see the “person within.” The successful recipients will demonstrate creativity, compassion and a sense of humour with people with significant challenges. If possible, these recipients will have the ability to ‘sign’ (sign language).

Jimmy suspects that it is the sense of humor part that tipped the scales as he was the consummate class clown in addition to spearheading lively conversations in class,

We attended the awards ceremony in October and it was a very special day. We are super proud of Jimmy & all his accomplishments!

Vancouver summer trip

July 30, 2016

Last summer we traveled to Vancouver for a mini vacation. We wanted to spend time checking out all the fun tourist things and to visit old friends. We stayed downtown for two nights so we could catch the sky-train and walk around the city. We visited the Aquarium, did some shopping, visited Science World and had a blast.

After our stay downtown we drove over to North Vancouver to stay with our good friends Faye & Niels. I have known Faye since my first year at University. She was my roommate in residence! The University placed us together randomly and have been friends since. We had a great two nights spending time with Faye and her family. We also visited with our friends and the kids surrogate grandmother, Evelyn, who was our neighbor in our old condo building when we lived in North Vancouver. We spent some time with her and her boyfriend Barney. They were so sweet and it was nice to catch up on all the condo gossip 😉 We also had some time to have a picnic with our South African friends Kim, Ryan and their two sons Kye and Fin. We spent a lot of time together when Claire & Rhys were babies as Kim and I worked together and had an overlap with our maternity leaves. We used to swap child minding which I miss so much! A bonus of staying with Faye & Niels is we tagged along to another friends big BBQ so we were able to see lots of old friends and they have the best backyard that Claire & Rhys made the most of.

We had a great trip and we are excited to make it an annual summer adventure.

….

Science World:

Aquarium:

Lions Gate Bridge to West & North Vancouver:

Faye & Niels home:Faye & Nield

Evelyn & Barney:

Kim & Ryan clan:Kim & Ryan

Lisa & Sean’s BBQ…best backyard for kids:

And of course….Jimmy found a pool to skate 😉

Jimmy’s graduation!

June 27, 2016

I am super proud to announce that Jimmy recently graduated from Camosun College! Between academic study and practicum-based work, balancing the demands of life was very challenging.

We are very pleased that he (we) persevered and he got on the Dean’s Honour Roll as a result! He now has his Community Support/ Education Assistant diploma and he is ready to attack the job market.

Mexico 2016!

February 23, 2016

In February we traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to catch some sunshine. We met my parents down there and had a blast. The kids had so much fun and it is always so nice to spend time with my parents. The main purpose for this trip was to have Claire & Rhys spend some quality time with their Nana & Papa who they don’t get to see very often. Mission accomplished 🙂

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Christmas in Victoria 2016

December 28, 2015

We had a lovely Christmas this year. Pretty decorations, cool weather, some sunshine, present opening, a walk along the beach, brunch with Debbie and a Christmas dinner with the whole Miller gang out in Sooke.

Butchart Gardens

December 15, 2015

To celebrate the December birthdays of Debbie & Senna, we met up at Butchart gardens recently. Despite the heavy rain, we all found time to revel in the nighttime festive splendor of it all.

Hidden amongst the tour were displays depicting scenes from the “12 days of Christmas” song. The kids’ goal was to find all of the displays and their reward, given by the front desk, was a free candy cane (which they achieved, obviously). After riding the indoor carousel, getting drenched from the rain, and after many oohs and aahs, we all sat down to have some hot cocoa and warm up before we went our separate ways.

We are looking forward to Christmas dinner with everyone in a few weeks time.

Halloween 2015

December 10, 2015

We had a very fun Hallowe’en this year. Harry Potter is a big hit in our house so Claire & Rhys wanted to dress up as Harry Potter & Hermione. Of course we had to join in the fun too. Jimmy went as Hagrid and I went as Professor McGonagall.

We met up with some friends in their neighborhood which is perfect for trick-or-treating… houses are close together and almost every house participates. We were outside for approx 1.5 hours and the kids collected way too much candy. In fact, we are weeks away from Christmas and we still have loads left. I think next year we will factor in a candy tax for our efforts in the costume design and facilitating trick-or-treating 😉

Spooktacular Thanksgiving

November 2, 2015

The Miller clan gathered together for Thanksgiving this year. It is turning into a bit of an annual tradition… a visit to Galey’s farm followed by a yummy potluck style dinner at our home.

Galey’s farm has train rides with silly Hallowe’en decor along the way, a hay-ride to a large pumpkin patch where we pick out pumpkins, a petting zoo, a large corn maze and a haunted house area which Rhys refused to go to this year- too scary!

We always so much fun getting the family together and sharing some laughs. This year was a bit different because it was pouring rain when we were at the farm and we still had a great time.