My 38th Birthday!

Mia and Isabella crafting in the guest room! A new friendship is made!

Gathering on the deck!

Goofy cousins!

Mike in charge of BBQing, as usual

Zach swinging in the park!

Chris, Annie and Zach were up visiting from Quebec! It was so nice to spend time with them while they were here! So happy they were able to make it to my birthday gathering! AND...a Great family photo!

Was SO happy to have both Josh and Jay with us! Jaylene was able to come back from Victoria for a little extra time before school starts! Yay! ....OUR family photo!

WEM!

Maguires by the fire!

Irene and Cheryl!

I was spoiled!

A cool card from my hubby!

Had such a nice evening! Thanks again!

A Special Day with Jay!

It was our last full day with Jaylene before she heads off to Victoria for soccer try-outs and university! :o So we tried to fit in as many family traditions, rituals and memorable moments as we could! ♥                                                                                       As he did after Josh's graduation, Mike brought out the remaining half a bottle of Red Feather Saloon Dawson City Whisky he purchased in 1994, along with the monogrammed JRK flask from our wedding.

He retold the story about purchasing the 11-year-old whisky before Josh was born with the plan to hold on to it, seal unbroken, until the day Josh graduated.

Of course, two years later, he had a daughter. So, after 18 years, Josh was given half of this bottle. The remainder was saved for this day! Mike slowly poured the Red Feather Saloon whisky into Jay's flask...

Then Jay closed up the flask.

Before taking her first sip, Josh decided to video her, of course.

Jay's sip! (She said she wasn't too keen on the taste.)

Then we passed it around the circle. (We did this while sitting on the old linoleum found under the cork flooring that we ripped out of the kitchen the day before. It was nice to put renos and chores on hold for a day).

Josh took a sip and then me! The flask was then returned to Jay for safe keeping!

All of this was happening during a rare Whitehorse thunder storm. It began to hail and Jay welcomed it...

Until it began to pelt her!

Hail on our deck floor!

Jay decided to attack Josh with one of his old swim caps!

Being a big brother for almost 18 years now, Josh appeared almost immune to little sister pestering and he simply endured it!

So Mike attacked Jay with a second swim cap, which everyone, for some reason, found very amusing!

Jay used it to pull off gangsta' hip!

We tried to wait out the rain, but Josh had ants in his pants, so we put on coats, Jay grabbed her umbrella, and we headed outside to plant trees!

Josh and Jay's Great Grandparents - Irene and Will- used to live in Dawson City. Outside of their house was a giant birch tree Mike used to climb as a kid. Eventually, the tree had to be cut down. However, saplings sprouted and Irene returned to Dawson to retrieve a few of these saplings for the family!

Mike, Josh, Jay and I planted two birch saplings on our property!

Josh dug the holes.

Our first planted tree

Mike and Jay found rocks...

...and used them to border the trees. I returned to the house to check on Deja who was having a difficult time with the thunder.

While inside I could here shouting! "Go, Go, Go!" I had no idea what was going on, so I rushed outside and found these three having a "boat race" in a mini-stream created by the heavy rain!

Josh's boat didn't make it past the half way point. Mike's was in the lead most the way, but, in the end, Jay's boat won!

After drying off, we decided to head out for a nice family dinner at G&P's! Alejandro joined us! It was an enjoyable way to spend a day and soak up quality time with Jay!