Brooks, Stirling, Utah & back to Lethbridge

We arrived home from Oregon on Tuesday, the 21st July and Darwin & family arrived Thursday evening and Edward came Friday evening because there was a memorial service in Brooks for my Aunt, Jean Miller, on Saturday, July 25th. She passed away suddenly and unexpectedly the beginning of July. We attended the memorial service and then went for supper at the D.H. Murray home. Elsie, Aunt Anne and her children and some grandchildren, Ann Homer & Cathy and one of her boys, Alex & Helen and Larry & Allan Sproul were all there.

The Adults Visit in the Back Yard

The Young Ones Prefer Donald & Diane's Backyard Pool

Miranda

Courtney

Miranda and Chloe stayed on with us. While they were here we went to Stirling for my sister, Joan's birthday. The girls had a great time playing with their second cousins. Miranda was picked up on the Thursday and we left Lethbridge on Friday to take Chloe back to Utah.

The Miller Family was also at Stirling
John, Cat, Maggie and Anne

When we were in Utah we visited the beautiful Thanksgiving Gardens and now know what "the desert blossoming as a rose" means although outside the boundaries we could still see the desolate non-blooming hills of Utah.

Chloe at Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Thanksgiving Point Rose Garden

Bob and Caden

We returned to Alberta on Thursday, August 6^th so Bob could attend his 50th high school reunion. They had a dinner and dance on the Friday, rode in the parade on Saturday and had a luncheon on Saturday. I watched the parade with Edward and family. Bob and I had a few days alone at home and then Erica, Bentley and Miranda arrived to stay while their parents went to Nova Scotia. Courtney came on Sunday evening. Erica and Courtney attended volleyball camp at the college and Bentley went to basketball camp at the University. Langley and Carter came and stayed a couple of days. Bob took the three young ones to see the Whoop-up Days parade. He also took them to the park every day. Sue-anne picked Courtney up on Friday afternoon. Austen and Lincoln arrived on Friday afternoon and Edward and Jacqueline came on Saturday. We went for supper at O’Sho and then Edward and family went back to Calgary.

Vancouver, Washington, Portland & Hillsboro, Oregon

After the Murray Reunion we spent some time with Bob's sister and family.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009 Edward, Jeremy (and their families), Bob and I went to church in Karen Zundel’s ward and had dinner at her house along with Margaret, Tom, Beth, Randy & family. Darwin and his family had left to go to Washington early in the morning. We went to Hillsboro in the evening and spent a couple of days with Margaret and also visited John and Maggie for an afternoon.

Baines, Johnsons, Zundels & Browns

Murray Reunion July 16 -18 2009

On July 16th we went to Portland to a family reunion of my parents’ descendants. There was a direct flight from Calgary to Portland that didn’t formerly exist, so we drove to Calgary, caught the flight, arrived in Portland, rented a car and joined the family at Lewisville Park, north of Vancouver, Washington. Of the 104 descendants we had 52 people. Edward, Darwin and Jeremy and families were there. Ross Paulette, Riley & Megan attended. Joan’s family that attended were Sandy (he and Carol hosted), Daniel, Lesley, Chris, Joral, & April.

The activities included visiting the Astoria Tower and the Beach at Seaside (in the fog).Saturday we had lunch in the park, supper at Sandy & Carols and had a group picture taken in the tie-dyed shirts we had fashioned the first day of the reunion.

Tie-dying

Granchildren at the park - Austen, Jackson, Lincoln and Miranda Baines

View from the Austoria Column

The Astoria Column - I climbed all the way to the top!

Another view from the top of the Column

Rock Band was a big hit at Sandy's home in Vancouver, Washington

A stream through the park

Ice Blocking

Up the hill carrying the ice

The reunion attendees posing in their tie-died shirts

End of the reunion

July 2009 - Calgary, Edmonton and Brooks

In July Bob's sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Tom Johnson came to Lethbridge to visit us. They arrived on Monday, July 6th and on Thursday we all went to Calgary and had supper with Edward & Jacqueline, Jeremy & Julie and Nathan who was in Calgary on business. We stayed overnight in Calgary and then drove to Edmonton to celebrate Barbara and Bryan Doidge's fortieth wedding anniversary. Barb is Bob's cousin. We left Edmonton on Monday. Margaret and Tom went back to Oregon through Jasper and we drove to Brooks in the rain. We had supper at Diane and Donald's home along with Ross & Paulette and my Aunt Elsie.

Margaret, Tom, Bob and Anne along with Bob's uncle, Doug Baines, and many of his family
Left to right top row: Anne, Bob, Tom, Margaret, Chris, Trish, David, Bryan
middle: Barb
Left to right bottom row: Liam, Douglas, Aunt Fran, Uncle Doug and Julia
(Uncle Doug's children are Barb, Trish and David)
Children of David and Chris are Douglas, Liam and Julia)

from the Legislative Building looking north toward downtown Edmonton

The Edmonton LDS Temple

Time for a New Title

It has been over six months since we have returned to Lethbridge from Nanjing and as we will not likely live there again it is time to change the title of our blog to reflect our present life. We have traveled a bit since we have returned and the blog will now document the travels we hope to do in the future.

The picture on the blog header is from our vacation in Nova Scotia last September.

If for some reason we are unable to travel anymore (perhaps the airlines will go broke because the more stringent measures for security cause people to quit traveling by air or perhaps we will get too old to get travel health insurance or whatever), we may post some of our photos from previous travels. Our travels have taken us to all provinces of Canada except New Brunswick and Newfoundland as well as the Yukon, and we have traveled in the U.S., Mexico, the British Isles, Europe, New Zealand and, of course, Asia.

In the distant future perhaps we will need a slogan to help us get up and get moving. Go Baines, go!

Snow in Nanjing

It is somewhat colder in Nanjing this winter. Last year it didn't snow when we were there and the temperature did not often go below freezing. This year they had snow in November. One of Bob's students e-mailed him and told him how excited some of the students were because they had never seen snow before. One of my students sent me a picture of the snow.

Compare the snow in Nanjing with the snow in Lethbridge!

Mini Mandarin Oranges

We were excited yesterday because Safeway was selling mini mandarin oranges. We had only seen them in China and they are very good. The picture shows one of them next to a tube of lip balm.

I was also excited because the box the oranges came in had Chinese writing on it and I recognized one of the chinese characters on the box. 小
It is xiao and means small. I have been forgetting the Chinese that I was able to learn when I was there, so it is good to know that I haven't forgotten everything.