Hangin' with Melia

I got to hang with Melia last week for a couple of hours while Tanis and Nancy were off running errands. As with all my beautiful grandchildren, she is perfectly photogenic.

I thought you might like to share in some of her thoughts that day...

Yes I'm cute and don't you forget it!
Oh, and just ignore the drool...

Wow grandpa, tell me again how you saved the free world!

To be honest, mother's milk gives me gas...

Grandpa, you're one of the most fascinating people I know...
Course I only know about 10 people so far.

Near as I can tell, I'd say ol' Buster Bunny is a girl...

Disneyworld

At the back lot at Disney MGM

So as I said earlier, don't expect my blog to follow any sort of sequence. After visiting Taylor and Kaycee in New York, we flew to Orlando on January 11th to met up with Dale and Lynn and Shayne and Linda. We stayed at our timeshare and had a wonderful time.
If it's any consolation, the weather was pretty cool most of the time.

Aw, what the heck, I'll add a few photos of our time at Disneyworld. If you want to check out al of our photos go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronleishman

Nancy and I standing in front of that big round thingy at Epcot

Nancy is such a kidder

Who is she kidding, she has no rhythm

Dale really enjoyed the Expedition Everest ride, right Dale...Dale...?

He loved Space Mountain too

Aaarrrggg, what a handsome group, except for Shayne of course

Looking good ladies...

Surprise Linda!

Someone remind Dale that we're on vacation

We made some new friends

Yes, I'm about 98% sure that's the real Buzz Lightyear

I better get one in of Lynn

Cute couple...

As opposed to these guys

In front of the Animal Kingdom gates

In front of the Tree of Life

Hey Dale, why the frowny face?

Oh, he was just hungry

Nancy got a hole in one at mini golf

Need I remind you Shayne that golf is a serious sport...

The Trip is Over

Proud grandparents. We're darn proud of all our grandchildren

All good things must come to an end and I guess it's high time I updated my blog from our almost 4 weeks away. Please don't have any wild ideas about things happening chronologically. That would be too easy.
We flew to New York on January 7 (New Jersey actually) to spend a few days with Taylor and Kaycee and their munchkins. Our new addition Gavin is a handsome boy. The weather wasn't much better than it was in Calgary so there was a lot of shiverage when we were out and about. Enough typing already, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Carson and Gavin in a rare moment of tranquility

Did I mention what a cute grandmother Carson has?

Is it just me or is Taylor looking smarter these days?

I can't go to New York without seeing Times Square

We finally made it to the top of the Empire State Building

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is St. Patrick's Cathedral: pretty awesome

Taxis taxis everywhere: the ratio must be 5 to 1.

Mmmmm snow.

Kaycee has always wanted to take a carriage ride in Central Park

...and apparently so has Nancy

And of course we did the open air bus tour

It's so good to see my kids grow up to be such loving parents

Denver's Mission Call

Just back from the mailbox with "the mail"

Denver's been getting the mail every day for the past few weeks and today all that strenuous walking to the mailbox a half block away paid off.
His mission call arrived. He's going to the Texas Houston South mission and reports on April 29.
Here's a link to the mission so you can see the area it covers etc.
http://www.mission.net/texas/houston/south/missioninfo.php

For those of you who are wondering, he's several hours from where Jo and Rob live outside of Dallas.

Needless to say, we're all pretty pumped over here.

Wait for it...wait for it...

We had the whole family present (except for Cam who was hard at work) either by way of iChat or speaker phone. Tanis was already here. Sherilyn came over and Jay listened in on the phone and Jo and Rob and Kaycee were on iChat with Taylor listening in in New York

Thumbs up from iChat

The proud parents

As you can see, Mckenna and Melia were pretty excited too...

WE HAVE AN APPLE STORE IN CALGARY!!!

Okay, okay, take a deep breath. That's it...breathe in sloooowly. Now exhale...
WE HAVE AN APPLE STORE IN CALGARY!!! WE HAVE AN APPLE STORE IN CALGARY!!!

Did I mention that we now have our own Apple store in Calgary? Oh, and I got a T-shirt.
Yessir the grand opening was on Saturday. Denver and I went with Jim and Connor Muirhead. We decided to be early so we got there at 6:30 am for the 9:30 opening. Denver and I were 9th and 10th in line. There were a couple of geeks who had been there since 5:30 the night before. And no, being there 3 hours before the opening does not qualify me as a geek. What else am I going to do at 6:30 on a Saturday morning? I mean besides sleeping?

At around 9:00, about 50 Apple employees came pouring out of the back of the store somewhere and came yelling and clapping down the mall which got everyone in line (which had swelled to 3 or 400 by then) cheering and clapping. I think they were on a self-induced sugar high or something.
Just before opening they all gathered inside the store in two lines and started chanting and getting pumped up. I'm not sure but I think they offered up some sort of animal sacrifice just before the doors opened.

Then their leader came out and led us into the store where we had to run a gauntlet of screaming, Apple savages, high-fiving us all the way I was a little embarrassed but did my best to be cheerful.

You can see the blue and orange T-shirted gauntlet that I had to pass through, narrowly escaping with my life.

Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased that we have our own Apple store in Calgary. Now I won't have to travel all the way to Dallas or New York.

Denver, looking cool as always, waiting for the big opening.

Do these earphones make my head look big?

Jim Muirhead working as he waits in line.

Like father like son. Connor working too.