Brandan

We got some GREAT news this week.  Brandan had submitted a picture that he had drawn of BCCH for the Balding for Dollars Kourageous Kalendar.   They called me today to say for sure his picture was picked but also to ask if they could use it for the cover.  We were ALL ecstatic!  We also found out that Brandan was near sited so here is our little Brandan with his brand new glasses

Grade 8-Templeton High School

Aidan has started High School this year.  He has been biking every day except once only because he had a fall off of his bike from a manhole near the school.  He got a pretty bad gash on his leg but instead of calling me to pick him up he whipped open his first aid kit and fixed himself up.   All of the kids that went to Elementary school with Aidan at Chief Maquinna had gone to Van Tech High.  Aidan was doing Templeton on his own but had a nice surprise to see a bunch of the kids that he went to school with him at Franklin and knew about his Leukemia were in a bunch of his classes.  He said that his favorite classes are Language Arts, Woodworking and Drama/film. 

Aidan said the other day that he was hanging out with a bunch of his friends and then some older kids walked by and said "hey you kids make sure you don't get into drugs"  Aidan had replied and said I take Chemotherapy drugs.   The boy had replied and said that isn't funny and there isn't such a thing.  Before Aidan was diagnosed I thought when people talked about Chemotherapy that it was radiation,  I think kids need to be more aware of Childhood cancers, what the symptoms are and what they have to go through.

Mission Race Ways 2012

Another event with The Starlight Foundation.  We went to Mission Raceways.  Aidan's uncle Dat who owns Pacific Riding School was there to give the kids a tour of the track and they got to see some of the riders race and there was LOTS of Pizza to be had

Real Haircut

One week before school starts and Aidan wasn't sure if he was going to cut his hair.  He had lost his hair twice now it had grown back full, wavy and with highlights.  Aidan was thinking about being Link from Zelda for Halloween so he wasn't sure he wanted to cut it.  BUT he was doing a lot of cycling and he was getting pretty sweaty.  We took him to see Linda to get his first REAL haircut in two years. What a cutie there was my little Aidan!

Monthly Hospital visit

Here is Aidan's Oncologist Dr. David Dix and an Intern  I think her name was Diana.  She was also there at Camp Goodtimes with Aidan.  On the left is Nurse Donna who had put the feed tube in Aidan when he had lost so much weight and needed some assistance.  She is very special to us and how she had made it so easy for Aidan during that time.

Every 3 months he has to get a lumbar puncture so the next one will be in October.  It is strange to say but taking him in is just normal routine life for us.

More Summer Time Fun

 Andres joined the family along with the Starlight foundation at the waterslide park in Richmond

 Aidan wanted to ride to Sciene World with his friends but I wanted to go for a trial run with him first.  We took the bike path down to Science World and then kept going to Granville Island.  Aidan got to have mommy time and I got to have Aidan time.  The ride was easy going there but the one hill coming back from Commercial drive to Victoria was a bit of a climber but we both made it home safe.

 We went to Surrey Museum to check out the Lego exhibit and then stop at Ikea for Meatballs and broccoli and cheese soup

Here is Aidan on Deer Lake with one of his BEST friends Saffron that he has know since he was 4 months old and she was 6 months.  They are like brother and sister.

What FANTASTIC weather we had this summer!  Sometimes it is nice to stay home and enjoy some cooling down.

 Our neighbours Katie and Jerry put a pool in their backyard and invited us to swim anytime.  Yes we took advantage of the chance to go for a swim.  Unfortunately we only made it over there once but it was TONS of fun!

Seattle 2012

The road trips continue....... From Calgary Aidan went with part of the family to Kelowna and then Osoyoos then back up to  Vancouver.  Unfortunately on there way back up  a Semi had flipped on the highway so it added another 7 hours onto their trip.  The crew finally got back to Vancouver Wednesday night at 11pm.  We left for Seattle on Thursday at 7:30AM.  The reason why we were doing the hard core trecking was because my sister in law Helen was going to be in Seattle  for a conference and my brother Stacy and his daughter Kristin were also coming along.  This was the first time in twelve years that the whole family has gotten together.  For those of you who don't know, Aidan's middle name is Stacy after his Uncle.  It was a quick trip we toured about Pike Market and of course ate, then some of us headed back to the hotel for some swimming.  We all got together for a BIG family dinner.  We were ALL REALLY HAPPY to see each other.

Friday the boys all went back home while all the women stayed in Seattle for SHOPPING. 
They went for Breakfast at the Marina Grill in North Vancouver.  Yes we are all about the EATING!

Calgary Bound 2012

Half way through summer and what better way then to go on Family road trip.  Aidan's grandparents Betty and Brian from Osoyoos and his Aunt Helen, Uncle Stephen, and cousin Grayson from Toronto joined in on our FUN!  We had two vans travelling to Calgary that also included Auntie Dee Dee, Uncle Cheez, Auntie Sue, Little brother Brandan and Mom(me)  The first leg of the trip was Sicamous, unfortunately there was a HUGE mud slide in July so the water was the nicest to look at.  The hotel supplied us drinking water and water for brushing our teeth, the weather was a bit unsettled so they didn't get to enjoy the pool.  On the saturday we stopped at the Last Spike and also Lake Louise then onwards to Cousin Perry's house for a BBQ with his wife Crystal and little cousin Chelsea.  We all stayed with Keith's brother Steve and his girlfriend Gita they were so fantastic to let us do the Asian invasion with them and have  a great time.  Sunday was a day at Drumheller, WOW what a cool place.  The kids made castings of different dinosaur parts.  Monday was Princess Island and a quick look see at Calgary.  We all got up really early to head back home but the boys tried to sneak an extra 10 mins on the lazy boy chairs

Nomads in Revelstoke is the best place for Fish and chips they also have soft serve ice cream with a huge variety of flavors. Two thumbs up!!