Not a lot has been happening since my last post until this past week. But I decided to write it two parts. A life part and then a health update.

When we got back from the Okanagan, my friend Jason was in town for a couple of weeks. It was great having him around and was a nice distraction after coming home from holidays. He left July 28th and since then it has been fairly routine for us. Chemo week on, chemo week off, and repeat.

We stuck around home during the month of August. Renee had lots of weddings and work to do. I have also been enjoying getting into work when I could. Audrey was in a couple of camps – Peddalheads and Southland Leisure Centre. Her Peddalheads bike camp was good and she did it last year too. However, she refuses to ride and practice at home. She tells us she will just learn at camp every year. So it may take five years before she learns how to ride a bike! I should also mention Audrey is also 5 going on 13. It seems like since she turned 5, she has gotten that much more mature. Not only has she grown a ton and is the tallest kid in every thing she does, she also has the mouth to go with it. She is awesomly stubborn, quick with the whip and a “lovely challenge” sometimes. 🙂
A few weeks ago Renee asked her to do something (a few times) and finally, under her breath, says “fine” in a snotty way. Of course Renee hears it and questions her. Audrey’s response was “How did you hear that?” in a teenager sort of way. It is crazy how and where they learn behaviour.
I was also in stitches not long ago as well. My mom was coming to pick Audrey up as Renee had left for work and I was heading to an appointment. I am trying to get Audrey ready (a challenge inherited from her dad) and I made her some toast. I kept telling her it was ready and then after a couple of times added that it was getting cold. Her response from her bedroom…”Well, put a lid on it!” The tone and the dual meaning of literally putting a lid on it to keep it warm, combined with telling her dad to shut the %$^& up couldn’t have been better. I was in the kitchen in tears with “quiet” laughter. Couldn’t believe this came out of my five year old. Scary and awesome at the same time.

Being at home for a stretch also allowed us to spend more time with family and friends. It was still a seemingly busy month and went by quickly. Mind you with each two week cycle I only have five productive days to “do things”. And even those days have been a challenge lately, but I will add to that in the next post.

Audrey did start kindergarten last week. Sniff, sniff. And she also takes the bus which picks her up right down our street. She was super excited, but did tell Renee she was nervous. She was upset on her first day because we drove her and she didn’t get to take the bus. But now that she takes the bus, she refused to take it on Thursday morning. Renee had to drive her. This is the five year old that seems more her age…! But she loves it and loves being around other kids.

I also booked a trip with my brother in law to go to Detroit in September which we actually just got home from. It was great to have something on the horizon again and of course the trip was awesome. People looked at us funny and would ask “Why Detroit?”. Well, quite simply it was to go see the Detroit Lions play Monday night football. I have never see a Lions’ game and I have been cheering for them since I started watching the NFL 20 years ago. Why did I chose this team? 2 Reasons: Barry Sanders (elite running in the 90’s) and the movie Beverly Hills Cop (Eddie Murphy played a cop from Detroit and wore a Lions’ jacket in the movie). The past 20 years have been tough as a fan as they have been one of the worst teams during this 20 year span. I am hoping the next coming years prove to be different as there are a lot of good things happening with the team.
But I digress, this Monday night game was amazing for me. Not only was it my first time seeing them play, they won and it was pretty cool to be around the same fans. There aren’t too many Detroit Lions fans in Calgary!

We also added two Detroit Tigers’ games as well. I love going to baseball games. I have always cheered for the Tigers because of the Lions but I have cheered for other teams too. But on this trip I declared my allegiance to the Tigers. Officially they are my ball team now. Love the history and loved the experience. It also didn’t hurt that five of the most notable Detroit Lions sat right in front of us on Tuesday night game. Chatted with a couple of them and got my picture with Reggie Bush. Even though the Monday night football game was pretty special the whole day on Tuesday was epic. Tuesday started with a Ford Field (Lions) tour at 11. They took us everywhere and we got to see everything. We actually got to hang out on the field, the locker rooms and press area. I have been on a couple of baseball tours but they always have “no go” areas, but this tour was different. I kept asking our tour guide to just round us up when she needed to move on, but she kept saying this was for us. “Take as much time as you want. The fans make this all happen.” Pretty cool response and hanging out on the turf for a half hour was awesome. The turf is fake and it is covered in rubber sand. When you push your fingers into it, it leaves a mark like memory foam.
Then right after this tour, we rushed across the street to start the Comerica Park tour (Tigers). This tour was great but nothing near the Lions’ tour. They talked history and we got to go into the home team dugout. But no locker rooms or other team areas. It was kind of a ticket sales pitch tour.
After the tours we had a quick change back at the hotel. We stayed at the Marriott in the Renaissance Center. Then headed to the restaurant “Roast”. It is a Michael Symon (Iron Chef) restaurant. It was in the Westin and I acutally found the decorating a little pretentious. That was quickly brushed aside once we got our food. It was amazing. Decided to try Wagu beef for the first time. It is crazy expensive but I wanted to know what all the hype was about. This steak was nothing like I have had before. It had a smooth dense texture. Almost like Ahi Tuna but more firm. It was impressive and glad I tried it – even at the $70 price tag. (I was on holidays!!)
After dinner, we headed to the baseball game. The weather was beautiful and this was a divisional game against the KC Royals. These teams are basically back and forth right now for the division lead for the AL Central pennant.
We had good seats to the game (Row 4 behind Tigers’ dugout). But we noticed that it was strange no one was sitting in front of us. Then, as I mentioned, after the first inning those seats were occupied by 5 of the most notable members of the Detroit Lions and their wives. Needless to say I was a bit starstruck. Got some photos taken and high fived with them on the Tigers’ two home runs. All in all, it was an amazing moment and day.

Now we are back to a fall routine. With Audrey being in full time school, Renee is working a little bit more. When she is not looking after me of course…
Not sure what we will do over the next few months. I hope to get into work as much as possible as I do enjoy it. We have a renovation planned for our West Springs location in November. Pretty excited to see how everything goes with that.
Renee has a girls trip booked to Mexico for 5 days in October. A little bit short but much needed for my overworked wife. She is the household and our glue.

Also a big congratulations to our friends Dan and Nadia. They got married last weeked at the Banff Springs Hotel. Wonderful wedding, great setting and happy to be a part of their day!

Hope the summer treated everyone well, and as I said, my Health update will follow shortly.
Dan

Its been up and down for me since we have been home from holidays. I may have eluded to it in my last post, but I struggled the last four days of our trip. I didn’t want to write about that, because I wanted the trip to always feel great. And it did for sure.

Part of my struggles were with pain management and the pending end of a fun trip. The end of a trip for me is a very realistic finite end to things. Will I ever get to come back? Is this the last time I see these things with my family? Things like this go racing through my mind.
The biggest struggle, however, was the ailing health of my friend Dan Tutt. He had started a blog back in 2008 when he was first diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. It was his blog that inspired me to start my own, but it also gave me some guidance in dealing my own disease. Sadly, Dan passed away a couple of weeks ago after a 5-1/2 year battle. I have many thoughts that parallel my own life to his, which makes it very hard. Watching his health deteriorate over the past few months was something that I was living too. I kept imaging what he and his family must be going through. That the fear and dread that had haunted them for 5-1/2 years was now real and eminent. I know because we fear it too. But Dan’s blog was always so positive and it is worth reading. http://dantutt.blogspot.ca/ Sure, there were ups and downs but even in the weeks before his passing, he still managed to keep positive. I did feel relief for him when I learned of his passing – no longer did he have to wonder how much time he had left or wrestle with the daily fear of losing your family. Also the pain and discomfort that can just sap any sort of energy you might have. But I know none of that matters as I know he would have wished to have spent even just one more day with his family. He was 37 with a wife and three young children and I think about them daily. I just want to take their pain away.

I was fortunate to have met Dan for coffee and lunch a few times, but I would have liked to have had more time with him. Our last get together was in early April and I had picked him up and took him to Fergus & Bix for lunch. He had just had some spinal surgery to remove a tumour and a couple of vertebrae so he was learning to walk again. We had a great lunch and afterwards I was able to meet his incredible wife. It was only brief, but we talked about getting our families together and how excited Audrey would be to play with his kids. I really wanted that to happen, but sadly never did. Even though I did not know Dan that well, I miss him. I miss his blog posts and I miss cheering for him to beat his cancer. He will continue to give me strength as he has gone down a path none of us ever want to face. Rest in Peace Dan, you are the man.

….As I mentioned at the end of my last post we had hit Sea World on the Saturday. We decided to take the Sunday off and relax at the beach house. It was the best day for weather while at this place and we needed a down day. A little sun, sand, waves, pool – pretty nice if you ask me.

Monday we headed out for the San Diego Zoo. It was pretty impressive as far as zoos go. Outside of their Polar Bears, their zoo is just in a better climate than ours and MUCH larger. The animals can be outside all the time, unlike our Calgary Zoo. Zoos are still tough for me as was Sea World, but they really stress the rescued animals as their tenants. Seeing some new animals like their Koala and Panda exhibition was pretty cool and their Ambassador companion program was also really interesting – They pair dogs with Cheetahs at birth to form a bond.

After the Zoo, we headed back for a nice meal at the beach house. Because we took Sunday “Off” we had to make a decision on what we were going to cut out. We decided to chop the Safari Park. We just did the zoo and even though the kids liked it, we figured they would have enjoyed LEGOLAND more than the Safari Park. Plus, the safari park has some great Safari Tours in addition to your ticket, but they are allowed only for 8 and up. Audrey would not have be able to go.

So Tuesday we headed out to LEGOLAND. It is certainly not as impressive as Disneyland and it could use some upkeep, but it has some pretty cool stuff. The Miniland area with the Star Wars feature was awesome. It is a theme park that is geared to kids under 12. The rides were fun, but not all that thrilling. Although at days end we did decide to go on the Pirate’s Reef ride. This wasn’t so much a ride as it was a dunk tank. When we got up to go on it, the carnie says your going to get wet from head to toe. Half our family backed out at that point! BOO!! But yep that is exactly what happened. Log ride up, make a turn and go crashing into water. And it wasn’t the first wave that gets you, its the tidal wave that comes from behind that really does you in. WE WERE SOAKED! But it was fun none the less and made for a soggy drive home.

Wednesday we checked out of the Beach house 😦 , but I would definitely stay here again . We headed back to LEGOLAND as we didn’t have a full day Tuesday and so with Wednesday, it was enough time to see everything. After LEGOLAND, we drove back up to Anaheim to check into our house close to Disneyland (We broke up the Disneyland trip). We still had another day on our 5-day park hopper pass for Thursday and we were also looking at going again Friday as one of favourite rides was re-opening that day – Pirates of the Caribbean!

We woke up Thursday morning and heading to the Parks. We stayed mostly on the Disneyland side as we had a lunch reservation at the Blue Bayou. You pretty much have to have reservations for this place. Its the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I couldn’t even get a dinner rezo, had to go with a lunch, but it was still pretty cool inside. The menu is definitely geared to a dinner offering as well. HOWEVER, the best part of our lunch was we overheard a server talking to a customer that Pirates of the Caribbean was likely doing a soft opening today. NO WAY!? So we stuck around close that afternoon and as we were walking in that direction we noticed people lining up and we jumped in and went for a Pirate ride. MADE OUR DAY! Not only that, it saved us over $1000 as we no longer really needed to go back on the Friday now. YEP, we would have spent the money just to do Pirates of the Caribbean and so thank-you Disneyland, you made our day and kept us a little more flush! 🙂

Friday we stuck around and had pool time and then did some mini golfing and enjoyed a nice family dinner. Saturday was another pool day and then Renee, myself, Carly and Neil (my sister and brother in law) headed to the LA Angels baseball game. Ah…baseball, I really couldn’t be in a much better setting. I am able to let my guard down here and just enjoy being at the ballpark. Peanuts, Hot Dogs, Garlic Fries and Beer – I did it all and it was fantastic! It was a great game and went into extra innings although Kansas City ended up winning in the top of the 13th. After the game we headed for a bite at JT Schmid’s. It was a brew pub right beside Angels stadium and the Honda Centre. We sat on the patio and our bartender was great. Food – average, but they had some nice craft beers. I would go here again if visiting these stadiums and avoid the spicy wings eh Neil??

Sunday was our last day and we decided to head to Downtown Disney to return our rental cars a day earlier and my Sister and Niece wanted to do some shopping. I like walking through Downtown Disney, but on this day we went from Hero to Zero in a week. Last week we were staying at the Grand Californian with passes to Disneyland in our pockets. Sunday, we were just a bunch of teenage mallrats with no where to go! Ha ha ha. The rest of the day we just hung around the house, playing games and swimming in the pool. It was a nice updated home and we could walk to Disneyland in about 20mins. Would stay here again, but there are a lot of homes similar to this.

Monday was travel day home and a good bye to a trip that I wish didn’t have to end. Having my family close like that was pretty special. It makes me smile and choke up at the same time. Attached a few pictures. Still trying to work out the media thing on this so they are just random.

Dan