My Dad celebrated his 80th birthday in October a few days after the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, so we were able to travel to Grand Rapids to celebrate with him and other family. We had dinner at Tom and Mel's. Dad looks a little bemused by all the fuss -- he's not much of one for what he would regard as a fuss -- and then there were 2 or 3 candles on his cake that he couldn't blow out. Apparently there are joke candles that can't be blown out. Bob finally "pinched" out the last flame! It was good to be able to go and honour my Dad and to celebrate him.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma were also able to visit during Chris and Julee's visit and met Sam for the first time. Great Grandma loved reading to Sam and playing games with him and we also got a picture of 4 generations of Botting men!

Sam loved the red currants growing in our back yard garden! He took them from his Oma -- and he also went hunting on his own! "I know there are some somewhere under here!"

Chris and Julee and Sam visited unexpectedly this summer because of a business trip Chris had to take. Needless to say, we enjoyed their visit. The adults checked out CDs at Chumleigh's downtown and Sam had to check out all of the neighbourhood parks. He also demonstrated his ability to eat corn on the cob!

We loved visiting art museums when we were in Paris 34 years ago. The impressionist art is now at the Musee d'Orsay, which used to be a railroad station. Evita loved the Monet water lilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie and I saw my favourite Van Gogh at the d'Orsay. Okay, so I don't look excited! I'm not sure if I was just really tired of being on my feet by then or if I was just blown over by being right next to my favourite painting... but it IS my favourite!

On the way home, we were able to make a four-day stopover in Paris where we met 34 years earlier -- how romantic is that?! We loved seeing Notre Dame again, as well as other sights such as the incredible stained glass at Ste. Chapelle. Our hotel was in the Latin Quarter right across the river from Notre Dame on Rue de la Huchette, which was about 2 minutes walk from Notre Dame and had a very busy night life! We were on the 7th floor of an old hotel -- the lift was a very tight fit for us and our bags and only went to the 6th floor! But it was very quiet, especially when we closed the window. We never went further than about 200 feet to find a restaurant for dinner and there was a little place around the corner and farther up the street where we had croissant and jus d'orange and cafe every morning for breakfast. It was wonderful to soak in the atmosphere of Paris.

We also took a safari to South Luangwa National Park in neighbouring Zambia where we saw elephants walking through our camp, got very close to some lions and saw all kinds of other animals as well. It was an incredible experience. We would get up at 5:30 am for breakfast and head out in a Landcruiser for 4 hours. We'd do the same thing every night, starting at dusk and ending in the dark looking for leopards. We were lucky. We saw leopards both nights we were there. We also heard leopards near our chalet as well as seeing elephants and hippos from our chalet. On the way home, we stopped at Tribal Textiles.

We also did some "touristy" things, including staying for a night at the Satemwa Tea Estate, a fabulous experience. You don't rent a room -- you rent the guest lodge -- so we stayed in a huge old house with a huge khondi on the front and sides. We felt like we were Tea Planters in the Twenties! We toured the tea plant and tasted teas the next day. Clearly there is more to this than our palate recognizes! We also went to Cape Maclear on Lake Malawi. The scenery is gorgeous, especially at sunset in this view from where we ate dinner. We went down the beach, past women washing dishes and clothes (as the resorts are in the middle of a fishing village) to another place for a leisurely breakfast.

We went shopping at the market with Michael. Because of Zomba's location, you can buy all kinds of local fruit and vegetables, including these small and very seedy -- but very tasty -- clementines. Schools were between terms, but this headmaster was glad to show us around his school. The blackboard still has the term finals for the Grade 8 students in English. Michael and I went golfing! There is a very nice 9-hole course in Zomba. The "greens" are the same reddish brown soil that you see everywhere and putts ran ve-e-ery slowly. The flags were plastic bags on a stick. We also bought some art, including the Noah's Ark carving shown on Michael's coffee table. Some artists anxious to make a sale showed up at 7 am on the first morning after we arrived, though we didn't get up until 9 am being quite tired after more than 2 days of travel.

We were privileged this summer to make a trip to Malawi to visit Michael. We arrived at Chileka International Airport in Blantyre where they receive one international flight a day from South Africa and have to wheel out the steps by manpower for disembarking! Michael's house is on the edge of the Zomba Plateau, which rises to about 6,000 or 7,000 feet behind him. He has guards who love to play bao, which must be the national game!

Here is a selection for Michael of pictures of spring flowers blooming in our neighbourhood recently. It has been a lovely spring this year, cool enough for the flowers to last much longer than usual but not cold.

We enjoyed setting up blocks for our grandson to knock down!

It was early spring in Vancouver and the very earliest rhododendron was blooming there along with daffodils and forsythia and the very first cherry blossoms. Spring was more advanced in Victoria where the cherry blossoms were quite spectacular.

This statue was at the front entry of our hotel. It was of a fisherman taking as break with his faithful dog. Dave joined them for a break.

We went to Victoria for an overnight to visit a girl and her mother who lived with us for 3 weeks two years ago. We had a really good visit and they are doing very well. They put us up in a downtown hotel -- this is the view from the 18th floor restaurant where we had breakfast. You can see the Empress, a world-famous hotel, at left and the harbour behind it. There was a lot of construction going on in Victoria -- we counted 7 cranes from the window of our room alone!

We went for a lot of walks when we weren't sick.

We are proud grandparents! We decided we would be grandpa and oma, by the way. Oma has the inside track, not just because she's an oma but because oma is easier to say!

Sam has a great laugh!

We had a lot of fun playing with Sam with his toys. Here, he is working hard on his hand/eye coordination as he starts little cars down a runway. When the cars run off the track, he says "oh oh!" and when they succeed he claps his hands. He is saying a lot of words in addition to oh oh -- book, mama, yeah yeah, no!, puzzle, button, baby, dad and even before we left "moma" (oma). Of course, the words often require deciphering. Button and puzzle sound awfully similar! It's an exciting time!

Spring break was 2 weeks this year, so we took advantage of the time to travel to Vancouver to see our grandson Sam (as well as our son Chris and daughter-in-law Julee too, of course!). We had a wonderful time, even though everyone came down sick! We think Sam is a real cutie! He eats a wide range of foods though he treats it somewhat like a restaurant -- he samples something and then "orders" something else and continues in that vein until he decides he's done!