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Gabriea turned 21 in March and started her "birth week celebration" this week. Our friends the Grays kicked off the week with dinner and a delicious birthday cake, as shown in the picture above.
Daniela accompanied me to the CSUN conference this year as part of her "special education" training. She helped out on the exhibit booth for the company I work for and I got to introduce her to Stevie Wonder, who was visiting the show.
They say that only the good die young, but sometimes they die a little bit older. Guillermo Franco, my father-in-law, passed away on Christmas Eve after an extended battle with cancer and with his passing the world lost a great man. Tito, as he was known to all of his grandchildren was a kind man who loved and cared for his family very much, and I am thankful to have known and learned from him during the past 20 years. We miss you Tito!
We spent a weekend in North Conway, NH, in September and during our stay we took a drive up Mt. Washington. The weather was 69F at the bottom and 34F at the top. Wind speed was 73mph the day we visited. The sky was clear and blue when we arrived and we could see for 80 miles.
My mum Patricia passed away August 25th, 2007, after a brief battle with cancer. She was only 63-years old and is missed a great deal. It was typical of Mum to call 2-3 times a week to say hello or just to say she loved us. Mum always thought of others, especially those less fortunate than herself. I'm grateful to God for blessing me with my Mum for 41 years.
Gabriela turned 40 in March; here she is before lighting a lot of candles and doing her part to adversely affect global warming in the process. She had a lot of fun with her friends as this photograph proves. There were a lot of empty bottles by the end of the evening. - end -
David Jr., David, and Daniela went sky diving in February during their vacation to England. We're not brave enough to jump out of plane but we're definately game for jumping into a vertical wind tunnel and feeling the sensation of sky diving. It was a lot of fun and we survived to share the tale. - end -
David and Aunt Edit, who is 98-years old, during our vacation to England. Aunt Edie lived independently until last summer and moved into a nice assisted living facility in Bedford, England. She's very sharp and has a great sense of humor. It was wonderful to see her. - end -
First visit to see cousin Harry - he's so cute! Little Harry always seemed to display a look of shock whenever we took a picture :D and this photograph wasn't any exception. - end -
David Jr. and Daniela got to spend a lot of time with cousin Joseph - the original blue Power Ranger :D The kids got on great of course and took delight in beating up the 'baddies' including Grandpa. - end -
Thank you to British Airways for upgrading me and the kids on our way to the UK . It doesn't happen often but when it does it sure is a treat. Upon check-in for our flight to England in February the BA representative asked young David if he had ever flown Business Class, to which he responded that no, he had not. He confirmed that this would change because we were all being bumped up into Business Class. Daniela and her teddy loved it to! It sure made traveling home in economy class a tough ride. :-) - end -
David turned 40 last July; here he is blowing out the candles. Fire extinguisher is off camera. My birthday celebrations seemed to last most of July. They began in ernest on the 9th when my good friends (Lisa, Paula, Leigh, and Claude) came by early with their Harley Davidson motorcycles and took me for a ride. We were joined later that day by Claude's wife Danielle and another friend "Sista Karen" for a really nice afternoon. Later that same month, Gabriela and the kids accompanied me to California for a combination of work and vacation. We spent time in both southern and northern California and REALLY had a GREAT time. I love California and will buy a second home there just as soon as I win the lottery. :) - end -
We finally completed construction of the garage and side addition. It took 3 months but was worth the wait. We move into our home in January 2000 and have done a few things to it since then. It started out life as a rather dreary looking brown house, which we promptly painted yellow. By far though, the biggest drawback of the home used to be the single garage. Every snow storm presented me with the task of clearing snow off cars. But no more. After three months of construction - which began early August 2006 - we are now able to tuck both cars up at night. Bring on the snow! - end -
Scuba diving during winter vacation, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico -- end --
For the first time in many years we traveled to Mexico to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with Gabriela's family. Due to the fact that Gabriela's Dad broke a leg we spent our time equally in Torreon and Monterrey. The weather was perfect - blue skies and warm (75-80 degrees) - every day of our vacation. We had a really nice time seeing friends and family that we hadn't seen in quite some time. Surprisingly enough, I managed to remember all my Spanish despite not having practiced in almost a year. I don't have much call to use my Spanish language skills these days. -- end --
My day began with a drive in a rear-wheel driven, V8 powered Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a special mechanism that caused the truck to lose its rear end as you drive round a very wet skid pad. Power slides were soon the order of the day, along with a big smile. From there, I moved on to a spin in a Dodge Neon to practice emergency braking with ABS on and off. With ABS on I was able to save the cone, who was standing in as a stunt double for an anonymous pedestrian. With ABS switched off I managed to kill or almost kill 7 cones or people, depending upon how you see things. After the Neon came a real treat - a track ride in a 550hp Dodge Viper. When you combine this much power with a wet twisty track you realize how much you don't know about car control. I was grateful not to have lost control or run off the track as happened for two other people in my group. But the best part of the day was the afternoon I spent racing around in an open seat Formula Dodge race car at speeds up to 100mph. The car handled great and I had a lot of fun pushing it round corners at speeds I'd never dream of in my road going daily driver. If you like driving fast safely, invest in a day at Skip Barber. You won't regret it. -- end --
Bradburn Family Reunion in Orlando, Florida Mum and Dad very generously invited everyone to a family reunion in Orlando, Florida this past summer. This meant that Ian and his girls Shannon and Nicole flew up from Australia, Peter and Sally and their son Joseph flew in from England, along with my parents. The only downside is that the trip could only take place during a time when Daniela and David Jr. are in school. So we, the USA branch of the family, could only manage to spend a weekend with everyone. That having been said, it was great to see everyone together, especially Ian and his girls since we had not seen them in probably 5 or 6 years. Hopefully it won't take so long until the next reunion. Who knows, perhaps we'll make it to Australia next year and visit Perth while we're there. Thanks for the invitation Mum and Dad - we all really enjoyed ourselves. :-) |
