At Peace.

During the wake more than 215 people signed the register and probably close to 100 more passed through. Visitors with plates of food have been flooding the house since Wednesday. The fridge and freezer are packed. We have food in the neighbor's refrigerator as well. As I type this, Marina and Heather are sorting through a huge pile of cards and Joe is visiting with one of his best friends he hasn't seen in a long time.

George's family came from all over to be here. Marina's family also came down from Newfoundland to be here.

Heather and I thank you for your flowers, prayers and support and babysitting!

The Walker family thanks everyone for their hard work, support, prayers and friendship.

Marina, Heather and Joe are in very, very good hands.

The Last Day.

To the surprise of the family, Municipal Ready Mix sent two cement mixers over to the church to escort the family from the funeral to the cemetery.

George was an employee with the company for more than 50 years.





I spoke with one of the drivers who was a friend of George.

He gave me a ride to the cemetery in his truck, which was identical to the one George drove.

The eulogy was given by Dave McKenna, owner of Municipal Ready Mix. Mr. Mckenna announced that George had a mistress named Maxine.



And she was a rather large woman, but one George saw every Monday through Friday and many Saturdays. Maxine was George's truck, number 8.



George had the safest driving record and the lowest maintenance cost of any driver.

George Andrew Walker 68, Coxheath

George Andrew Walker was born July 25, 1939, in Mosherville, Hants County, to Viola Walker Logan of Truro and the late Emery Walker. He went to be with our Lord on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at his home. He was a dedicated and loyal employee of Municipal Ready Mix for the past 50 years, and loved his job wholeheartedly. He loved travelling throughout Cape Breton in his truck, and appreciated the scenery and the people he met along the way. He retired last fall. He was a member of the Sydney River United Protestant Church and enjoyed his church family. George and his loving wife Marina enjoyed going to church and community suppers and festivals. George was a loving husband, father and grandfather who loved fishing with his son and spending time with his daughter and grandson on the beach. He is survived by his loving wife of 40 years, Marina Duffitt Walker, son, Joe (Kristin) of Arkansas; a daughter, Heather (Steve) Smith of Maryland; his grandson, Tyler Smith of Maryland; step-grandsons, Justin and Nicholas Hall of Arkansas; his mother, Viola (Walker) Logan of Truro; brothers and sisters, James of Fergus, Ont., Etta (Robert) Davis of Fredericton, N.B., Norma Pepper of Lower Sackville, N.S., Thomas (Carolyn) of Truro; many nieces, nephews and friends; stepsister, Margaret (Alasdair) Graham of Lantz, N.S.; stepbrother, David Logan of Halifax, N.S. He was predeceased by his father, Emery Walker, sister-in-law, Pauline, granddaughter, Kelsey Walker and his stepfather, David Logan. Visitation will be held in Sydney Memorial Chapel, Sunday, 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral service will be held at United Protestant Church of Sydney River, Monday, 11 a.m. with Rev. Dana Feltmate officiating. Interment in Forest Haven Memorial Gardens. Memorials may be made to the United Protestant Church of Sydney River or charity of choice. Condolences may be sent to sydneymemorialchapel@ns.sympatico.ca. (Written by Kristen Walker)

From the Road

First, thank you so much for the emails and phone calls. Heather has good moments... and not so good moments. We had a a very nice stop at Walt and Wanda's in Newport, RI. It was comforting to visit and to talk. We went to dinner and it was good to see Heather with her mind on other things, at least for a short while. We are in the car all day again today. In Maine, we met up with my Dad. Again, it was nice to see people along the way. Heather and George had a good talk. Funeral arrangements are being made this afternoon. We will let you know when we can. Our estimated arrival time is 10-11 pm. At home, Heather's mother is coping, she too has good moments and not so good moments. Heather's brother Joe and his wife Kristin arrived late last night. Other family and friends are also in and out, so Marina is in very good hands. ~Steve

Wednesday

Heather's father passed away today. We will be driving to Canada Thursday morning. We can be reached via cell and email. Please keep Heather and her family and especially her mother in your prayers.

Extra! Extra!

A few weeks ago, I was approached by my neighbour, Ute regarding one of her assignments she had to do for college. It involved putting together a newsletter. Since she is a regular reader of 'The Smith Family News', she immediately thought of us. Ute asked if she could use some of our photos and story ideas as a basis for her newsletter. Of course, I agreed and felt honoured that she even thought of our blog. When she had it all complete, she brought it over for us to review the final product. It looked neat to see the blog in print and it reminded me that I really need to start printing out all these posts soon so that Tyler can have to accompany his scrapbook.

A little fishy.

Play-Doh Playing

Awww...the smell of Play-Doh brings back memories of childhood fun. I still remember what it tastes like. This morning I got to relive those memories with my son. Tyler asked me to make a "beep beep" and Thomas. Both didn't even resemble what they were suppose to, but that's the fun of Play-Doh; we can use our imagination. Tyler knew what they were suppose to be.
After Tyler drove his Play-Doh mobile around the table for awhile, despite the wheels falling off a few times, he still had a blast. Then I thought it would be fun to see his expression when I made a Play-Doh Tyler for him to play with. Well, he laughed up a storm when he saw the head and the face. Then Tyler joined in and made a hat to put on the Tyler Play-Doh boy. When he was complete, he was cute but not nearly as cute as the real Tyler. It's impossible to top his cuteness!

Finished CAMing

Yesterday we packed the car and drove all the way to the eastern side of the state to finally complete this year's CAM series. We only had two CAM caches left, however because of the distance between them it literary took the entire day to do. We always make the most of the trip and enjoy the drive along the way, as well as grabbing a few caches we happen to drive by.
The first CAM cache brought us to a park that had huge fields that were being maintained at the time we were there. Tyler is familiar with the movie 'Cars' so he knows big farm tractors to be called Frank. On the way back, Frank was parked near the side of the trail so we managed to get a few cute photos of Tyler and Frank together. He remembered from the movie that Frank had a mean face and chased after Lightning and Mater in the field, so Tyler didn't like to get too close to the front of Frank. He felt more comfortable around the sides.

It was a hot 85 degrees and a mile and a half walk, so we didn't stay too long visiting Frank. Soon we got back on the road to get the next and final CAM cache. There was a total of 10 CAM caches spread all across the state and this year it took us three weekends to complete it. It was a lot of fun and now we are able to go to the CAM picnic and meet with all the other cachers that completed CAM. It is sad to think that we only have one more year of CAM left before we move again.

Beach Picnic

An awesome time was had by all today as Katherine, Ines, the children, and I spent the day on base enjoying the warm sun and beach. This was our first time using this base and I definitely want to come back! In our search for a picnic spot, we found a wharf that had a nice shaded area with a picnic table. It was the perfect place to have a delicious lunch which included leftovers from our tasty meal from yesterday.

After eating, Katherine took Emma and Tyler for a walk on the wharf. It was so cute to see Tyler push Emma along in the stroller. Katherine said that when he was finished pushing, he got in front of the stroller and then started to pull it. Meanwhile it gave Ines and I a chance to chat more and enjoy the peace and quiet.
A beautiful beach was located right off of the wharf, so it wasn't long before we all headed down there and take in the sand and water. Katherine and Tyler had fun throwing rocks and sand in the water. Tyler even noticed a lady bug and told Katherine about it. This was a special day for Emma because it was her very first trip to the beach. She liked her feet in the warm sand and then her mommy dipped them in the water. She loved kicking her feet and splashing the water. We were concerned that the children might be getting too much sun, so we packed up our things and headed home.

On the way home, Ines noticed that Tyler took hold of Emma's hand and held it the whole way home. Emma eventually fell asleep and Tyler was still holding her hand and smiling at her. It was so precious to see. Tyler loves Emma so much and I think the feeling is mutual. Anyway, another wonderful day spent with some great friends. Unfortunately, Patsy became ill and was not able to join us today. We hope you are feeling better!

New Friends

Our friend, Katherine, told us about a friend of hers that just moved here from Belgium and is also a military spouse with a child. Her husband goes away a lot and so Katherine thought it would be ideal for her and I to become friends. So for the past week, Ines and I have been corresponding by e-mail and she invited Katherine and I over to her house for lunch today. It was quite exciting to finally meet Ines and I already knew she was a lovely person through our e-mails, so today meeting her in person just confirmed that.
Katherine picked Tyler and I up and since Ines loves water, we drove her to see Solomons, which she really enjoyed. When we got to Ines house, I met her mother-in-law, Patsy, and her beautiful 9 month old daughter, Emma. It wasn't long before Tyler and Emma were having fun. Tyler learned to say her name and they played together in a really neat playpen. Ines and her mother-in-law, prepared a delicious menu including spinach salad, tomato salad, pasta, baked beans, and potato salad. Ines also grilled lots of sausages of several different flavours. Everything was tasty! Then afterwards, Ines offered us chocolates from Belgium! Oh my!!!

We had a wonderful afternoon together. It was wonderful getting to know Ines and Patsy. Patsy took a liking to Tyler and officially welcomed him as one of her own grandchildren. She gave him a chocolate cupcake and chips, which he loved. Ines and I talked about life being a military wife and our love for Europe. We already have plans to meet tomorrow afternoon to finish up the leftovers and to enjoy a nearby beach. Thank you so much Ines and Patsy for a nice time!!! And thank you to Katherine for driving all the way over to my house and picking me up. And also a big thank you for introducing me to some wonderful new friends :)

Poppy's Truck

Our friends, Katherine and Rodney, gave Tyler a cement mixer after reading on our blog about Poppy's truck. Tyler has a book called 'Big Truck Book' and in it he always points out the cement mixer and says "Poppy's Truck". We were amazed that Tyler remembered that Poppy used to drive a cement mixer.

Thank you so much Katherine and Rodney for thinking of Tyler and remembering how much he loves Poppy and his truck. You both are very kind people and we are so blessed to have your friendship. Thank you also for reading our blog.

Click HERE if you would like to see a geocaching movie that Steve made. Steve filmed this during our first CAM weekend run a few weeks ago. For those not familiar with the sport, you can get a little glimpse into the caching world and see what it's all about.

Go Fly A Kite...And Then Some

Well, what was suppose to be a little kite flying fun today, turned out to be a full day adventure. After assembling our two kites that the Easter Bunny brought us, we had several failed attempts in getting the kites up in the air for some action. It wasn't long before Richey and Barbie, who were roller blading nearby, joined our fun.
Our experienced kite flying friends tried to help us out, but were unsuccessful as well. Meanwhile there were a few families also enjoying their kites without any problems. So we assumed that our problem was a result of the type of kites we had. The other families had those cheap plastic type whereas ours were made of nylon. So off to the store, Richey and Barbie went in pursue of one of those cheap plastic "Dora the Explorer" type of kites. They ended up coming back not once but twice empty handed. It was then we decided to go to Wal-Mart. So after finding the exact type we were looking for and grabbing some lunch, we headed back to the same field with "high hopes".
While we were getting our new kites up in the air, Richey handed his kite to Barbie to help get hers up in the air. Barbie then asked Tyler if he wanted to try and fly a kite. However Tyler only held it for a moment before letting go and the kite flew up into the air, passed me, and proceeded down the field. Barbie took off like a speeding bullet (I've never seen her run that fast before). Unfortunately she couldn't catch it in time, but the string did get caught in one of the trees at the bottom of the field. Richey then ran down to see if he could get his Spider-Man kite back and was successful.

Soon we all had our kites up in the air. Steve even got the Lightning McQueen kite that he couldn't fly before, flying high. Barbie had a pretty butterfly kite that was the most successful of the bunch. I flew the new kite we bought. It was Spongebob. We were all very happy with our kite flying. The wind was good at this time, much better than earlier. Richey even got our airplane kite up for a little bit.

Us adults had an awesome time flying our kites, however funny as it seemed, Tyler was more interested in playing with his trucks that we brought along with us. The huge field offered a lot of room for driving around. We tried our best to get him interested, but he was having more fun with his trucks. Oh well, as long as he was happy.

Then things got a little crazy. Steve and Richey decided to add more string to their kites. Steve bought extra string, whereas Richey took the string off of his other kites and added to his Spider-Man kite. Those two kites were like specs in the air. They were about 500-600 feet up in the air! All of a sudden, Richey's string broke off where it was tied to the other part of the string and the kite took off. Steve and Richey went after it after they noticed it was stationary in the air. Turns out it got caught in the power lines down the street. Richey had a plan to get the kite back. So we got in our vehicles and drove to get Spider-Man back. See the little spec in the photo above the power line? That's the kite. Towards the left on the top is clip stuck in the power line.

So MacGyver, oops I mean Richey, got another string with a weight attached to it to get the other string down that was on the power line. Then he managed to cut the string and pull the kite. As he was doing this, there were people driving by and we got a lot of weird looks. LOL Finally the kite was saved! Hooray! That Spider-Man kite sure had a fun day today. Actually we all did; a fun and exciting day. We can't wait to do it again next weekend. However Steve is saying now that he is going to the hardware store and buying a big spool of string and a black kite. Then he is going to attach glow sticks to it and wait and see if there are UFO sightings in the next day after we leave it overnight in the air. LOL

Family Fun at the "Fun"

This morning we took Tyler to the playground to have some fun. Actually whenever he sees a playground, he shouts out the word "fun"instead of playground. We managed to find a playground that only had a couple people playing on it and soon after they left, so we had it all to ourselves. We went on the tire swing with Tyler a few times but most of the time was spent playing on the jungle gym.
We took along a couple of Tyler's trucks with us. Daddy and Tyler had fun having truck races down the slides and then taking the trucks through the tunnels. After our fun at the "fun" as Tyler likes to call it, Daddy thought it would be nice to go to a beach for more fun, however soon after being on the road it started to rain. Oh well, what fun we did have was actually a lot. We really enjoyed ourselves today.

Our Little Sailor

A Day on the Base

Today Steve had some stories to shoot on the base closest to our home, so Tyler and I decided to come along and have some fun on the base. This is one of the more scenic Navy bases that we've seen and it is pretty big with several recreational areas. Tyler and I took advantage of their many playgrounds. After drying off most of the playground equipment from the early morning mist, Tyler and I explored all the slides, swings, and jungle gyms.

This playground was adjacent to a beach and after we were finished with the playground, we went over to the beach and walked around for awhile, picked some rocks and shells and drew in the sand with a stick. Then Daddy and his co-worker found us and we met with them at the food court for lunch.
The sun came out in full force after lunch and so Tyler headed back out for some more fun on the base. We found one of the many planes parked on the base and I took Tyler for a little tour around the airplanes. Tyler is a big fan of airplanes and was fascinated by the whole experience. It was funny to watch him walk underneath it because he would take both of his hands and cover his head. I'm not sure if he thought the plane was going to come crashing down on him or not, but
he didn't appear scared at all.

Then since we had more time, we decided to check out another playground. I managed to find two more beside each other near a scenic pavilion overlooking a pretty river. We stayed here for another hour or so. Tyler was pretty much tired out by the time we got back in the car because by the time I got to the Exchange parking lot, which is about 8 minutes away, he was fast asleep. Then about 5 minutes after that Steve called and said he was finished for the day and that my friends, concluded our day on base.

Made With Love

Tyler received a very special box in the mail yesterday. It was from his Great Aunt Julie and in it was a beautiful quilt that she had made especially for him. We let Tyler open the box himself and as soon as he took the quilt and pillow out of the box, he said that he was going to take a nap. He then laid the pillow on the floor and laid his head on it.
Then he asked us to put the quilt over him. Tyler really loved that a lot! He laid there for a few minutes and he looked so comfy.
You can tell that the quilt was made with lots of love. Aunt Julie even included a special little prayer right into the blanket that reads "May God always keep you safe in His arms dear Tyler, and always know that your Great Aunt Julie loves you." I know that for many, many years to come that he will feel Aunt Julie's love every time he looks at that message and the quilt.
The quilt is just absolutely beautiful!!!!! It is very fitting for our active outdoor lifestyle as it has scenes of a bear hiking and doing several other outdoor activities. Tyler LOVES the outdoors!!! This quilt couldn't be more perfect for him.
Getting back to when Tyler first saw the quilt and was laying on the floor with it, well it wasn't too long before he was putting the pillow and quilt in his crib! This little boy, who would try anything to get out of a nap in his crib is suddenly wanting to go for a nap!!!! This quilt is magic!!!!

After he was finished putting the quilt and pillow in his crib, he wanted me to put him in his crib. Tyler looked so happy and in heaven!!!

Words can not truly express our gratitude, Aunt Julie, for all your hard work you put into making this gorgeous quilt. I know that Tyler will have this forever and he might even pass this down to his children someday. It is a very special gift that is truly from the heart.