Tues. Aug 28 - Andy got a fire going in the BBQ pit and prepared a mixed grill for supper. After supper we taught Danny the fine art of roasting marshmallows and constructing a s'more which he thoroughly enjoyed!

Highland Games in High River

Went to watch Erin at the Highland Games in High River which got off to start with a Paramedic Moment after Danny picked up a plastic tie fastener and cinched it tight on his wrist.

Erin competed in the Premiere Class F dressed in velvet and wool on a warm summer day.

Danny tours the Science Centre

Rachel took Danny to the Science Centre today. They met up with Rachel's friend Christine who works there as an Education Programs Assistant . After touring the science centre, making a paper airplane, lying on the bed of nails amongst other things, he had dinner with Rachel and Tyler before returning home.

Policeman's Rodeo

It was a beautiful day for the rodeo - attended the 25th annual Policeman's Association amateur rodeo in Airdrie. Danny borrowed a cowboy hat from Andy to keep the sun off his eyes. Not exactly the Calgary stampede but it was a fun time.

Golfing with the family

This is a historical event in our family ... we went golfing together!

It was going to be a 4some but then Rachel decided to tag along so she and Danny acted as caddies! It was a gorgeous summer evening - not too hot with a breeze in the air.

Putting practice

Danny claims he has his own set of clubs back home .... what a shame he couldn't beat Andy on this 18 hole course!!

Drumheller

Andy took Danny on a bike ride (after his run) in the morning and then took Danny to Drumheller today, which is famous for its dinosaur remains embedded in the hills surrounding the river valley. They toured the Royal Tyrell Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Tyrrell_Museum_of_Palaeontology , shopped a bit at the gift shop, had lunch at McDonalds & headed for home. He is always happy to see Lyden and I pull up at the end of our work day because that means card games (Wizard, Uno or Phase 10)will most certainly follow dinner, a visit with Erin and even a video game or two!

Way to go Rachel!!

After running 22 km over a ridiculously hilly course, climbing a 1 km long hill between the 8 & 9km point and then experiencing a pulled groin, not to mention blisters on both feet, Rachel crossed the finish line of her first ever 1/2 marathon, coming in at 2 hours & 40 min! Unlike other races she's done this year (two 5Ks and a 10K), she did not have a running buddy. Tyler, Andy, Danny and I stood on the sidelines near the finish line and cheered her on. I don't think there are any moments more cherished and impactful than parents seeing their children achieve the goals they set for themself! Well done Rachel. We're so proud of you!

West Edmonton Mall Water World!

We packed up the car and headed off to Edmonton early Sat. morning. After several games of "eye spy" and the memory game "I like...." to pass time on the 3 hour drive, we finally arrived at West Edmonton Mall. Andy took Danny to Water World while I shopped the mall for 3 hours. The boys had a great time on the slides and in the wave pool. (Believe it or not that's Danny at the top of the red slide on the right in the black swimming shorts)

We would not have gone to Edmonton if it hadn't been to cheer Rachel on in the Edmonton 1/2 Marathon on Sunday. We met up with Rachel and Tyler at the hotel and went out for dinner which proved to be a longer event than we anticipated ... our 25-30 min. wait for a table ended up being 45 min. and Dan found the restaurant too warm for his liking. We headed back to the hotel at 8:30 and got him ready for bed, and after watching about 5 min. of tv he was out like a light.

Danny's first day in Calgary

Danny and Andy took a bike ride down to the river and fished for a couple of hours this morning ... the weather has turned unusually cool especially compared to the record breaking hot July we had, but as far as fishing goes, it was a perfect day.

Rachel popped by the house in the afternoon for a quick visit and dropped Andy and Dan off at the LRT station. They came downtown to meet me at the office after work, after exploring the Devonian Gardens (top photo). The three of us went to "A Taste of Calgary", an annual food event held at Eau Claire. When we got home we played a couple of games of Wizard with Erin and Lyden. Dan promptly disappeared to the basement with Erin & Lyden to play video games. We're off to Edmonton tomorrow - going to cheer Rachel on in the 1/2 marathon she's running on Sunday and take in the world famous West Edmonton Mall.

Danny arrives!

Danny's flight from the UK was delayed 4 hours .... he was to arrive at 4:35 pm - we left our house for the airport at 8:30 pm (3:30 am UK time). We saw the Zoom plane pull into the gate as we approached the airport. Even though Danny said he slept for 3 hours on the plane, he was understandably one very tired boy after a very long day of travel which started at 6am UK time when he and Mark set off from Coventry to drive to Manchester airport (only to arrive & be told that the incoming flight was delayed for 5 hours).

Family Quotes Portfolio

On Aug 2 I took a 2 hour class to make this portfolio; the theme is Family Quotes. The entire class time was spent "building" the portfolio. I added photos and embellishments and finished it off today after Andy, Lyden and I took in 18 holes on the putting course. After receiving an invitation to a networking golf tournament in September, I decided I should at least make an attempt to learn how to hit the ball off the tee so I picked up a left handed driver on sale at Sport Chek and Andy and I went to our local driving range and hit a bucket of balls Sat. morning ... if I practice enough, I'm hoping I won't be a complete embarassment. It's a non-competitive womens only "best ball" tournament so hopefully there won't be too much pressure! The added bonus is my friend Marian was also invited to the same tournament so at very least, I will be spending some quality time with my friend!

BBQ Lamb

Andy decided to roast the Morrocan inspired lamb directly over the fire pit ... it was delicious! With the coals left in the fire pit, we broke out the marshmallows and had S'mores!

Love Letters - Part II

Finished decorating this lunch pail today to hold some of our love letters (see earlier post).

Saskatoon Rhubarb Jam

Went out to the Saskatoon Berry Farm yesterday and picked up 3 pails of saskatoons - 1 for Tyler & Rachel and 2 for us .... last year was the first year I made Saskatoon Rhubarb Jam and it so delicious I was kicking myself that we didn't buy a second pail so I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice! Three batches of jam later and here are the results.

We still have 3/4 of a pail left over - will make a saskatoon berry rhubarb pie tomorrow (but that will only use up 4 cups) and likely freeze the rest to use in fruit crumbles or smoothies. Received some good news this morning: our 10 year old nephew Danny will be arriving Thursday August 9th for a 4 week visit - he returns to England on September 6th so we'll have a whole month together. He sent Andy an email to confirm the flight details which he started with the words "get out your wallet" ... cheeky as ever!!

Congratulations Erin!

After completing two years at Olds College, Erin received her final exam marks - she is now officially a Registered Animal Health Technician! Way to go Erin!


Lyden bought this DQ ice cream cake to celebrate the milestone.

Love Letters

A week or so ago, Andy and I pulled out an old trunk tucked away in the corner of our garage for years and were amazed to see what "goodies" we had put into archive - amongst the goodies were shoe boxes filled with love letters.

I have spent a few hours over these past few days reading through but a few of the 100+ love letters we exchanged in 1978 & 1979.

Being the scrapbooker/family archivist that I am, I quickly took to altering a tin lunchbox to hold a sampling of the love letters which seems very appropriate as we will soon be celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary on August 11.

Many doubted our love would last and who could blame them? I met Andy during the latter part of his posting to Canada with the British Military. Our first date was Feb. 9, 1978; he returned to England on April 6th, 1978 and I knew I'd marry him. These letters were the lifeblood of our relationship - there was no email or instant messaging in those days and overseas phone calls were very expensive - $2.50 a min. (very expensive by comparison to the wages earned in 1978; ie: found a reference in one of my letters to him about Woolco's $1.44 Days it was possible to buy 5 pr of pantyhose for $1.44). Needless to say, phone calls were few & far between. It was 4 months and 100's of letters later until we were reunited. The odds were certainly against us ... but love truly conquers all!

Elbow Lake Trail

Andy set off early Sat. morning for a hike that Karl Grebe arranged for a Korean group from our church. It was another hot weekend ... temps in the 30's so they set off early, leaving the church at 7am. They chose the "Elbow Pass" trail which is considered to be a moderate hike, hiking about 8 miles in all.

Rain, finally!

Cooling relief at last ... it's been an unusually hot July for us - temps in the high 20's/low 30's pretty much since we returned from England. Typically we get a week or 10 days of non-stop hot weather (usually during Stampede week) returning to much more pleasant temps in the low to mid 20's, no humidity to speak of, but this year, it's been non-stop heat and oddly enough, humidity! The tv weathermen reacted to by including humidex readings in their forecasts.

While we've had the occassional thunder shower here and there, they were short lived and nothing substantial, until today.

Andy and I have taken to sleeping in the guest room in the basement for this past month which has been a true blessing! The forecast for tomorrow is 24 celsius and with the cooling off we received this evening with the rain, maybe we'll be able to sleep in our newly decorated bedroom tomorrow night! Andy has been hard at work painting our ensuite bathroom and bedroom in the past week. We chose "French Cream" for the bathroom and "English Tan" in the bedroom. To say it was a hot, sweaty job is an understatement esp. given the fact that hot air rises further acerbated due to the way our bedroom windows open, we rarely catch a breeze, muchh less a cross breeze! We'd open the bedroom & bathroom windows wide open before retiring for the evening in the basement and it was amazing to feel the temperature in our home rise with each step I took up the stairs to our bedroom, even at 5:30 am the next morning!

While Andy definitely did the lion's share of the painting, last Friday afternoon I left work early and came home to give the ensuite a third coat of paint, getting into all the nooks and crannies around the tub, shower, toilet etc. which gave me a new appreciation for the work Andy had completed on his own working in "sauna like" conditions.

Sunday afternoon we helped Lyden clear out his bedroom - he's moving into Rachel's old room and we'll convert his room into a den. It was a huge sigh of relief when Lyden concluded purging his room of 10 year's accumulation of text books, old school reports, books, clothing he's worn out/forgotten about/outgrown. Boys ... who knew they could be such pack rats?! Imagine my delight when he pulled out his scrapbook of our trip to Cozumel in March, 1998. Lyden was in grade 6 that year and his teacher asked him to keep a scrapbook at present it to his class upon his return. I loved reading his entries, reliving the fond memories of our vacation through the eyes of an 11 (almost 12) year old boy. Good times. Good memories. Good reminder of how quickly time passes!

End of Stampede ...

Yahoo... life will get back to normal now. Time to pack away my dusty cowboy boots until next year.

Finished my first ever "Scrapbook in a Box" this weekend from our trip to England. Believe it or not, there is a total of 28 2x2 photos included in this box!

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

It was an absolutely glorious day - high of 27 so naturally we took to dining "al fresco" on the deck. Andy cooked a whole chicken on bbq using the rotisserie (which we absolutely couldn't live without now) was served alongside a colourful garden salad. For whatever reason, the "privacy screen" (solid fabric show draped in the photo above) was full extended to ground level in our screened gazebo which faces outward toward the lawn. I was sitting with my back to the privacy screen which we never usually use ... and suddenly a gust of wind brought the privacy screen up and over my head. I wasn't sure why the screen had been let down, but assumed there was a reason so I decided to tie the corners to the supporting beams of the gazebo. I secured one side and went to secure the other, but the next thing I knew, I was in a slow motion dive to the ground. Erin and Lyden, who were already sitting at the table had front row seating to my "poetry in motion" movement which from Lyden's description amounted to a 360 degree lateral sommersault springing from a face plant on the top deck riser (impacting on my chin, bottom lip & nose). Suprisingly, my glasses remained on my head and were not damaged. The funny thing was I could feel myself falling and instinctually grabbed for the closest thing to prevent the fall: the unoccupied patio chair which resulted in the patio chair being a partner to my fall.

I landed face down on the grass. Andy rushed to my side while Erin and Lyden stood nearby, mute in disbelief. Because Andy didn't watch my fall from start to finish, his immediate concern was whether or not I had hit my head. I could only feel my now throbbing chin/lip and reassured him I had not hit my head otherwise. He cautioned me to sit up slowly. I reassured him I "was fine". I sat upright for a moment before rising to the standing position, and proceeded up the risers of the deck only to feel immediately faint. I quickly returned to the prone position on the grass until the queasiness passed away (about 5 min). Meanwhile, Andy was applying ice to my face and inspected the damage done to the rest of my body .... grazed skin on my left elbow and right forearm, skinned left knee, skinned nose and a swollen middle finger on my right hand. My bottom lip is still swollen (3 hours later) but I'm hoping the immediate icing will be adquate to prevent any bruises appearing on my face tomorrow!

Canada Day family bbq & golf

Andy decided to bbq over the fire pit for a change .... & a nice change it was (followed by roasted marshmallows of course). After dinner we went putting ... all 6 of us, which was a first! The men are very competitive ... Andy won by 2 strokes followed by Andy and Tyler. Lyden advised me that I got a birdie on two holes but I'm convinced that wasn't intentional, just luck. One thing that helped mind you was golfing left handed - Tyler noticed a weakness in my one arm after taking my first shot and knowing I was left handed, suggested I try golfing left and I found it much easier! (why didn't I think of that?! - my son-in-law is such a smartie!). So the next time I go golfing, I'm going to rent left handed clubs and we'll see if it makes a difference.

Happy Canada Day!

Excellent start to the July 1st long weekend

July is Saskatoon berry month and in anticipation of making some saskatoon berry rhubarb jam so we headed out to the Saskatoon Berry Farm, a short drive from our home. We were too early to get Saskatoon berries (available toward the end of July) but found a great display of hanging flower pots! The farm sells trees, fruit, flowers, shrubs, gardening and landscaping materials and home decorating items. You can even go into their small restaurant to sample a slice Saskatoon Berry pie made on the premies, or buy preserves. It's a little gem located smack dab in the middle of the prairies!

Andy's rhubarb & apple pie!

Came home June 28 after my CREW Board meeting around 6:30, just in time to sample the homemade rhubarb & apple pie Andy made for dessert. This was a proud first for Andy! It was deliciously tart, almost hot (no one could wait for it to cool down before cutting into it) and was quite the sensory experience with the contrast between the hot fruit and vanilla ice cream!

Wizard Mad!

Since Christmas we have been playing the card game Wizard ... pretty much non-stop! After dinner we usually play a game or two. Can't really play with just 2 players so Lyden, Andy and I play 3 handed, 4 handed when Erin joins us and 6 handed when Rachel and Tyler come over on Sundays. When we returned from holidays, Lyden gave Andy his belated Father's Day Gift, "Wizard Deluxe" (shown in top photo) which gave us an added dimension to the game - instead of calling how many tricks we expect to get, each player uses the Wizard dial and then turns it face down on the table - no one knows how many tricks the other players are going for so it is less easy to "stitch someone up" by making them take extra tricks they did not call. We took a Wizard game to England and introduced Nev and Teresa to the game which they thoroughly enjoyed. Poor Teresa never won a game the whole time we were there! Recipe for family bonding: Wizard!

Back in Canada

We returned home yesterday ... the 8.5 hour flight wasn't too bad - a few screaming kids but thankfully they were not sitting directly behind or in front of us! Mom picked us up at the airport and dropped us at home. We were shocked to see how well our perennial garden had progressed in our absence - the peonies are in full bloom!

Apart from Lyden successfully killing the potted basil plant sitting by the sink, there were no unpleasant surprises awaiting us when we returned from home.

We went to bed just before 8pm and we were wide awake at 1:14 am but managed to go back to sleep until 5:45am. I usually find it much easier dealing with jetlag on the return trip but we didn't have much of a struggle with jetlag going to the UK this time, thankfully!