Father's Day and Summer Is Here

Well, Father's Day was a delightful event this year, Dad got exactly what he wanted, calls and visits from all the kids... and a log splitter! He was so happy to hear from Jon and Tiff and Mark in Calgary, it seems that Mark goes to Jon's every Sunday for dinner, so they shared the call. Cam and D called from Phoenix, and Dad loved catching up with them as well. But the real highlight was being able to say hello to Brooklyn and Ava, it is so wonderful that they are both old enough now to talk with Grandpa! Doug is certainly the best Dad and Grandpa in the whole world!

We had several friends over for dinner along with Lindsay and James and Grandma. We had a fun BBQ, and the weather was perfect. It was great day and we topped it by going out to Grandpa Stringham's grave and putting some flowers there for Father's Day. It was a very special day for all of us!

Later in the week, dad had some fun showing off his new log splitter to Lindsay and Mark. it really is amazing how powerful it is, 22 tons! He will make good use of that with all the new logs at the cabin!

This past week we made another big mess at the cabin, we cleaned out all the fallen brush from a little ravine next to our cabin, two big loads to the dump!! I am so excited to be cleaning up this area, it has had old growth plus new brambles from our recent tree cutting experience in there. I am calling it my 'beautification' project. It will look beautiful now as it begins to grow up in there, I am certainly more excited about this project than Doug is, but it will be worth it.

We also managed to finally hire a man with a stump grinder to come in on Saturday and grind up all the stumps that were still there from our tree removal. Oh my goodness, what a lot of sawdust, amazing how much sawdust comes from one large tree stump! Our next project is to clean up all the sawdust, bring in new sod to fill in the holes, and plant new grass!

So much work, I said to Doug on Saturday, " We're keeping this place for a long time"! We have really grown to love our little cabin, it is such a great retreat for us, and the more we do to fix it up the more we love it.

It was a busy weekend for us, we also put in a new dock with the help of Lindsay and James. Our old one was breaking down, so we put in the new dock and floated the old one away. Rachel had to be the first one to try it out our new dock! It was fun and the weather was beautiful!

Today was also a wonderful Sunday! We had friends over for waffles, ice cream, and fresh raspberries, a great Sunday meal! Then a monopoly game with the kids and Mark. Mark has finished his teaching job in Calgary and will be staying with us in Edmonton for a few more days until he starts a summer job in Calgary. It's fun having him visiting us, even if it's just for a few days!