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!

 

Angels and a Long Log Fence

After much careful planning and scheduling we were able to get eight strong men (really they were angels) out to the cabin last Saturday. As we all worked together, we managed to move hundreds of logs in about seven hours! Thank goodness Lindsay's husband James has so many brothers...three of his brothers came and helped us out, Daniel (15), Zach (18), and Eli (21). James also brought his good friend, Evan, and we also had Mark, Jon and Doug. We had a good crew, and they were all like 'mountain men' - truly in their element, chopping, and hauling trees!

I was the designated truck driver. They would fill up the trailer that was hooked to the truck, with all the loose branches and wood, and I would drive it over to the dump and unload it. It took six trips to the dump to clear away all that bush!! First trip I went by myself, but got slapped in the head by a big branch as I was unloading, so each trip after that I took one of the guys with me.

Some of the logs were so big and heavy that it took two guys to lift and move them...and then they would carefully execute the drop off - to position the log perfectly onto the log fence. They were truly masterful fence builders, and Ava loved her log 'princess chair'! Many of us came away with 'battle wounds', but it was so worth it, and we were so grateful for the help!!

Tiffany, Ava and Josh came out in the afternoon and cheered us on, it was so fun having them there! We had hot dogs for lunch and Tiffy made us a great dinner of hamburgers, french fries and salad for dinner.

This was the cabin yard in the morning before we started, it looked like a tornado had gone through there!

However, after the hard work of our 'angels', the yard now looks fantastic!

Now, the next big job it to get our tree cutter to come and clean out all the stumps with his 'stump grinder'. Luckily he needs a crown and Doug is going to exchange the stump grinding for some dental work. That's a pretty good exchange for us!!

On Sunday, Doug smoked a pork roast for us in his 'smoker', which he absolutely loves! I'm not very keen on smoked meat, but this was delicious. Jon and Tiffy stayed over, and we enjoyed another day together, grandpa and Ava had a chance to enjoy some time together in the hammock.

Lindsay and James came over for the smoked meat, and brought another one of James's brothers, Sam. He just finished his mission last Fall. They had alot of fun throwing Josh in the air, but Josh never seemed to get tired of it.

We worked in the temple again on Friday night. It was a real treat to have Jon, Tiff and Mark go through a session while we were there working. Dad was able to go to the same session with them, as that happened to be his assignment during that time. I didn't get to the whole session but was able to join them near the end of the session as a worker.

We are so grateful for this opportunity to work in the temple, it truly strengthens our testimony of the gospel and how important the temple is in our lives! We can feel the sweet spirit of the temple linger with us all week, a real blessing!

 

 

 

 

 

Classes, Mountains & Wild Animals

So we were lucky enough to get to the mountains again! It seems that we have been in the mountains for several weekends in a row now! We went to Jasper to a Dental Convention there for two days. Lindsay, Doug and I went up for the Conference, where we each attended several classes. I always find it so fun to be at a Conference where the presenters are well prepared and there is an excitement in the air for learning! That's how it was at this Conference. We all came away with some new information that will be very helpful to our dental practice.

 

I took a spouse option class in photography. It was taught by an outdoor photographer named Ross Pugh, who lives and works in Jasper. I hope to implement many of things I learned from him into my pictures! This is one of Maligne Lake and the surrounding mountains...not too bad!

 

The wonderful thing about being in Jasper is that we always see wildlife as we are driving or hiking around. This trip we saw this big elk, with a beautiful rack, just eating peacefully along the side of the road.

 

We saw many mountain goats, but this one was unusual because of his perfectly formed horns. He was just waiting there for us to come and take his picture, I think that's his little son behind him!

 

We stayed at a hotel in Hinton, a little town just outside of Jasper. While we were there Lindsay meet up with a friend who told her that Hinton is so small they don't even have a theatre, so for entertainment you have to go walk the 'beaver boardwalk'. We were a little skeptical, but we went. It is a series of trails, (about 3 km) made of boards that meander down through the wetlands.

 

It was late afternoon and the sun was lighting everything up perfectly, it was so beautiful! We had a lovely walk and saw many beaver dams and this cute little beaver! It was a fun and relaxing evening... so much better than a movie!

We drove home Saturday night to be back to church for Sunday. We had a Canada wide Stake Conference. We were blessed with the opportunity to listen to several general authorities, as well as two Apostles, Elder Christofferson and Elder Packer. It was nice to hear them speak outside of General Conderence, they somehow seemed more personable and 'human'. The importance of the family and temples seemed to be an over- riding theme.

 

 

Sunday afternoon we went up to see Doug's mom. She is making good progress. She actually got home from the hospital today and she will continue classes at the hospital once a week now for 6 weeks. She is very happy to be home and out of the hospital.

 

 

It was wonderful to get back to work. We had a lot of things to discuss after our Dental Conference! In one class, Lindsay learned how important flouride is, so she gave herself a flouride treatment!

Now that's applying what you learn!

 

 

A Vancouver Vacation

So we had a little time off work last week and ended up with a four- day weekend...so we decided to take a 'road trip'! We had never seen the new Vancouver Temple so off we went to see it.

We took the scenic route over to Vancouver, stopping first in Jasper on Thursday night. Friday morning, we drove into Wells Gray Provincial Park and thoroughly loved the waterfalls that were so spectacular they almost have the same magic as Niagara Falls. We continued on to Whistler and spent Friday night there.

Saturday morning we took the chair lift up the mountain to overlook the Vancouver area from the top of the ski resort. We didn't take our skis, just our camera and what an amazing mountain range! It was so beautiful and so worth the drive just to be in the mountains again! We saw that the mountains in BC are as magnificent as the ones in Alberta!

That afternoon we had booked a session at the Vancouver Temple, so we had to leave Whistler and head down the coast to Surrey, just south of Vancouver. We managed to arrive at the temple in time to attend our 2:10 session, but we had a hard time concentrating on the session because the temple is so absolutely beautiful! Many special details and open spaces and bright windows! Doug and I agreed that it is probably the most beautiful Temple we have been in.

We stayed in Surrey that evening, and loved the warm weather, going out to dinner and a movie. (Battleship...I liked it but Doug was skeptical). We were up early and went to church there the next morning, meeting up with an old friend from our ward, Karen Davis, she and her family had moved out there 17 years ago! it was fun to visit and catch up on the news about her family.

After church we headed home, taking a different route and enjoying all the beautiful mountains and rivers that we were driving by. We stopped on the way home to visit with Doug's cousin Rita Butts and her husband Bruce. They were at their cabin in Sycamous for the long weekend and had invited us to stop in, we had a fun visit. It was rainy, so we couldn't really enjoy our little convertible with the roof down, but we still enjoyed the beautiful drive. We carried on, and stayed in Revelstoke Sunday evening.

Monday morning we arose to more rain in Revelstoke, but as we got closer to Alberta and farther from the coast the weather started to improve. We drove through Banff without even stopping because we were heading to Jon and Tiffy's to see our grandkids! We had a great visit, went out to dinner loved those cute little grand babies and then we off for home!

On our way home we stopped at the cabin to check on the state of the tree-cutting and discovered that all of the 24 trees had been cut down. It looked a tornado had been through there! We certainly have our work cut out for us this next few weeks cleaning up the yard!

It was a wonderful weekend road trip to Vancouver!

 

 

 

Timber.....24 cabin trees gone!

We have now had our little cabin at Wizard Lake for 12 years on June1st! It has been a wonderful place to escape to and relax when things get too hectic in the city. On a recent visit out there, we noticed a large tree had broken off and a big portion of it lay in the yard. Luckily it didn't hit anything! Well, this caused us some concern, so we called in a tree cutter and he came to investigate! After an hour of him hugging and marking our trees, we were told we need to cut down 24 (!!) of them! Wow!!

The tree cutting started today, we went out after work and twelve trees had been taken down. It was amazing to us how they could cut them down and lay them in perfect position on the ground and do no damage to our property! These are tall trees, many of them 70-80 feet high!! Doug counted the rings on one of them and got to over a hundred!

Sad to see them coming down, they are so majestic. However, it is better to be safe than sorry. Doug bought a quad trailer so we can move and stack all of the cut up logs to one side of our yard and make a log fence. If anybody needs firewood come get it at the cabin!

Doug and I were at the cabin Friday and Saturday, cleaning, sorting and Spring cleaning. It was so much fun and so necessary!! We had so much stuff to take to the dump! We even had to load up the trailer! We love going there on Saturdays, the dump manager is such a nice guy, we always save our bottles and take them to him.

When we returned home to Edmonton Saturday afternoon, I noticed something different about my yard. My flower bed in the front yard had secretly been planted by Lindsay while we were at the cabin! What a fun surprise!! And she did it so professionally, I thought she had help from a garden 'designer', but it was all her own planning! She even put a sign in the garden saying 'Thanks for helping me blossom!" It was so cute, and it was so wonderful to talk with all the kids on Mother's Day!!

The extent of my gardening this year has been to go to Costco and buy their extraordinarily inexpensive, but beautiful flowers! It was like a mad house at Costco today, everyone trying to get their flowers bought before the long weekend. I barely made it out of there alive! I felt like I had to guard my flowers with my life or someone would steal them out from under me! it was so wonderful to get them home safe, they look great on my step, I think Rachel likes them, too!

Well, we are off to Vancouver tomorrow for a four day road trip. We are going to Jasper, then to Whistler, and down to Surrey to the new Vancouver Temple. We have never been to the Vancouver Temple and we are excited to go Saturday night! We hope the weather is nice, but it will be so good just to spend some fun time together!

 

 

 

Temples and the Mountains

Dad and I worked our first shift in the Temple on Friday afternoon and evening. That night we were set apart by President Hogg, a member of the Temple Presidency. Our blessings were very special, with specific blessings promised to us individually as we do this work! It was very sacred, and reminded us how much our Heavenly Father knows and loves us.

 

Saturday morning we got up early and drove to the mountains to go skiing. We got caught in a spring snow storm through Airdrie and Calgary, but we pushed through it, arriving at Lake Louise around noon! Luckily the snow had stopped and we were so glad we kept going to get there! It was so beautiful, just being in that beautiful setting refreshed us! There is something so spiritual about the quiet and beauty of the mountains that it is very comparable to the Temple!

We were supposed to meet up with Mark and Jon on the mountain, but it didn't work out, so we ended up meeting them in Banff for dinner. We drove into Calgary with Mark and saw his basement suite. It was just renovated, so it is very clean and modern. He has moved in and is really enjoying his own place!

We had gone skiing because Doug bought me new skis and boots. He is doing all he can to encourage my skiing 'hobby'...I do it mostly because I love him. But I really like my new skis, and enjoyed a few good runs on Saturday.

Grandma is now in the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. She will be there for about a month while a team of doctors try to figure out how to get her well and on her feet. She is very lucky to be there, it is a great facility, with top doctors. I don't think she is very happy about being there yet, I know she would rather be home or at our house!!

Lindsay and I hosted a baby shower for our friend, Asha Livingstone. It was so fun! We put together a 'Crepe Bar' with Italian sodas. Linsday could be a caterer... She is so good at doing these 'events'...

We played some crazy games, including one using play dough called 'making babies'. It was so funny to see how each 'baby' turned out, they were are all so unique!! I visit teach Asha, so it will be great fun to visit her and the new baby each month. I'm hoping she needs lots of babysitting! It's been a great week!

 

Moving Mark and Mowers

We went to Calgary on Saturday to help Mark move into his basement apartment. He couldn't move into the apartment because the previous occupant hadn't moved yet, so we just brought his stuff down from Edmonton and stored it in the garage of his new place. As we were driving down Mark's street, Dad saw a sign that said "free lawnmower"! Wow! He was so excited he immediately sent Mark back down the street to get it! This was a great find...not only was it free, but it worked! The only problem being that the self propelled transmission needed repairs. Doug brought it home, mowed the lawns, and happily stored it in the back yard! Another one of Dad's 'collections'!

While we were there we stopped in to have lunch with Jon, Tiff and the kids. It was so fun to see them again. Joshua was his smiley self and Ava had just gotten back from getting groceries with her dad! From what we hear, she is getting to be a great little helper! We were in heaven having seen all four of our Grandkids in the same week!

Knowing that we were going down to Phoenix, Dad had ordered some backpacking equipment for us, which had been delivered and was waiting for us when there. We brought it back with us last week from Phoenix, and we are so excited to start using it! We now have new lightweight backpacks that weigh under two pounds each! New down filled mummy bags, about two pounds each...and a new backpacking tent-weighing in at 1.5 pounds!!! We are hoping to get our first camping trip in sometime this month. Fun! Doug had to try out his new bag and Rachel loved it, too! She kept nuzzling into the soft down and loved the smell.

We have finally finished our Temple cleaning assignment. We were sad to give it up, we had finally learned how organize and direct the wards coming in to clean each night. We had a farewell dinner at our home on Friday night with our co- workers. We had become very good friends working together these past six months! We start our first assignment as Temple Workers this Friday from 3:00-9:00...a great opportunity for us to continue to serve.