Boat Dock In & 4 Wheeling Fun!

Well it was finally May long weekend and so it was time to go out to the cabin and put our boat dock in at the lake. It was nice this year because we has alot of help. Lindsay and James, and his brother Sam came out for the weekend and their friend John.

 

 

We had a lot of fun after the dock was in, playing Bocchi Ball and just hanging out. It always fun at the cabin when we get good weather.

Sunday was a quieter day, with some peaceful napping and some good eating!!

 

 

But come Monday we were ready to play again, John's wife Jennifer had joined us.

 

We decided to go on a quad ride to our favorite spot, a long road that leads up to a lake.

 

 

At this time of year it can be very muddy, and we got stuck so many times, James ended up with a bloody nose....but he still could'nt wipe that smile iff his face!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure who got muddier...James or his brother Sam. Sam really got muddy just helping everybody get out when they stuck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug was not far behind in catching his share of mud! He loves hitting those mud puddles straight on and some times just having to be winched out...so fun!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all that time getting soooo muddy, it was time to get cleaned up...and that's not so easy, even if you do have a lake nearby!!

It was a fun ride and a great weekend!!

 

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Mother's Day Love

I always love Mother's Day! Perhaps because it is in the Spring and the weather is warming up. Just as Easter symbolizes new life, it seems the same for me with Mother's Day! The beginning of outside activities, with all the fun that brings...BBQ's, picnics, the cabin, family and friends playing outside together! And life begins to open up to the warmth of the season!

After our Church meetings on Mother's Day, we went out to the cabin and enjoyed a BBQ of 'sliders', potatoes, watermelon, salads and beautiful weather! We were there with Grandma, Lindsay and James, Mark, and our friends Carolyn and her son Matthew.

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed a walk down to the lake and saw all the new growth and awakening that is happening down there.

Our cabin sits up on a ravine so we have a nice walk of about a half kilometre down to the lake through beautiful trees, ferns and bushes.

 

 

 

We enjoyed time just sitting on the dock visiting and laughing together. Of course Rachel was in the mix of it all.

 

 

 

Lindsay and I had a fun time taking a few pictures together...it was so tempting to push each other into the lake, but it was Sunday!! And I'm pretty sure that lake was still very cold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this new I-Pad and it's camera features. Sometimes I just get a little crazy and take a few too many pictures!! This one I call 'Defiance", they seem to be thinking...

"OK Mom....you can take our picture AGAIN...but we're not going to be happy about it!!"

But what a great picture of the sitting on the dock, which we haven't put in the water yet.

 

 

After our walk down to the lake we went back up to the cabin for some dessert of apple crisp and ice cream, compliments of Lindsay. It was so delicious!! And then time in the hammock for Matthew, he loved it! You can tell by the "I'm staying right here" look on his face.

As evening approached we had to head back to Edmonton and leave the cabin behind. That's always so hard!! But it was wonderful to come home and call Jon and Tiff, and Cam and D, and have fun visits with them. They have such cute families. It was fun to wish Happy Mother's Day to my sweet daughter-in-laws. They are such wonderful mother's!! It was a great day full of love, I will remember it for a long time!

 

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What a Life For a Dog

As I sat down to do my blog, I laughed at how many pictures were taken with our dog, Rachel, over the past few weeks. She really is part of our lives! Lindsay will often go out of her way to come over and give Rachel a hug and some attention. They both love it!!

 

 

 

 

Last weekend, Jon brought Ava up on Thursday evening. He dropped her off and grabbed Doug and they left for a skiing adventure. Ava and I had a fun time, we read stories, had snacks and visited as we fell asleep together. The next morning Ava loved just being with Rachel, sitting quietly on grandpa's hot tub. This is Rachel's favorite spot to enjoy the sun and it was so cute to see her sharing it with Ava.

 

Doug and Jon had a great time skiing together on Friday. They said the snow was awesome, but the wind was a little too strong at times and some of the lifts were shut down because of it. I'm glad they were able to have some fun together and to make it home safe on Friday night. Tiff drove up after work on Friday and so did Mark...we had a fun weekend together!!

We went out to the cabin on Saturday and it was so wet and muddy out there. Tiff finally just let Ava and Josh run around and play in the wet sloshy grass.

They had a blast! It was so fun to watch them play, Josh would just laugh out loud with joy...he reminds me alot of Jon at that age!

 

On Sunday we invited Grandma and Lindsay and James and his family over for a 'graduation party' for James. We also had our friend, Bruce Murray there as well. It was really fun, we had about 17 people gathered together for a dinner of lasagna, and James favorite...an ice cream cake.

 

This was a moment I couldn't miss...It was so funny...a boys gathering!! So when I requested a picture, they all groaned and covered their faces, except for James and Bruce! The covered bandits are James three brothers, Dan, Zachary, and Sam, and, of course Mark. Mark is moving back to Edmonton in July and he and Sam are looking for a place together. They are the two bandits on the right.

Grandma was so relaxed after dinner that she just used Rachel as a foot stool, and the funny thing is, Rachel didn't mind a bit! Grandma doesn't usually like dogs, but she has sure learned to love Rachel. (And Rachel loves grandma, as you can see.)

 

 

 

 

 

Jon took Grandma's scooter out for a spin with Ava, that's about as big of a bike that Jon dares to ride. He was gone for a long time, so maybe it's time to get him one!!

It seems Jon is thinking, "Man, I wish I was in my safe jeep!"

 

 

Tiff took our friend, Raeline, for a ride, somehow I think Tiff is ready to move up to a Harley!!

It actually looks like they both are!!

 

 

We had such great weather on Sunday that we were finally able to be outside a little bit. It is so wonderful that Spring is finally coming to this cold country!! Josh wasn't so sure what Rachel was thinking, but all Rachel wanted we're some hugs and cuddles!

Josh stands about as high as Rachel's head, so she can seem a little scary at times.

 

 

 

On Sunday evening it was goodbye's all around, but Rachel didn't want anyone to leave because she just loves everyone so much!!

We love everyone so much, too, and it was so wonderful having time together with our family.

We got to Skype Cam and D today and get some pictures and say hello. Brynnlee was sleeping, but we had some fun with Brookie and Mckinley, hard to believe that in a month they will be with back in Edmonton.

It is Brooklyn's 5th Birthday today...an exciting 05/05! She is sure growing up!

Mckinley and Brookie have matching talking puppies...Scout and Violet! They'll have to be careful not to let her new pet alligator eat them up! Looks like it was a fun day!! Brookie was sad today when we showed her the back yard and all the snow was gone...she loves snow!! But I wonder how long that will last when they get back??

 

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Easter Fun

The third weekend of March we down went to Cochrane, just west of Calgary and stayed overnight. The next morning, on Saturday, my friend Eileen and I met up at the Cochrane LDS Church for a Family History Seminar that was broadcast from Salt Lake City by satellite. It was wonderful!! I learned so much more about researching my ancestors. I have been having some recent success in finding and taking names to the Temple. It's such a sweet feeling to do this work for them!

Doug met up with Mark and Jon and Tiffany and went to the new Calgary Temple and then they went out for lunch. That afternoon Jon and Doug drove back to get me and we stopped by Jon's home and enjoyed a Mexican dinner together with Tiffany, Ava, Josh.

Tiff had made a carrot cake for my birthday, it was so delicious! After dinner we had fun colouring and decorating Easter eggs. We all got into it, our decorating kit had stick-on faces and it was so funny to see what the eggs ended up looking like!

Ava loved all of her 'egg friends'!

 

 

The following weekend was the big move move, Lindsay and James moved into their new home... It was very exciting! Lindsay and I went together to pick up the keys because James was in classes. We went to their house and did the final 'walk through'.

 

 

 

They had arranged a lot of help the following day for the move and it was basically done in about 4 hours. The missionaries from their old ward helped them with the 'move out' and the ones in their new ward helped with the 'move in'!! Pretty cool guys!

We were finally able to get more of her stuff out of our storage unit- yeah!! Mark came up to help with the move and to spend the week with us during his school's 'Spring Break', it was so fun having him here!

Lindsay hosted her first dinner on Easter Sunday. It was really fun to be in their new home. She cooked ham, funeral potatoes, veggies and a salad...it was delicious!

 

 

 

She had all of us there, as well as James brother, Sam, our friends Eileen and Ron and grandma.

 

 

 

We also thought it would be fun to have kids there to do eggs with so we invited my friend Caroline Kennedy and her son Matthew.

 

Doug gave me an I- pad mini for my birthday and I love it!! I now use it for everything, even my calandering and pictures. Caroline and I were playing around with a camera option.

I love this picture and I am really enjoying this I-pad! It sure makes my 'blogging' easier!

 

 

It was good to get Lindsay and James settled in their new home. They are very happy with it! And even better news...on Lindsay's birthday, James got his Engineering ring. He has sure worked hard to finish his degree and certainly earned that ring!!

We missed being with Cam on his birthday, but we skyped and had a great visit with him and D and the girls. Only seven weeks and they'll be back home- pretty exciting! They are now looking for housing in Edmonton. We are so happy Cameron passed his Canadian Dental Boards!!

 

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March Madness

Well, a lot has happened since we entered into the month of March. Doug currently serves as the Teacher's advisor in our Ward, working with the young men, so they had a Winter Camp at our cabin during Teacher's Convention Feb 28-March 1st. They had pretty good weather, a little rain, but nothing to stop them from having fun. They made snow forts, went ice fishing, snowmobilling, and blasted each other with snowballs! A good time for everyone!

That same weekend Cameron was up to write his Canadian Dental Board Exam at the University of Alberta. He had come up several days earlier to study and to review some stuff with Doug. He wrote two six hour exams on Saturday and Sunday...he was exhausted by the end of it all! He really missed his family and skyped 'D'and the girls Sunday night when it was all over. We are just praying he passes those exams!!

Lindsay and James came over for dinner on Sunday along with Grandma, she was happy to see Cam again. Lindsay was good enough to make us up some of her delicious apple pie filling and she used her handy dandy pie maker machine to crank out miniature pies for all of us. They were so fun and filling!

It was a busy weekend!

The following Thursday, Doug and I caught an early flight out to Vancouver and to attend the Pacific Dental Conference. It was so nice being away and being able to be on the coast again, even for just four days! We love Vancouver!!

This is the Vancouver Convention Centre. It sits right next to the Olympic torch on the oceanfront. We stayed at a hotel in walking distance, it was fun to be out for a brisk walk to the Convention Centre each morning.

We enjoyed the courses, Doug took several Dentistry related ones, but I was able to attend classes on topics such as, health and well being, happiness, fitness, even one on office management. It was very enlightening and helpful...and the food was great!

After our courses on Thursday, we walked around the streets near our hotel and found a fabulous Thai Restaurant, where we enjoyed dinner. The Thai food is absolutely wonderful in Vancouver, we try it every time we go there.

Friday we skipped out of classes after lunch, and drove down to Washington. We had wanted to just go for a fun drive, so we told the border patrol guard we were just going down for a few hours. He was helpful and told us we should go to Fairhaven and take the 'Checkanut Drive'. So off we went to find Fairhaven, it is nestled just near Bellingham, Washington. It is a small little town similar to Banff, only right on the ocean...very artsy and stuff. We had a lovely dinner, and started to drive up the 'Checkanut Drive' but It was too dark to see anything, so we just drove back to Vancouver that night.

Saturday morning we went to a Conference 'special breakfast' with Brent Butt, the comedian from 'Corner Gas'. He is hilarious! He was given an hour to speak, but after 45 minutes he seemed tired, starting looking at his watch and really struggled for material. That was a little disappointing, but kinda fun to see him in person.

After our courses on Saturday, we went out for a drive around Vancouver and through Stanley Park. It is so beautiful. We took a nice walk along the ocean and met up with a couple that were eating fish and chips. They told us where to get it, so we bettled off and found a cute little restaurant called 'C-food'. We had a delightful dinner of freshly battered halibut with scrumptious fries. As we drove drove back to our hotel very content from our lovely dinner and oceanview drive, we thought how great it would to live there...but our kids and grandkids are not there, better to be close to home!

On Sunday we went to church, and after church we drive down to Washington again, we wanted to do the 'Chuckanut Drive' in the daytime. It goes up over the 'Chuckanut' mountains and is high enough to give a beautiful view of the San Juan Islands. We had such a good time. Doug decided to also take the road up to Mt Baker on the way back. We were told it was only about a 30 min drive up...but we kept going and going and never getting there, so we finally turned around. But what beautiful forest and trees. They say you can go from skiing to swimming in the same day! How fun to live on the coast, with a mountain to ski on and an ocean to swim in the same day! And so many bridges!

As we returned to Canada, we had to wait at the border as usual! Each time we went across the border, we were laughing and trying to tell the border guard that we were going down just for a drive for a few hours. They thought we were going just to shop!! We were fairly suspicious, as we were from Edmonton, and coming across in a rental car. But all in all, they were very friendly and usually understood that we were just on an 'adventure'! We had a great time in Vancouver and really enjoyed the Conference.

It has been a fun and busy March so far...but more is coming!!

 

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