Familjebilder

A few months back, I received these lovely family photos in the mail.  Kerstin was kind enough to make copies and send them to us from Sweden.  These photos are of Mamma G and Kerstin's Grandparents.

These first two photos are of Mamma G and Kerstin's Farmor and Farfar. (Roger's Great Grandparents)

These next two photos are Mamma G and Kerstin's Mormor and Morfar.  Apparently they never married, but he always knew where to find a good deal on bread.

After about 4 weeks without rain, and a 600,000 square hectare uncontrolled forest fire burning about 65 km north of Fort McMurray, we finally got a good down pour this past weekend.  The rain has been good for many things including our garden.

What I thought were weeds ended up being baby's breath and poppies!  I was sooo ready to pull them out.

By the way, we shipped my beloved (but broken) bike to Calgary in the hopes that my dad can fix it.  This poor bike has moved from Edmonton to Medicine Hat back to Edmonton then out to Waterloo riding atop our mini-van attached to my dad's make shift bike rack made out of 2 X 4's and lots of string, then to Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Calgary.  Hopefully this will not be it's final move.  

Come back to us dear bike! (..but if you want to use it mom or dad, go ahead, but treat it nice.)

A Visit from the Nutrition Police

My parents recently came up to Fort Mac for a visit.  While they were here, I did my best to cook little food as requested, however it did get a little out of control on Saturday night when our neighbour showed up with Newfoundland  fish and chips.  Yum!

We managed to play a game or two of Jenga which my dad very prematurely decided was "easy."

We took them on a brisk walk of the Birchwood Trails...

 

Where we saw flowers shaped like stars and butterflies.

 

My parents enjoyed working out on the outdoor exercise equipment

Lastly, Roger and my dad enjoyed some Youtube videos of gross animals eating other gross animals.

All in all it was a relaxing visit and stimulated Roger and I to use the outdoor equipment more regularly after our runs especially in lieu of this.  (thanks Lindsay... groan...)

Dune

Finally, after months of Roger pestering me to read one of his favourite novels of all time, I've done it!  I've read Dune from cover to cover.  I must admit, I resisted reading Dune for a long time simply because it was "Science Fiction" (...and had a boring cover...).  But Roger was persistent.  He told me that Dune had just as much and likely more scheming and back-stabbing AND double crossing as any of my favourite soap-opera-ey shows on television.  So... I decided to give it a read with one condition.  Roger had to read one of my favourite books ever. 

 I was determined to not enjoy Dune--at first I read it grudgingly--one page a week--then those darn Harkonnen's had to attack and despite my best efforts, I liked it.  I REALLY liked it.  A page a week became a chapter a week, and before I knew it I was done.  I figured that would be it, but I had so many unanswered questions from the first book that Roger went and grabbed the second book in the series which I've already completed and am now well into the third book while Roger is on page 32 of my one favourite book.  When I ask him how he likes it he says "..it's not baaaaaddddd..."

Chives from our garden.

Portraits by Erin

Self Portrait 

By Erin 4 years old.

(by the way, she doesn't have 4 eyes, 2 of the circles are nostrils.... rather large nostrils)

Auntie Julie

By Erin

(my nostrils are significantly smaller)

A visit with Sausage Heads

Last weekend the Munchkins et al. came for a visit to Fort Mac.  Here's a summary of their trip in pictures.

The discovery of the Vulcan EBF-25.

 

After a big breakfast of waffles and lots of sausage we headed out for a walk where the munchkins had fun yelling into walkie talkies (even though they were well within earshot of each other).  It was on one of these walks that Erin informed me that she could jump and burp at the same time!

We made a quick stop at the local playground, where both adults and kids got to play, and Brendan and Erin created an imaginary ice cream stall that gave away free ice cream.

Erin got to rest her tired legs on the way back home

Here's the munchkins posing with our tulips.  Apparently the yellow ones smelled like lemonade and the red ones smelled like grape.

 

The next morning, we had a yummy breakfast of Roger's famous pannkakor and MORE sausage.

Then we went on a hike through the woods.  

Everyone started with lots of energy and great spirits.

They found sticks to play with

And when it started to rain, Raymond made sure they stayed dry

In spite of the rain, everyone was still smiling.

Here's a Erin doing her Maori Warrior face.

They had fun picking fuzzy weeds

That could make moustaches...

...a fuzzy bouquet...

...and of course, could tickle faces.

Then, the energy suddenly started to die.

and this little girl wouldn't even look at my camera anymore!

  

They did a great job however walking 4.5 km in total on their little legs.

 We put Erin's weed bouquet in water as soon as we got home, but to her dismay, it wasn't enough to keep the weeds from dying.

Thankfully, it didn't take them too long to recover their energy!