Spruce Woods Trip

Yesterday we joined our friends Willy and Tina Fehr at the Carman Baptist Church where Willy is a part of the leadership. This week was their missions emphasis Sunday. We enjoyed an "International meal" and the kids accrued a few toys.

After lunch we continued on toward Glenboro and Spruce Woods Provincial Park. (Thanks for the idea Mark & Rosalie). We'd told Justin that we were going to see Sara the camel and see the "Desert" which scared him because he was a little nervous of the cowboys and buffalo. Kate wasn't concerned with those but the thought of seeing crocodiles made her uneasy (Not sure where that stuff came from). We decided to take the "short" path (only 1.6kms) and soon found out that a mile of walking on sand is far more taxing than a mile on gravel. Even our perpetual motion 3 year old wasn't keeping up all of the time. I also found that you can only carry an 11month old on your shoulders so long before she gets bored and starts re-arranging your glasses or sticking her fingers in your ears, (a small drool-lubed finger can go a long way into an ear canal).

The kids had a wonderful time jumping down the sand hills, rolling on the dunes and running the paths. Justin saw a bunch of crows and decided to scare them away by pulling his arms into his jacket and standing perfectly still like a scarecrow.

When we were done (around 7pm) we dumped out our shoes and went to Glenboro for supper. As we approached the camel effigy Kate asked, "Is that Mary the camel?" Our apologies to the aunties who've had camels named after them.

The General Metal Picnic

On Tuesday, Sept 9 we went to the General Metal picnic at Winkler Bible Camp. We played mini-golf tried our hand at archery, spent some time petting the noses on some horses and watched some of the people on the climbing wall.




While Chris was winning a jacket during the doorprizes, Justin and Kaitlyn spent some time on the play structure along with the multitude of children who came.

Justin riding a "Motorcycle"

While at grandma and grandpa's on Sunday, Justin took advantage of the opportunity to ride the Z50 Honda that his Dad and Uncle Mike grew up driving. Justin's driving is smooth but cautious.

Kaitlyn's 3rd Bithday

Kaitlyn is 71/2 months old in these pictures. Hard to believe this is the same little girl.

On Sunday, we went to Mom & Dad's place for the day and celebrated Kaitlyn's third birthday along with Grandma Pauls, Mike & Jeanette and Derek & Beth.

Mike and Jeanette came out for the Morris MCC auction. It was great to see them again, it had been along time. Their visit was short, because they had to get back to the combine.

Who Dunnit?

Sunday Sept 7, 2008
My immigrant neighbour stood on my doorstep holding up Nettie's wallet. "Does this belong to you guys? I found it laying on the grass in front of my house." I took it and opened it. It was Netties wallet..minus the cash and the credit card. We'd forgotten it in the van, along with some groceries that had been picked up Saturday evening. The van had been parked right up in front of our garage (under a motion light). As we searched the boulevard we found Nettie's drivers license and citizenship papers as well as an envelope with the name of one of our neighbours on it. When we told him about it his eyes were wide. It had been an empty envelope that night, but the night before it'd been left in the truck...with a few thousand dollars in it. So, they got away with around $35 and never used our credit card before we cancelled it. It leaves us more curious than mad...who dunnit? We keep looking at any teen or biker who goes by and wonder "was it him?". I suppose we'll never know.

Our Piano

Our kids love music and though we don't want to be the over-acheiver parents who get their kids doing too much we do think the option of piano lessons would be valuable, so a few weeks ago we bought an older piano from a family in Miami. On tuesday we had Jason Dyck, from Piano Manna, come to tune our piano and he said it's in reasonably good shape though it has a crack in a small wooden block that needs to be glued. He gave us some pointers on things to do to make it better. Resurfacing the hammers, adjusting the slack for each key, and leveling the keys are some of the things he suggested. Currently we're working on the cracked peice and so our piano is apart and laying on it's back with about 15 strings unhooked.

Some of Our Summer Time Fun

A day at Great Grandma's







A few weeks ago while Justin was in Alberta visiting his cousins with Grandma & Grandpa Dyck the rest of us went to Brandon to visit Grandma Irving, a visit that was long overdue. We had a good visit and a sponsored supper at Humpty's. It was great to see Grandma again.






Grandma enjoyed cuddling with her little girls!












Two weeks ago while Chris was painting the eves on the house, Justin had his first entreprenurial experience selling ice tea and beans (wierd combo but it worked). By "closing time" Justin had sold the whole pitcher of ice tea and all of the green beans, netting a whopping $3 and change.





Our house painting is going slowly but we're pleased with the final product. Currently the front is done, and one side has the primer and one coat of paint on it. We're waiting on our new windows, the next step in our exterior makeover.