A Taste of Edmonton

Today we went to A Taste of Edmonton! Hard to believe it's a whole year since we went there with my my Mom and my Nephew Oliver! A lot of the foods had changed this year - several new restaurants this time! Gorgeous weather as always! I ate far too much as always and had a great time!

For the first time I did NOT take my camera :) But I did love everything I ate :) My favourite was the Chicken Tikka and garlic Naan from the New Asian Village.

Thats all for tonight folks.

I have some big news tomorrow night :) Watch this space :)

Thank you Fortis!

I was talking to Lloyd on the telephone this afternoon - he was telling me that he was on his way home from work.....Laurie was sat beside me when all of a sudden there was a big BANG outside.....we both jumped!!!

The phone line went dead...the computer went off...all power to the house went off. The girls came running downstairs. We ran outside to see what had happened. We thought maybe lightning had hit nearby and knocked the power out.....

I called Lloyd on my cell and he said not to worry and he'd be home soon to check things out. He got home and checked the breaker out in the field and that was fine but still no power. He called Fortis and they sent someone straight out. The guy was here for two hours and went up in his little crane in the field up our electricity pole..... and then out to the road in his little crane up the poles..

Lloyd cooked dinner on the bbq and made a cup of tea on the bbq and we had a lovely quiet relaxing evening pottering about and snuggling with Grayson, while the Fortis guy did his job and then PING the power went back on and we have LIGHT and we have POWER again :)

And now I'm off to bed :)

A thank you!

I received a lovely surprise in the mail from Lloyds Mom and Dad! Thank you so much Terry and Chris! A wonderful reusable bag from Wyevale garden centres and inside was one of my favourite treats!!!! A Soreen malt loaf! Needless to say there isn't any left ;) YUM!!!

It was a wonderful surprise to find a parcel for me :) wooo that was two parcels for me in just a few weeks :) A lovely way to cheer up my Summer so thank you very much!!!! :)

Happy 97th Birthday!!!

Today is my Nanny Spicers 97th Birthday!!! This morning I telephoned her to wish her a happy birthday. At the moment she is in a nursing home recovering from a broken arm. This is my Dads Mom, Gwen Spicer. She was telling me this morning that her Dad used to collect bee swarms for people - he used to collect them from peoples chimneys or trees etc and hive them and then keep the bees for the honey and take the honey in the Fall and feed them sugar in the winter :) I had no idea! My Nan used to keep chickens too - just a few like we used to :)

My Nan said my parents and Sister visited this morning with a birthday cake, that when she went into the dining room for breakfast this morning everyone sang happy birthday to her, and this afternoon my Aunt and Uncle visited her! Then she was told she had a phone call from her Grand Daughter and she assumed it was my Sister ad then she was told it was from Canada and so she laughed and thought she was very privileged so I joked and agreed and said that it isn't often you turn 97 ;)

My Nan has been writing her life story and my Mom told her I would like it because I scrapbook and I had already scrapbooked several pages of my Nan and Granddad. So I explained to my Nan that I use archival paper and albums and that the pages will last for another 100 years. My Nan laughed that she would be 200 years old before the pages wear out! Anyway she said that I can have her life story so that I can write it all down and preserve it for her!

It was lovely to talk to her on her birthday :) She's funny to talk to - great sense of humour! Happy Birthday Nan!

Monday Funday....Tuesday - NOT a snooze day!!!

Monday was 28c so we headed to the splashpark to cool off. Lloyd had gone back to work after his week off (boohoo) Chris was working all day too. Laurie had slept over at his friends, so it was just Susie, Abby, Sam and I. It was fun :) We didn't plan it, just woke up in the morning, decided to throw a few snacks in the cooler and jump in the car and go! It was busy there though!

On Sunday night, to end Lloyds holiday, Lloyd marinaded ribs for the boys (their favourite) ALL day...then barbecued them slowly all afternoon. They LOVED them!! Then in the evening we took the children to Dairy Queen for ice creams and dropped Laurie at his friends for a sleepover where he stayed for two nights! Yes he seems to be spending much of the summer.

Last night Chris went to his friends house to go swimming - they have this man made pond type thing on their acreage with this giant swing - the swing is as tall as a house so you swing REALLY high and then jump into the pond - I hear its AWESOME!! ;)

Today we had errands to run - had to pick up two of Chris's friends and then drive them to another friends house. Had to pick Laurie up from his friends house. Had to go to the bank. Had to pick up some clothes form the tailors. Had to go to the library. We had lunch at the food court and ended up sat next to Val and her family! So funny because we both have bigger families so we both head for bigger tables and then end up sat near each other! Nice to see them all and Val if you are free before you go away then let me know when and we can plan something!! I have some plans each week but some days free too!!

Work on the addition continues - they've been here fairly frequently the last couple of weeks - it's frustrating not to see much progress but at least they are doing something lol!

Grayson, our new cat has settled in well and is making himself at home. He is such a sweet cat. So gentle with the children. He loves his bowl of milk in the evening (his notes from his foster home even said he asks for it in the evening lol) and he loves to sit on my writing desk in the mornings in my bedroom window. Right now he is stretched out on my oversized chair beside me. In the store they used to play with him with a little laser light thing that he would chase and so we bought one and the children play with him with it and he LOVES it - he will chase the light across the floor as if its a mouse! Amber our golden Retriever used to love to chase one of these around our yard in Sherwood Park! Yesterday I was cooling her off by having her chase the stream of water from the hose with it on 'jet'...she loves it :) she jumps soooo high to catch it in her mouth :)

I have things to post before I log off :)

Grayson.....

Lakeside art.....

Some of our lakeside art.....and while Sam may be a future artist lol, I know I am NOT very good lol....I paint because I love it and find it relaxing but I am not very good :) but dollarama sells canvases at 3 for $1 and so it doesn't matter if you suck :)

I've sat through enough art workshops in my time to learn that it doesn't matter how good (or not) you are - its whether you enjoy the process!!! And I know that I LOVE painting, drawing and 'creating'......and while my work may not end up in art galleries, it may well end up on my own walls at home - I plan to frame some of them - along with the childrens work! I have quite a few of my childrens paintings framed properly already and hung on the wall - children LOVE to see their artwork properly framed and hung on the wall and Michaels and other places do it so cheaply these days!!!

I haven't added all of the pictures we did - some of it I will add to the homeschool blog.....I have like 3000 pictures to go through on 4 camera cards so forgive me for the random order of blog posts and pictures and bad organisation of things over the next few days/ couple of weeks......

Sams driftwood gun.....

One of my favourite things to do by the lake is to collect driftwood...and Sam likes to do the same - obviously with different results. Sam found this amazing piece which (of course) he turned into a machine gun! Sam turns everything in a gun! I'm not sure where he gets his violent streak from.....people think that because he has this lovely blonde mop of hair, that he is an absolute angel, but sadly no......he is a little STINKER!!!! ;)

Sam by the pool....

My favourite place...

Every morning we would get up and go to the pool for a swim straight away. We'd swim until just before lunchtime.

In the evenings we'd come home from the lake and change and head out for dinner and try to be home in time to head out to the pool for a while before bed. Abigail LOVES to swim and will happily swim for hours no matter the time.

Sam isn't as keen on being in the pool but will gladly spend hour after hour playing with his toys on the steps of the pool. So happy to play there in fact that today he woke up and asked if we could go to the pool now......he was quite disappointed when we explained that we don't have a pool at 'this' home......

I'm sad too :( I miss it today too :(

Fishing.....

Much of our week away was spent relaxing lakeside and Lloyd and Chris spent a great deal of time fishing. It was a great opportunity for me to do some relaxing and painting as well as LOTS of reading :)

We visited and fished at several lakes in the area including Minnewanka and Two Jack, Vermilion Lakes, Jackson, Quarry Lakes

Our favourite lake was Spray Lakes in the Spray Lakes Provincial Park. We'd hiked up to Grassi Lakes a few years ago with my Mom - and the ponds up there are just STUNNING - the waters are jade/ emerald green.....

Anyway, Spray Lakes Provincial Park is the other side of the mountains if you continue along the road going up by Grassi Lakes...it's quite a way into the back country along a fairly narrow gravel road and the further along the lakes you drive, the more you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere...the only traffic you really see is the occasional gravel truck that kicks up dust that looks like a forest fire....

The pictures above are taken over various days and at various lakes. And there is a picture of the children with their first fish :) Abby was NOT impressed with the yucky fish but Sam wanted to touch it and thought it was 'cool'!!!

Mmmmmmm yummy sarnies :)

Abbys new friends tuck into our picnic!

And this is why I packed a picnic?????????

On Tuesday we packed a picnic and headed to Two Jack. Abigail and I painted while Lloyd and Chris fished. Sam paddled and played all afternoon. I packed a lovely picnic for us. This was the only afternoon that the weather wasn't perfect and we had a shower that caused us to run for the car at one point - luckily it didn't spoil the rest of the day and we were able to spend most of the time in t-shirts and Sam was able to strip off and paddle :)

However, my lovely picnic didn't make it into human mouths as these pictures show lol! The children (and Lloyd) had too much fun feeding the ground squirrels (which is probably illegal and far from hygienic lol) but the little furry rodents LOVED my cheese and cucumber and cheese and tomato rolls with a touch of salt and pepper.....and seemed to like being stroked (YUCK!!!) and Chris filmed a documentary on these creatures for his new production company!!! ;)

I did NOT partake in this germ infested waste of my picnic although I LOVED being able to get some great close ups of these cute little creatures but geez their claws!!!! I had visions of them attacking my children and spreading rabies lol! Made for some cute pictures though and it was quite a memorable experience for the children if nothing else :)

Vals Lilies....

These beautiful Lilies were given to me by Val. Aren't they stunning? They weren't flowering before I left for Canmore, so they were a gorgeous surprise to arrive home to! Thank you so much Val! I hope the Lilies I gave to you give you a wonderful display this year too! And the Shasta Daisies too! All the roadsides in the Canmore area were covered in Daisies and were so beautiful and there were many wild lilies in places too.

Yard sale find....

I've been able to use my china strawberry basket lately with our strawberry crop from the garden :) This was my bargain 50c find from the Clover Bar yard sale this year :)