Cousins

The last few weeks have seen a lot of “cousin” time for our kids. All of our kids love hanging out with their cousins – whether they be the one year olds or the ones close in age to them. We are thankful for the large families we both come from – cousins (and aunts and uncles and grandparents) are a real blessing and we thank God for each member of our family! So here are a few of the pictures of just a few of the cousins. It became obvious to me as I was going through my pictures that the younger kids are much easier to track down than the older ones - so not too many pictures of the older cousins, but we love them too!:)

Our Famous Boys

I took the boys to the arena a few weeks ago for the complex's anniversary. They had a number of free programs that day - one of them being "minny shinnny". The boys love hockey, though they don't often get to play it except on the deck at home, so this was a treat for them and they loved it. They came off of the ice after the game all hot and sweaty - a nice change from the "I'm cold . . . I'm freezing" that I used to get so often. Anyhow, the photographer for the local paper was also there, and snapped a number of pictures, and so now Kevin and Kade believe they are famous - sort of:)

. . . and a few of my own pictures from that day.

Bomber Bob

Uncle Eric and Aunt Leinie have been preparing for some time to take down one of their silos. They mentioned to me that the boys may like to watch. Since it involved dynamite, noise, and crashing down, I agreed. This would be something they would enjoy. So we joined the others who were dragged from their sleep to view this demolition. Notice that they chipped away at the bottom of the silo - this somehow prepared it to fall in the right direction. (Some wondered how it managed to stay standing . . . or if you should really dare stand in the vicinity)

One loud bang, and down she went.

And then this is all that remained.

For a video replay of the events click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIou2rtF5eI compliments of Brenda (though I'm not sure she wants me advertising the fact:)) (By the way, you'll have to crank your neck sideways if you want to watch it straight:)) Thanks for letting us share in the experience!

Saige Ruth

Congratulations to Ken and Beth who were blessed this morning with their second child - this time a girl! She is a sister to Landon, was born at 12:15am and weighed 7lbs 13oz. She is a beautiful little girl with lots of dark hair. Beth and Saige are both doing very well - at least it sure looks and seems like it!

Awwww . . .

Kevin taking a turn holding Saige

I of course couldn't chose which picture of Kade to post - the one with the tongue is a typical Kade picture - kind of following the pattern of his father! (a sure sign of love)

Kylie loved this little girl, but was definitely not necessarily gentle:)

Beth with Hunter - the big ole tug-a-lug! (But also oh so cute)

Doesn't she look like such a contented little girl?

We pray that God will bless this family as they enjoy this new little additon and as they raise her in His Ways.

Weekend at the Pineries

We headed out Friday for a weekend at the Pineries with Mike and Jenn. What a fabulous weekend we had. We made it there without any major complications (just some minor ones) We had sites reserved in Party Central Burley and got set up quickly and had supper. We went for a walk to the beach the first night and of course it was beautiful and much warmer at the beach than deep within the campsites. The kids were dressed in pants and sweaters, but that didn’t stop them from going in the water and getting soaked! They had great fun though and their clothes did dry. It was nearing bedtime for the kids when our neighbouring sites became inundated with young and loud people. And the noise didn’t stop until about 3am though they were warned by the warden. We discussed moving, and finally decided to go for it on Saturday night. So we got sites in Riverside which is a wonderful family oriented section. We slept marvelously that night! We did end up with about a half hour of rain on Sunday night, but it dried up, the sun came out and we were still able to enjoy a campfire. Monday was beautiful and we made a point of hitting the beach for a few hours before we headed home.

This picture is out of order, but for some reason blogger doesn't let you move your pictures around like they used to (or am I missing something????)
Campfires and roasting marshmallows, though I'm not sure where the fire is - I suppose that's a result of conserving firewood so that we don't spend more on firewood than on our campsite:)

Kade sulking - kind of a funny picture to post, but I thought it made a great picture.

Just relaxing after the big setup of camp!
Kylie slept on the couch beside our bed, but being used to a crib, she found her freedom rather fun. Whether it was the neighbourly noise or just "I've had enough sleep for now", she was up and about in the middle of the night on Friday. This is where she ended up Saturday morning, not hearing a thing when all the rest of us got up and ready. I'm sure her neck didn't feel the best:z

Saturday morning we hiked one of the MANY trails. It was very nice and ended up at the Visitor's Centre which is also a great place for the kids to see and learn new things.

Some of the scenery as we hiked.

Watching birds, squirrels and whatever other creatures they could find.

They had all kinds of need bones, skeletons for the kids to check out and guess what they used to be.

Kevin checking out the turtle in the Visitors centre.

Rachel and Emily

Kade and Jordan

Throwing stones

Devin and Kylie

Frisbee on the beach.

Kylie had great fun collecting stones in her pail. There were so many neat stones on the beach.

Emily and Rachel in the water. Rachel seems to be immune to the frigid water, and is trying to convince Emily that it actually feels quite warm. Emily was not easily convinced!

Kevin and Kade playing on their "ship".

Ian is another who didn't seem to find the water cool at all.

The boys had great fun building this fort up in the dunes.

And of course, just because you just have to go in the water . . . Jonathan and Mike taking the plunge. Needless to say they didn't swim for hours.

Silly girl.

Jenn and Ashley who was such a good little girl the whole weekend.

Kylie

Our little goof!

Hanging out.

Kylie enjoying breakfast . . .

. . . and sharing with the chipmunks (see the one eating all the cheerios behind her chair)

Jordan boating.

Kylie was NOT anxious to go near the water, but we thought she should at least touch her toes to it. She was not overly impressed although she did like splashing her hands in it.She much preferred to watch things from the nice warm sand.

Rides on the boogie board.

Since the sand was so warm, it only makes sense to roll in it as much as possible in order to clothe yourself with its warmth - at least that's Kevin's theory.

And that brings us to the end of a wonderful weekend. I think every one enjoyed themselves immensely and there is already talk of making it a yearly tradition. Thanks so much to Mike and Jenn and family for coming along with us. What great fellowship and fun we had together - we came home with great memories of great talks and long walks; fun in the sun and in the rain; raccoon "watching/observing"; crazy flying squirrels attacking your cookies; campfires and sticky faces; meals in a bag; neighbourly (or not so neighbourly) thoughts and feelings; moving tales and so much more. The kids too had a great time - but we knew they would. They were kind of sad on Tuesday morning that it was all over. But as we grownups know - all good things must come to an end - but that doesn't mean there won't be a next time!