Where we were at

Last week we took a little sojourn to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It's a lovely city to the west of us. And apparently us Saskatonians are supposed to loathe those from Manitoba and vice versa. Bah is what I say to that, can't we all just appreciate the differences (and frankly there aren't many) between our fair provinces?

Anywho, if you were wondering why I was awol, that's were we be. Exciting stuff, I know. But it actually was, you see because we didn't just go for fun, we also went to visit. We started off by meeting one of my (many) aunts and two of my cousins that reside in the great city of Winnipeg. Cousins that are my mother's (ish) age and that despite the 35 years of opportunity, we had never met. My mother is the youngest of somewhere in the range of 18 kids (ish). I might be able to name them all...Should I try? How's the for exciting blog fodder?

Here goes....

Nellie
Stan (both from Grandpa's first wife)

The remainder from my Grandma (*no longer with us):

Vicki*
Bernice
Anne*
Fran
Sophie
Julie
Margaret*
Mary
Rose
Benny
John
Pete*
Albin
Jenny
A girl who died ~age 4, her name escapes me

and my mom, the baby of the family, Gloria

Whew, anyone else tired? And yes they were Catholic, why do you ask?

We also fit in some fun, well for the boys anyway. On Sat and Sun, I was marking exams for the organization that I work with. The hotel I was working in and where we stayed had this fantastic play structure. It was well used. Ahoy Mateys!

Oh yeah, we also got put into jail. Well not really, this was in the recreation of a late 1600's harbour town at the Manitoba Museum.

It was the science gallery that was a big hit with our crowd though. Um, yeah, even me, the biggest kid of them all. What am I doing you might be wondering... This is a NASA training module that is supposed to simulate the no gravity atmosphere inside the space shuttle. Folks, there is a reason I am an accountant not an astronaut.

My little man and his alien. Aren't they cute?

The pins, always a hit, as is my nuclear powered flash. Really someday I ought to cough up the dough for a decent one.

A real piece of meteor. Jack was pretty stoked about touching it, being Mr. Space and all.

And a tornado, although without the trailer park demolition, it just wasn't the same, you know?

We also hit Tinkertown with my good friend, Cheryl and her little man, Cole.

The boys had fun while us gals visited. Cheryl and I had also planned a day of shopping, coffee, dinner out and lots and lots of girl time but unfortunately she came down with a nasty virus. Oh and did I mention she is also 19 weeks (ish) away from delivering twins? So yeah, when the girl get sick, she needs to rest and not feel bad about cancelling on our girl time! I know where you live girl, I'll be back. By some feat (she's amazing) she made it to work Sat and Sun so I got to hang with her in between marking exams like madwomen. It's all good.


And can someone tell me what Spiderman has done with my son?

Random Photo Post

The Easter bunny was here!

Jack and Jessie, chillaxing on the couch. Shhh, don't tell Grandma Jess was on the couch.

Yes, Jessie is cute Jack, I agree, but no, you aren't getting a cat. A-CHOOOOOO!

Some downtime from the Easter hubbub at G and P's


I also have a post up at Canada Moms Blog about what kids want. According to Kamden, it's NOT having his picture taken while he chills with his bro in Pop's recliner.

And please, no autographs either.

Happy 2009

This year for Christmas, we made up a few calendars for relatives. Well technically Jay's sister, Michelle, made them and we printed them.

It got me inspired to make one for us. I used this on-line scrap booking site. I relied heavily on the already created templates since I have never in my life created a scrap book page. Then once I was done I exported them as jpeg files and printed them off on my own ink jet printer.

To bring in 2009, I thought I would share them with you since many of you don't get the chance to visit in real life. Basically I have nothing inspiring or full of wisdom to post so you get this instead. I am hoping it's better than nothing but you can be the judge of that!

(capition reads: I hope you fall in love with making music, that it will be one of your greatest passions, filling your heart with joy, and that through music, you discover that dedication and hard work are your greatest assets, Love Mommy)

(Sand castles, surf, sun, time with my boys, it was perfect)

(Little boys are made of snails and puppy dog tails)

(Our brave boy, his eye needed fixing, he faced it with such courage)

(True Love, 10 years of wedded bliss, let there be 60 more, filled with love, laughter and good health)

(Day and Night, when you are sleeping, it's hard to believe you are ever anything but still and serene, when you are awake it's hard to believe you would ever sit still)

(Learning so much, making the grade, 100%, you've set the bar high, we couldn't be prouder of who you are)

And lastly a couple of shots of the boys waiting for their cousins to arrive on Christmas Eve.

Not so patiently.

May 2009 bring nothing but joy and happiness to you and your loved ones!

One last week at the lake

Last week was spent doing a little of this.....

Enjoying scenery like this...

With these handsome guys....

And my parents, which for some reason, I never get a good picture of. My brother, Trevor, his wife, Nicole and their kiddos, Justin and Arianna also joined us.

This is the best picture I have ever taken of my bro....as he would say, he totally blew his onion on that one.

Okay, okay, here's his mug...
He's goofier than me, if you can even imagine. Trust me. And that is beer he's drinking but it's of the root variety. Liquor and boating don't mix.

We also did some of this....

There's my brother blowing his onion again. It's pretty fun to be the one driving the boat with your older brother at your mercy on the tube. Moohoohahahahaha! Actually I was getting my revenge for when he was driving while I was tubing. I just about hit the moon on that last one there Trev. Stop laughing you lip! (another Trevorism, he has many)

Clearly this shot was taken before the attempted lunar launching.

Jack and Daddy didn't last long. He didn't want to go alone and the weight of Jay in the tube created lots of splash. He made it farther than Kamden though. He stepped into the tube and immediately stepped out. My kids are not as adventurous as their parents. Justin and Arianna loved it though especially when I went over the bumps.

Another one of our favourite things to do is dock the boat on an island and build a fire on a rock. We were up in the Canadian shield which is beautiful. Unlike the southern part of our province as night is unlike day. There are lots of huge rock outcrops which make lovely safe fire spots. We have a couple favourite spots that we go back to every year.

We make bush pies for lunch in the fire. Now I know that bush has some strange connotations but here it means forest. As in head into the bush and find some firewood. Bush pies are made over an open flame in the forest or bush.

Making them requires a loaf of bread and some type of filling. The boys like cheese, we like pizza sauce, meat and cheese and for dessert, pie filling, chocolate and marshmallows. Mmmmmm...

Here Anna and Jack are helping Grams with the dessert ones. I think more marshmallows and chocolate may have ended up in their tummies than the pies.....no wonder they wanted to "help".

Once you fill the pie, you place it between these metal plates and hold over the fire until the bread is nice and toasted and the filling is sufficiently melted.

Then enjoy. Try not to wear most it like Kamden did though...

Since all 10 of us cannot fit in the boat at once, Jay and I canoed out and met the rest of the crew at the lunch spot. We may have taken the long way. For exercise of course. Anna asked if we were lost...nope I know exactly where we are, I just have no idea where we need to go. NOT the same thing.

And we also spent lots of time at the beach.




Kamden tried to skim board on his boogie board. He may or may not have been copying me. Let's just say my attempt was far less gracefull and may have resulted in wipeout to end all wipeouts. Boogie Boards + skim boarding = disaster.

It was a lovely way to cap off summer. My parents own a cabin up there with my aunt and Uncle. They only took possession of it at the beginning of this summer and have just begun an addition to house all of us. We hope to spend some time there every summer repeating the above.

It's My Party

Today, I got another year older. Remember when you were a kid and 34 seemed like ancient. Well that's me. The lady whose kids say "Oh Mommy they probably didn't even have that when you were a kid, W-A-Y back then."

Sheesh. To hear them talk I've already got one foot in the grave.

Naturally I like to remind them that Grandma and Pop and Grammy and Granddaddy are MUCH older than I am. I am sweet like that.

Kamden and I were on our own for most of the day since it was a regular old day for Jay and Jack. I mean, c'mon, isn't my birthday a national holiday?

No?

Right, 'cause I am not famous and dead.

That sounds like a good thing actually.

We needed a few things from the store - find me a day when we don't need something from the store - so that's what Kamden and I were going to do this afternoon. Well around 10 am I had a better idea. Why not see if Anna and her kidlets wanted to come for coffee. That sounds so much better than a date with the produce section of Superstore, don't ya think?

She came not only bearing Starbuck's but also this:

And these:

She's a sweetheart that one!

We had a lovely visit in the sunshiney backyard. I am still pinching myself that it was actually nice out. I got a bit of a sunburn yesterday. It may have been a dream but I haven't pinched myself yet. Why would I wake myself from spring?

Then the oldest boys came home and we headed off to the new Chili’s . It was really good. I ordered a Bacon Ranch burger that was bemamath. I cut the sucker in half and barely finished that. Mmm, bacon and ranch dressing on an all beef patty....it was good. Sorry to those of you who may not do beef, I am still working on not loving meat.

Then we had cake. It's not a birthday without cake. Kamden really wanted the cake to be a big surprise so I had to stay in the van while they went in to pick it out and I wasn't allowed to peek. He was so cute when he came back to the van and said, "Mommy, it's okay, you can look. It's in a box!". The boys may have been more excited about my birthday than me.



It was a GREAT day.