Second Summer

As soon as summer was over this year, we finally got some summer! The plants had already frozen a few times, we'd pulled out the sweaters and fleece footy pj's and then all of the sudden it was +25oC!

Flowers that I assumed were dead and done started blooming again. Kinda bizarre... but then we do live in Saskatchewan.

We took advantage and went for bike rides...


...to the park...

...even to the beach! I was obviously pretty excited about the snow holding off for a little longer.

Latest Painting

I spent last weekend working on my newest painting - a wall mural for my friend's son's bedroom wall! It was really fun to do, though today I noticed my arms are a little sore. Who knew painting was a form of exercise too! Another reason for me to get back into it I guess!

I always like looking at other people's art progress photos, so I thought I'd share some from this one too.




Done! It's just that easy. ;)


Now I just feel a little guilty that I haven't done this for my kids yet! I better get right on that...

Career Plans?

Tegan styling her cousin Cameron's hair for the day.

He seems to like it! Think we might have a future in this!

Aaaaand more camping.

We went to Anglin Lake and stayed a couple nights at the Service Corp camp where both Ryan and his brother Mike spent many summers working during highschool. It was pretty neat to have the whole camp to ourselves, with our own private beach - luckily for one kid!

Maybe lucky for a couple kids... hehe!

We even were able to use the canoes there. The kids went out with the guys one day and the next we all went in two canoes over to the other side where a geocache was hidden. On the way back Mike even caught our supper! The kids were SUPER impressed, although Graye wasn't too sure about the whole eating it thing. He likes fish, but I think this was the first realization that the fish we eat is the same as the fish that swim around.


Part of the obstacle course they have laid out in the camp.

The nights and mornings were spent in the pouring rain... pretty lame. But the days we had there were nice for the most part!

This is where the kids spent the morning - warm and dry!

The guys and the twins had a "steam" one night in this steam tent that they have set up there. There are more than a couple really great photos from that, but I don't think anyone would appreciate me posting them! While not entirely clothes-less, it was close enough... hehe!

Not for the Squeamish!

You know it's been a wet summer in Saskatchewan when it starts looking like our BC home! Mushrooms, fungus, and....

...SLUGS!

Graye is obviously not squeamish! I was picking slugs out of my garden and letting the kids poke them when I looked over and Graye had picked them up and was carrying them around the yard. Kinda gross, but whatever. I started doing something else and turned around a few minutes later and the slugs were crawling all up Graye's arms! It was all I could do to not freak out! I didn't want to make him afraid of things so I contained myself. (...but seriously - EWWWWWWW!!!!) At least they aren't the size of the ones in BC - I don't think I could have stood there and watching those things crawling all over Graye!

In our wood pile:

Happy Birthday Noah!

Ok... still catching up on posting summer events - so slow! While we were in Regina (yes, like 2 months ago) we also were able to attend Ryan's cousin's son's (catch that?) birthday party. Also a dino themed event, so Graye was super happy... until he got overtired and lost it over not getting a t-rex in his treat bag (thanks again for finding one Cam!) Anyways, all the cousins had fun together, and we were really happy we could be there!

Geocaching

We recently discovered Geocaching after being asked by a friend to locate a cache near us and place a special "geocoin" in it. If you haven't ever heard of this, you are as late as us to the game! Apparently it's been going on for years. It's like a treasure hunt, where "caches" of various sizes and types are hidden all over the world with the GPS coordinates posted to help other people find them. Often they have small toys in them for kids, and if you take something out, you are asked to put something in. Some are so small they only fit a tiny piece of paper and little pencil to record your name and the date you found it. SOME have "geocoins" or "travel bugs" in them that you can track online to see where they have been. These you are not supposed to keep, but move to another cache and record where it went.

While visiting friends in Regina we introduced them to the game and took them out for some treasure hunting. We found a good one for the kids, and each of them got an amazing treasure.




We even found a travel bug! It's going to Nunavut into a new cache there. If anyone is travelling that way... look for this!

Looking for another one (actually stumped while looking for another one!)

Found something better than treasure - a crayfish!

Found it! A "microcache" - only big enough for a pencil and paper.

Cutey!

Summer of visiting!

It's been a busy summer, with LOTS of visiting with friends from far away! We went to Regina a few weeks ago (I know, slow blogger, sorry!) to see our old neighbors from Delisle who had moved to Nunavut about 3 years ago. If you've never read her blog, "no invitation required", you should really check it out. The link is on the side or you can click here to read about all their Northern adventures. They actually had also just been on a house buying trip during this visit "down south" as they will be moving to Ontario shortly.

We had a great time hanging out at the park and finding treasure - and I don't think we had to break up one fight between the kids! Always a bonus.

Great throw!

Feeding the ducks in the pond. The ducks obviously know the drill.

The park had a waterfall you could walk behind that the kids thought was pretty great.


Checking out the ducks that followed us across the park to the bridge.



Tegan almost able to do the monkey bars on her own... still needs a little help reaching that far over though!

Best friends by the afternoon.