Family Christmas

Uppermost in our minds this Christmas was Darrell and Jess's trip to Africa this January to facilitate the adoption of twin girls. They will likely be there three to six months. So the girls were definately on our Christmas lists.

Our girls.

Sorry, I don't have a corresponding picture of our boys!
I do have a nice family picture of all of us, so leave a comment if you would like me to email it to you.

The basement still isn't finished, but it was good enough to use. The grandkids enjoyed the playroom.

And it was nice to have room to hang out downstairs.

There was definately enough snow for sledding!

News from Darrell and Jess

Most of you know that Darrell and Jess have been working on International Adoption from Ghana, and that they are one of many couples who were affected by the bankruptcy of Imagine Adoption Agency. They had 2-year-old twin girls referred to them last February and have continued to work on the adoption through a Ghanaian lawyer. They are working on the necessary steps and are planning to go to Ghana sometime in January. This is a huge step that means a leave of absence from their work.

A friend is planning a fundraising dinner for them on January 9th. If you want more information, you can check out their blog and follow the link on the poster above to the facebook site telling about the fundraiser. We would appreciate prayer that God would lead the way and turn the many mountains into smooth roads!

Snowstorm

The storm began Friday morning and Saturday night it's still snowing and blowing, but it's eased up a lot. We had a side door put into our garage, and it came in handy to get out of the house to shovel, since it had blown clear.

Our driveway became a dumping spot for blowing snow - five feet of it! For some reason our driveway was worse than many. As you can see, our siding has only been partially replaced since our August hailstorm. The soffits have been replaced, but not all the trim or eavestroughs. We had stone put on either side of the garage door when they replaced the siding. Our shingles still need replacing. Think it'll happen Monday???

We shovelled out just enough to get our truck out. Mal and I started, then the neighbor across the street helped substantially, and eventually two other neighbors joined us. It took all of us about 2 hours - but then we're only half done! By morning we may have to start all over.

In between the two piles of snow is our sidewalk nicely shovelled out. Not too much of our lamp post showing! Before the storm hit we had no snow at all.

This is our street. All morning trucks were trying to get out, and then backing up because they couldn't get through. About 4 p.m. a grader came through.

Christmas Pictures

We went to Travis and Joanna's (our former neighbors) this week and took pictures of each other in front of their Christmas tree. We always enjoy our time with them and will miss them, although we still get together. Now we have another young couple next door.

She fed us an awesome salmon dinner- she loves to cook and it shows.

Then we played games - the guys got a little crazy!

The Christmas season is upon us. Have a good one!

The Spa

My sons gave me a massage and pedicure at the Spa for my birthday gift.
Today was the day.
Here my hands and feet are getting a hot wax treatment.
Feels great!

Like my black toenails?
Well, actually, this was the lady next to me and she suggested I take a picture of her nails because she thought you might get a kick out of picturing me with Gothic black toenails!

I went for red.
The pedicure was enjoyable, but the massage was the best!
Soft lighting, relaxing music, heated sheets and blankets,
and an hourlong total massage.
Talk about being spoiled!
I don't have a picture - I was too busy relaxing.
Thanks, guys. It was awesome.

Country pics

We were in the country this weekend. A beautiful sunset highlighted these huge silos.

A well-kept barn is always a pleasure to see.

Last summer I frequently saw this heron in a stream near our house, but we were always flying by. The last week before he left I stopped to take a picture. He was very close, but I scared him off and I just got a picture of him landing in the distance. I used 18x zoom, then cropped the picture severely, so the picture wasn't clear. Then I sharpened it like mad, which made it pixelly. However, I thought it kind of looked like a painting and I like the effect, so I kept it and I call it my Picaso heron.

Nature Shots from Radium

These "Bachelor Rams" were all over the place. Didn't seem to worry about us.The mountain ash looked beautiful after a heavy frost one morning with the ice melting off it.

This squirrel let me get pretty close before running away.

Some mountain sheep were wandering around Main Street and this one was determined to taste those mountain ash berries!

I've never gotten a picture of a fawn before. It seemed pretty late in the year to be so young. I hope it survies the winter.

Radium Hot Springs

After looking after the home of some friends while they wintered down south, we were surprised when they thanked us by providing the use of a condo in Radium. It was all arranged in the spring, and there was room for extras. Tim and Juanita just happened to ask us if they could come to see us in October, so we headed off to Radium. This picture is the entrance to the town.

This was our abode for a week. Complete with bbq, tv, internet, kitchen and washer/dryer and access to a rec centre with games room and pool and hot tub.

A nice walking path along the river.

The weather was on the cool side, but the hot springs warmed us up.

It was nice to have Tim and Juanita with us, and other friends joined us for the weekend. It was special being with Kaleb for a whole week since we don't get to see him very often. In the morning he'd come out of his room calling for gamma and gampa. Pretty heartwarming. Look below for his newly discovered talents!

Future Football Star?

Kaleb enjoyed the water. He kept us well-entertained!

I'm not sure how it all got started, but Kaleb started trying to knock down a water bottle with a football. It was his idea to add a "guy" on the top to make it more interesting. We were actually amazed at how often he knocked it down. He wanted to do it again and again. After awhile we started keeping track, and he knocked it down about 60% of the time. He was very single-minded - he must have thrown it about 100 times!

We decided to set up a second bottle to make it more challenging. Of course, he wanted another "guy" on top. But this was no challenge for him!

So we added a third. We ran out of guys, so we added a monkey. Three bottles, 2 guys and a monkey knocked down.

Yeah, Kaleb!

From Skippers to Brushfoots!

I bought a butterfly book in August and now I can go through my pictures of butterflies and identify them. I've discovered there are many varieties. This butterfly is part of a family called "Gossamer Wings". It is a Melissa Blue male.

This is the same Melissa Blue male with his wings closed. It looks like a totally different butterfly!

This is a Milbert's Tortoiseshell, part of the Brushfoot family.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell closed.

There is also a family called "Skippers" and this is a Hobomok Skipper. Skippers have thicker bodies and hooked antennae. They are fast-flying.

Other families are Swallowtails and Parnassians, and Whites and Sulphurs. Then there are other varieties in each family.

Weekend trip

The highlight of course was Kaleb's second birthday. The doggy theme was taken from his favorite book, "Go dogs, Go!"
He makes a cute little puppy, doesn't he?

Saturday was spent painting Darrell and Jess's house. It was an extremely hot day and they were working on a south wall. I got to stay inside and babysit Kaleb. Good deal for me!

Does anyone know what kind of birds these are? I couldn't find any like that in my bird book. They were about the size of robins with a fairly long beak. saw them in a national park in southern Alberta.

The New Mall

We've been to the new Balzac Mall twice now. It's not as big as I expected, but it's nice. It's on one floor, and shaped like a square. One of the things I like is the flooring - it's different in different sections. Everything from hardwood to tile to a marble look. Shiny, and a lot of yellows and an apple green color. Different themes in different sections.

The central areas have innovative decorating.

Of course the cowboy theme comes through loud and strong.

This is the name.

Happy Birthday Jon!

Hope you're feeling young and energetic today!

Ah, where has the time gone? Now you and your son have your birthdays in the same month!