St Malo Beach

On Sunday a few of us met at the beach at St Malo and enjoyed the afternoon. There was some serious landscaping. It was very windy, so you can't hear anything, but the "canal" was quite spectacular.

Around the house

Painting

I have some old acrylic art paint, so Brook and I started painting (with brushes). Then it went to fingers, then hands. Brook gave the paint a taste. She had a 1/2 hr bath afterward to scrub the stuff off. I spent another 20 minutes scrubbing the table, chairs, tub and floor. It was worth it.

Note to self...buy washable finger paint.

Holidays!!

We have had a fantastic two weeks of holidays. Trev said before they started, "Lets make the most of everyday of holidays we have." We sure did. We spent the first weekend at Mom and Dad Pauls' visiting while Mike and Jeanette were out. On Monday we took a trip to Winkler to go vehicle shopping, and to our surprise we actually found a van! We traded in our car and came home with an 04 dodge caravan. What a way to start our vacation.

On wednesday We took a trip to Kenosee SK and did 3 days of camping. We had perfect weather and our trailer and Van worked out wonderfully! We spent a day at the waterslides which is a very different experience with a young child. Brook enjoyed it, but wasn't as "into it" as I though she would be. She enjoyed the last 3 seconds of the waterslide, that was about it. Otherwise she just wanted to splash in the pool and watch the other kids. The only hiccup we had at Kenosee was when Sam almost got a hold of a skunk that ran through our campsite one night. SOOOO glad she didn't.

On our way home we stopped in Brandon for a quick visit with the Fleming Family that was getting together. It just so happened that Ryan and Jackie were out for a wedding, so we gathered, ate and the kids played in the sprinkler and kiddy pool. There were no guns involved this weekend, but there was some male nudity. Judah had no swimsuit, but that didn't seem to bother him much.

We got home, washed, repacked and headed out to St Malo Provincial park for another 3 days of camping. I really enjoyed this trip. The campsite was nice and private, the beach was wonderful, and again, we had great weather. We took a quick trip to Winnipeg on wednesday and went to the Zoo. Brook called every animal bigger than a dog a cow.






The rest of the week we spent recouperating from our holidays. What a great time just doing whatever we felt like whenever we felt like it. It was not physically relaxing, but it was mentally. What a great holiday.

The Twins come for a visit. (oh, and they brought their parents)

Mike and Jeanette came out for a visit, which is always a fantastic excuse for a family gathering. We spent the weekend eating, sleeping and shooting things. It was so much fun to get together and bug my Brother about his gun with a bayonet and kiss their babies. Thanks for making the trip Mike and Jeanette!! I didn't take many pictures, but these will give you the idea....

Reflecting

I love days off in the summer!

Today, we slept in and after a leisurely breakfast we decided to go to the beach. I packed a ridiculously huge lunch and we spent the afternoon at Lake William visiting with neighbors and soaking up the sun. We came home to our nicely air-conditioned home and had a nap.

After our pancake supper we went for a walk to the fairgrounds to check out some of the 1st of July children's activities. Brook caught a fish in the fish pond, (little plastic fish with a magnet), had her face painted and had a fantastic time playing with a balloon.

On our way home we stopped for a drink at the coffee house and hung out. Once it was dark we climbed up on our roof to watch the fireworks. What an absolutely great day.

Fleming Family "Yurting"

This last weekend we had our Fleming family camping trip at Sprucewoods Park. Due to the large amounts of rain during last years family camping trip we decided that instead of using tents or RV's we would rent "Yurts". They are a round canvas tent with a wooden platform. To be honest, I was expecting a smelly, dirty tent with lots of moths and a little bit of mold. To my delight they were very nice and clean! They were even equipped with lights, a heater, electricity and new furniture! (I know, were we ever roughing it)

When we arrived Trev's Mom gave each grandkid a "Yurt Shirt", which she had hand stenciled. On the back of Brook's it said "Brook's Yurt Shirt". Very fun. During the group picture they are doing the "yurt chant", which goes. "yurt, yurt, yurt, yurt, YURT". (Ya, real original.)

The weather was very nice on Monday morning so we went swimming. The water level was really high, which left about 5 feet of beach, but we had a great time. For some reason Brook wouldn't walk on the sand. I guess she didn't like the feel of it on her feet. She loved the water, but not the sand. The picture is of all the grandkids hangin' out.

On Monday afternoon we went on a hike to see the sandunes. It was a bit of a longer hike than we had anticipated, but everyone seemed to do relativly well. At one point we got to choose to take the "easier" route, or the trail up to the outlook deck. We decided to take the easier. At the end of this trail was the hill in the picture below. On the way back we went the other way. It had stairs.