A Surprise Visit

On the spur of the moment, my husband sent my mom, Lane and me out to BC to visit my grandparents. It was a fabulous trip as it was a change of scenery and a change of pace for us. Lane managed to do pretty well on the flights, but it did help that it was only 2 one-hour flights each way. And I had my mom to tag-team him with.

My grandparents enjoyed the surprise visit and enjoyed seeing Lane again, especially as he is a year older than the last time they saw him. My aunt, who lives in Washington, also came up to visit with us.

Grandma Friesen, Lane, Auntie Becky

We played, went for walks, played some more, ate vereniky with butter gravy as only grandma can make it and just generally had a leisurely visit. The weather was beautiful; we could see Mt. Baker out my grandparents' living room window just about every day while we were there.

Four Generations

Grandma Friesen, Lane, me, and my mom

My grandpa had fun digging out all sorts of toys. Lane loved just about anything Grandpa could find him. Grandpa also dusted off the games he used to play with us grandkids when we were much younger and tried 'em out on Lane.

 

Lane seemed to approve.

Visitor

Auntie Tara came to visit!

Lane loved all the extra attention; Auntie was more than willing to play with him and listen to all his "stories". They read books together,

played Lego together, played trains together, picked blueberries together and went to the park together. 

 

 

Just to name a few things. 

Thanks for coming to visit; we had a blast!

La Ronge

We continued our way north after dad's triathlon up to my aunt and uncle's cabin at Lac La Ronge. We enjoy going there because it is so peaceful. And there is water. And there are trees. And it's a getaway. Especially this year as Jamie's work has been pretty busy. The trip allowed us to get away from phones and computers and to just enjoy being outside.

My cousin, Lisa, and her family were up at the cabin at the same time as us. It was great to see them again and Lane really enjoyed playing with her girls. We spent lots of time at the beach, building sand castles and splashing in the lake. The kids had a blast throwing rocks in the water and going for walks. We even tried to go wild blueberry picking. Lane loved it; he quickly became adept at finding the blueberries and picking them so he could have a snack.

The husbands even pitched in and helped with dishes. It was a wonderful getaway.

Lisa, Cadence, Gwen, Larry, me, Lane, James

My uncle took Jamie and Cam (Lisa's husband) fishing up north of Stanley Mission. Apparently it was a good trip because not only did they come home with plenty of fish but my non-fishing-loving husband enjoyed himself.

Here he is with his big catch: a 5 pound northern pike.

 

We came home with some of the pickerel Jamie caught; it is now in the freezer, just waiting to be fried up!

Waskesiu

My dad participated in a triathlon in Waskesiu the beginning of August. We try to see at least one of his races each year and with this one being so close, we had to check it out. 

This race was different than usual; it was longer. That seems an awfully simplistic way of explaining the race but I suppose it is the most accurate. He had to swim 1.5 km (in the lake), then bike 62 km, then run 13 km. His goal was to do it in 4 hours.

Now, I'll be quick to admit that my family can be weird and you may be thinking, and rightly so, that my dad is a little crazy, but I'd just like to mention that there were about 200 other competitors that would take you on if you decided to voice your opinion. And you can't outrun 'em. So we go and cheer him on, learn about triathlons, marvel at the stamina of the human body and secretly wonder if we could do it if we had enough determination. Welcome to the world of triathlons.

I'd usually have a picture to show you of the swim but this time I didn't take one. The picture really doesn't tell you anything. My dad is one of 200 people wearing a wetsuit and a swim cap. You try and pick him out. 

We'll pick up the race with the bike. This is my dad's strongest section; I would venture to say it is also his favorite. He has this fast, very cool-looking bike that he likes to use to make up any time that he may have lost during the swim. It was also a good test for my camera.

After the bike comes the run. Which I can't fathom doing because my legs would be rubber. I'd be lucky to be able to stand after biking 62 km.

But here he is. Off and running.

Dad coming through the finish line. He finished in 4 hours, 15 minutes.

He was exhausted. But he finished, and he finished well.

Way to go Dad!

Just to make you smile

Because this picture never fails to make me smile.

What can be better than watching father and son play together?

Garden Update

As you can see my sunflowers continue to do well. We got home from the lake to find they had grown over a foot while we were gone. These flowers are "volunteer" flowers. They grew from seeds that fell out of the flowers I had planted there last year. They certainly didn't do this well last year and so we are impressed with how well they have done this year.

As for our garden. Well, things are not all rosy in the land of tomatoes and potatoes. We have been hit with Late Blight. And what a blight it is on our garden! We're not sure that we'll get any tomatoes this year...so now you can feel free to ask me what I'll be doing in September. It is an unfortunate thing, mostly to do with how wet this summer has been. More than 48 hours of 75% humidity and the chances of this blight hitting rise significantly. Not a fun way to finish the gardening season. Our only claim to fame will be that it is the same blight that caused the famous potato famine in Ireland.

The rest of the garden seems to be doing all right. We're eating carrots out of the garden, the strawberries have another crop ripening and the dwarf corn produced a cob or two.

Rain

The story goes something like this:

My parents were up for a visit. My mom and I decided we should go for a walk downtown and do a few errands. There were some dark clouds coming in but my husband assured us that we had a little while before the rain started.

Seriously. Do I need to finish this story?

We got a couple of errands done and noticed the clouds were coming in rather quick. The wind was picking up and the air was cooling off. We decided we'd keep going as the clouds didn't look very big so we figured whatever was moving in wouldn't last very long.

It started to sprinkle. But we're not made of sugar. We wouldn't melt.

And then it started to pour. We ran for cover. And hid out in the post office along with a handful of other people. We watched the water cascade down in sheets, we watched people get their mail looking like drowned rats and we watched and we watched. Finally, it started to let up. A bit. For some reason, rain always looks less wet than it actually is. My mom decided that it had let up enough that we should just make a go of it. She had a hat; Lane had a hat, besides, it couldn't be that bad. And she was tired of watching my dad drive by in the car and not being able to flag him down.

So we started walking. Well, more like jogging. It was cold. And wet. And I made sure that the world knew how I felt about being cold and wet while wearing a tank top, capris and flipflops. But my son seemed to think it was humorous as long he could see his mom puddling away in front of him while his grandma pushed him in the stroller.

We made it home. And the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we got there. Of course. Needless to say, we were wet.

But we were greeted by a great big puddle at our back door. Perfect for the supervised puddling of a one-year-old.

So that's what we did.

What's new around here

Lane has a sandbox. With sand in it. And he is loving it. And so is his mother.

 

Lane has a kid-sized table and chairs. This is the same set that my Grandpa Friesen made for me when I was little. My parents have graciously let it take up space in my house instead of theirs...if it wasn't so darn handy and if Lane didn't like it so much, I may have a different view on the set.

Garden update

The current status of our garden is as follows:

• the potato plants have only gotten more humongous
• we are eating peas out of the garden daily
• the tomatillos are laden with fruit, just waiting to ripen
• the tomatoes are beginning to bear fruit, albeit green
• the lettuce has bolted
• the corn is about 3 feet high and has ears forming
• the pumpkins are taking over the tomatoes
• and the wheat and oats are ensuring our neighbours think we are crazy.

 

 

 

 

 

And my sunflowers are starting to bloom!

 

Sewing Machine

True to form, Lane is fascinated by anything that we use around the house. The other day I dusted off my sewing machine to sew up a few baby gifts. Lane has seen my sewing machine before and has enjoyed playing with it previously but every time I pull it out he seems to understand more and more how the machine works.

Which is becoming slightly scary.

For what mother can rest easy after observing that grin?