Back In The Saddle
Well. We survived our whirlwind trip to Sylvan over the weekend. The reception went smoothly. We got to visit with friends and babies. And when the Oilers lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, we were still about 45 minutes south of Peace River, with no radio reception of the game. Thanks so much for calling our cell phone to gloat, Dad. Nice. ;-)
There was so much that happened this weekend, I don't want to overload you with dumping it all in this one post. So, I will just touch on some highlights:
On Friday, we were "cruising the strip" in Sylvan Lake, and Jude looked at the water and said "River!" We explained to him that it was actually a lake, and asked him if he remembered when we used to live here. He didn't really seem to. However, later on in the day, when we were in Red Deer, out of the blue he says "Go to the beach and have ice cream?"
"Oh! Suddenly it's all coming back!" we laughed!
We managed to get all of our errands done, which was nice. Jason got Friday and Monday off, and having that extra day (Monday) really made a difference for how cramped the trip felt. We had arrived at Dad's late on Thursday night (2 a.m.--is that late, or early?) and spent most of Friday in a sleep-deprived, caffeine-sustained haze. Starbuck's was a nice treat that night. We had breakfast out at Humpty's in Sylvan Lake, stopped by the camp to see Jason's mom (she's the receptionist there), spent most of the day in Red Deer doing errands, came home to get more bottles for Jabin, since I didn't pack enough for the day (I'm out of practice being out all day!), had supper in Red Deer with Dad, stopped by Starbuck's, then came home and collapsed gratefully into bed.
Oh, I forgot that before bed, Dad taught Jude how to play Memory, and used a deck of cards as flash cards to drill him and Noah on their numbers and colours. They both really enjoyed it, and Jude is totally hooked on Memory now. It was also a great way for Noah to learn more of his numbers--he loves looking at numbers, and counting books, but does not necessarily remember their names.
Saturday I got to visit with my friend Christa in the morning, and see her new baby, Desten--a total chubby cutie.
We had lunch at Alberta Springs Golf Course with Dad and Jason (after they finished a round at Lakewood Golf Course), and the boys went and fooled around on the putting green for about half an hour afterwards. Jude had a little mini-putter that was still too big, and Noah had fun dropping balls in the hole and popping them out with the flag again.
Then, of course, Nick & Jen's wedding reception was in the afternoon, and it was so great to visit with family that we rarely see. We got to spend Saturday evening with our good friends the Guteks (Dawn, you should start a blog, because that would have been a totally great time to link to you, right there!), catching up a little here and there. Well, the guys were actually buried in the basement watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but us girls and the kids got to catch up! We're trying our best to convince them to come to Peace River, "the land of milk and honey," but it's a tough sell. 
To anyone else, either. The great area, the beauty, the low cost of living, the cheap land, and the high income potential are all offset by the fact that it's really friggin' far away from Red Deer, family, and friends. If we had had another choice, we wouldn't have moved here, either, but now that we're here, it's just so tempting to stay forever.
Sunday we enjoyed a leisurely brunch at Jason's parents' house (Ang was there, too), spent the afternoon lolling on a blanket on the lawn, and then had dinner at Tony and Candace Virkamaki's in Red Deer. We basically ate all day. Is that called gluttony? If so, we are totally guilty. Of course, that's a pretty rare occasion. After dinner, we took the boys to the beach at Sylvan, because we had promised we would. They had SO. MUCH. FUN! I also got some great photos. Ironic that we moved away from the lake right around the time the boys were getting old enough to really enjoy it.
I was startled several times by what seemed to be a "jump" in Jude's maturity level this weekend. He was speaking more articulately, with more complete sentences, and a larger vocabulary than he seemed to be doing before. Also, he had fewer conflicts with Noah. (That last one has been made up for, and then some, today--something about being home, stuck inside on a rainy day, I think.) It may be that it was more noticable to me because we were out of our normal routine, and doing more together as a family, but it almost seemed like he reached a point where he just "clicked" on certain things developmentally. That seems to happen every so often.
Also, thanks to the long drives to and from, as well as visits with people where my kids were other-wise occupied, I was able to get a lot of knitting done. I finished a baby blanket that is a gift for a friend, fixed a mistake in sleeve length on a sweater that had originally been intended for Jude but will now be Noah's, and picked up a baby dress that had been stalled for, oh, about a year. I'll post pictures of these projects later, 'cause I haven't photographed them, yet.
So, a weekend of food, friends, family, fun, and several other words that don't start with an "f" so I'm not going to put them in this sentence. It was nice to get home last night, though. Not so nice "playing catch-up" today, but c'ést la vie.
Also, my computer-programming-guru of a brother pointed out a mistake in my template code that made it look all wonky to anyone who was not viewing it at exactly the same size I am. So sorry about that. I have applied a temporary fix that required I delete my cute footer, which bothers me, but the rest should look okay in the meantime. Hopefully, a "footer epiphany" will strike me in my sleep tonight, so I can put it back in there.
Quote of the Day:
"For people to judge a man's worth and his very manhood according to the way he feels about sport, and not to recognize it for the piddly, inconsequential goings on that it really is..."
-Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Birds of a Feather, 1993
(Sorry, guys. It was there. Okay, here's a better one:)
"I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."
-Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004)
Noah in the lake.
There was so much that happened this weekend, I don't want to overload you with dumping it all in this one post. So, I will just touch on some highlights:On Friday, we were "cruising the strip" in Sylvan Lake, and Jude looked at the water and said "River!" We explained to him that it was actually a lake, and asked him if he remembered when we used to live here. He didn't really seem to. However, later on in the day, when we were in Red Deer, out of the blue he says "Go to the beach and have ice cream?"
"Oh! Suddenly it's all coming back!" we laughed!
We managed to get all of our errands done, which was nice. Jason got Friday and Monday off, and having that extra day (Monday) really made a difference for how cramped the trip felt. We had arrived at Dad's late on Thursday night (2 a.m.--is that late, or early?) and spent most of Friday in a sleep-deprived, caffeine-sustained haze. Starbuck's was a nice treat that night. We had breakfast out at Humpty's in Sylvan Lake, stopped by the camp to see Jason's mom (she's the receptionist there), spent most of the day in Red Deer doing errands, came home to get more bottles for Jabin, since I didn't pack enough for the day (I'm out of practice being out all day!), had supper in Red Deer with Dad, stopped by Starbuck's, then came home and collapsed gratefully into bed.
Oh, I forgot that before bed, Dad taught Jude how to play Memory, and used a deck of cards as flash cards to drill him and Noah on their numbers and colours. They both really enjoyed it, and Jude is totally hooked on Memory now. It was also a great way for Noah to learn more of his numbers--he loves looking at numbers, and counting books, but does not necessarily remember their names.Saturday I got to visit with my friend Christa in the morning, and see her new baby, Desten--a total chubby cutie.
We had lunch at Alberta Springs Golf Course with Dad and Jason (after they finished a round at Lakewood Golf Course), and the boys went and fooled around on the putting green for about half an hour afterwards. Jude had a little mini-putter that was still too big, and Noah had fun dropping balls in the hole and popping them out with the flag again.
Then, of course, Nick & Jen's wedding reception was in the afternoon, and it was so great to visit with family that we rarely see. We got to spend Saturday evening with our good friends the Guteks (Dawn, you should start a blog, because that would have been a totally great time to link to you, right there!), catching up a little here and there. Well, the guys were actually buried in the basement watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but us girls and the kids got to catch up! We're trying our best to convince them to come to Peace River, "the land of milk and honey," but it's a tough sell. 
To anyone else, either. The great area, the beauty, the low cost of living, the cheap land, and the high income potential are all offset by the fact that it's really friggin' far away from Red Deer, family, and friends. If we had had another choice, we wouldn't have moved here, either, but now that we're here, it's just so tempting to stay forever.
Sunday we enjoyed a leisurely brunch at Jason's parents' house (Ang was there, too), spent the afternoon lolling on a blanket on the lawn, and then had dinner at Tony and Candace Virkamaki's in Red Deer. We basically ate all day. Is that called gluttony? If so, we are totally guilty. Of course, that's a pretty rare occasion. After dinner, we took the boys to the beach at Sylvan, because we had promised we would. They had SO. MUCH. FUN! I also got some great photos. Ironic that we moved away from the lake right around the time the boys were getting old enough to really enjoy it.
I was startled several times by what seemed to be a "jump" in Jude's maturity level this weekend. He was speaking more articulately, with more complete sentences, and a larger vocabulary than he seemed to be doing before. Also, he had fewer conflicts with Noah. (That last one has been made up for, and then some, today--something about being home, stuck inside on a rainy day, I think.) It may be that it was more noticable to me because we were out of our normal routine, and doing more together as a family, but it almost seemed like he reached a point where he just "clicked" on certain things developmentally. That seems to happen every so often.
Also, thanks to the long drives to and from, as well as visits with people where my kids were other-wise occupied, I was able to get a lot of knitting done. I finished a baby blanket that is a gift for a friend, fixed a mistake in sleeve length on a sweater that had originally been intended for Jude but will now be Noah's, and picked up a baby dress that had been stalled for, oh, about a year. I'll post pictures of these projects later, 'cause I haven't photographed them, yet.
So, a weekend of food, friends, family, fun, and several other words that don't start with an "f" so I'm not going to put them in this sentence. It was nice to get home last night, though. Not so nice "playing catch-up" today, but c'ést la vie.Also, my computer-programming-guru of a brother pointed out a mistake in my template code that made it look all wonky to anyone who was not viewing it at exactly the same size I am. So sorry about that. I have applied a temporary fix that required I delete my cute footer, which bothers me, but the rest should look okay in the meantime. Hopefully, a "footer epiphany" will strike me in my sleep tonight, so I can put it back in there.
Quote of the Day:
"For people to judge a man's worth and his very manhood according to the way he feels about sport, and not to recognize it for the piddly, inconsequential goings on that it really is..."
-Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Birds of a Feather, 1993
(Sorry, guys. It was there. Okay, here's a better one:)
"I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."
-Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004)
Noah in the lake.