Thursday, July 29, 2010

Catching up -- end of July

Sorry for the long break in posting... we've been getting back into the groove of life in Lethbridge, and then went and squeezed in a trip to Montana (for John) and to Colorado (for me) for our 20th high school reunions.

The days before John's reunion brought a visit from two of our favorite people in the world -- Jason, John's best friend since the age of seven, and his wife Christy. They came roaring into town on Jason's BMW touring motorcycle (which they had just taken out of storage, where it had been this last year as they were sailing the Pacific... yeah, nice life, eh? Although as Jason says, who are we to talk?). Anyway. Jason and John were hilarious. The talk of mullets and Bon Jovi and garage bands night and day was too much, and even though just days earlier I had declared that there was no way I was getting on a plane ANY TIME in the near future and wouldn't even be going to Calgary, thankyouverymuch... the fun they were having led me to a last-minute ticket to Colorado so I could enjoy a similar silly walk down memory lane.

While Jason and Christy were here, we took them to one of our favorite Lethbridge places -- Writing-on-Stone near Milk River, about an hour's drive away. It was a sacred spot for the Blackfoot people, and has centuries-old rock carvings and paintings. It's also just crazy beautiful and a little weird. Imagine... driving in the prairies, which seem to be going on and on.... taking a turn and suddenly stumbling upon scenery that doesn't look real -- hoodoos of sandstone. The kids have been able to do the hike through the hoodoos for several years, and we haven't met anyone yet who doesn't love scrambling up and down the rocks (keeping a sharp eye out for rattlesnakes, of course, which love it there, too).

We didn't have our camera but Jason and Christy did, and gave me permission to post these photos. Thanks for the great visit! (And more photos of the reunions to come).

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Because they just keep growing and growing...

Today, here are a few photos to show how much the kids have continued to grow these last weeks... kind of like the weeds in my yard, only much nicer.


Yes, Olivia is STILL wearing her headscarf every single day...bringing French fashion to southern Alberta.


This is Jack in Helena this weekend... reporting for duty.


Kate (left) and Liv in new pajamas... they don't often pick the same clothes (or hairstyles) so we wanted to get a photo to remember the day

Jack with his new, much-shorter, summer haircut.

A new piano and...

... a new car!

For the last 4.5 years, we have been a one-car family. For the most part, it worked out OK. With careful planning -- each morning was a bit of a story problem figuring out who was dropping whom where and when -- we survived with three kids, two jobs, and a dog, but this last year started getting really complicated. So with our return from the "big trips" and the girls' enrollment in public school (the first time we haven't had to pay for childcare in almost seven years), we decided to go out and buy a second car.

It's a Subaru Impreza, a five seater with a hatchback where Kaia can ride. We love it. It's sporty, peppy and fun to drive (not that the minivan isn't a finely-tuned driving machine) and should handle well in the winter. And as if to prove it was a good purchase, he first morning we had it, as we were running late out the door (because some things don't change even with two cars), we sadly discovered the minivan didn't start.. The kids had been playing with the lights the day before (we discovered too late) and one of them was left on all night, killing the battery. Instead of panicking, we all just piled in the new car and made it where we were going almost on time (and came home at lunch to jump the van).

The only scary part is this. John pointed out that, as a standard (stick shift), it will be a good car for Jack to learn to drive with... in just SIX years. Oh man. THAT I am not ready for.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Just how good are those friends?

Good enough to help us move a piano. Yup. Those are really good friends.

And now -- thanks to the generous passing along of a family piano from my friend Laurie's house to ours -- there is almost always music playing here (generally "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", but you've got to start somewhere.)

And to get it here, we invited four really good friends (and their wives and kids) over for beer, and Mexican food, less than two weeks after we got back. With a bit of trepidation (we are all far from our 20-something years, when you did foolish things like this all the time), John and the guys headed to Laurie's to pick it up. This is what they looked like coming in:



After getting it down the stairs (only one small dent in the drywall), this is what it looks like in its new home:


And here were some of the kids, watching their amazing dads with delight:



We love it. We had the piano tuner from the university come over to tune it last week, and he said it is more than 100 years old and is in remarkably great shape. Here he is taking it apart (and he noted that for future moving parties, we might be wise to remove 150 pounds worth of wood panels that can easily come off the front and top! Nice to know, Mr. Piano-Tuner.)


And here is 10-year warranty that is still easily found in golden lettering on the inside of the top. Nice to have a product that outlasted its warranty by almost a century!


The kids will start lessons this fall, I think, and in the meantime, Grandma Judy has been teaching them a thing or two. We love all of this music in our house -- and we couldn't have done it without good friends. Thanks!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

An unexpected perk of coming home

No, the mail was not the unexpected perk of coming home. But I had to post that shot to show just how big the piles were.

But as for the perk part. Well, I knew we'd have fun reconnecting with friends when we returned home, but I didn't realize just how fabulous it could be. You see, our friends keep inviting us over to eat at their homes! Between Sunday and Thursday this week, I only cooked one dinner at home...and the rest of the time, we feasted on the fine cooking of good friends and enjoyed getting caught up on the last six months. It's like we're packing all of the dinners out that we would have experienced from January to June into these first two weeks. Not a bad way to live, I tell you.

We have been bringing wine from our "cellar" to many of these dinners, which is good for a few reasons. First, there are fewer things more enjoyable than sharing a good bottle of wine with friends. But perhaps more importantly, we kind of forgot about our "cellar" and it's been fun to rediscover it (and actually start drinking from it). We started it the first year in Lethbridge, in 2003, when the owner of a local wine store gave me this good advice: whenever you need to buy wine, try to buy at least six and even better, 12 bottles at a time (you can get a bit of a break on the price if you buy larger quantities, he explained). And when you do, you should buy five (or 11) "regular" bottles to drink and one special bottle to cellar. That is, make most of your purchases on the more affordable end, but indulge in one bottle that you set aside.

So we started doing that seven years ago. I even taped notes to some of the bottles purchased that first year ("best to drink in 5-7 years", etc.). We got in the habit of buying one good bottle and putting it away... and then we kind of forgot about it. When we came across a good deal on some 2004 Australian reds a few years back, we added six or eight to the cellar... and forgot about those, too.

Then John went to put our few bottles of French wine in the small "cellar" (really just a wine rack we keep in the cool storage in our basement) and we realized that we better drink some of those good wines before they turned! Who knew five or seven years could pass so quickly? And what a fun responsibility to have... to share good wine with good friends.

Here are some of those good friends on our first night back in town (and photos of us leaving Helena and heading home as well as one of the mail pile that awaited us that first week). Anne hadn't told her sons we would be coming (in case we were held up at the border, etc., she thought it would be better to let the boys be surprised). The look on their faces when they saw Jack, Kate and Liv (but mostly Jack) was absolutely wonderful.

But first... getting ready to leave Helena. The kids were kept entertained by a movie while we packed the van.


The minivan was crammed, but all of us, and the dog, made it. These are the familiar views that greeted us -- the university as seen for the south side of town, and the High Level Bridge.


Kaia recognized where we were as soon as we were on the bridge to the west side. Yes, she's smiling.



And here are the kids looking around the house, before we even walked in. You can see the lake (chock full of frogs and snails) out back. And speaking of snails, Kate and Liv have been keeping one they found in a container and feeding it grass and leaves. They are pointedly keeping it away from me -- because (as they said), I ate so many of them in France.




We dropped the bags, and immediately headed to Thomas and Daniel's (which is also home to their parents, Anne and Phil). They had gotten a trampoline during our time away, and the kids put it to good use.


We're off to dinner with friends (again) tonight, the home of the mighty Ailene (and her parents and fabulous sister, Claire). We'll bring a bottle of good Australian wine (we are holding on to our French wines for a few years, and hopefully won't forget about those, either). And we'll again be remembering that one of the best parts of traveling is coming home.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Photos from Helena, part III (last days in MT)

The smaller batch of photos seemed easier on my computer, so I'll try with a final small group of photos today. These are of Jay and Judy and the kids setting up the tent Judy gave Jay for Father's Day, and the last one shows the kids (and their grandpa) sleeping out one night (for the record, Liv came in to sleep in the safety of a "real" bed pretty early on, but all three started out there, and Jack and Kate had the fun of waking up there, too!)

I have had a few friends see these photos, and the photos from Colorado, and ask about planning a vacation there. They are both places I can highly recommend as a destination -- so much natural beauty, and so many fun things to do. Just give me a shout if you want or need specific recommendations (happy to do my part to help tourism in France, England, Colorado, Montana, AND Alberta!)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Photos from Helena, part II (fairy festival, I hope)

Well, I've given my computer a few days of a break, and decide to try one last time to upload the last of the Montana photos. First up, our trip to a Fairy Festival just south of Helena at a magical place called Tizer Gardens. This was the fourth or fifth year they've done it, and whoever came up with the idea should be well-rewarded. They have clearly tapped into the fun of wearing wings (whatever age you may be). All seven of us -- kids to grandparents -- had fun wandering around dreamy gardens (although the younger set wished they were wearing their own in fairy or wizard costumes), making fairy crafts, listening to music, and admiring the mountain flora.