sundae drive

Sunday was another warm and beautiful day and after lunch I felt like I really needed some soft ice cream. My favourite place for that requires a bit of a drive so I took my camera along to see what I could see...
The apples are ready to harvest - at least some of them.


This house is right beside one of our girls' dorms. The flowers are out of this world!
Wow! What a sight! Click on this picture to enjoy the burst of colour!
More creative pumpkin arrangements at the farm down the road.

josh

This is Josh. He's our nephew on Howard's side. Josh is a great guy. He loves family and he loves doing what he can to keep the connecting happening.
Last year he started planning a trip to Jasper for this summer which would include his sisters and our girls. He started planning last year. He's that kind of a guy.
They had a great time, the five of them.
Of course our girls had a blast.


They did so many crazy things - some of the pictures are absolutely hilarious!
And it was Josh who planned it all and made sure it happened. Our girls are pretty fond of him...


Thanks, Josh, for being who you are and doing what you do. We love and appreciate you more than you know!

skype helps

Katy and I have been back home for a week now. It's still almost two weeks until Howard gets home and Bethany starts college. We've been skyping the last few nights and it's amazing the difference it makes to be able to see who you're talking to - it's the face - that's where the connection really is. It's huge how that helps with this distance thing. I'm so glad we'll be able to see Bethany in living colour when we're over here and she's over there.......

"the great pumpkin" patch

Today I started the pumpkin harvest, knowing that it was not going to be a record year. I have more big pumpkins this year than usual but my decorative gourd numbers are somewhat lacking. Apparently there was a lot of rain here this summer and then intense heat for 2 weeks. It seems to have killed off the vines and as a result my production. Too bad. Still got peaches galore, though......

School's in!

The kids were back at BFA and in great form this morning. Lots of excitement and electricity was in the air. Of course the parade of the flags is always a highlight and it's the senior class that gets to carry them. So.....yes it was Katy's turn this morning. This is her 12th year at BFA. Amazing!


Our token Australians!
And some of our token Canadians.
It's always amazing to me how this mass confusion actually becomes organized enough to file into the auditorium!




I think one of the best parts of the opening ceremony is when the grade one class is interviewed. They say the funniest things, unwittingly of course. This class, the class of 2021, has a set of identical triplets which is pretty cool. Every year we have been at BFA there has been at least one set of twins (and this year triplets) in the student body.

tender moments

Months before we left for Canada Katy began work on a book of memories for Bethany. She filled it with poems, notes, pictures that she painted, lots of mini envelopes with mini pictures of "private jokes" and much more.
She gave the book to Bethany at the airport and because we had arrived so early they had lots of time to go through it together.
It was a special moment for two sisters who are best friends.