duecks' day out

We've had a rather hectic start to our time back in Canada. We felt that we just needed to get away as a family on Sunday, so that is what we did. We drove north of Winnipeg along the rather infamous Red River. It looked so peaceful yesterday that it was hard for us to believe what amazing and incredible damage this little river has caused over the years.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely spot beside the river - the Captain Kennedy House. Soup, sandwiches and scones with clotted cream.


It was at this moment on this lovely day that my family presented me with the book that they had compiled from all the wonderful messages many of you wrote to and for me for my birthday. I have to say that I was overwhelmed. :)
Thank you so much for making me a memory book that I will always treasure. I am deeply touched by what was written and by all the work my girls and my husband did to give me such a gift. Many, many thanks to you all.

I will share our "day out" with you over the next few days. It was a special time for us all.

one more project completed

The big trucks and machines moved in on Thursday and paved the streets in our development. Wow! It is SO nice.

rainbow stage

Winnipeg has an outdoor theater which puts on a musical every summer. It is really a neat experience to sit "outdoors" but under a roof to watch a musical at Rainbow Stage.
When we arrived back in Canada our sister-in-law told us that this year's production was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". I was thrilled! I learned this musical when I was in grade 6 and when I was directing the choir at BFA we performed it two different years.
So as the final part of our anniversary celebration we went to the musical.
It was absolutely fantastic! We enjoyed it so much. The talent was incredible and every part of the show was performed to perfection.
Of course I couldn't take pictures during the performance but here's one from before things got started. What a great time we had!

a happy camper

Bethany's hard work this summer has bought her a car. She is one very happy young lady! She will be living at home with us and commuting the 12 kilometers to school. She looked hard and long for just the right vehicle and this is what she found. There are also 4 summer tires on aluminum wheels that came with the deal. Good stuff.

the arrival

I thought it felt strange to see our container pull away from our house in Germany. This morning when I saw it coming around the corner and down the street it felt even stranger. It had made quite a journey and there it was!

We checked those numbers with the picture I had taken almost a month ago and sure enough they matched.

And the seal was still intact.
The trucker arrived at 8:45 with nothing to cut the seal off so we had to wait a bit until Howard's brother arrived with a steel blade for his saw.
Then suddenly it was open and it looked like it had just been packed. Everything was still in place. Amazing.

We used some scaffolding boards as ramps and that was sure slick!
This is the piano. Notice how many men are taking it off the truck. The guys rolled it down the ramp and right into the garage. Not a scratch on it!




The last piece to leave the container.
One hour from start to finish!
This was the crowd that came out. THANK YOU!!!!!

The garage is sealed up tight until the door arrives. What a day! We are thankful.

no comments required

We saw this rather unique bus stop bench in Winnipeg yesterday. Pretty creative...

congrats to kate and nate

We had a nice little graduation gathering to celebrate a bit with Katy and her cousin, Nathaniel.

It got a little vicious at certain moments....
Stevie took it all in.

This was the finished product of the cake cutting.

Oh and some amazing news! Our container was released from Customs Canada today and will be delivered to our house on Saturday morning at around 9:00. If you are reading this and are in the area, your help to unload the container would be warmly (it's going to be a hot day!) appreciated!

happy birthday howard!

This man, my husband, turned 50 today. We had a small celebration with him this morning over a special breakfast prepared by the girls.

He has blessed my life in so many ways and I am so thankful for him. He is an amazing husband and father and we all just love him to bits!
We also celebrated our 25th anniversary today.
So what did we do today that was special? Well... we bought a sink and a shop vac and we picked carpet for our basement. We'd never done that before! And Howard did some shoveling on the driveway to fill in some gaps for when our container arrives - any day now. It's due in Winnipeg tomorrow night. It was an interesting day but not much real celebrating happened. However, Howard's mom did prepare a special meal for us tonight in celebration of our celebrations so that was a special way to end the day. There will be other days to celebrate once things settle down a bit so for now we will just enjoy being together and making rather monumental decisions together. It's a special moment in our lives and we are enjoying it, mostly because we are doing it together. Now that is something to celebrate!

one final adventure

Way back in March when we were starting to make plans to return to Canada we came across a great deal to fly with a budget airline through Iceland. It included an overnight stay and a visit to the famous Blue Lagoon. The best part (besides the price) was that the flight from Iceland was direct to Winnipeg! It was definitely worth the trip!

There is a huge Icelandic community in Manitoba. There are at least 100,000 people who can trace their roots back to Iceland. Gimili is a town north of Winnipeg that is Icelandic through and through. It was cool to see this name in Iceland.











So much of what we saw looked quite "moonish".

The famous Blue Lagoon.

There were huge pots of exfoliating mud to spread on the face, or as some people did, all over the body!


Volcanic rock as far as you can see.


Icelandic ponies.

Even a golf course.



We came across the place where the Euroasia and North American tetonic plates meet.
Even in this rock the vegetation manages to survive.

Lots of volcanic ash.
You can see the bridge in the background which "joins" the two continents.





Looking across to North America!

What a great experience. Check out Iceland Express for this great deal!