Family in Alberta

Now that we are back on our summer routine, I am only going to publish a blog once a week.  It seems like most of what happens in the summer is not that exciting and often repetitive.  The time with our kids and grand kids is certainly exciting but I tend to forget to take the pictures.

Since we have arrived at our daughters in Lacombe Alberta, our son Derek and Nicole and our grand kids Abby, Silas and Emma have arrived here too for a week visit.  This is the first time we have seen Emma because we were already down south when she was born.  What a sweety!!!

And of course Abby and Silas are always fun to see.  I think they have a busy week planned for them going all kinds of places.

Because we missed Christmas with these guys too, we had a little present opening in the Ponderosa.  Everyone came and it was quite a party with with 13 of us there.

That evening we went to Bentley to a Birthday party for Joey at his Grampa and Grandma's house.  Gord's parents Rick and Leanne are fun people and we enjoyed our time there.  We got to meet some of Gords family as well.   They even put my name on the cake.

In the last week we just hung around with the kids and there was a lot of swimming going on. 

One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting up with a friend from my past.  Juliette and her husband Marcel were in Hobbema from Slave Lake AB delivering some stuff to their son who has been posted there with the RCMP, so we decided to have lunch together.  Juliette and I last saw each other 28 years ago so it was great to see her again and meet her husband.  It is a sad fact of life how friendships in life sometimes just drift away, not because we don't want to be friends, but rather because circumstances and distance allow us to drift apart.  Good to see you guys and we hope we can do it again only sooner this time.

Juliette, Marcel, Sue, Lorne

Sue and I spent some time in Red Deer this week buying some stuff for CJ's.  Some of the things we can get here without paying PST so it makes it a bit cheaper.  Always fun to see if we can fill the cart.

We know now that we are in cowboy country.  This was at an RV dealer as you enter the showroom. (no we are not buying a new RV!!)

And of course the cute little dog houses.  I didn't check the prices but I'm sure they are expensive.

On Thursday the kids decided it was time to move back to their house in Bentley.  The basement has been cleaned but they still have to paint and lay flooring but they feel they can work around this.  A hotel is fun for a while but home is where you want to be.  So we picked up our jacks and moved the Ponderosa to Bentley as well. 

Bentley is one of the few towns around that still have an old wooden grain elevator.  They are called Prairie Sentinels because of their land marking abilities.  You can see them for miles and I remember when I used to fly, if you were ever unsure of your location, you could swoop down and read the name on the side of an elevator.

The street is quite wide in front of their house so that is where we are calling home for the next couple of days. 

One of the things I have been meaning to do to the Ponderosa was to make the edges of our slides more noticeable with some reflective markings.  I think it is a neat idea when you are parked up in Walmart or in a situation like we are in right now with the road right beside us.  I normally put out little orange cones, but find that the wind often blows them away.  So I went and got some reflective tape and placed it on the slide.  When the slides are in you can't even see it.

So this will be the view from our front window for the next couple of days.  Not a great view but we are not here for the scenery but rather the family.

Our Location for a couple days: