My first video

Well, my plan to do a daily post of our summer fun didn’t exactly pan out; so instead I’ve made a movie. One of my young women showed me a movie she had made and I was so impressed I had to try one of my own. Since I am computer challenged it took me longer than I would have liked; I had to wait for Spencer to come home from work every day and fix the latest road block I had run into. But here it is!!!

We had so much fun, although lots of our activities are missing since, once again due to dead batteries, I used my parent’s camera and have yet to receive those pictures.

We were so fortunate to see so much of our family (some by birth other by us claiming them as our family – Sheena and Michel and the Taylors). It was hard to say good-bye to them again, but at the same time; I felt so very blessed to have such wonderful people be a part of our lives.

My Boys

WHAT!!!

This is a funny story about Jarom I wanted to share before I forgot it.

One Sunday in my parents ward the priests were talking about preparing for their mission. As the priests were talking Jarom was coloring with his book on the seat, so he was kneeing on the floor facing me. As one of the priest talked he mentioned that he knew that he had to learn how to cook and clean and do his laundry because his mother wouldn’t be there. Jarom whipped his head up and yelled, “WHAT, you’re not coming on my mission with me.”

Good-bye Rachel

Well its official – my summer of fun with my family is OVER.

Bright and early this morning we set off for the airport to bid farewell to our Rachel. We were running a little behind and since the plane was leaving at 8:50 whether Rachel was on it or not, we were saved from a tearful good-bye. Nolan however, had a really hard time with Rachel leaving us and tried to stage a protest by refusing to get out of bed; in the end he resigned himself to his aunt’s departure and settled for a long hug.

Our time with Rachel wasn’t action packed, like I would normally like, but I think we were all a little tired from our time at Grandma’s and need a couple of low key days. We did however manage to squeeze in a movie (Oceans 13 and although I have been a great fan of the Ocean movies in the past I wouldn’t recommend this one), Lunch with Spencer and a stroll around the Forks, bike riding and tennis playing and a couple of movies: Fracture and 300 (I am still a little shocked Spencer rented it and thought I would enjoy watching it - nasty).

Thursday being our final day we thought we should have an outing, so we decided to go to a little place called Emu Ville – it promised to be a good time, learning about Emus and going on a train ride, what could be better? After driving all over the southern part of Manitoba we decided it no longer existed (apparent there aren’t a lot of people wanted to visit an emu farm – imagine that) and decided to visit the Zoo instead.

On our way to the Zoo, we passed the golf dome and decided we would rather go mini golfing. After a highly completive round of mini golf which proclaimed Rachel the best golfer of all, we headed off to the greatest Gelato store in all of Winnipeg – Nucci’s.

We finished off our afternoon with a little frog hunting in Kings Park. The kids had a wonderful time, and although Rachel and I were fine with the small frogs, when Nolan captured a great BIG frog we turned into the girls we are and screamed and screamed as the frog tried to make his escape.

It was great to have Rachel here and we ( me especially) am going to miss her.

(due to dead batteries I was unable to capture any of our fun time with Rachel, all the memories are on her camera; these our some pictures from our time in Alberta)

2 down 7 to go!

He's done it again...

passed another exam.

HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!!!

We're Back.

I’m sure you have all been checking my blog daily to see any new posts I may have posted (or given up entirely on me); fear not, your wait is over. We have returned to Winnipeg and have lots of fun stories and pictures to share. We even managed to convince Rachel that her time off from work would be best spent with us in Winnipeg – very excited to have her with us!

We had five glorious carefree weeks of freedom. It was so good to be around family, allow my kids the freedom to run around and explore grandma and grandpa’s acreage to their hearts content. Time went by much too fast and there were lots of tears as I brutally ripped my kids away from their grandparents and brought them back to the “Houde”.

I’ve decided to draw out my summer posting a little bit and everyday (or so) post a new activity we did over the summer.

The Pictures are of Nolan with the dogs, Max and Matty and Jarom in grandma and grandpa’s crab apple tree.