taim bilong strawberries

This is a shameless plug for Van Hepp strawberries. I love their
strawberries. Sweet, juicy....almost as if they have love molecules
injected inside of them. U-pick is open so come and get 'em!

And the reason we were out pickin' was because we went to the farm to
celebrate Auntie Arlink's. She is the first adult I've ever met that
has trouble blowing out a candle. I thought it was adorable.

Pictures 1-4: pickin' and eatin'
Picture 5: Snax and G getting cozy
Picture 6: this picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.
Picture 7: A plane! A plane!
Picture 8: That baby is well looked after (until G got a hold of it)
Picture 9: Arlink.....blowing out her candle....or at least trying.

the best gift of all....

is that Drew's boys love to fish. For those of you who don't know Drew
he loves to fish, so I planned his Father's day around his favorite
activity. We went to the cabin with our friends, the Reynolds and
fished. We are forever grateful to Mr. Toews for being so generous with
his boat. Bill and Snax have never actually fished before so I wasn't
sure how it would go. Actually Bill had taken up fishing on Gramps'
itouch, but that's not a very accurate picture of fishing since every
time he cast his line out he caught something. We actually had to cheer
the kid up while we were on the boat. "Bill," I said, "this kind of
fishing is not like itouch fishing. Sometime you have to wait all day
to catch one thing." Suddenly I felt very old. When I was a kid we
didn't even have internet or ipods. Now I have to explain the
difference to Bill between virtual fishing and real life fishing. Once
Bill got his virtual world and real world straightened out in his brain
he had the best time and I think he even learned to appreciate the art
of patience in fishing. He landed the first jack fish about 5 minutes
into our first time out there. The next day Snax caught the biggest
fish of the weekend, which he actually had to throw back because it was
too big. And apparently the monster jack fish pooped in the boat, so
who needs that? He didn't even deserve to be eaten. Good riddance.
All in all I'd rate the weekend five stars out of five. The weather was
perfect as well as the company....and the food....and the
surroundings....and...well, it was just awesome.

picture descriptions:
#1 look at those beautiful red locks blowing in the wind
#2 E-coon and his cute mama.
#3 waiting patiently.....
#4 the first catch of the day. check out Bill's expression
#5 Proud daddy - check out HIS expression!
#6 Snax reals in a white fish that dad caught
#7 E-coon smoochies dad - happy Father's day!
#8 The Reynolds family
#9 Bill and Drew pose for a Father's day pic. That's not Snax in the
background...it's just some guy. Snax refused to be part of the picture
#10 Snax gets greedy
#11 E-coon is in heaven
#12 cuddle time with Curious George
#13 picnic by the lake

my dairy queen.

happy campers

We were brave and went camping for the first time with Bill and Snax
Beef on May long weekend. Together with the VanHepps we survived with
flying colors. After the tent was set up and the fire was going Bill
confided in me, "I'm a little bit nervous, but a little bit excited to
sleep in the tent because it's my first time." I assured him he'd do
just great. And he did. Our site wasn't flat like you'd expect to find
on the Canadian prairies. It was pretty darn hilly. Snax Beef kept
sliding down to the bottom of the tent in his sleep. I personally lost
sleep over this and kept pulling him back up to the top of the tent, but
eventually I just stopped caring and threw his sleeping bag over top of
him. And besides, he had his Jets toque to keep him warm.

picture descriptions:
#1 H trying to show off G's 'happy camper' shirt. G WAS a happy camper
#2 Spirit Sands - a desert in the middle of Manitoba. Bill asked the
question we all were wanting to ask, but didn't have the guts. "Isn't
it supposed to be hot in the desert?"
#3 Van Hepps fearlessly leading the way through the desert
#4 The Jets live on and keep us warm.
#5 We found a turtle!!
#6 The turtle
#7 Sweethearts - she loves him and he loves her
#8 The other VBs came out Sunday and we ended an awesome day with some
awesome ice cream.
#9 Chillaxin' on the drive home.

mission accomplished

Our list of accomplishments for the week:

- preparing for and then sharing about PNG (easier said than done!)

- first born son learns to ride bike without training wheels

-second born son learns to ride bike without training wheels

-survived a sleepless night with second born son

- second born son has 4 blood tests in 48 hours (malaria testing)

- made giant cream puff for the greater Loewen gang

- only 1 melt down! (and it wasn't any of the boys in the vb house)

- Jett (although that's not exactly our accomplishment)

- cried on someone's shoulder

- had my shoulder cried on....twice!

- got my camera out

Things that didn't get accomplished:

I refuse to make this list.