Lisa's side of the family

Auntie Diane trying to get out of the picture, she succeeded. She just loves the camera!

Uncle Paul doing his thing.

The birthday boys (Donnie's in the picture) and girls.

The whole gang - what a goofy group!

Here's the kids on an ATV (Quad), I like the slow motion of them but feared they went quicker once they were ito the woods and trails!



We had a 4 hour layover in Minneapolis on Christmas Day, so here's Andrew describing his first flight as we killed time on this fun tram, something we'll likely do again next Monday during our 3 and a half hour layover.

To the Center of the Universe

We spent a day visiting with a friend (Steve) in Toronto whom we've gotten to know since meeting him online while doing research for our Cuba trip in 2004. We didn't realize it until we sat down on the GO Train from Burlington to Toronto that it is the only time in our whole vacation that Lisa and I were alone.




We took Steve to one of our favorite restaurants in Toronto that we hadn't been at in many years. In the lobby of this gargantuan building of many huge buildings in Toronto is a wonderful camera shot. Our friend doubles as a professional photographer so he took 8 picutre of us, finding the right settings for a good shot. this one is on our camera but I think the better ones were on his camera.

The Hockey Hall of Fame was our meeting spot with Steve and there was a nice Maple Leafs sweater there on sale. I didn't want to spend moeny on it but Lisa said she had a Visa card and if I didn't get it she would so that kind of ended the conversation. This is us returning on the GO Train back home that evening.

Steve and I (and a few others we know) have a fun rivalry of our favorite teams and enjoy bashing our hated teams. In a fun bit of reversal, we agreed to wear each others teams jersey for a shot.

My true colours came out though when I found this item I dubbed the "Habs Puke Bucket". Taking this shot in a store full of people was a lot of fun.

Back to Minden

We went back to our previous home and spent some time with our old friends from the past 4 and a half years. We stayed at our good friends Jason and Michelle who are mostly finished building a beautiful log home in the woods. Here's some pics of our visit there.


Michelle was drying her hair so I thought I'd join in the fun, besides my one third inch long hair needs to be protected from the harsh element of living in the woods of Cottage Country Ontario!

I think they won't be coming to Saskatchewan now for a visit now that they have this beautiful new hot tub. We spent a few nights in it relaxing with the bush (forest) in the background and rain and snow falling on us a bit, it was defintiely a great part of our visit.

I had a mixture of exhiliration, anticipation and dread concerning the four wings on my plate here. My good friend Jason makes them with a mixture of regular supermarket hot hot hot sauce as the base, then he puts in a few drops of something called "Mega Death" wing sauce which is 500 times as hot as normal sauce. The pain, sweats, drooling and fire were worth it. I downed one, felt my mouth start to burn, then downed the next three before it became unbearable. I had this huge glass of milk at the ready but it wasn't enough, I filled it up again.

The kids went out with their friends Micheon and Alabama on the ATV's (Quad's in Saskatchewan). I went out with Jason later and saw some of the damage caused by the tornado that went through the area this past August, a few days after our daughter left the area from her visit.

There was a welcome back party for us at Tammy's house, another beautiful new home in the woods, overlooking Minden. We had about 30 or so folks who came to say hello, including a couple of old firefighter friends. We certainly miss the area and the friends we made but are so happy to be where we are now in Moose Jaw in a wonderful church, with great new friends, a great Christian school for the kids, a good job for Lisa, and our first purchased house! Minden will also be special in our memories though!

Dad's side of the family

Dec. 27th we enjoyed time with Ashley's side of the family. Here's some random pictures of us.

Here's my brother Stu's kids modeling their Future Shop gift cards wrapped in my brother Chris's underwear, this made for a great laugh.

2 of my 3 brothers in a cute family shot.

Well, so much for the custard for some desert we were going to have, he spilled it and then told everyone to get their camera's to take a pic. He never loses a chance to give us a good laugh.

Stu and random kids.

Laura, that wasn't very nice to do that to your cousin Kaley.

My sister-in-law Karen with her son Jayden and us.

Our final visit, a lunch at a nice restaurant which shall go nameless as it's play on words of a rude name. (Gotcha thinking now, don't I?)

Wagons East!

Christmas Day we picked up and flew back to Ontario to visit with family and friends. Here's a grainy picture of the airport in Minot, North Dakota just before Andrew's first ever flight and the kids with Snoopy in the airport at Minneapolis St. Paul's.

School Christmas Concert

Both Laura & Andrew were involved in the Christmas concert at school. Grades 1 thru 6 were involved in a play called "The Chronicles of Bethlehem". Laura's class were shepherds & townspeople and Andrew's class were the "kings of swing".

Laura's grade 5 band also played and this picture is when the grade 4, 5 & 6 bands played together as one big group.

Saskatchewan Proud

What do you get when the temperature goes just above freezing, then it starts to rain, then it gets cold at night?

You get ice everywhere. We don't want any cranky people falling in front of our house so I went outside and started chipping away. Soon Andrew wanted to try the chipper thing, then Laura came out and they argued over who could use it. Hey, I wasn't going to stand in their way. I came inside, got the camera, took a video and am putting it online for your viewing pleasure. Don't tell me THAT isn't work!!

Laura on the flute

More Christmas program from last night, here's a bit of Laura on the flute.

Laura's singing style

Here's Laura singing at Cornerstone's Christmas Pagaent tonight!!

Andrew's Christmas Singing

Here's Andrew's big production at Cornerstone Christian School's Christmas Pageant tonight. We apologize in advance that he's behind another girl, but you couldn't move a foot without getting in the way of another parents camera!

Our church Christmas Program

Here's a short video of our church's Christmas program. It's the second time today we did it, this time at a local nursing home.

Our trip

Laura's Visit with Rebecca

This is Laura's friend Barbie...uh, Rebecca here for the weekend from Edmonton.

Jessica & Aysia also joined in for the reunion.

Laura and Rebecca

Laura's good friend from Edmonton is in Moose Jaw this weekend for a visit. She's over here as we speak and a few other girls are coming too! So watch this video, turn your head sideways, and enjoy the Mexican Barbie routine!!

Daddy and Laura decided to go watch and participate in the twice yearly catching of the chickens on the Thoroughgood farm.

There were over 175 of them. Laura was scared at first and wouldn't go in. Then she'd take a chicken already caught, then she got brave and actually grabbed one on her own. She would get one each time, Daddy would get two, and Paul the farmer would nab 3 without even blinking. It was fun, I wish I'd taken more than this picture, but at least I got this one shot of Laura.

Within 12 hours these chickens were in for the "whacked and sacked" treatment, according to Paul. If you look closely you can see the crates behind Laura, where 6 chickens each went in to await their fate. The place they go to is actually just across the highway where Briercrest College and Seminary is, appropriately named "Cluck 'n Pluck". I won't describe the process here, it made my stomach turn the first time I heard it.

Andrew's 7th Birthday Party

Lorna was kind enough to invite us to her place for Andrew's Birthday party. This is also the place where Laura tried the waterskiing.

At the Blue Jays game

The pictures not the best but this is the kids running the bases after a convincing win versus David Wells and the Red Sox in April 2005.

A tour of our house

Laura takes us on a tour of our house. She's wearing her Cornerstone Christian School t-shirt. After putting some video's on our blog she wanted to be in one a little more than she had been!! A budding star.

Ashley shooting a gun

Although I did have some success, none came on this shot, oh well!! This is out on a farm in September.

Andrew skating - Winter 2005

Laura's First Attempt at Waterskiing

Andrew's first time on the ramp

My kid driving

Family Bowling Night

We did a family bowling night as a church event last weekend and had a really fun time. This is our friend Paul. Ashley caught him at the perfect moment for this shot.

These are a few of the people that were there. The gentleman sitting in the background on the bench is Merv, my bowling buddy. He and I pretty much stayed side by side in scores the whole night as you'll see in the picture below of the scoreboard. Notice our final scores.

Aysia, Jessica, Laura, Stephanie & Rayna (not shown) made up the "girlpower" team.

Final scoreboard for my team. Broden's score is pretty good considering he's only 5!

Yup, That's My Son!

It seems to me that I've posted in the past pictures of Andrew and referred to them as "a face only a mother could love". It seems to be a reoccuring theme in our house!

Minot, North Dakota

We took a couple of days to get away this Thanksgiving weekend and headed to Minot, North Dakota. It was the first time we had crossed the border since all the new rules & regulations were implemented and this is how part of Ashley's conversation with the Border Guard went...

BG: "Sir, what do you do for a living"
Ashley: "I'm a pastor"
BG: "Where are headed today?"
Ashley: "Minot, North Dakota"
BG: "What's the reason for your visit?"
Ashley: "Just to get away for a couple of days - tourism"
BG: "Terrorism?"
Ashley: "Huh? Terrorism? No....TOURISM!!!"
BG: "Oh, I thought terrorism was a strange answer for a pastor!"

Thank goodness he had a good sense of humour!

We stayed at the Sleep Inn which is attached to a mall - all we had to do was walk through the hotel lobby and into the mall! How convenient! Also in this hotel is this awesome waterpark! We spent hours and hours here and it was definitely worth the trip. These waterslides kept Ashley and the kids entertained for hours - I only went down 4 times! The purple slide in the middle goes through to the outside of the building before coming back in.

This is the "kiddie" pool which was a lot of fun even for the big kids in our family! Over to the right of this pool is a huge clover leafed shaped hot tub which seats about 48 people.

This is the "regular" swimming pool.

We were on the 4th floor so there was always a big discussion as to who was going to press all the buttons!

For those of you who know Ashley well, you'll understand these pictures. If you don't understand...don't ask!

Corner Gas

If you're a fan of Corner Gas then you'll recognize these next couple of pictures. We knew that the tv show was filmed somewhere near us, and we passed it on our way to North Dakota this weekend. The set is closed for the winter and all the signage is down and the windows boarded up, but this will give you a glimpse of what the set looks like.

I wasn't a big fan of this show until we moved out here. Having lived here for a few months, now when I watch this show I say "Oh, now I get it!".

The town where the show is filmed is Rouleau, but the sign on the grain elevator has been changed to reflect the name of the town they use in the show - Dog River.

Volleyball!

Laura has entered the world of school sports for the first time and she's starting with volleyball. Tonight was her first game and she did really good for the first time!