Mancana Ash

Two blocks down the road from us is a popular nursery and we decided we just couldn't stand having nothing to look at out our windows anymore! So we bought a Mancana Ash, which our city here uses to line the downtown streets as they are low maintenance trees and provide wonderful shade. here's Andrew as we prepare to do the dirty work!

First we have to dig into our wonderful lawn, that was a very hard thing to do, I think we have good grass and our water bill confirms this for us.

After pulling up the grass we made a good hole to put the tree into.

Putting the soil, peat moss, mulch mixture in and filling in the hole.

All done putting the soil back in, we're getting really excited looking at it now, just a few more things to go.

The stakes go up to give the tree some good support for a year or so.

Andrew giving it the final water, soaking it and giving those roots a great chance to establish themselves in our lawn.

When we retire this is what we hope the tree will look like, you never know!

Oh, and by the way, the lady at the nursery kept calling our tree "him", so we decided to give him a name, and as the type of tree sounds kind of Mexican we're calling him Paco, Paco the Mancana!

Little League

Tonight was Andrew's last game of baseball for the season. It was really hot night and unfortunately, they only had about 7 players tonight. I was "dugout parent" tonight which meant I had to keep the team from getting into trouble, keep them in their batting order and in their fielding positions - easy task with a bunch of 7 & 8 year old boys! NOT!

Striking his batter's stance pose.

Andrew and his coach, TonyHe was very proud to get this medal - it doesn't really mean anything - all the kids get one ;)

Listen carefully to the cheer after Andrew's last baseball game of the year.

Random Photos

I don't know what Laura was trying to do, but she doesn't look very comfortable!

This is where our tree is going to go! All we have to do now is come to an agreement on which one we're going to buy!

Ashley and the kids relaxing in front of the TV.

Video Game pro

Andrew showing his friend Rayna from church and school the "ropes" of playing Nintendo Game Cube.

Old School

An old school video for Gramma

A hit!

After two weeks and four games of rainouts for Andrew we finally got a ball game in last night. Everyone was a little rusty at the plate though the fielding was good. This is Andrew's fourth at bat where he finally got a hit.

Be careful

Here's the good picture of Laura and I.

Here's me not on top of my game, she got me!

Laura's good friend Aysia brought over a couple of gifts and a Get Well Card from her class, so that really brightened her day.

Last summer I bought some foil tape to tape up our duct work in the basement. Most of you will likely raise your eyebrows at this but I'm sure Grampa will enjoy the picture!

Our kids

Well, we're back. Laura broke her wrist at church yesterday and we just returned from the Pasqua Hospital in Regina where the orthopedic surgeon succeeded in "manipulating" her wrist back in place without the need of cutting into her! So 6 weeks in a cast and a year with the braces. And here's Andrew too, in a fun pose.

Laura's Braces

Today was the big day, the braces went on for Laura. Here's a few pictures of the experience and a video of Laura's thoughts before it all happened.

A waiting room before the big event.

This is about an hour into the experience, I'd left with Andrew to go back to the church and returned for the end of it all. Laura looked happy and content enough.

She's all done, one last shot of her in the chair.

And a close up of the braces and her elastic colours she chose, pink and green.

Now comes a year of no apples, no hard candy, no gum or gummi bears, brushing and flossing after every meal, and just generally being careful. We go back every three weeks for a check-up, elastic replacement and wire adjustment. Hopefully that appliance in the back of her mouth will disappear in a few months.

The zoo in Minot, North Dakota

Well, we've just returned from another fun two days in Minot, about 4 hours southeast of us here in Moose Jaw. Besides the tornado warning and listening to the roof almost collapse with the heavy rain while in the theatre watching Shrek the Third, we went to the Roosevelt Zoo. It was great, here's some pics from there.




Watching the birds at the entrance, the animals got better but this is the only good video with the family in it!




This monkey was absolutely the coolest thing to watch. He(she) seemed quite happy to go end to end of the cage. One of them was named Lizzie, and the other was Ashley!

The kids in the obligatory "Stick your head in the wood so I can take a really funny picture of you" picture.

Ahhh, the funny animals.

An educational board (we didn't read it, but thought it was a good kids picture.

Baseball

Can't resist a few pictures of Andrew's first ever baseball game, he looks so cute in the catcher's gear! Everyone gets a chance to be catcher.

Lisa's Excellent Adventure!

SADDLEBACK CHURCH

This is the church where Donnie has been working for the past 2 years as a youth intern. This church is pastored by Rick Warren who wrote the Purpose Driven Life. This first building is the children's complex, the next picture is the steps up to the main worship centre and and the third is the main worship centre.

DISNEYLAND!!

Thanks to a friend of Laura's who works at Disneyland, we were provided with free admission to both Disneyland and California Adventureland - what a great day! This is Tyler and I in front of the castle.

Here's a few floats from the parade that runs down Main Street USA every day.

Later in the afternoon we decided to ride the train that goes around the entire Disneyland park - Tyler didn't see much!

Here's a couple of attractions from California Adventureland which is right next door to Disneyland.

We rode this huge ferris wheel. Our car was one of the ones on the inside that runs back & forth on a track and rocks back & forth - kind of nauseating!

Here we are on the ferris wheel, up high where it's constantly moving & windy.

While in Disneyland, Tyler got picked out of hundreds of kids to go up on the stage with about 25 other kids to learn how to fight in the "Jedi Training Academy". Once he learned his fighting routine, he had the challenge of fighting Darth Vador - he did a great job & was so excited!

LAGUNA BEACH!!
Laura, Tyler and I took a day and went to the beach - what a beautiful place!

This is the pool & hot tub area located in the complex where Laura & Donnie are living.

We spent a few hours one day at Downtown Disney which is a free shopping area with shops & restaurants. We enjoyed watching a parrot show and then our our picture taken with these beautiful birds.

California is a beautiful place and the views from all over the area are spectacular as seen here with the mountains in the background. Thanks Laura, Donnie & Tyler for a great visit - love you all!