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!

Mini Trip to Saskatoon

After a busy couple of hours playing in the pool and the waterslide, the kids are sacked out for the night in the hotel.

This is our outing to the Western Development Museum. Part of the museum is a street called Boomtown which shows what it would have looked like it 1905. We spent a lot of time going in and out of these buildings.

This is Laura & Andrew in the cloakroom of an old schoolhouse. Doesn't Andrew look impressed with his attire?

This is just one of the many cars that were on display.

Of course Ashley was very interested with the Fire Hall & all it's equipment.

This is the police station where we decided to give the kids a taste of what life would be like if they don't tow the line!

Laura's Trip to the Cottage

A few pictures from Laura's time at the cottage with her cousins Jayden & Kaley. Apparently she tried water skiing a few times, but preferred tubing instead. Thanks to Uncle Chris & Auntie Karen for having Laura with them!

Andrew used some of his birthday money to buy a skateboard ramp to go with the skateboard that we gave him. It was either this or a grinding rail but I decided that it would be better for him to start with accessories that are still on the ground. I wonder how long it will be before the ramp becomes boring & passe and he wants to move onto other things to try!

More fun in the water on the farm!

The newest babies on the farm. There are actually 2 kittens in the watering can - there's a black one that's hard to see. They get in and out of there themselves - so cute!

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

Today we celebrated Andrew's 7th birthday at the farm where we lived in January and February. Our friends Lorna & Bill were kind enough to host his party. Their farm is quite unusual as it has a "pond" a mile long. Bill put his boat in the water and the kids swam & waterskied.

Andrew with his birthday present from mom & dad. He's already trying to figure out how to do tricks and asking if he can go to the local skateboard park...ummm maybe not right away!

Laura getting ready to waterski. She had 3 tries and did really well on her second try getting up for a few seconds.

A DAY AT THE BEACH

Yes, that's right...I said beach! Imagine that - we found beaches on the prairies! We decided to do some exploring around Saskatchewan yesterday and drove 100 km northwest of Moose Jaw to Douglas Provincial Park on Lake Diefenbaker. It's a beautiful spot with a huge sandy beach and we had a gorgeous day in the water and on the sand.