Trip tales part 6

I hope you're not bored with these, I still have lots to go! That's the thing with digital, you can take tons and tons of pictures. Here was some of our fun with a visit to the Vann's farm. Joey and Angie earned the super duper amazing friends by helping us with the crazy drive North upon our move. Joey drove Brian's truck and Angie and I took turns driving the kid mobile. Whoever wasn't driving was on dvd, snacks and calming kids duty. Emora was pretty young then and I do remember at one point getting in the back because it was the only thing to keep her happy those long hours in a van driving to Canada. Brian was master navigator and uhaul driver, picnic spot picker, potty break enforcer and wind break.
But back in Texas, the kids didn't seem to mind being in confined spaces, they loved being in the dog crates and played that they were doggies for quite a while.
We got to see the goats...and walk around, have fun food and catch up.











This is another very talented friend of ours. Olivia is a pro photographer. She took some pics of us before we left Texas. Angie had made some of them into a poster and gave it to us this visit. It is an amazing treasure that captures that time in our life and made me realize just how little the kids were just 1.5 years ago!

We had a fun morning playing at the park. This was my favorite swing there. It's shaped like an adult chair so that moms can swing in it with baby. I first sat in it the year they built it, when Ivan was born!


Here I am with Elijah, Tighe's youngest who is so very cute! Almost makes me want another one, ALMOST, but not quite.
Tighe is so gorgeous! Love this pic of her ;)

Can you tell Olivia's a photographer? I love how photographers will get to whatever position to make the shot.

Here is what she saw- an amazing bouquet of faces. Thanks again Olivia! You are an amazing woman ;)

Trip tales part 5

I still have a ton of pics to share from our trip, but I am not taking many these days since we got home, so I guess I have plenty of time to post until I have a little file of new ones.

The weather is so crazy this year... barely any snow, really warm days interspersed with really cold days. It's weird! This was our first week to be back and I was surprised to see that I do not hate the school schedule as much as I thought! It was actually kind of nice! ack, there I said it.

Today was fun, it was Hawaian picnic day at school, so we did our best at being Hawaians, ate on the gym floor of Ivan's school with a bunch of cousins, aunty and uncle, school friends and people we know from in the community. They made us pina colada ice drinks (sans rum) and it was a great way to start the weekend- with a school party.
Do you see our old house behind the girls? We were visiting our former neighbors, going in their homes and saying hello. Dominique kept wanting to visit whoever lives in our old house, that we do not know. She kept saying "let's go in that house!" We couldn't of course, but I think we all wanted to walk through and see what it is like now. We did drive through the alley and saw our old yard and the kids were very thrilled to see our art work still on the fence.





These were our neighbors across the street. Very precious people who helped us a lot.




This was in Bontera Blue- a very classy restaurant by our very classy friends. Brian got to play there one night and I had the best steak, the best sweet potatoe fries and the best lemonade EVER!!! I'm serious. The lemonade was made with prickly pear puree (the fruit off cactus plants). It was all exquisite and we are so impressed with our amazing, talented friends. We have lots of talented friends which is so very, very fun ;)






Paula is a terrific friend who went with me to watch Brian and eat. Oh yeah, we walked in on rose petals and listened to some fabulous live music!


New Years eve we spent at Grandma Wynetta's house. Dave and Amy Sue were friends of Brian's from his college days and while they no longer live in Abilene, we and others were able to convince them to come so that we could see them and meet their wonderful trio. The kids loved watching a movie together while the adults got caught up. They live in one of the hottest places on earth and us in one of the coldest, so we should really figure out a way to share homes in the miserablest times of the year! They are in Arizona and said that some days this summer it was even too hot to swim in their pool! They said people would order in big blocks of ice to put in their pools for a pool party! So I'm going to picture hot pool water as I dive into the cold lakes this summer ;) Lap swimming is really way better in cooler water and maybe the kids will acclimatize some this year?? Or maybe I'll get a wet suit ;)

Trip tales part 4

We got to stay at the palace Wynetta. Wynetta is an amazing lady with an amazing house. After Brian and I first met, we wrote each other a couple of snail mail letters and I remember him telling me about Thursday nights at Wynetta's. She would invite anyone who wanted to come over to her home for a meal from their church and a lot of college singles would come weekly. She has touched a lot of lives with her meals, her open home and the refuge she provides physically and spiritually. I'd spent a lot of time with her in her home, but this is the first time I had the privilege of living there. I'd never realized just how spacious her home is and her heart matches the generosity. She gave us a key and free reign as long as we spent one evening with her which we gladly did.


Lots of kids have played on these, most of whom are now adults.




Paula in black and Wynetta in blue.








Dominique lassoing the car. Yep, there's some Texan in her.


and a bit of Canada in all three! The adults were in long sleeves enjoying the sun, but the kids were HOT! and all insisted on taking off their shirts. I remember the first Christmas I was in Abilene, my family all came down to be with Brian and I. It was warm and dad wanted us to get his picture on the front lawn with his shirt off while he sunbathed! It wasn't that warm, but he wanted to show that it was December and hot enough to take his shirt off!

Thankfully it was warm for a bit when we got back so it wasn't too much of a shock to our system. It's cold enough now. about 0 F or minus 20 C. Yesterday the wind chill made it feel like -31C.

Trip tales part 3

We had a fun and loud night with the Baiers (Tighe, Greg, Isaiah, Lily and Elijah) our first night in Abilene after supper. It was like old times, with music, instruments and laughter. So much fun.









We also got to see some old friends. I found out that my former little sister with Big Brother's Big Sister's Shayshay as we knew her lives in Abilene again. She is now all grown up, 20 years old!! We were matched when she was 7! Time flies I tell you. She has 2 gorgeous kids. Her daughter was taking a nap, so I only got to peep in at her. I was glad to be able to see her. A part of my heart will always reside wherever she is.

Another dear person to our lives and our family was and always will be Big Buddy. We loved his hat the day we visited. We got to see some of his drawings and he gave several to the kids. He doesn't have much space or privacy, so that's hard on him, but his memory is great and he seemed in pretty good health for a man in his mid 90s!

Trip tales part 2

It was a long drive, especially on the way there. We used to drive Abilene-Stoon, but not with kids. Now we live 3 hours closer, but were headed to Houston, 6 hours farther. We did it in 2 days, which we decided to never do again. It was a bit much, but at the same time, there are not many good places to stop to stay the night. There is a ton of road, but not many big centers. We drove the first day from 6am until 9pm and stayed the night in North Platte, Nebraska. It was a nice hotel, but we were too tired to try the pool, so we were sad at missing that. But we were able to get up the next day and be out by 7:30 on the road. Dominique was reading the signs as we were coming in and kept thinking that North Platte was actually the North Pole. She was so excited that we were going to sleep the night at the North Pole!

Emora had the best travel quote though. Brian had some of his music and was listening to Bob Dylan. Emora said "this is Spanish. Is this Spanish?" If you are not sure why she said that, type Bob Dylan into Youtube and listen for about 10 seconds and you'll soon find out.



From the looks of it, it may seem that they were delightful angels on the trip. Actually they were really, really great, but mostly when the dvd player was on and they were all really good about getting out and going to the potty on command for every stop so that we didn't have to make unscheduled stops.



In Houston, the kids went with Nana and Papa to the Nutcracker, the children's museum, the zoo and a park (over the week).

Brian and I enjoyed our own museum excursions and walk in the park. This park is not far from Nana's and his old neighborhood. You do have to drive to get there, but it's worth getting out. There are some animals there and we have memories with the kids here through the years.















Once in Abilene, we went to our favorite restaurant our first night into town and look who got to come too? My bestest friend Tighe, her hubby and kids dropped all plans (or non plans) and joined us for the evening.



The kids and I stopped by our old library the next day and went to the kid's program. It was fun to say hi to Miss Darla who remembers when I first started going when Ivan was a baby and the library in our old neighborhood was not even built yet. It was fun to hear the kids say over and over "that was a good memory". Ivan and Dominique both remember the grand opening of the Mockingbird branch library. Emora was just one or a few weeks old (the time line is a little sketchy in my memory).

Ivan's other "this was a good memory" was making sausage biscuits in the morning. Tighe loaded us up with food and brought us the makings for sausage biscuits TWICE! I had very happy boys. This was a morning food staple for us in Texas and we have either not found it here or balked at the price. I may look some more, because the joy they had making and eating them was priceless.

It's been a while!

Happy New Year to you... I've been to Texas and back since I last posted, so lots to update...

We left the day after our 13th anniversary, which we celebrated by packing and attending the kid's school Christmas concert- it was great, if not a little unromantic, besides, we were going back to the land where we met, what could be more romantic than that? We passed by the city where we had our first real date- York Nebraska. We'd each driving 12 hours to get there and here we were on the road again, now with 3 kids in tow!

Nana and Papa gave us plenty of time to revisit and rekindle times sans kids. While they took them to the children's museum, we went to the museum district to look at exhibits at our leisure.
I love the way nature captures it's own fun- like this ivy climbing over everything.

Our favorite was the photography museum.



Here's the house where Brian "grew up" on Weatherhill, so he likes to go by it and point out where his room used to be.


This was in front of the map store. Yep, he's a nerd, but he got us there and back, so I'm not complaining. Apparently there are other people who like to look at maps too, in fact he's reading a book about them- doubly weird if you ask me.




The kids were totally looking forward to going to the nutcracker which they went to Christmas eve with Nana and Papa.




We got to see an old friend of Brian's in Houston and spend the evening together, petting their guinea pigs and playing dance something or other on their wii, which we ironically now own.

Dominique was recreating a monkey she saw on the cover of her drawing pad. She loves to draw.

I have about 100 more pictures to post!! So I hope to get on here regularly to tell you all about it. But I can't be tucked away too much, the weather here is gorgeous!! Right at freezing or sometimes a bit above. This is really warm for here, so we are just going to have to be out and about some while it's nice.


And we are still in recovery mode. The house is not yet clean or orderly, but we will get there some day, maybe ;) We got back late Fri. and the next day, I drove to Saskatoon, saw my parents, sister and her kids briefly, drove back and stopped in Regina for a huge grocery shop to make it home after another long day on the road. I want to stay right where I am for a while now ;) It's always good to get away and gain some perspective.