Happy Chinese New Year!

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Thought I'd give you all some photos:

I have no idea when this was, but it's not too long ago, at the playground by our place.

dinner one night when I was feeling particularly hungry.

The girls at Lake Louise.

Just thought I'd throw in an oldie: Sherrie with Amy and Erin back at our house in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. It was Chinese New Year 2004.

Erin's Halloween costume this past year.

A few friends of mine at the costume party we went to on Halloween. That's Jerome, who's in the Folk N Blues Society I started, on the left, and Ron, guitarist in the band I'm in, on the right.

Earlier in the fall, we got a kick out of 'curling' with real stones on a frozen river while walking Z. It was particularly fun throwing heavier stones and watching them embed themselves in the ice, stopping suddenly and sticking in.

Erin at West Edmonton Mall

The girls on the bumper cars at the West Edmonton Mall. We go there for mini vacations from time to time. Going again for Sherrie's Birthday! This was the first time Sadie was allowed on the bumper cars.

Two of my lovelies on a walk before the snows came.

This is neat: our carbon monoxide alarm went off, so the fire dept. came and checked out the house - turns out we just needed a new alarm. Sadie got a kick out of the fire engine, though...

Sadie's cool halloween costume.

The girls had a blast in the architecture display at the AGA (Art Gallery of Alberta) - those are giant building blocks.

Hi everybody

for some reason, the photos have gone in reverse order when I uploaded them, so these are the opposite of chronological, but here goes:

We made boats and raced them in puddles on a rainy day when there was no school:

See the Bears? This is on our trip to Banff:

The girls at Lake Louise

Summer's Over, We're Back

Hi again - It's been a lovely long break but I should get back to posting so here goes. As it's been so long, here's just a smattering of goings on based on what photos I could find, in no particular order:

The treehouse was well - used this summer:

The deck is such a lovely place for a meal:

...or just for chillin'

At the jumping rocks, about a ten minute boat ride from our place (two minutes on Chris and Lianne's Sea Doo) See the rock shelf in the water? big drop - off there, wonderful for kids learning to swim.

The kids love catching frogs at the jumping rocks too.

That's Sadie tubing behind Chris

Jamie Lees, the kids' first cousin

His dad, Chris, and his sister Kathryn

My old friend Aengus came by for a visit. Love that guy.

One of the big things to play this summer was World of Warcraft, OFFline - the kids would dress up like dungeon adventurers and had to fulfill quests like finding things in the woods and building shelters and such. James was a Gnomish Rogue.

Amy and Kathryn were Gnomish Mages.

Oh this was earlier - before we left for the summer, I filled in on bass guitar for a local band, called No Limitz, at a concert in the park. The band I'm a regular in, C.Alice, also played a concert in the park, about a week after we got back from the cottage. As it was raining that evening, we played indoors, but it was a rockin' evening - everyone had a great time, and we had a big turnout too.

Amy took golf lessons this past spring. She really enjoyed it, and asked for clubs for her birthday

This is Erin's class on their year-end trip. One of the stops was at the mall.

We went to the Falher (pronounced Fallaire) Honey Festival too. It was a lovely way to spend the day, and we got to sit inside the helicopter too!

Erin's Birthday party was a stay at home affair this year, with the kids lounging in their swimsuits and playing in the sprinkler.

Amy and Erin at their gymnastics gala. Did I put up a video from that? I'll check...

The view flying east.

Sadie was deemed safe to travel.

We visited Fort Henry this summer. Amy particularly loved learning about the history of the place.

My partner in crime, Chris.

My mom having ice cream with the girls at the water in Westport. She came up for a couple of weeks.

That's my birthday cake for my 40th - see the skulls? Sherrie's so sweet.

Sadie and I enjoy splashing through puddles after it rains.

I got a gnome for our garden

Z has no shortage of friends to play with

I volunteered at the Pow wow again. This young fella was so impressive in his traditional dress that I just had to take a shot.

I participated in my first Zombie Walk this past spring too! Those are some of the friends I made.

And did I mention that Erin can now ride a two - wheeler? That was around May.

That's it for now - Sorry it took so long. I'll be more diligent now that summer's over.

Take care!