Friends

Congratulations!!

fitz — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:45:04 +0000

Hello from a former Ft. Smith/Fort Fitzgerald Northern Girl! Read about your family travels in the SRJ! I applaud you on your life lessons travels!!! What a wonderful adventure for your family! The trip truly is an education that school would never have offered your children!!!!! And to spend it as a family is even better!!!! What great parents and what lucky children!

Sincerely Alana (Stevenson) McKenzie

www.mckenziehorsemanship.com

Wow! I’m finally on!!!

Richard — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:13:32 +0000

Hello my family. Congrats on a fantastic trip! Welcome home. where do we go from here?

Uncle Stephen’s Surgery

Uncle Stephen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:30:20 +0000

The rotator cuff surgery went well, the waking up phase - not so well. Uncle Stephen has a bit of a reaction to the anesthesia and was flailing when waking up. As a result he was given some heavy duty drugs to settle hime down. This caused him to take longer than expected to wake up enough to be released. His surgery took place at noon (delayed one hour) and I was not able to bring him home until after 10:00 PM. Uncle Stephen is up and moble this morning with the help of a sling and some really good pain pills. A follow-up appointment is scheduled for Tuesday where we will get more information on what he should and should not be doing with respect to mobility at this time. Hope all is well with you and that you are having good weather on this leg of your travels. (Auntie)

Message from Pete

grandmavi — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:56 +0000

Attached is a picture of me, freshly trimmed, nicely groomed, teeth brushed, toenails clipped and I even had a bath (click on my picture for a bigger me).
This was in preparation of meeting up with my family in Lethbridge last Saturday - a surprise for Alex and Luke. Originally, Grandma Vi was going to take me to Kelowna at the end of June but Rick and Claudette wanted them to see me sooner so Grandpa and Grandma James took me to Lethbridge as they were planning to meet them there. All I knew was that I was going for a ride in a car and I couldn’t get in fast enough. Those who feed me, walk me and take me in their car are at the top of my list. When Alex and Luke arrived and saw me, they were very excited and so was I, having not seen them since last August. Grandma Vi doesn’t realize it but she will really miss me - after all, I am the BEST!

It all happened so fast that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Uncle Dennis, Auntie Debbie, Elizabeth and Jacob because they really care about me too. Even when Grandma Vi is in town, they invite me for sleepovers - one time it was for a whole week. I’ll see everyone again when I get back to Edmonton.

Love from Pete

P.S. They love me at Petcetera and even give me treats!

Pete during a thunder storm

grandmavi — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:01:33 +0000

Here is a cute picture of Pete during a thunder storm.

pete-thunder.avi

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK

grandmavi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:26:38 +0000

Now you’re 41 - don’t worry - it isn’t old!
I wanted to post this at exactly 7:31am but Pete was keeping me away from the computer.
Wherever you are, I hope you have a GREAT day!!!
Love Mom

=================================

Download Pete’s video Birthday Greeting to Rick

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE

grandmavi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:00:40 +0000

WOW!!! You get to spend your birthday in CANADA.
Hope you have a wonderful day and a great birthday dinner.
Wish I were there!
Please ask your dad to put a picture of your birthday dinner on jamesworld.ca.
Love from Grandma Vi

That sinking feeling…

Timg — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:27:17 +0000

It’s been a very long time since I posted, so I guess I had better start with some apologies. Sorry, gang! Since we last met here, you guys have travelled through Egypt and Jordan, through Italy and France, into Spain and back into France again. It has been great to get the phone calls from you as you roved throughout western Europe.

By the way, I must pause at this point to give a big (though belated) shout out to Alex: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX!

The big news from these parts is that we are falling to pieces without you guys. Early this morning, a massive sinkhole opened up beside Highway five, shutting the road to any heavy traffic. Smith is cut off from any freight right now, but they are letting light vehicle go by. However, DOT is advising that no one travel the highway as the sinkhole is still active. It is currently 25 feet deep and growing.

Here is our new crevasse:

This comes just before the big grocery trucks get into town, so we may be shy of some essentials by the end of the week. DOT expects to have a alternate route cut into the forest in a day or two, but a lot depends on what happens with the sinkhole. Exciting stuff!

Aside from that, the news is pretty minor. Mikey is almost finished his barn and will be transporting his alpacas and llamas back up North in the next month. His barn is a sweet pad for the animals, with a large interior and two large screened-in spaces on both sides. The animals should be much, much happier this time around.

We went to the French Beer-Tasting Night last Saturday and had a very good time. We had to leave early (about 10) because Jo was catching the Sunday morning sked to Edmonton, but the Keizers stayed till the wee hours and had a great time. The beers were fantastic (I would recommend Hoegaarden “white” beer - Belgian brew, and a Montreal-made concoction call St. Ambroise Oatmeal, a beer so dark some people pour Guiness into it to lighten it up).

We made a trip out to Pine Lake to check on the cabin and it weathered the winter very well. We have an 11-foot sailboat at the lake now. It belongs to Stu and Tracy but they have “given it to us for unlimited use, and asked if they could keep it at our cabin. Naturally, I said yes. I look forward to getting that up and running this summer, but I think there is going to be a bit of a learning curve in using it. Here’s hoping my learning muscles haven’t atrophied entirely.

As I noted earlier, Joanne is out of town all this week so I am batching it. Tracy Hutton and Dan Kearley’s spouses are away too, so we’re having a single parent dinner at my place tomorrow night. Jo is in Calgary for a conference, but really, she just needed to get the hell out of otwn for a few days. He credit card has been vibrating for the past week in anticipation of a mall-related orgy of consumerisim. Oh well, it’s not like she hasn’t earned it. She just finished two straight weeks of being on call during which she put in 84 hours of overtime. It was insane. We’ve seen more of you guys than her lately.

I know you guys are living it up in London right now, and I hope you are having a great time and that fickle British weather is cooperating. I was just talking to Marc and he is gearing up for your arrival. I know you will have a good time, and it will be great to have you back on home soil. I will give you guys a call when you get to Marc and Wendy’s. Until then, take care gang!

A Day in Paris

Vi — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:49:05 +0000

Saturday was a very early morning to catch the Eurostar from London to Paris - even earlier than I needed because I forgot to change my watch by an hour so I was up at 3:15 instead of 4:15 am. We had to meet at the train station at 5:30am even though the train didn’t leave until around 6:30 - a very tasty breakfast was served on the train. It was a great view of the city from my seat on the top of the double-decker bus. First stop was the Eiffel Tower - we were able to go to the 2nd storey - pretty overwhelming!!! The city of Paris seems to stretch for miles and miles in all directions as I did a 360 around the Tower. Next was an hour cruise on the River Seine - very relaxing - then off to the Louvre - our time was very limited so I didn’t go into the galleries - thus I missed seeing the Mona Lisa - mostly just walked around outside, took pictures and had a bite of lunch - then off to Notre Dame - another spectacular sight!!! Next we drove around the D’Orsay Museum, the Lafayette Opera, the Arc de Triomphe and the Trocadero. Back to the train for the return ride to London - another great meal aboard the train. All in all, it was a great day!
I took the Tube to Harrod’s this afternoon - after all - can’t be in London without going to Harrod’s.
Pretty expensive and I was in awe - TOTALLY - didn’t buy a thing, not even lunch - just looked around - the store is mighty huge - I didn’t even cover the whole store.
I certainly wish I had a couple more days here but…
Thanks to Rick and Claudette for persuading me to take the day trip to Paris yesterday and the day trip of London tomorrow.

Happy birthday alex

florence — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:15:29 +0000

dear alex

enjoy your birthday dinner and have another piece of cake for me . sure wish I was there with all of you.

check your email

love great aunty florence