Summer

So far this has been an enjoyable summer. Weather-wise and everything-wise. My sad, sickly skin is bronzing for the first time since my sisters and I hauled our '89 just as sad and sickly Tercel out to Wyoming to spend six weeks with Cowboys with a Mission - 7 years ago! Ok, exaggeration alert. Maybe it was a couple summers after that, while I was in Red Deer, and myself and my roomies would skip on over to Lake Sylvan when we weren't working or in school. That was 5 years ago. It seems like every summer since, I've been hard at work - because once you enter the world of shiftwork and seniority, you can forget about summer vacation for the next 15 years, even at full time! And then last year at this time I had a very new newborn, and didn't want a whole lot to do with beaches and camping and basically anything that required more effort than the constant work that a new newborn is! Except for the whole drive-two-days-to-BC-and-haul-a-six-week-old-to-every-known-friends-and-family's-homes-for-a-visit-and-do-it-all-with-a-cheery-smile-even-though-you-want-to-curl-up-in-a-dark-corner-and-sleep-for-three-years-straight thing. Forgot about that one. Anyways, besides myself heading back to the Grace to earn my keep, we've been trying to enjoy the warm weather and  take advantage of the time we can have together as a family before Ty has to tether himself back to his work desk at Rosenort K-12.
We kicked off the summer with my mom coming out for a visit, and celebrating H's first birthday. But I believe I've mentioned that once or three times. Then in the first week of July, we went to Ty's childhood camping spot, Hecla Island, which he has very graciously shared with me. I can easily see how it would have been a favorite summertime getaway - it is peaceful, family-oriented and just altogether beautiful. We met Darcy and Raquel up there and had a great time swimming, floating, camp-firing, squirrel trapping, Phase10ing, and biking (including an interesting return trip from the Point where Ty's bike chain broke and Darcy had to push him the whole half an hour back to the campsite). Between skipping stones at Sunset Beach, watching the stars through the open canopy of our tent, getting a wink and a wave from a cute teenage boy (yep, still got it!), and cruising around to the sounds of Del Barber, it really was a good trip.

Navigating Papa's truck.

The designated wood chopper.

Threatening the local wildlife (a.k.a. snitchy little squirrels) with above chopped pieces of wood.

Auntie Kel and the babe around the hazy fire.

Checking out the nearby puppy.

The next week we headed off for a couple day trips around the area. We went to Winnipeg, the pool at Ty's uncle Ray and auntie Cor's, and then Ty surprised me with an outing to Steinbach of all places! I guess I had once mentioned that it would be nice to take Hudson to the pool/splash park in Steinbach, so off we went. First we had lunch at the Bread and Butter Co., then went to the pool for a couple hours, and finally headed to Mark's Work Warehouse to gear myself up for work by getting some new scrubs.

At Bread and Butter - it was great!

Then came my crazy couple weeks of orientation. But that's done and over with and I'm now settling into quite the pleasant little rotation. During that week, Ty decided he would do some hard work around here too. So besides taking care of the munchkin all day long, he also put in the hours leveling out a heap of soil in our backyard, preparing it, then laying down sod. So in a couple of weeks, we can let Hudson actually play out there! It's pretty exciting, even though our yard is teeny tiny. And you should see how frantic Ty gets if it even goes a minute or two past the allotted time for watering in a certain spot. Quite entertaining!

We thought Hudson would love romping in the dirt, but dipping his toe in was the closest he came!

 Other than that, we've been spending hours on our bikes, heading out usually once a day to just cruise around Rosenort, stopping here or there for free vegetables from Tyler's mom or grandma's gardens, getting the mail, visiting his dad at work, you know - the good stuff that you get to do in small towns in summertime. We've done lots of barbecuing, meeting up with friends and family, and not thinking too hard about the next phase of life starting in the fall. That will come quickly enough!