Home Again

It was a wonderful two weeks out west with our "Alberta Kids", but it does feel good to be home again! We were treated so well by Miranda and Jonathan, and Julia was so sweet, that it was a real holiday for us. We arrived home to lovely June weather, and I am so happy to see our flowers in bloom. The Bleeding Heart has become a huge bush! I guess that is what they do, so I'm glad I planted it right beside the steps to the house. When the blossoms are gone, the greenery will still be there to enjoy. I'm really excited about seeing our gorgeous tulips, because I thought they might bloom and fade while I was away - but they waited for me!

Here is one of my favourite flowers - the Lily-of-the-Valley. Aren't they sweet! And they smell sweet, too.

And I think the irises are stunning!

Kathy showed us this cluster of beautiful Lady's Slippers, growing in a place I had never seen them before, along the road between her house and ours. What a lovely surprise to find so many of them in an unexpected place!

Now for a few highlights of our time in Grande Prairie. In the last post I showed pictures of Julia's birthday and Dedication, but we also celebrated Jonathan's birthday. It was a beautiful day, so after some relaxing in the backyard, we had a delicious supper of barbecued steak with corn, salad and garlic bread followed by ice cream cake. Yummy! Here is the birthday boy with his girls.

We all went to the Chuckwagon Races at the GP Stompede and Julia became a real cowgirl! At home, whenever she does something spectacular, we clap our hands and say "Yaaaaay!", so when the crowd clapped and cheered for their favourite chuckwagon team, Julia did the same. It was so cute! Here's a picture of the little cowpoke.

This shows a couple of the competing teams - the one in the foreground was sponsored by Jon's company.
As well, Miranda and I went to a wonderful spa to have our nails done; Kevin and Jon went to the Star Trek movie; we visited with friends for dinners; we toured the beautiful Dream Home (which will be won by some fortunate person); Miranda, Jon and I went to see the movie Up (which is more an adult story than children's and will likely make you cry more than once, as it did us - but do go); Kevin stained the deck; Miranda and I organized the kitchen cupboards. And between all this we watched some old home movies, played games of Upwords and Carcassonne, ate lots, and were entertained by Julia. Everything about our visit was special. My last sight of Julia was as she was being carried out of the airport by her father, waving her little hand at me! I had never seen her wave at anyone before, so it made me quite emotional. Up till then, it had been easy to say "Good-bye until July!"