Austin Thresherman's Reunion

This even is what puts Austin on the map, it's kind of like putting Burnaby Village Museum and Agri-Fair all into one place for one weekend. Anyway, there's a big tractor parade, which is a big deal because they have real steam engine tractors running for this. A rodeo in the evenings. There was a stooking competition (making towers of the swaths of grain, apparently it's a really itchy job), and lots of old stuff to see, including the first "snowmobile." There are also historic building through out the site, from a school house to various homes and a couple of churches, a blacksmith and a flour mill. Pretty cool, and now I've finally been. Obviously, this is something Michael grew up with, so it was good to have a window into his experiences.

On Sunday there was a mud bog competition, so we went to that as well.

a real time post!

Hi there! For those of you who haven't figured out, I back date my posts. I don't always have the time or the patience to post right away, especially when it involves photos, so I create the post title and insert the correct date in order to come back to it later. This makes it kind of annoying for you guys, because you might end up missing something. So, I'm going to tell you about a marvelous thing called Google Reader (for those of you who know, just skip the next paragraph). This is a lovely tool where you create a list of all the blogs (and other interesting sites that have updates) you like to read and then you sign into Google Reader and it shows you every new thing on all of the blogs, rather than you having to check each one individually and wonder about missing something. This is particularly useful when you read our blog, because I like to cheat and back date entries, making it easy for you to miss something that I supposedly posted three months ago, even though I did it today. So, I'm determined to catch up on old posts. I know I have said this before, and this time might not be that much better, but I'll give it a shot. I've also been really struggling to stick with my Bible reading plan, let alone journalling, and I know how important these things are to my overall well being because I really feel a bit psychotic these days. I've decided that for every morning when I do those two things, I will allow myself to do a blog entry (maybe that sounds weird, but I am hoping that it motivates me to do both). So, happy reading, and be aware that I'm catching up on old posts!

girls only weekend / Cate & Angela spend the weekend

Two things ended up happening on the same weekend. I had a chance to go a cabin for some girls only fun with friends from university and Angela & Cate wanted to come for a sleepover. So, I hung out with the girls:

The cabin was on the same body of water as Grand Beach, so I was really hoping to enjoy some sand and sun this time, as opposed to last time. Friday night we did take a walk along the beach, it was pretty, but too cool to go in the water. Saturday it was really windy and ended up being stormy. The power went out and trees fell down. Sunday morning it was beautiful and sunny, but the wind had pushed the water in so far that the beach was completely under water, no sand in sight! Hopefully third time's a charm, and I'll actually get to sink my feet into the wonderful white sand at Grand Beach!

Meanwhile, Michael got to have a sleepover with Angela & Cate:

my birthday!

Well, turning 27 felt a little weird. It seems so much closer to 30 and that is just too weird to even think about! On my birthday we got invited to some friend's campsite at Grand Beach for the day. So we went with our friends Nathan & Malann, and their baby Sofia. I was really excited about this, since I've wanted to go to Grand Beach since I first came to Manitoba, but never had the chance. Finally, after spending four years out here, I get to go.

We arrived just in time to eat lunch, in the blistering heat. Then we headed down to the beach. While I was in the change room getting suited up, a thunder storm let loose. We had a full out hail and lightening, huge drops of rain, storm. It lasted about half an hour and then everything cleared up. So, needless to say, my swimsuit got wet, but not from the lake water! I had a great day despite the crazy weather, especially since I happen to love storms. Sorry, I guess we didn't take pictures of all this.

After we got home and cleaned up, we went to Nathan & Malann's for some appetizers, and I do have pictures of that: