I have a friend who really helped me get into knitting who is also a spinner. Occasionally we trade craft talents. She wanted a particular kind of bag she had seen on etsy and she had a special piece of fabric gifted to her that she wasn't about to tackle sewing herself.
So I agreed to sew her the bag, and she agreed to spin me some yarn! Sorry, I don't have a pic of the yarn, but it's fantastic!
Well, I borrowed my little friend miss K again to dye eggs. Since I always feel just a little too silly to do it alone.
This year it was incident free! We got some great colors too! (note: I like to buy the peewee sized eggs at Price Chopper, as they are only $1 a dozen, and little eggs make for a more colorful bowl).
We rounded up some friends and went cross country skiing for the day. It was tons of fun and hard work.
Did I mention it was also stunningly beautiful?
This year was a little different than a traditional Thanksgiving, in that Henry and Shirley were not able to join us, but we still went.
Instead we had other special guests! Karl & Bea and Dan & Jenn!
We had Thanskgiving dinner, Supper Central style.
Beautiful table! Delicious food.
We also did a fair bit of lounging around.
Some fishing and swimming.
And quadding, but I can't find pics of that.
Once again, some wonderful friends invited us to join them at their cottage. We totally relaxed and just soaked up the sun. Totally wonderful!
Around the outside of the place.
Breakfast.
The dock.
We got the chance to make the most of our basement being empty this summer. Melanie and her parents came to visit Winnipeg with her new baby girl, Marie.
Friends from our Lifegroup invited us to join them at their cottage. It was such a special treat to get away and relax, enjoy a boat ride, and go for a walk.
A boat lift that transfers your boat from one lake to another:
About a year ago, someone whom Michael and I met while I was in university, bought a house on our street and moved in just 5 houses over. We have been really blessed to have someone we know living so close. Michael especially has enjoyed have new 'man' friends to hang out with, as this person invited a few roommates to live in his house.
One of the roommates was Ben. Ben and Michael hit it off and connected right away. Sadly, after a year of sharing garage space, keys and dinners, Ben is moving away.
Apparently I don't have any good pictures of Ben.
Ben, we'll miss you and can't wait till you're back!
This year we only managed to head out camping once, but it was absolutely ok because it was so amazing.
We tried somewhere new and went to Hecla. What a great place! We also took out little utility trailer so that we could bring our bicycles to explore the island, awesome!
Our mansion of a tent.
Big fat juicy caterpillar! I almost squished one of these with my bike tire! yuck.
Enjoying the tiny beach.
On the way home Michael and I stopped in Gimli. I absolutely love it there. It reminds me a lot of White Rock, which is a place that holds many great memories for me.
We enjoyed some fish and chips:
I always wonder if I should do separate posts instead of lumping random things together, but they'd be so short. Plus it would bother me to have more than one entry on the same day (I know, I'm anal).
Selah sitting on the scooter.
I baked a blueberry pie (with berries from Abbotsford, which were in my freezer, thanks to my Dad). I have baked a pie only one other time in the five years we have lived in Winnipeg, and I can't recall if I ever baked a pie while we lived in BC. I thought it turned out beautifully (I had a great recipe from a friend, which helped a lot).
I babysat Katrina again. This time, I had a few things on my to do list, but Katrina was determined to be in the same room as me. Since cleaning bathrooms was on my list, I decided to get a bit creative.
I quickly cleaned the shower and then invited her to join me for a special coloring project. I have these great wipeable bathtub crayons. So, I set her up to color in the tub. At first she was all concerned that I was going to make her take a bath, which she wanted no part of. Then when I handed her the crayons, she looked at me as though to ask, 'are you sure this is what you want me to do?'
It didn't take her long to get into it though.
I was able to clean the rest of the bathroom while she did her artwork.
She was content and colored and chatted to herself for 45 minutes!
Wearing a cute little moose bib, of which I made three as a gift. We don't want him wearing his sister's hand me downs do we?
This year we rented a cabin in a different place. Rough Rock Lodge is the kind of place that you boat into. It was stunningly beautiful there. On the drive in we saw two bears (one who we had to slow down for because it was sitting in the middle of the road.
Our cabin was very nice and quite spacious. We discovered very quickly this place was made for avid fishermen, as evidenced by the fact that there were three bedrooms all with two single beds in them. Michael was quite annoyed at this, but we pushed the beds together and made do.
The view from our cabin.
Our boat.
Cutesy decorations around the place.
The fishing. My Dad caught one. Michael caught a total of 4. I caught nothing (though I think I deserve this because last year I did all the catching).
Ben came to visit for the day.
The guys jumped in the lake for a swim.
My birthday was celebrated all weekend long this year. It started with breakfast at Cora's.
Doesn't that look yummy? (it was delicious)
We caught the fireworks at Assiniboine Park.
They were actually quite impressive, some of them were so huge and filled the whole sky.
Then Michael surprised me with flowers.
Pardon my 'house hair'. This is how I wear it at home to keep it off my face but not pull all the curl out. Gerber daisies, reminiscent of the first flowers Michael ever gave me.
Then a dessert potluck party. This I thought was totally awesome and brilliant on Michael's part.
What amazing friends we have here. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!
A giant game of dutch blitz with two decks of cards and teams playing.
Things may have gotten a little intense and yes, that is my kitchen table in the backyard.
All in all, it turned out to be a fabulous birthday!
