another checkmark on the list!

One of those places in and around Winnipeg that I've never been (and apparently Michael hadn't either) is Birdshill Park. It kinda reminded me of Cultas but on a bigger scale with more sand and better trails around it.

We had Roger's pick up for the weekend so we packed a picnic lunch, our bikes and headed off to explore Birdshill.

I don't have a lot of great photos of what the place looked like, but it was great. A beautiful fall day, with a nice breeze, not too many people.

Michael enjoying our lunch (I know it doesn't look like it, but he did, I promise).

We rode around the trails, and then enjoyed laying in the grass under a tree and chatting. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Soul Men's Retreat at Red Rock Lake

Our Garden & Flowerbeds

Well, I'd like to show off the end results of all our landscaping & gardening efforts from this spring, so here it is.
The front yard:

The flower boxes on the deck:

The garden box, where we grew veggies (the big bushy thing is the tomatoes, which grew totally wild and covered the bell peppers and basil to the point that they died):

And here is some of the stuff we got to eat from the garden (hot peppers were actually grown in the front yard flower beds):

I had so many tomatoes, I gave a lot away because I couldn't keep up with eating them. By the end of the summer, I was actually kinda sick of them (keep in mind that I had to eat them myself, Michael doesn't like tomatoes).

Camping Trip #2

Michael and I enjoyed our first trip so much that we went again with our friends Karl & Bea. This time we went to Lake Nutimik, one of their favourite places to go camping.

The weather was great during the days (really cold at night) so one day we went for a walk (I'm sorry but where I come from a hike involved climbing mountains, and it just doesn't seem like a hike when it's all flat, even if it is through woods and past rivers). We stopped to play in the water here:

We also enjoyed some traditional camping food, such as s'mores:

One night we had a visitor. Something brushed up against Bea's tent. At first we though it was Michael because he was not in the tent, but then he came back and claimed to not have been goofing around. We weren't too sure. But then it happened again after all of us were in our tents. Then we heard chewing noises. So, the guys got out to explore and discovered a skunk eating some kind of scraps that had fallen underneath our picnic table. Later, when Bea and I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night we saw mama skunk and her three babies walking down the road...luckily no one scared her enough to cause her to share her odour with us (although I slept in fear of this all night long).

All in all, another fun camping trip!

other things that happened in august: Folklorama

We once again took in Folklorama (although this year there was no passes to be won on the radio). The cool thing was that Rudy a friend from BC was in town, so we took in the shows with him.

This is from the highlight of the whole event, the BrazilianPavilion, their martial arts dancers are incredible to watch.

We also spent some time at the Irish Pavilion, where I got a kiss from a leprechaun.

I can't seem to find any photos to prove that Rudy was there, but he was. For more on Folklorama, check out last year's post.

visitors!

One of my roommates from Capernwray emailed me to say they were going to be in the neighbourhood and wanted to come visit. So, Aimee, Atticus & Van came to see us for a few days (perfect timing too, our basement was empty so we had lots of room).

We had a great time showing them around, and letting them experience some Canadian things (like poutine & Tim Horton's). Too bad I don't have more pictures to show you.

Atticus is a skateboarder, so he wanted to check out the park at the Forks.

Dan & Jenn Move Away

Dan and Jenn moved into our basement three years ago, as virtual strangers. After sharing our house with them, and many meals, they are not just tenants but good friends. It is sad to see them go, but we wish them all the best as they settle into life in Abbotsford!

The faces at the goodbye party at Crescent Park.

Saying Goodbye in the wee hours of the morning.

Bye Dan & Jenn! See you soon!

meeting Cassidy

One of my coworkers had a baby, and we had a little baby shower to celebrate. Michael was one of the first men to get in on the action and hold baby Cassidy.

Here's some shots of the rest of the guys holding Cassidy.

Another collage of some of the fun.

That really cute pink hat that Cassidy is wearing is one that I made!

another baseball game

We got to go to another baseball game this summer, this time with a bunch of my coworkers. Here I have a picture of Rudy to prove that he was in fact in Manitoba and did join us for Folklorama.

Michael made friends with some of the other staff's kids:

Just hanging out...

Camping at William Lake

Michael and I went on our first ever tent camping adventure. We borrowed a tent and gathered together a few other camping things (wiener roasting sticks, bug spray, cooler) and headed out. We joined our friends Chris & Allison for this one, which was a good thing, as they had other camping essentials such as a tarp and camp stove.

We had a pretty nice site, but lousy neighbours, who thought that camping meant bringing your boombox and sharing your music with the enitre campground.

Here's Chris & Allison's tent (with Allison making some breakfast):

Here's our tent:

Chris demonstrating that camping food can be extremely delicious, who needs McD's?

We had a little chipmunk that became a regular visitor to our site (I'm not going to say anything about why, you can probably figure it out)

Allison is a fellow knitter, so we enjoyed some time around the campfire with our sticks and wool.

Allison and I also took a trip to the International Peace Gardens. It was great.

There was so many flowers, it was awesome. I learned a lot, seeing as how this was my first year doing any sort of flower gardening.

Other random images from camping. We went for a hike and found a look out point (we did not get there by climbing up a mountain, it was a wooden structure with stairs, so different from BC)

William Lake has a beautiful lakeside, I really enjoyed this about this particular campground. There was grass, sand, trees and shade, and the water was a very pleasant temperature.

We also enjoyed a traditional camping food, foil pack dinners. They turned out reasonable well. We discovered that the way to avoid burning and sticking is to use parchment paper inside the tin foil. Awesome!

This last one is of us inside our tent. We even brought our bedtime story along! It's the Bible as a novel and we take turns reading out loud to each other.