Grace

Last week my grandma finished passing from this life to the next. The last several years of her life have been a struggle for her and for those who loved her. My Mom was going to fly to San Francisco alone which didn't seem right so I decided to go with her.



It was actually a good time with my Mom. Frisco is her old stomping ground and it's strange to be in this very different city and culture and have my Mom point out places from her childhood. One of those places was her highschool. Only two stories and several thousand square feet larger than my old highschool. She said she's never been in the cafeteria.



She did, however, spend a lot of time in those bleachers.

The funeral was on Saturday and it was good. The biggest struggle was the strange clash of family. My Grandma was divorced young and married my grandpa Larry who already had three kids. They combined families in a small house off Geneva. Seven kids total. I've never known Grandpa's kids.



The other hard part of the funeral was Uncle Loyd. Uncle Loyd is my Mom's brother who was born mentally retarded. He's 58 but he has the mind of an 8 year old. No one really knew how he would respond to the death of his mother. The previous night he was convinced that everyone was there for his birthday, which was in August. It didn't hit him until he walked into the church and saw his Mom's face on the program.



The convergence of family also meant an update of some off the cuff family photos.





I know those looks! They're all saying to themselves,"Are any of these pictures worth blogging?"




Maybe a little too much commotion for Uncle Loyd.



Ok, one last thing, (phew my blogs are getting longer and longer). My grandma was into collecting. She collected teapots, thimbles, antique furniture, and owls. Her entire house was under the theme of owls. I have next to no memories of Grandma, but I remember the owls. So before my flight left I had to wander around and capture some of my favorite owls in the house.









On Sunday we made sandwiches and sat around the table. I made a sandwich for Loyd which he seemed to enjoy. His mind processes things at it's own time in it's own way and it was interesting to watch him. I asked him if his sandwich was any good. He answered, "I'm glad you could come pay your respects to my Mom."

Grace was not always a happy person, but as my Mom said, she's happy now. She's with her Saviour.

Bowling Buddies

Instead of our usual Thursday night intellectualizing a bunch of us Eastsiders decided to brave some new territory at Kenmore Lanes and engage in a little friendly competition. Funny, I never realized how competative a bunch of boys who spend most of their time in a cube farm could be. Actually, I guess I had some idea when I think back to their last croquet match....bowling and croquet.....hmmm........just for the record the guys have been bungee jumping.



Heidi and Aaron (some of Royden's workmates) also made it out to show off their bowling skills. Nice form Aaron!



Here's a little Adam montage for you-I've entitled it "Adam in Action". I believe he had the winning score of the evening.







Sadly we girls did not fare so well score wise...not that I even played:) but we did have fun. Better enjoy that victory dance Lautenbach-lucky for you Mrs. Millhouze was not in the house that night-'cause if she had been...she'd a smoked you all!

The Fruits of Labour

When Royden's away Ruth is at play...well...not quite. So Royden was away in California this past weekend and I was wondering how on earth I was going to spend two whole days without him. We haven't been apart much in the last three years...and last time he went away my dad came down to keep me company. This time I was on my own. Reading? Shopping? Hmmm what to do what to do? After my nice relaxing massage on Saturday I decided that it was high time to repaint the guest room. So I did. Ceiling and all. NOW I need a massage! I also managed to put a small hole in the wall while doing some detective work that now needs to be patched. There was this protruding circle in the wall and I just had to know what was making this defect. It was driving me crazy. So like a zit I picked it, and now there's a hole. Unlike skin drywall doesn't heal up after leaving it alone for a week. So then I made a patch. My patch still needs some work but I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself. Here's some pictures (minus one of the patchjob:)).

Before (during our home inspection the guest room was actually a very cute girl's room)


After



As you can see it is begging for guests...so some of you had better hurry up and come visit us!

Summer VACATION!

How do you spell vacation?



Ah yes. The cool water of the Shuswap lake. The beautiful lake that we grew up beside. The crisp refreshing waters we dove in to endure the heat of Salmon Arm summers. Well..Ruth dove in them. I never found Shuswap lake warm enough to actually get in. Our vacation last week was no different. Ruth ran into the water while I hung back and took pictures. WARNING: This post contains pictures of my glorious wife in a bikini.



We drove home on the coquihalla during the day. We make the drive in the night so often that I forget how beautiful it is.



I actually didn't take out my camera much while we were in Salmon Arm. We decided last minute to finish our week up at Nathan and Erin's ranch at Bridge Lake. It was kind of on our way home and we hadn't been there since they started managing it. It's a guest ranch out in the boonies. And when I say boonies, what I mean is free range cattle roaming the forest, dirt roads, mountain trails, secluded lakes. It was exactly what we needed.



Well you can only sit around and do absolutely nothing for so long. After that you need to find a brand new Polaris Ranger with nobby tires and four wheel drive.



Oh there's one!

Nate and Erin were kind enough to let us pack a lunch and head out to little tobe lake, using their ranch transportation. It was a short 20 minute ride in the ranger. But oh...was it a fun 20 minutes...



And that picture doesn't even show the mountain trail. It's like it was built for the ranger. Pot holes, dips, hills, rocks, roots, boulders. All we had to do was go fast!

And watch for the locals...


Watch out guys, get out of the way! We've gotta be at Tobe lake in 20 minutes! We're on vacation !!



We made it there on schedule. It was beautiful.



But I let Ruth drive the ranger home and I was afraid it would be the last beautiful lake I ever saw.



I nearly died that day. (just kidding babe)

Well in between our excursions in the woods, Nate and Erin cooked up some great meals. And we got to eat at a huge table with all the guests. Thanks guys!



Well after lunch it was back on the ranger and out into the woods again. This time we went to Montana lake where there was a rowboat tied to a dock. I asked out loud if anybody owned it and I was answered by a loon. So we took it for a spin.




That was very peaceful afternoon. I will remember it for a long time.




Well that was all anyone could ask for on vacation. But we couldn't leave without a trail ride the next morning. Nate and Erin I know you guys were busy but thanks so much for hosting us. We really had a great time and can't wait to come back.



But maybe next time we should set up a speed trap in the woods for Ruth?