Home

We spent several weeks at home in August and while there I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with Royden's dad for a spectacular flight over the Arm. It was awesome and made me even more convinced that we got to grow up in paradise. Remind me...why did we ever move away?



If you look closely in the window you can see both the pilot and the copilot. Royden laughed when he noticed that I moved the camera away from my face for this pic so I could smile :)



One of our reasons for returning home was for my 10 year high school reunion. D'oh! That's our nifty high school. I think we had the coolest high school ever. It was the first school designed by a mall architect and was full of windows and light. Every classroom had a bay window that looked out into the hallway so lots of natural light could filter through...this design also made it undesirable to skip class since anyone in the halls could be seen from the classrooms. Not that that really stopped us though...



The big city. You can even see McGuire Lake with it's fountain.



Royden's dad was my pilot. I'm not sure exactly how long he's flown for but it's been over 30 years. He used to be a bush pilot in Northern Ontario. He actually survived a crash in a white out storm in the middle of nowhere about 33 years ago. His passenger was killed but dad survived for three days in 40 below weather. He was found by a Christian Native Indian who was out hunting. The man had lost the moose off of his sled and turned around to find it and thankfully found dad instead. Hallelujah! Where would I be without my Royden? -probably Salmon arm;)



The house in the center of the picture is where Royden grew up. We had lots of fun over the years hiking through the woods, snowshoeing on Christmas Eve, kayaking in Gardom Lake (seen in the background) and hosting Pepsi parties by the fire. Something I forgot to mention in Trevor's wedding blog (May) was that he once went to all of the grocery stores in town and got the store managers to donate the Pepsi for our parties. He told them that we were trying to have a non alcoholic party and wanted their support. We thought it was brilliant and hilarious since we would never have had alcohol at those parties...obviously the store managers didn't know what kind of kids they were dealing with!









This is Co-Op mill, one of the major employers in the area. Warning...this is my mountain pine beetle plug. So you all know about it already since I bemoan it every chance I get. It's depressing and is killing our forests. I worry about the beauty of the country I grew up in and the impact it will have on things like clean water and jobs. So I'm totally worried about it. I also saw a huge amount of dead birch trees-you might be able to see them if you enlarge the pics of Royden's house. So please pray that Jesus wouldn't let all the trees die and that if He does I'll somehow accept that He really does know what He's doing. I'm serious, please pray about it. I'm really bad at that faith thing.





Look there we are!





Thanks dad! I enjoyed myself immensely and marvelled at God's glorious handiwork.

The Last Bride

I met Alison in Kindergarten...I think...it could have been grade one (or first grade for all of you American readers). It was a long long time ago. She lived in a big old white heritage house across the street from our school and she had a hidden cubby hole behind her dresser that I thought was cool. Her mom made the best birthday cakes in the world (they had money in them-as an adult I still think those are the best kind!). Ali was best friends with Loa, and I was best friends with Trina. We were a fabulous foursome. Over the years many hours were spent together at Ali's house playing with barbies, riding bikes, dreaming about boys and drinking too much tequila. Mexican tequlia.



Time went on, we got older. Alita and Michelle joined our little foursome...and we became six. We got along...mostly. There was a rift when we discovered Judy Blume's book 'Forever', and another when Ali and Alita discovered Thomas at about the same time. We'll just leave it at that.



So we all grew up and got married. All of us except Ali. She decided she needed to travel the world and get her master's degree. She's travelled to a dozen different countries and speaks about 6 languages. In her travels she met her Mexican match Alex, the hot older brother of her friend Alisia who was Ali's host sister on an exchange trip to Veracruz back in high school.



In our group of friends it seems you either get married before anyone's the wiser, or you string your guy along for an eternity. Ali did both. She strung poor Alex along for years in her indecisiveness, and then in an instant she eloped with him in the spring and moved to Mexico. They decided to come back to the Great White North so we could celebrate with them...and what a celebration it was!



If you know Alison, you know she's not exactly the most organized person in the world. Loa and I were curious to see how the whole event was going to unfold when the rehersal the night before took three and a half hours. Incorporating Canadian and Mexican traditions into the ceremony and then translating everything from English to Spanish took a little time to organize beforehand but worked out beautifully on the wedding day...even if the wedding did start an hour and a half late...I think we were on Latin American time.



The wedding was held at the same heritage site where Trina and Michelle had their weddings. It's a beautiful spot to wed and a fun place to take pictures.

Loa, me and Alita. No leg shots on our camera :(.



Ali and John, her dad.







This is Ali's little brother David who suddenly developed into a very handsome man in the last ten years. Was he really only two years younger than us all that time? I'm not sure if we flattered or embarrassed him with all of our comments;).



Well guys, we had a awesome time at your wedding. It was so fun to have most of us all back together again (we missed you Michelle). We wish you love and happiness in your marriage and we'll keep you in our prayers. We'll also keep you in our Mexican vacation plans! We love you!



Royden took a pretty good closing shot for our blog post but a better one would have been of the bride and groom hitch hiking in their wedding garb to their hotel after their car ran out of gas on the way there...we hope you continue to keep your same sense of humour on the rest of life's adventures!

New pet...

This year I had the opportunity to either purhcase a new lense for my birthday in May, or a new pet. Can you guessed what I picked? I've been wanting a chameleon for years, but they are a significant investment in money, time, space, effort, plants, and crickets. One time a few years ago I actually bought the screened cage and never bought the chameleon, and then lost the cage on the highway off the back of a truck during a move a few years ago.

So in early May I waited eagerly for the little box to be delivered to my doorstep, overnight from Florida. It arrived, and it's been a learning experience ever since. Ruth wasn't totally informed on how much attention these animals required (neither was I), but since May I think I've developed a pretty good 'husbandry' for raising a healthy little lizard. Well...not that little. They get pretty big. Ruth didn't know that either.

But I did. ;)




Funny thing about Chameleons - they hate people. He likes me to feed him 10 to 13 crickets a day, he likes me to mist him 2 to 3 times a day, buy and maintain live plants, and clean up his poop, but after that; this is what I get from him...



He hates me.

Oh well. It's kind of like owning a zoo animal. It's a bit of a 'look but don't touch' pet. Very fun to observe and photograph.



These are his colors when he's all fired up and sitting in the sun. This was one of his first succesful photo shoots. What a beautiful animal!

Ruth didn't quite know what she was agreeing to when she aproved of the lizard. Especially the other day when she found a "vibrating" fedex box on the doorstep. It was full of 500 live crickets. (Super cheap when you order online like that). Sorry babe. Lizard's gotta eat!



Ruth named him "Otto". I'm sure you'll be seeing more pictures of him.

4th of July

Moving backwards in time here, posting 4th of July pics that my late rebel took.



The Millers had their always popular 4th of july party this year. Bbbq, friends, explosions..it's always a blast!

Saltspring

Ruth and I were in need of a little time away last weekend. We took the opportunity that the 4th of July always brings to us Canadians; to go home on a weekend that is not a Canadian holiday. Truthfully we only get the 4th off here, which was on Wednesday, so we just took Thursday and Friday off too.

We went up to Saltspring island, one of the larger of the gulf islands. It was a good time away from the office at work, and the office at home. I personally experienced a couple of firsts on this trip. I went sailing for the first time. I also dropped my camera for the first time (more on that later).



This was the harbour we came into. We took a ferry to Vancouver Island and then a ferry to Saltspring. Ruth has been really getting into the photography stuff (bitten by the shutter bug I suppose), so keep in mind that she took some of these photos.

There was lots of wildlife.

Mostly deer. Mostly deer walking onto or off the road we were driving on. Thank God we didn't hit any..but we shot some...

There were many beautiful things in beautiful places. Old barns in big fields, big trees in old forests...






...and hot chicks on the beach. Yowza!



We spent some of our are American dollars on the Canadian tourist industry by going on a sailing tour of one of the harbours. Ruth has sailed before but it was a first for me. It was a blast, and it was also relaxing.

And it was perfect weather.

Here's a picture for Dad...

As seen is previous posts, this is me wearing my "I'm on vacation, but I'm not a real cowboy" straw hat. It also hides my fair face from the sun so I don't burn like a tourist.

And that's Ruth standing on the highest point on the island. She's wearing her "I'm so glad my husband doesn't have email access" smile.

We visited several local artisan studios such as a pottery studio...

... several vineyards...

...and a couple cheese farms. We tasted some very delightful cheeses. We were just sorry that the vineyards and the cheese farms weren't next door to each other.




After the days activities, there's only one thing left to do at the end of the day on a gulf island (and many other places I'm aware), and that is: go searching for the best place on the island to see the sunset. It's like the closing visual orchestra of the day. Well we heard about this place from one of the locals, so we headed down to this beach with our chocolate espresso mousse to go, and our tripod and camera.

We situated ourselves on an outcropping of rocks where Ruth promptly dug into the mousse, and I promptly started snapping my photos.

And this is when for the first time in two years, I dropped my camera...

..into the ocean.

And this is literally the last photo that camera took.

Rest In Peace my dear sweet digital rebel SLR 300D with my 18-55 lens and a 2g flash card...you shall be missed.

That was the very lowest point of my week.

Ruth gave me that camera as a gift on my birthday a few years ago. That was the single best gift I've had in years. This blog exists because of that charming little shutter. It ached in my heart to pull it, dribbling out of the water like that.

But hey, the pictures weren't lost!

And if the worst thing of the whole weekend was losing a material thing that can be replaced one day - so be it. I'm thankful for our health and safety, and the ability to take trips like this with someone I care about so much.

And someone that cares enough for me that she didn't get angry or frustrated, she just spooned Chocolate espresso mousse in my mouth while we watched the sunset.

Thank you Heavenly Father, for sparing my 60mm prime macro lens.