In The Car

The boys are so different when we're on a car ride. Nathan is almost always sleeping, while Zack is awake and enjoying the view. Here are some shots from our trip...This last one is when all the boys had to pee... I snapped it JUST after Zack finished, but they were all standing in a line.

My Favorite So Far...

I did a bouquet a few weeks ago, and I think it's my favorite so far of the bouquets I've done. It's white casablanca lilies with blue orchids. Love it.

Manitou Beach

Well, the drive to our destination in Saskatchewan was not without it's interesting moments... After pulling onto one "Secondary Highway" we were surprised to see the road up ahead:

Which, on a brand-new windshield, didn't leave us without a reminder of it's charm...Our camping trip to Saskatchewan led us to Manitou Beach, just outside of the town of Watrous. This is a really neat lake; it is a salt lake and it is more dense than then Dead Sea! We would have loved to float in it but the weather was SO cold! There's salt foam coming off of the lake, and it blows across the grass like tumbleweeds. The lake was so high this year that it came right up to the road in places, swallowing the sand beach that surrounds it. The view was beautiful though, and the lake was pretty cool to see. You can smell that briny ocean smell, even though you're landlocked. A close-up of the salty foam on the shore.

There was a little playground by the water that we played at for a while.

Zack and Grandpa looking out at the water.

This part was cool - the lake has expanded so much in places, that it is now on BOTH sides of the road that goes around it, making the drive pretty strange as we are on the road that now goes THROUGH the lake!

Where did they learn this?

A couple of months ago, the boys and I made cookies for the shop guys and went to visit Pete on his lunch break. While we were in the lunch room, Nathan noticed that Pete's boss, Bert, had a cigarette tucked behind his ear. Nathan, realizing what it was, looked at Bert very seriously and said, "Bert, smoking makes you die."

In the past couple of weeks I've decided that, instead of using a can of Coke every morning for a caffeine boost, I'm going to drink coffee instead. Yesterday, while I was working on the computer and drinking my coffee, Nathan looked at me and said, "Mommy, coffee makes you crazy."

Family Camp-Out!

This weekend brought us to a place we've never been, in an situation we've never been in before. We went for a Heinbuch family camping trip. We picked up the boys from Grandma & Grandpa's in Rocky Mountain House, and we all drove together to Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan to camp for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Pete's sister Sarah and her husband Shaun and their dogs came up, and Pete's grandma and his brother Dave and wife Rachel came up from Wisconsin and met us there, too. Not only was it our first BIG road-trip (10 hours driving there from Rocky), but it was also our first experience camping. Here's our home away from home. It fit us really well - lots of room and we could even stand up on the inside, too.
We set up in the cold and rain, but once we got settled, it didn't really matter. We had such a great time with everyone. More pics to follow!

Nathan's Heroes

Nathan went to get his pre-kindergarten immunizations yesterday. He said they were "great!" Oooooookay.

While we were in the nurse's office, the nurse was asking Nathan all kinds of questions about what he likes to do for fun and his favorite toys to keep him distracted. During one of his needles, he looked at the nurse and said, "my favorite super heroes are Optimus, Spiderman, and Jesus!"

Dude, it's the COOLEST place!

So we went to Jurassic Forest, and it was pretty much the greatest place ever. I took the boys and my mom and we went, not knowing just what to expect.

For those of you that don't know, Jurassic Forest is a park north of Gibbons (in the middle of nowhere) that is brand new and contains animatronic dinosaurs. It's like going to the zoo, but with dinosaurs instead. The dinos are always doing small movements, but are triggered by sensors that we walk by on the path to make larger movements and sounds. It's amazing. When you get there, there is a playground that is the centre of the park, and there are 2 loops that you walk to see the dinosaurs. There are no visible wires, no paths out to the dinosaurs, and it looks SO real. Even though Nathan knows that dinosaurs are extinct, we had to tell him that no, these aren't real! The signs around the park were funny and made it that much cooler.

The dinosaurs are all built to scale. Some of them are close to the paths, some are far away.

Here are some raptors chasing a brachiosaurus. It looked amazing.

A t-rex eating another small dino. Nathan thought this was very cool and cheered on the t-rex.

Adorable little wagons that they have on-site!

A small indoor centre with more cool stuff!

The boardwalk paths in the forest. So nice.

The playground has bones underneath the sand!

Cool stuff to climb on.

A Nice Break

This week the boys are away at Grandma & Grandpa Heinbuch's house in Rocky. Pete's parents have them for their church's VBS and they have been excited for months to go! When I asked the boys whether or not I should come and stay over for the first night to get them settled, Nathan said that he didn't want me to... They're growing up! Although I miss them, I'm glad that they have the chance to be with Grandma and Grandpa. I've got such fond memories of being with Grandma and Grandpa Zapf at the lake in the summer, and I am so happy that the boys get to have that experience. It gave me the chance to get to know my grandparents so much better, to be in a different place for a while, to appreciate home and my own bed that much more.

...It's really quiet...