50 Years of Family

On the August long weekend myself and all of my siblings headed to Saskatoon to celebrate a family milestone. On August 5th 1963 my parents Mary and Francis were married at Nobleville church. In appreciation of that event 50 years prior we gathered to celebrate.

My sister Monica, has already written a fantastic blog post recapping the weekend. Her photography and language skills dwarf my own and I highly recommenced you go and read it before reading the rest of my post.

Have you read it yet? I can wait.....

Alright! Pretty great huh?

Consider this a brother to the sister post where I will share some of my pictures (plus Geoff's pictures), and offer my own brief comments.

Being that all of the 'nuclear family' were present, my sisters Monica and Stephanie thought it would be a good time to formally welcome my betrothed (Christina) into the family with a Kehrig wedding shower. (Another great Monica blog post). While Chrissy was getting all of the attention I thought it would be a good time to spend some time with my brothers. With a very limited plan we headed out in a couple of cars to Humboldt Lake and Lawrence's cabin.

Geoff, Paul, and myself packed into Randy's car and headed out taking a short-cut down a gravel road. As is the case with shortcuts in Saskatchewan we soon ran into an obstacle.

A little back-tracking and a liquor board store stop later we ended up at Humboldt lake. 

The lounging and BS'ing began.

After way too many beers and way too much sun the inevitable one-upmanships and challenges started to go around. My closest brother in age and athletic hero as a child, Geoff, put it out there that he could beat me in a sprint. Egged on by Paul (and booze) we decided that there was only one way to settle it. The race was on.

The spectator judges measured out a 100 metres for us and signaled the race to begin. We both got off to strong starts with Geoff jumping out a bit ahead. Over the next couple of strides, with no shoes on to weigh me down, I found my next gear and passed him. I was ahead for quite awhile before I noticed that I couldn't feel his presence at all. Surely, the old man wasn't that slow! As I breezed past the finish line I looked back to see Geoff brushing himself off not far from the point where I passed him. Apparently while trying to find his next gear he hit a low spot in the grass and did a headfirst role into unkempt field. 

With a few scrapes and bruises to his knee, head and ego he recognized that I was the sprint champ. 

Not long after the race we headed back to Saskatoon and Stephanie's place to catch the end of Christina's shower and receive some surprise gifts.

Old Vienna hats courtesy of Paul

I received a very special, and fitting to the date, wedding gift from my family - custom made cuff links designed with my fathers distinctive signature.

Photo courtesy of Chris Parry - Bespoke Jewelry

I played it cool at the time, but really this is easily the best gift I have ever received. I can't wait to wear them on the big day and will cherish them for all time.

While everyone was assembled we got together to take some pictures. I was pretty boozy and Geoff was a little scraped up but we managed to get one or two decent pictures.

Sunday started low key for Chrissy and I consisting of a little Saskatoon sight seeing before heading back to visit with the rest of the family.

We really like the painted rocks visible along the shore from the Broadway Bridge. Very cool idea.

Back at Mom's the trampoline was the cause of much of the days excitement as the grand-kids bounced for hours on end. 

I eventually found my way inside the bouncing madhouse with the kids where my considerable weight sent them double bounced in all directions.

It didn't take much to wear me out and after about my 3rd shower of the day it was time to eat and toast Mom for all she has done and provided for us over the years.

Mom's gift was a clay replica of the Church where her and my father were married. It was constructed by Toula's House of Clay who I can't recommenced highly enough.  Photo's on Monica's blog site - which you already know as you went and read it first. Good Job!

Wrapping up the day was a trip to Dad at his marker and resting place. Mom prepared some speaking notes and we conducted our own tribute to the man who in partnership with Mom made it all possible.

It was a fitting way to end the day, together with family in a beautiful and serene location.

I can't say enough about how blessed I am to have the family that I do: The fine example and loving home provided by my parents, the camaraderie of my siblings, the acceptance with open arms to the family extended to Christina, I recognize all of this and I am truly fortunate.

Thank you to all of you.

Fun in the Downtown of Edmonton

A few months back I moved in with Chrissy and went from being a 'hip' urban dweller to a suburbanite pariah. However, to be honest with you, even though I liked living in the downtown I don't really miss living downtown.

• Where I once had a farmers market nearby, I now have a garden.
• I used to like stopping in for a drink at some great pubs, now I have a large deck and much cheaper beer.
• For all the talk of a downtown community I have talked to my neighbours nearly 3 times as much now out in the suburbs.
• I now no longer have to weave through smelly, pushy homeless people and punks or rush to the meter to pay for my visitors parking or have to witness drug deals on the streets....
• The new digs are pretty good. Plus, the downtown is still there - I can jump on the train and visit anytime and when the spirit moves me to...I do.  BTW I take the train cause driving and parking to the down town just sucks and is not worth the money.

Most trips to the downtwon this year I start with a quick visit to Kehrig Fine Art for a chat with Randy and to browse the new works in the gallery. It's been a lot of fun having Randy and his family in town for the summer and I'll miss them and the show once it's done.

Being situated right by the Farmer's Market is definitely a big plus for the gallery and I usually walk through each Saturday that I find my self downtown. As I now live in the North East of the city I tend to actually buy directly from the greenhouses near our house as opposed to the market. I would say that the markup at the market is probably an additional 40-60% compare to right at the greenhouse. The price of convenience and set-up I guess. However, I can't buy little princess dresses...which is what I really want :)

Plus, sometimes the entertainers can be quite good.

Right behind the library they have been setting up little games stations for people to take advantage of during the summer. It's a nice little idea and somewhat decreases the amount of junkie kids hanging in the bandstand. On one occasion Greg joined me and Christina for a tournament of champions.

I'm so into the game I never even saw the old shirtless dude behind us...

Christina used to play basketball quite a bit and she still has good fundamental form.

Greg came out of nowhere to try and stuff her but he timed his jump poorly and just looked lame when the camera snapped. Now it just looks like he is scared of girl power.

No look smiling for the camera....It missed horribly, but doesn't she look nice?

All the running around made us thirsty and thankfully at the time the Works Festival was going on. We settled in to listed to some chick strangle a cat on stage (figuratively) and enjoyed a beer. Which, by the way, they should have available right in Churchill Square all year round.

With Randy in town that also means I get to spend some more time with my niece Amelia. 

Hanging at the gallery all day can be a bit tiresome for a kid, so during the Street Performers Festival I swooped her up to join me in watching a show.

I often find that when I head downtown I don't really have a plan (much to Chrissy's chagrin) and I spend a lot of time wandering around and stopping into places that catch my eye. Some of my favourite little spots include the McKay Avenue School and the Legislature. 

Although I don't live there any more the downtown keeps drawing me back in...And maybe that's ok. I can enjoy the best of the downtown at my leisure while leaving all of the crap things behind whenever I chose that I have had enough. Maybe I can have my cake and eat it too.

Saskatoon

Over the last few weeks I've been able to get back to Saskatoon the last few weeks. It's always nice to get home (wherever Mom is I consider home).  My first trip back was specifically for the Arcade Fire show; which was awesome. However, I was lucky enough to get to see a couple of my nephews football games. Being an idiot, I forgot my camera back in Edmonton. So I had to take a couple of snaps with my blackberry.

My nephew Matt is #35. He plays LB for the Bethlehem Stars. They lost this game by a huge margin to Holy Cross but he had a great game.

 The next day Liam had a flag football game. Liam was probably the fastest kid out there by a large margin.

Even his hair looks a little streamlined.

 Steph, Gerry and Liam at the park - Sonia who is in grade 11 ran away as soon as she saw a camera came out.

Unfortunately I couldn't get any worthwhile shots of the Arcade Fire concert but it was stellar. The band sounded really tight and it's cool to see them switching instruments in between songs. If you ever get the chance do yourself a favor and check them out.

My next trip back was for Thanksgiving. Stephanie and Gerry were in San Francisco and Randy was on his way back from Toronto so Mom's house was full of kids.

The kids were in full imagination mode and with Grandma's help they developed a 'train'.

A great little outing with the kids was a trip to the Forestry Farm - The Saskatoon Zoo.

We went in the middle of the afternoon so many of the animals were sleeping, but those animals that were up and about put on a show.

These Grizzly Bears were playing around with each other standing on their hind legs and play fighting. Here's a shot of them taking a break afterwards.

Another cool big attraction are the lions. This male lion was feeling a little agitated and was pacing back and forth along the perimeter scoping out children that he could hopefully eat.

Another really cool experience was watching the Mountain sheep. When we came upon them they were lounging really close by the fence.

 Next thing you know the 2 male sheep all of a sudden stood up, made eye contact, and then charged each other cracking heads. They did this only about 5 feet away from us. It was awesome.

 They sat there with there heads against each other for about a minute. The female sheep was not impressed. She drunkenly staggered away from the males as they looked on. 

Eventually the males unlocked heads and kind of looked back and forth from the female to each other. It was a classic gender situation. What's it take to impress a damn woman?

Thanksgiving supper was, as usual, fantastic. I put on about 5 pounds from the Thanksgiving weekend alone.