Visit to Courtenay

On Nov. 15 I flew to visit Kim & the boys for a week. Yan is away on training in Nova Scotia. Murray came for the wknd & although it rained nearly every day we still had a great time. Nic & Luc are at that precious age where everything is fun to do with Grandma & Grandpa. I took lots of pics so it was hard to post only a select few. Murray & the boys star in many as I am usually on the other side of the lens of the camera!

Nic & Luc enjoying some brotherly play time.

Grandpa & the boys taking a juice break.

Lucas carefully studying Grandpa


Building a tower

Nicholas "helping" Grandpa clear out the eavetroughs between showers.

Three happy guys.

Nicholas spent parts of every day packing & repacking his Cars "pack back" with toys to take on the airplane when he goes to see Daddy at Christmas. Here he is riding his favorite toy - the ride-on dumptruck which goes real fast and skids around the corners.

Somehow Lucas managed a few seconds on Nic's truck before it was repossessed!

Lucas discovered the spoon while I was there.

Bath time with Mom

Cruisin with Grandpa on the one day it didn't rain!

The city bus stops right in front of the house so on Sunday Nic & Grandpa went for a ride - Nic's first.

Murray needed some physio so here Nic is taking a lesson from Mom on how to massage.

Notice he has now progressed to doing it on his own.

Doing stretches with Grandpa.

Luc is nearly always smiling so he & Grandpa had a great time.

We walked Nic to Playschool one morning and Luc tried out the new warm suit Kim bought him at the Craft Fair.

Smiling again!

Nic & I decorated some gingerbread cookies. It was fun licking off all the icing & decorations!

Grandma cuddling with the boys.
We tried to get Nic into one of my suitcases so he could come home with me but it just wouldn't close! Too bad cause we could have a lot of fun at the ranch.

Such a sweet bundle. Wish I could have brought him home with me as well.

Kim has informed me it stopped raining as soon as I left! Too bad I couldn't bring the rain back to the ranch with me. We really need the moisture.

October is a month of Thanksgiving & Birthdays

On Sunday Carol & Neil had all their family home and hosted 18 of us to Thanksgiving dinner. Jennifer cooked the turkey and made the birthday cake. What a treat and such a delicious meal in great company.

Here are pics of the table from both ends.

In the Sankey family there are 4 birthdays in October. With the birth of Evan on Oct. 8/09 there will be 5 next year.

This is the delicious carrot cake baked & decorated by Jennifer with the initials of each birthday person & their age. Peggy, Murray, Carol & Scott.

Shelly and baby Evan Jordan

Steve, Shelly, Evan, Kiara & Kendra

An Eventful Month

The second week of Sept I met Kim & the boys in Vancouver where Kim had an

Arbonne conference. This is the gorgeous view from our balcony.

We were 4 blocks from the beach near Granville Island so Nic, Luc & I went down to the beach a couple days where Nic had a blast playing in the sand with his construction equipment. The weather was fabulous - warm & sunny every day.

On Sunday we went to the Aquarium where Nic ran from window to window overwhelmed with all the sea creatures.

Yan, Kim & the boys outside the aquarium.

Then I spent a couple days in Courtenay just enjoying the grandsons.

When I flew back to Calgary I met Murray near Crossfield where we are camped with the 5th wheel and Murray is custom combining & Steven Kerr is baling straw & hauling it home.

Our camp spot in the Gatz yard.

Murray enjoying the larger yields than we are used to. He had a full hopper every 10 - 15 minutes.

Steven Kerr building the load of 51 bales of straw. I would drive up in the field for him.

Almost all strapped down & ready to go home.

On Thursday evening we were called that our house at the ranch had flooded due to a break in a line under a sink upstairs. The damage was the worst in Murray's office which is right underneath. Water was ankle deep in the living room.

Drywall had come down over Murray's desk & he is surveying the damage.

His desk phone!

More of the desk.

All the papers on & off the desk were soaked.

The ceiling in the porch is water damaged.

In the kitchen initially it didn't look too bad. My food processor on the counter had water in it. but the cabinets weren't too wet.

The broom closet in the utility room

More ceiling damage.

The restoration people came on Friday and after all their moisture testing much more damage was discovered.
Sooooooooo as of today here is some of what is left.

Drywall removed from ceilings & walls. Carpet gone.

Murray's office totally gutted. All shelving is destroyed.

What is left of my kitchen......if you can call it that! All cabinets destroyed. I get to redo it all.

Upstairs the carpet in the master & adjoining bedroom are gone All flooring downstairs will be replaced. They are still here drying, testing & ripping things out so who knows what will be left in the end. We are into an Extreme Home Makeover but it will definitely not be done in a week. Maybe sometime in 2010!

Boxes & other STUFF is piled everywhere from greenhouse to garage. The full reality has not sunk in yet but I know it will not be fun over the next few months.

Morning Scenes

this morning as I was going for my walk I noticed the full moon in the west...........

and a few minutes later a rising sun in the east.

Also these geese were flying overhead. Definitely a sign of Fall.

On Saturday after church we visited our fat, contented cows at Red Deer!
Murray enjoyed scratching this quiet cow.

In the evening we were hosted to a BBQ by all our renters.
R to L Michael, Melissa, David, Leslie, the boys, Murray. Thanks guys. It was super delicious!