This morning Kim's friend Tanya called to see if Nic & I wanted to come on a walk with her & her baby daughter out at Comox Lake. It was snowing but that didn't deter us so away we went with the rain cover for the baby jogger. It was just gorgeous and the air so refreshing that Nic slept for over an hour then wasn't ready for his afternoon nap.

One of the many views of the lake.

Dressed for the weather and enjoying our morning walk in the wet snow. The snow didn't accumulate here in town and by late in the day the sun was out.

Being Grandma

Well I have been here a week now and we have definitely established a routine - or should I say I have become accustomed to Nicholas' routine! With every passing day Nicholas has a tighter hold on my heart & I know I will find it hard to leave. I am so blessed to have this time with him. After a slow start to his eating because of a stomache upset, I now find he is eating voraciously. He ate a big bowlful of broccoli & cauliflour today for lunch so I know he will grow up healthy!

Ever on the move.

Today I looked up to find he had set this book up all by himself & was pointing to the animals.

At the end of the day bathtime is always fun.

Hello from Courtenay

Well the long anticipated time with Nicholas is happening! But first here are some pics before Kim & Yan left.Nicholas reading Daddy the instructions for putting the ottoman together the day before they left.

Mommy & Nic reading a book.

Nicholas enjoying the new ottoman as a play area.

Nicholas showing Grandma all his favorite hiding places.

Always happy & smiling.

I will do whatever it takes to get to my favorite toys!
Pushing the stepladder around is one of Nics favorite pastimes - at least for today!

I can say that we are having a ball & we hear Kim & Yan are having fun too so it is a win/ win situation for us all.

Welcome Baby Landen

Angie, Kevin & Jaren Letniak welcomed a tiny new member into their family March 13. Baby Landen William came early & weighed 5 lb. 2 oz. Thankfully all is well & Angie felt so well when they came home Saturday that they decided to come over for supper as we had previously planned!
Elaine with the tiny peanut! He came home under 5 lb.
Murray initiating Jaren & Landen to the world of racecars!

Landen was born on the day of the annual Letniak Bull Sale & Grandma Connie was busy serving lunch so I gladly volunteered to have Jaren over. A John Deere tractor is never very far from his play area!
Jaren even coaxed Murray down on the floor to play tractors with him.!

Kim & Nicholas flew to Calgary last weekend & drove up to Red Deer with Scott. Baba came for the wknd as well & Saturday we had many visitors. Father Sankey has been at Carol's for a few days so they came from Lacombe, Jennifer, Desi & Quintin came from Didsbury & Aunt Jean, Cheryl, Jodi & Blake came up from Calgary.Kim & Nicholas hangin' out downstairs.
Like birds on a wire everyone gathered around the kitchen!

Nicholas loving the mattress on the floor.

Baba (Great Grandma) & Nicholas

Murray's dad & the Garner family.

The 1st, 2nd & 3rd cousins!
Jennifer, Desi & Quintin
Jodi, Blake, Scott, Kim & Nicholas

This weekend we were pleased to have a visit from cousins Cliff & Ann Tym and Laurel & Sheldon. Sheldon enjoyed playing in Murray's toybox with his old & new toys!

Sheldon & Laurel on the Quadtrac



We enjoyed an outing to see the bison. Laurel
observing from the safety of the truck!

Laurel & Sheldon posing in the "safe " zone.

Hawaiian Cruise

We have not posted for some time as we have been on a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands & out to Fanning Island. We had a fabulous time with no glitches or illness. Murray took some motion sickness pills as a precaution and I even had to take a few but all was well. We took many excursions off the ship and did some fantastic snorkelling, whale watching (saw some huge fins & baby whales breeching), and even took a helicopter ride over the cliffs of Kawai.

We were part of 200 "Spirit of the West" vacationers on the cruise who were from western Canada and had been or were involved in agriculture in some way.

Murray at Parker Ranch

One of the highlites of being part of this group was a trip to the Parker Ranch on the big Island. Here we were treated to a lunch and a presentation by the ranch boss as well as touring the museum and Visitor center.

Elaine was amazed by the size of the paper garbage bags on the cruise ship!

On the other side of the Big Island our friend Dale Trefz took us down the Waipio Valley where only 4-wheel drive vehicles are permitted. There are only a few places where vehicles can pass.

Looking down over Waipio beach.

4-wheelin' down the river at the bottom. They use the river beds as roads as they are rock not muddy as we know them.

We found the perfect retirement property down there where we could grow taro and make poi!

The vegetation is so lush and as you can see the leaves are HUGE!

At the bottom of the valley.

On Kaui we went tubing down an irrigation ditch dug by hand in the 1870's. Some of the ditch was through tunnels hence the helmet & lamps.

Elaine at top left at the end of the ride.

One of our stops after the tube ride.

If you can't read the sign this one is at Kona on the big Island and says it is the swim start and run finish of the Ironman Triathalon world championship.

We enjoyed all the fruit and had a picnic on the beach with fruit purchased from the market.











Murray taking a plunge into one of the pools when we had a hike one day.

We took a horseback ride along the beach & up into some of the ranch country at Kawai.

Our cruise went out to Fanning Island (a 2 day trip at sea from Hawaii, one way) where we got to experience more primitive culture but beautiful beaches.

The palm trees grew right out over the beach.

Of course everytime you took their picture you were expected to give a donation. Notice the size of the bucket!

Back at Kona touring the grounds at the Hilton. We were getting a little wet by the spray from the falls as it was a windy day.

At Honolulu we went to Pearl Harbor.

Hiking down to the beach with our frends Patsy & Dale who live at Waimea. We enjoyed spending 4 days with them at the end of our cruise.

At Honolulu we met up for dinner with Elaine's friend Ruby & her friend Don from Saskatoon.

We arrived home to -40 C temps with windchills below -50! Needless to say it was quite a shock to the system. Thankfully Patricia met us at the airport with a warm car so we did not have to dig out of Park & Jet. This was the scene on our return home - snow and brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

It is good to be home but sure could use some warmer temps.