Weekend in Saskatchewan - post a bit overdue!

A couple years ago I flew out to Imperial to meet my new baby niece and nephew who were born in November, 2008 & January, 2009 . . .

Avery and Riley - February 2009

. . . well . . . two more babies were born and I went back to Saskatchewan to meet them.

On November 9, 2010 my middle sister, Coralie had a little girl . . .

Jaycee Lynn Spratt - 6 lbs 6 1/2 oz & 20" long

On January 11, 2011 my youngest sister, Charlene had a little boy . . .

Eldon Ace Campbell - 7 lbs 12 oz & 20" long

I left on Friday morning at 6am from Ottawa, got into Regina an hour late, at 11:30am (due to de-icing 2 planes) and got to Imperial around 3pm - literally 30 seconds before Coralie and Jaycee pulled up behind us - talk about great timing!!!

We just hung out at the house - ate, visited, stayed up too late, held babies, took pictures and hung out some more. It has been a year and a half since I've been home so it was really neat feeling like nothing really had changed - although so much had!!!

The last time I saw Avery was when she was 6 months old - just a little baby . . . and this weekend we celebrated her 2nd Birthday!!! She's sooo big now!!!

I ended up being able to visit with more people that I thought I would be able to as visitors came over to see the new babies (Eldon's first visit to Imperial) - Uncle Craig, Auntie Winnie, Launa & her boyfriend Travis, Gramma McGifford and even Grampa Bryson drove up from Herbert to meet the newest great-grandchildren! We skipped church and Aaron had his skidoo at the farm so we went skidooing - it's been YEARS since I've gone skidooing as we usually come home to visit in the summer. Aaron even let me give it a try - which I paid for later with a sore neck and upper back - I still look for the snow piles and try and get as much air as possible!

Anyways, let me introduce you to my newest niece, Jaycee and newest nephew, Eldon - and a whole slew of pictures that were taken during the weekend - in now particular order . . .

Grandpa Bryson with us girls and 3 great grandchildren

The McGifford Girls

The "Original" McGifford Family - minus 3 husbands and 9 grandchildren

Jaycee had fun trying to lick the marshmallow pop that Avery had made! Don't worry, her Mommy would have NEVER allowed this for her first child - Jaycee's a fourth!!!

Grampa and Gramma McGifford with the Campbell Grandchildren - Avery and Eldon

Great Grampa Bryson with Eldon

Grampa and Gramma McGifford with their newest grandchildren - poor Grampa, which ever baby he had at the time of the picture would start crying . . . I kinda thought it was funny!

Gramma McGifford and Eldon

Gramma McGifford and Avery feeding the farm kitties

Aren't Eldon's feet so cute!!!

Eldon all crumbled in a little pouch - awww!

Eldon in a hammock that Auntie Coralie brought with her

Isn't he a cutie-pie!

Four generations on the Bryson Side

Auntie Coralie with Eldon and her own baby Jaycee - both sleeping angels!

Four Generations on the McGifford Side

The moms and their babies!!!

Auntie Coralie and Eldon

Auntie Carrie and beautiful Jaycee - she LOVES me you know :)

Auntie Carrie and my little bundles of joy - they are sooo adorable!!!

According to Avery my name is now Auntie Mimi - I have no idea where it comes from, but it has stuck . . . so here is Mimi with Avery, Jaycee and a sleeping Eldon

Auntie Carrie and Eldon

Auntie Mimi with Avery and Eldon

Aaron, Charlene and Avery went out for a ski-doo ride together and everytime Aaron stopped and asked Avery if she was alright she would just point ahead and so "GO!"

The Campbell family - Aaron, Charlene, Avery and Eldon

I love Avery's expressions!!! I just had to capture this one - you'd think something horrible is happening, but the reality is she's just watching her Mommy and Daddy give her baby brother a bath!

I enjoyed watching and listening to Avery as she would find books, side down and you would hear her little voice as she was reading to herself.

Another Avery expression - eating her marshmallow pop at the birthday party

Avery also is an amazing mom to her dolls - she puts them to bed for their naps, will change their diapers and sometimes even feed them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Avery!

Aaron, Charlene and Avery before they take off on the skidoo

Avery showing off her 'trick' with her daddy

They have so much fun together!

But little Eldon is never far away - just waiting for his Daddy time too

My Mom and Dad and me . . . you know it's not always all about the babies, but it is really good to go home and spend time with MY parents too! I miss family as we live so far away.

Great Gramma McGifford with Avery, Jaycee and Eldon

Great Gramma McGifford and the newest grandchildren - Jaycee and Eldon

My Gramma and Me

Aaron and Charlene

My Grampa and Me

On Sunday I got a ride back into Regina with Aaron, Charlene, Avery and my little Eldon . . . they dropped me off at Bailey's so that I could have supper and stay up late hanging out with them! It was great to see everyone and I soooooo appreciate everyone taking a break from their day to all meet up at Dad's for supper. It was fun to be back and just hang out again with everyone. I knew that it would be a late nite - and it was - but it was worth it just hanging out with Dad and Jenna until the wee-hours of the morning :)

Dad & I - yep - their Christmas tree is still up, but it does make the room look beautiful with the lights and everything!

My beautiful Jenna

Jesse and his girlfriend Helen (she makes a very yummy berry dessert!!!)

Jenna and her Daddy

And of course Laurel and Garrett

I left early (as in 6am) on Monday morning and came into Ottawa at lunch time - just in time to be picked up and taken home to start working on lesson planning for my lessons that I had in just a few hours . . . and I did it!!!

Although it was a super quick visit it was worth the lack of sleep just to be able to hang out with all of my family again . . . it only would have been better if ALL of my family could have come with me (the plan is that this summer that will happen though . . . maybe even a ROADTRIP!!!)

The Rink Project of 2010

Well, the day has again to build a rink in our backyard, but with the kids being bigger this year than in 2008 when we did it, well, that means a bigger rink!!! (click here and here for that saga) Of course we didn't start before snow like some people, but we did get started on the 29th with the boards and tarp - unfortunately we need to go and grab a bit more Tuck Tape before it can be flooded, but you know what we'll be doing tomorrow night . . . freezing our butts off flooding the rink!

Hmmm . . . as I'm writing this I'm realizing that I'm pretty good as using 'we' when everyone knows that I will be snug and warm in the house as Braden will be icicles on his eyebrows - hehehe! Oops! I guess I took our marriage vows literally about two becoming one . . . so yep . . . we're flooding the rink while 1/2 of us stays warm and the other 1/2 doesn't!!!!

Navia helping with the shovelling

This year the rinks about 50' x 17' . . . big enough for 3 growing kids to have a blast skating while I drink a hot chocolate inside and watch!

Drilling holes in the ground for the stakes because it's too cold to hammer them in - oops!

Emma pretending that her job is soooo hard!

Kaleb came out to help with the tarp

It was getting cold but the men kept working until they ran out of TuckTape

Well, we thought that it looked good, but little did we know that it was going to get warm out and everything was going to melt - ug!!! The plastic lay there, without water, for a few days, just blowing in the wind. This isn't a good thing and we were kinda scared about whether or not it would still hold water, but we gave it a try anyway and started our first flood - which took forever, but looked like nothing because it's going to be sooo deep on the far side of the rink.

Well, in the morning this is what I saw behind the rink, in the corner where all flowerbed is . . .

Yep - we have a leak!!!

So Brade took some more Tuck Tape and thought he found the spot and taped it all up again and we flooded it again that night . . .

But, do you see him checking it out again . . . the leak was still there and our backyard was turning into a true rink, but not where it was supposed to.

So it was off to the hardware store - again - for more plastic and Tuck Tape, but this time we taped it inside the house where it was warm and then took it outside to tape it to the rink - smart!!!

The final test . . . will this second layer of plastic, over-top of the first layer of frozen ice, actually work to finally give us our rink???

YES!!!

The first time the rink was ready to skate on just happened to be January 13 . . . which is also Braden's 37th Birthday!!! He thought it was a perfect end to the day!

And so that is the saga of our rink in 2010/2011 . . . we learn from our mistakes and will save our wood so that next year it will go up without a snag or a hole and the kids will have a blast while we sit inside sipping hot chocolate . . . life is good!!!