Big Valley Jamboree

Big Valley Jamboree is a premier country music festival held every August long weekend in Camrose, Alberta.

Two of our ex-neighbours from St. Albert, joined us for the festival this year. Claire is in the picture next to John and our friend Cora is sitting with her friend Tyna on the right and Claire's friend Shirley on her left.

Each morning we would take a little road trip before we gathered for the festival at lunch time. This year we stopped at my cousin, Marilyn Nordin's. In the garden photo, are my cousin Marilyn and her family plus my sister Polly and her friend Terry. Thanks to the Nordin's for a wonderful morning!

Visit to Pincher Creek and the boys go to Camp

From Drumheller, we made our way to Pincher Creek where John's sister, Debbie and husband Randy Boldt live. Their youngest son, Jonathon, was home for the summer from University and he's in the picture next to Andrew where we are celebrating their birthdays.

Debbie and Randy have just completed building a lovely new home in Pincher Creek and we sure enjoyed seeing it and staying with them. The boys celebrated their 12th and 14th birthdays just before they headed off to camp. They had a wonderful time.

We didn't want to leave but time was running out and we needed to get back to the Camrose area for Big Valley Jamboree. This was our last major event before we flew home in August.

Visit to Drumheller

After the family wedding in Forestburg we stopped in Drumheller to see our friends, the Holmen's. They farm just outside of Drumheller very near Wayne, AB. The views from their properties are absolutely beautiful.

We had a lovely lunch with Myrtle Holmen (mother to Lanny and Wallace) before we left for Pincher Creek. From left to right in the photos are: Myrtle Holmen, Laurie (girlfriend of Wallace), Wallace, the Gallant's and Lanny on the end. In the second picture, Lanny's wife Beverley is behind Andrew and Austin. Austin is giving Wallace's dog, Raven, a belly rub.

Shadow joins our family

After the death of our cat, Maggie we were very anxious to find another kitty to love. Our neighbour, Sherry, found us this cute little bundle of fur in the town of Samara.

Andrew named her Shadow and she is a barrel of fun. She races around when she first wakes up and has a big sleep in the afternoon. The boys made her a jungle gym (upper floor where she pulls and tugs on her string and the bottom floor where she sleeps. Isn't she the cutest???

Austin Pepper Seed

Austin, aka Austin Pepper Seed, is here showing off his latest crop of peppers. We have scrunchy peppers (some are hot and some are mild - we don't know the real name of them), bell peppers, jalapeño peppers and small, multi-colored peppers (not sure of their name either but Austin calls them pepper bombs). He's very proud of his peppers and we're very proud of him that he's taken such an interest in growing them. He starts many of them from seeds and currently he is trying to grow:
- cerrano chile
- banana peppers
- habanero
- poblano
- gypsy
- normal chile (like the slogan from the restaurant Chile's)
and one more muy picante chile that we don't know the name of.

One thing we know for sure is that we don't ever have to buy any peppers at the grocery store!!!

Trip to Forestburg for a family wedding

Mid July saw us travelling to Bashaw (wedding ceremony) and Forestburg (wedding reception) to attend my cousin Dale's daughter's wedding. Here are pictures of my Uncle Marcel and Aunt Anna Blouin. My cousin Dale and his wife Lorraine Blouin and the bride and groom - Dale and Lorraine's daughter Pam and her new husband Shane Fuller. We had attended the Blouin family reunion on the July long weekend but this was great to see a few of the relatives again.

Visit to High Prairie

Our friend, Jack Lischka, from High Prairie visited us twice last winter in Costa Rica. On his first trip in December, he brought his two friends, Pat and Amber and on his second trip in March he brought his friend Ernie. So, this summer, we visited Jack at his home in High Prairie and while we were there, Pat came from Grande Prairie to see us and Ernie - well he lives next door - very handy. Ernie is in the picture with Jack and John. Jack's neighbour visited us one day and he is in the other picture with Jack at the kitchen table.

Jack has a lot of wildlife on his farm and one morning we saw two young foxes crossing his yard but I wasn't quick enough to grab a picture. Austin really enjoyed feeding the squirrels as you can see. Both Jack and Ernie make their own wine which we enjoyed on a daily basis while visiting. We hope Jack and his gang will come south again to visit this winter. Thanks for a great visit and hospitality Jack; we really enjoyed it.