Category — Friends

On the August long weekend we headed to Kelowna to attend the wedding of Ryan Smith and Jen Williamson.

Ryan is the oldest son of our good friends Fred & Barb Smith from North Vancouver.

Ryan and Jen’s wedding was at the Cove Lakeside Resort on Okanagan Lake. The setting was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome…….. and it was +40 C; so to say the least it was toasty warm.

The following pictures are of Fred and Barb, their oldest Son Ryan and his new wife Jen and their youngest son Marshall and his wife Tara. What a great looking family.

This past weekend we made a quick trip to Portland Oregon to attend the memorial service for our good friend Ed House, Ed was part of our Reunion Group. Brenda and I met up with Betty-Anne who drove down from Campbell River to attend the Memorial

He developd Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which is basically unknown caused scaring of the lungs. Some cases are slow reacting however poor Ed had a very fast acting case and it was only about 5 months from the the time it was diagnosed until he passed away.

Ed was full of life. He loved to laugh, meet people, chat, have a beer and was just a great guy.

He is survived by his children Danny and Kari, his Mother and a Sister.

We’ll miss you Ed.

On Sunday Dec 19/10 we went snow-shoeing up at Sun Peaks for the first time this winter season.

Weather was not too bad; it was about -6C when we started and and as we got going the sun came out for a few minutes, however within a half hour it clouded over. We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of snow so early in this season; you’ll see how covered the trees are! Beautiful! This is at the base of the Mountain and there is a lot more snow up top!

Usually we are the only ones out on the trails and just occasionally see other snow-shoers. However today we ran into 3 different groups of people out snow-shoeing. One group was quite large; about 10 people.

The highlight of the day was watching (from a distance) the dog sled team being hitched up and then talking off on the cross country trails. This consisted of lots of barking, jumping, yelping and then once they got going they shut right up and ran like the wind. It’s too bad the pictures are from such a distance, but you get the idea from the photos attached….. Enjoy!

Well It’s About Time…. or at least that’s what we think most people will say/think when they discover that we have finally done an update to our blog.

The ‘Readers Digest” version is as follows. Since Sage and Conrad visited the following are events from our busy retirement life: I played in a seniors golf tournament in Cache Creek; we had our grand-cat visit for one week while her parents were off to Toronto for a conference; our good friends Rick and Gayle and daughter Jeanine (who is expecting) came over for dinner; we went to Kelowna for a quick weekend visit; the Rube Band played a concert in the park; we had a coffee and visit with my cousin Trudi and her husband Norman from Victoria  along with my sister from Sechelt Donna, sister Lynda from Kamloops and Nieces Tricia and Lynette – it was great to reconnect; we were off to Princeton to get in a much needed grand-kid fix plus I was spoiled with a 57th birthday celebration by Tamara, Kevin and Brenda, we visited our good friends the Smith family in North Vancouver, we were able to get in many enjoyable bike rides (note: the hills back up to our house are getting easier – honest); we attended our Annual Friends Reunion – year # 31; this was hosted by Judy and Dean –  we visited Barkerville and stayed at Judy & Dean’s estate/mansion on the North Nechako River in Prince George; and finally at the end of August Jeff and Lindsay came for an Ultimate Tournament and they stayed over an extra day to make Salsa. 

So it’s been a busy and fast summer…… where has it gone. The pictures are in no real specific order and they are random.

Shuswap Lake Park

Visit to Lynn Valley Canyon in North Vancouver

With our Niece Sabrina at Second Cup Coffee

Ouch! Has it ever been a long time since we have done a post and update. This is a lame apology to those who check our blog out occasionally and have not been seeing any updates. Anyway, immediately following Jeanine and Clay’s Wedding we had our annual Reunion get together. It was great to see everyone at the wedding and then we kept the laughter going through the remainder of the weekend. Everything was pretty low key but a lot of fun. We had a great day at Heritage Park in Calgary (even survived a cloud outburst), a super evening meal, a few guitar songs for entertainment (some may claim otherwise) and then a big breakfast on Monday morning before we all went our own ways. Thanks to Dean and Judy for taking a coordination role and getting us somewhat organized this year.

This past weekend Brenda and I attended our Goddaughters wedding that was held in Cochrane Alberta. We drove out early and spent a couple days with Jeff and Lindsay and it was great to see them and catch up on everything happening in their busy lives.

I was the Emcee for the wedding so it was pretty busy the Friday before and on the wedding day. A lot of friends chipped in to help decorate the event centre, iron out the last few details and in the end it looked great. The Bride was beautiful and the Groom had a smile on his face you could not remove. They were the picture perfect couple. The wedding was held at the Cochrane Ranch House which is a fantastic facility; click on the link to see the Cowboy Mural… it’s amazing.

We also used this weekend to reconnect with our Reunion Group, but that will be in the next post.

Well, we have been busy and have not updated our Blog for a while. So a brief re-cap since the last post.

Our good friends Fred and Barbara from North Vancouver came for a weekend visit. It is always great to have them visit. We spent the weekend exploring the local events in Kamloops. From the Farmers Market, to an Artists exhibit at St. Andrews on the Square, a coffee downtown at Zack’s and then we went for a bike ride to the North Shore to walk through the Home Show. We drank some very nice red and white wine that they brought us; and had a great dinner on Saturday night. This was also the start of our planning for next May and the Bike and Barge trip to Holland we plan to take together. Fred and Barb are getting ready for their June sightseeing and bike trip to Prague CZ, Germany and France, it was fun going over the maps, reviewing their upcoming travel plans and learning from their previous travel experiences.

Well today was the first day of golf for 2009. I went to Sun Rivers with Dave H. and Bart B., the front nine was open with push carts only. It was fairly windy (as it always is at that course), however the temperature was quite warm and overall it was a great day. Quite a few big horn sheep on the course and in the hills surrounding the course. They have caused a bit of damage to the greens with their sharp hooves, but no too bad. Although we paid for 18 holes we only did 9 hole because when we came around to do the second nine there was a group of 7 lady golfers in front of us and they had just let a foursome go in front of them, so it was going to be a pretty slow round. Anyway, we took a rain check for 9 holes and are headed back tomorrow.

Last weekend we were in Campbell River to attend a wedding for Kristin and Caley. Kristin is the daughter of our good friends (reunion group) Ross and Betty-Anne. The bride was given away by Ross, Betty-Anne, Colby and Cash. The bride and groom exchanged rings and then also gave small wedding bands to both young boys; it was really nice and very family centered. We stayed at Oyster Bay Resort which was a unique location right across the road from Oyster Bay. The resort has small cabins which are very well equipped, have a gas fireplace, jacuzzi tub and you have a view of the ocean while having your morning coffee in bed. The reception for the wedding was at the resort, so it was real easy to stumble home. Rick and Gayle (reunion group) were traveling with us and despite some snow/rain and other conditions that throw west coast folks into a tizzy we made the ferries on or ahead of time. Great friends and a great time!

Christine is my hair stylist at “Chatters – Headhunters” in Aberdeen Mall. So, today I was getting my hair cut and she announced that her Beau, Buck proposed to her last night and she showed me this awesome diamond ring on her finger. Now of course I forgot all the important things like how did he propose, when is the wedding, etc. ………… all those things that Brenda wanted to know and that us males forget to ask. Anyway, a BIG CONGRATS to Christine and Buck!