anne turned 100

anne of green gables was written 100 years ago and to celebrate we were lucky to find a production of the musical and see it as a family what a treat! Fiona and I had chatted through some of the good story elements and she loved the music you should have seen her face when Gilbert "tripped" over Josie Pye's foot and smooshed the ice cream into Anne's face. What a hoot! here is anne with our 'anne' after the show
and before
with her hat
plus shots from cambridge and yes, that IS a baboon on Pam and Mike's antenna DID WE EVER go to African Lion Safari as kids? I don't recall!

and another first this summer GO CARTING! what a speed racer she is it will have to be a regular thing for the family farm visits. back to the track

can't believe the first day of school is one week away.
we've invited friends over tonight and tomorrow for pre-anniversary celebrations and then on the day of our 15th anniversary, glenn's working and we're going to splurge and go out for dinner.

now to put away stuff from the wedding that is STILL on the dining room table!

We Find That It's Always The Same

The J3 Tropical Update

Well, with everyone else posting things, I suppose we can drop a line in here. I had put off posting until I sorted my pictures, but concluded that I could just as easily pick one out of last year's bunch , as I keep thinking I take the same ones every year anyway.

We got back late last Saturday from nine days on PSV, about a day ahead of our luggage, which was moving more sluggishly than we were during our last plane change in Atlanta. Not that we cared.

Actually, I became more adept at managing the sea kayak solo, and circuited the island at least half the days I was there, and seemed to have remembered a bit about the boardsailing I did the previous summer, too -- which is to say, I got much further out into the open ocean, downwind and pushed by a strong current, before running out of any skill to tack back, and having to get a tow (which is what the boat guys are there for). And decided to learn to sail both the sunfish and the HobieCat, which I did successfully circling two different islands and tacking back and forth between them.

JJ and I both read the first of Barack Obama's two autobiographies, and another book by Tony Horowitz, "A Journey Long and Strange" (about America's discoverers between the Vikings and the Pilgrims), and I mowed through another three novels and a book about how the Grand Canyon was created (actually more complicated than "a river runs through it, dummy").

And we ate and slept and napped and bobbed (well, mostly me) and beachwalked and climbed the island's hill, and watched the ocean a lot.

Perfectly boring. You'd hate it. Don't bother coming. ;)

Work is trundling along for us both; if there's news, we'll let you know.

J3

some pix from calgary

Finally getting my head above water. Here's a pic of Susan and Natalie relaxing on our deck

And here's thw same two women "outstanding in thier field". OK, it's not really thier field, but it's a field. Corn.

And today, Jasper graduated from his first obedience class.

Une p'tite bande de gamins

Merci aux petits pour avoir fait baisser la moyenne d'age de façon significative ce 08 Aôut !

Thanks to the little ones for significantly lower the age average on this 08 of August!

De gauche a gauche à droite:

Hyppolite (3 ans et demi), Théodore (18 mois), Clara (6 ans et demi), Nicolas (8 ans), Chloé (14 mois), Thomas (2 ans), Thibaut (3 ans), Simon (3 ans) et Benjamin (3 ans).

Not sure which twin is which but Thomas loved massaging their heads!

A very long wedding

And thus ends a month long wedding feast. Since we took our sweet time getting engaged and married, why not start the wedding and finish it in another country a month later...
It was another lovely day, in the French country side in the small town of Jaure. A little ceremony in the small eglise then drinks and eventually dinner then a little dancing across the way at the Auberge.

Spanish time

Apparently we are on "Spanish Time".
We arrived on Aug 4 and ate dinner at 8:15.
Yesterday we arrived in the south in Vergt and ate at 10pm.
Today Francis and I played a round of golf this morning at got back around 2 just in time for lunch at 2:30. Simon and Chloe spent hours in the pool this evening and had a great time. Dinner was served at 10:15pm. This is 'Spanish time' for dinner.
I figure that by the time we have to go they will just change the name 'dinner' to breakfast.

Yesterday was my birthday.

:-)

Changes are coming;

This week was Simon's last Tuesday Nap at Gramma's. I love the little angel's pink halo! It's actually his favourite beady pillow. We've had lots of fine times together on Tuesdays. In September Simon will go off to school...can't believe it, and little sister Chloe will come and spend Tuesdays with Gramma! Besides playing the piano, we'll have to have outings to .....the library, the museum....and of course to check out Prada, Chanel, and cruise through Holt's! It will be a new experience for both of us! I look forward to visits with Fiona too, and certainly to Skyping with Benjamin and Natalie as well, and visiting in Calgary and Arlington. All the grands are growing up, and I don't want to miss any of that.
Visiting with their parents is great too, and I delight in having all my grown up kids around whenever they can visit or be visited.
Thanks to all of you for making the wedding festivities on 06, 07, 08 such a wonderful and unforgettable day for Lorne and Corinne and especially for me. I'm a very lucky Mom to have such a beautiful, talented and loving family. Thanks again for everything.
Love and hugs....always.....Mom

midnight summer's dreamy day

as the summer cruises along, we're finally enjoying some family time
it was a dad day as we took the flag ship out for a cruise
it's been since last century when I last went for a canoe and this is the first for me and fiona. way too long in coming
Paddling along, thinking of Dad and how he loved this boat.
glad it's finally in the water and being used.

VBS week and I'm just a parent - observer and doing my best to supply feedback and keep a low profile. they're doing well and it took 4 of them to do what I did for 3 years, and they want to double that core team for next year.
Fiona's loving it
here she is with her buddy in their fresh t-shirts

We're off to see Anne of Green Gables in Port Hope on Sunday - I'm psyched about the musical. Last time I saw it, Dave Komel played Gilbert and Judy the sister was Mrs. Lynde! I did sets.

Moppet morning tomorrow.
night!

A Midsummer Night's Day

This is the blog equivalent of posting a note on facebook to say what I just ate for lunch and what I think the cat is thinking.

I played baseball this afternoon.  Hit 100% going 5 for 5 but somehow only got home once.

Simon is having a rebellious day.  The cats both went to the Vet'$ today.  Turns out both are some degree of sick. Kidney problems likely. At least they seem a little happier to be home from the Vet.  I don't think they will be so happy to be on their own for a month.

A friend has a '63? blue Chev Impala.  We were talking about it the other night, tail lights and wheel covers and the like.  Thinking about it today I wasn't sure what year or model the Chev we had was.  Naturally first thought was to pick up the cell phone and give dad a call.  Second thought was how much he probably would have enjoyed that call.

I'm glad Simon likes cars.  He recognizes the logos of most the major manufacturers.  I wonder how many of them will be around when he gets his license.

I finally got most of the wedding photos posted on bradtanella.com.  We are both very happy about how it all went.  It was great that everyone came together for our day.  

Chloe seems to be changing daily now.  She finally has the 2 top front teeth almost in for a total of 4.  Her sign language is very clear with intent now.  Her vocab is now up to about about 10 words with CAT and AGAIN followed closely by mama and pama and alot of things that sound like either head or hat.  She started crawling this week, a week or so after managing to pull herself up and stand on her own.  She loves to cruise along furniture and walls.  The safety gates went back up this week.  

I was trying to feed her dinner earlier this week and she just kept her mouth closed apparently in a not hungry phase again.  Then Simon asked if he could feed her.  With him, she scarfed down that bowl of beans, rice and broccoli puré, then a second, then a yoghurt, then some cookies.  He seemed like such a big brother.

I've still got taxes and invoices and paperwork to do on top of all the rest before we go.  It doesn't look like we'll get the week 'honeymoon' we had hoped for.  Maybe a few days on our own at least.  

We went out for a family bike ride last night for the first time since Chloe's arrival.  She and Simon really enjoy the ride in their kid seats behind us.  It made for a pleasant midsummer evening.

Going out for a family bike ride reminded me of the once or twice Mom and Dad managed to heard us together for a ride though town.  I recall we ended up downtown at Dairy Queen and the bandshell before heading home.  I'm sure somebody had a hissy fit about something along the way, but I don't remember that.  I just remember it being a nice summer outing with a relatively large family.

Last week I took the kids to a local public pool.  Chloe is a fish, well more like a jelly-fish as she loves the water but isn't so mobile as yet.  Simon is still working on the swimming thing but loves to jump in off the edge or get thrown up in the air and land in the water.  Remember Dad taking the kids to Summerville pool?  I wouldn't be surprised if it only happened the once but the memory of playing around, getting launched into the air and chasing each other around still stands out.  

I guess it shows how some of the little things can make a difference.

Hey Dave, when and how will be organize content for Vol. II of the book?

Time to get dinner going.  Gas BBQ.  Simon may never know what it's like to pour out the charcoal briquets in a pile, and toss in a match after dousing them in enough lighter fluid to completely burn the paint off the bbq.  I suppose that's a good thing for him, and us.  

How did we all survive our childhood with all our limbs intact?

Hope you all had a good weekend.

~Me