Turning 60

My dad turned 60 on July 8. It's a weird milestone. I seem to remember my grandparents being a lot older when I was young. Their actual age was not much greater than his is now. I think I am going to inform my father he is no longer allowed to age.

We celebrated his birthday by going to a local baseball game. It was rained out, which was OK. We get to go to another game for no cost. The actual party was on Sunday. It was fairly low key, but loads of fun. As per usual, we shot up pretty much everything in sight. Along with the clay pigeon shooting, we hit some golf balls, played five hundred up baseball style, and generally laughed a lot. One of my elder brothers and family came out from Sask.:) Pretty sure my dad had a good day, great parties are always welcome.

Summer is not even half over and Niki and I are already feeling worn out. We're trying to get as much work done this week as we can, this Friday we start our two week road trip.


I got my birthday present early, a new camera. The pictures I upload should have a little better quality from now on.



I hope everyone else took advantage of July 11, and got their free Slurpee.
Cheers,
Scott

The Wedding Trip

I think we're going to be away for more of July than we're actually going to be home. Last Tuesday Niki and I flew off to Victoria. It was a great trip.

Canada Day was spent in Victoria. I had a good visit time with Hovan and Christine. Took in a little relaxation at Langford Lake. Niki's parents, Niki, myself, Lindsay and Chris capped the day off with the Fireworks in the inner Harbour.

Thursday morning I had breakfast and a good visit with my friend Julia. We use to meet at the Blue Fox for breakfast, so we try and keep the tradition going when I am in town. After that Niki and I headed up Island. Stopped in at Brentwood College to see Ciara and to a lesser extent her parents. It was great to arrive in Campbell River. We stayed with Ben and Kirsten for the majority of the trip. Finally saw their new addition and I got to hang out with my godson. He's awesome. I highly recommend staying with any Lanyon family, they are the best hosts.

The wedding on Saturday was beautiful and the weather was hot, luckily we had some fresh water near by to keep cool. Hovan and I created a little game. The only real rules are; don't move too fast, and stay in the shade.



Niki and I did not embarrass ourselves during the reception, we were the masters of ceremony, and finished the night off dancing. I even got to swing dance with my old friend Andrea. It was a great time, thank you Dean & Kate!
Dean and Kate are also awesome.

I am tempted to write a list of the awesomeness and the people it is contained it, let me just say it was in abundance this weekend.
It's good to be back in our own beds, and we are heading back to the coast again in a fortnight. We're hoping to see everyone we can.
Cheers,
Scott
Post Script - Niki and I had our two year wedding anniversary on June 30th

Epic

Today is our two year wedding anniversary. Two years ago. Best. Wedding. Ever.
Niki and I are leaving this evening for a Saturday wedding near Campbell River. We are MCing, so hopefully that goes well.
I had a pretty epic weekend.
Thursday Niki and I got a tour of a local radio station, Sonic. It was very cool. I am a huge fan of radio, and it was neat to see how it all works. They even gave us free T-shirts!! The tour was made possible because I wore my, 'I'm that guy' shirt to the gym. Local DJ Layne Mitchel recognized it from Vic, started up a conversation, and invited us for a tour. Huge thanks to him for that!
From there I bombed on down to Calgary to pick up my good friend Steve. We then proceeded the trek to Vancouver. Drove through the night and all that. Loads of Fun.
Friday we arrived at the Fox Condo, helped get things going while Matt put in a morning at work. Then proceeded to Denman Island for the Stag. It was an amazing house we stayed at. Right on the water, huge windows, a view of the mountain we biked up and down. Matt organized it all. He is a great Stag planner. I would highly recommend him as a groomsman on that alone. Outside of being an all around great guy.
Saturday involved a five hour bike ride on Hornby Island. I'm still amazed I was upright and moving for the whole thing. Being an extreme ametuer mountain biker, I would still say it was a load of fun.
Jeff cooked up a feast for us that evening. It was delicious, even more from the ravious hunger from the ride. Poker was on tab after that, with Hovan ending up with the victory. We all forgot, never bet against an Armenian/Mennonite when money is on the line! Due to extreme bone weariness, a star wars puzzle the project for those who slowly got muscled out of the poker table.
It was a great time, lots of laughs.
Bright and early Sunday morning Steve and I made the long trip back to Alberta. It was a nineteen hour trip for me, seventeen for Steve. Two Ferries, three different vehicles and a couple of lead feet.
It was a good to be home and see my lovely wife. Knowing I would be back again to see everyone helped with the taking off early. Which brings me up to tonight, where we hit the road again.
Oh, Ryan and I saw Transformers last night. If you want a drama, good acting, maybe Oscar contention, don't go see it. If you want male oriented female dress codes, lots of Action, jeuvanile comedy, and Robots blowing sh*t up, go see it! All the negative people I heard talking about the movie seemed to forget, it's Transformers! I liked it, jeuvanile can be fun sometimes. First one was still better though.
Cheers,
Scott
PS Don't have time to proof read or edit, apologies for any bad grammar.

Busy Busy

The frantic excitement of an Alberta summer is in full swing. With that in mind, I am going to just bullet point the exciting stuff and throw in some pictures and videos.

• It's not dark until around 23:00, starts getting light again around 04:00.
• Won tickets to Blind Boys of Alabama concert. Took my sweetheart.
• Big family bash at the Froese Farm, south of Camrose, on Saturday.
  
• Planted Raspberries...mmmmm raspberries. Thanks Ang.
  
• Fathers Day party at my parents acreage. Shooting of golf balls and clay pigeons.
• Worked for my Dad this week, digging a manure pit at a dairy farm.
• Saw a new baby calf while working at dairy farm, new baby calf, he's so cute.
  
• Too hot.

Trips, Birthdays and Bachin It.

I love June! It was light after ten last night. So warm and lazy, you never want to sleep.
Niki and I enjoyed meeting our friends in Hawrelak park last Friday for some wiener roasting and Bocce ball. I was clearly dominating until Ryan destroyed us all. Aaron developed some new throwing techniques, which, unfortunately, did not serve him well. Though Aaron did start the fire without using any matches, or a lighter!

Saturday morning my lovely wife was whisked away by Westjet to Victoria. Brian turned 60 on Sunday, and from Niki's pictures it seems like they all had a great time. Too good of a time from some of the pics. I was a little sad I couldn't go. It's good having her back, she flew in late last night.


Taking advantage of her absence, I drove down to the MCC relief fair happening in Didsbury last Saturday. I ate pie. Borscht was also consumed and brought home. Aaron and Shelley accompanied me for the trip, which made it awesome. One of the items during the auction was a John Deere Model D, along with a whole whack of quilts. It was pretty fun, though I don't think cake should go for over $300. Not even chocolate cake.

Sunday I just puttered around, went to see The Hangover with my brother, and generally bached it up.

Some Tobacco was planted in the back yard today, and when Niki arrives home from work we're off to the library. I should probably go get dinner ready. It's super dry out here, so I hope the thunder storm that's suppose to be around opens up on our walk.
Cheers,
Scott

Star Trekking across the Universe

It has been a fun week. Niki and I have successfully recovered from our road trip. It took a few days, but I think my brain is functioning again.

I finally got around to seeing the new Star Trek movie. I really like science fiction. Overall there is always that theme of hope, with the assumption we will survive as a species into the future. The movie was good, I would agree that it was nothing new. Humans seem to love the familiar, and this movie was no exception. My friend Ryan joined me on the jaunt to the Theatre, as both our wives were at their book club. I enjoy hanging out with Ryan. If I can get him talking about his studies, I always learn something new. I need to start writing things down though, as I can feel thoughts fading into the fog. People probably don't like getting asked the same questions over and over again.
Saturday was another trip to the Theatres with my brother Ryan, Niki, her friend Steph and myself. We all went to see 'Up' in 3d!! It was really cute, and I think Dug made Niki want a dog even more.
Sunday was a trip to the races, our first time this summer. It was a fun time hosted by Niki's employer. She ended the day up about $0.80, and I ended the day in the hole. It's a good time, even if you choose not to bet, watching the horses and guessing who would win is a exciting.
Cheers,
Scott