Update...

Hey All....


Past due for an update... where to start? How about starting with a very cute baby... here's a quick slideshow I put together of Brielle, my niece who is now 4+ months old! (Song from Steve Bell's cd 'Sons & Daughters'....)

These next pics are from Thanksgiving, which we spent out at a cabin in Ontario with some friends; Michael & Esther (our landlords) and Henry & Shirley, who are an older couple that we know here in Winnipeg through Michael & Esther. Henry & Shirley caretake this cabin for a family that works for the UN, and only return to Canada in the summer. It's a neat rustic place on a small lake, with a main cabin, plus a sleeping cabin. It was a lot of fun; games, food (what a surprise), sleep, and a good 2+ hour hike that Michael and I went on during which we got absolutely soaked... so much fun :) We even had turkey dinner, with stuffing... Henry made turkey rollups, which was comprised of a turkey sliced into thin slabs, rolled around a stuffing mixture, then barbequed. Sooooo good.

Also some pics in this one from when we hung out with friends (Michael & Esther, and Chris and Allison Danielsen) on Halloween. T'was good fun; a bit of wine, a bit of appetizers, a bit of pumpkin carving. Ours was the one with the crazy eyebrows. They looked much friendlier with the lights on. :) Can you guess what the last picture is of?

The music is something I have just discovered - Steven Delopolous, formerly of Burlap to Cashmere. (some of you should recognize that name?)

Those are the highlights in our pictures, although we haven't been very good at taking pictures lately. We have been very thankful for the number of friends we have here, and have been doing a lot with them, from games nights, to nachos & bowling, coffee, etc...

One last pic; since most of you have heard a bit about my friend Mark Friesen, I thought I would post a pic of him so that you know what the guy looks like. This is from when he got me involved in helping out with Love Winnipeg, which is how I met Michael Banman, now a friend/coworker of mine, who helped get me the job at Stantec.

It has been a blessing and an adventure for me to know Mark; he's the kind of guy that just gets you involved & doing stuff... from serving breakfast at Siloam Mission, to playing guitar for a chapel service at the prison, to biking the hardest trails I've ever ridden (while he and the other guys we were with were very patient with me...), to fiddling with a portable climbing wall... (more on this later, once we get it working). This winter there are plans of building quinzhees and camping out for a night or 2, which I haven't done since Explore, ice climbing, and last time when Jenn and I were hanging out with him, his wife Heidy, and their daughter Kara, there was discussion of something called a poor man's bungie... both moms: don't ask what that is :)

That's it for now; hopefully our next post won't be as long in coming as this one was...