Brett's Milkshake

On our vacation, we met some friends for lunch at Peter's Drive Thru.

Peter’s has the best milkshakes. They have several dozen flavours and you can mix them to make awesome combos. This year I tried raspberry chocolate. It was delicious.



Brett, knowing that we would be going to Peter’s, had been thinking about his milkshake for hours in advance. After deliberating between the many fruity possibilities, he finally settled on Watermelon-Strawberry-Lime.

We should have clued in that it might not be the tastiest combo when the lady taking his order raised her eyebrows up about two inches as she wrote it down.



When the milkshakes arrived, Brett took one sip, winced, and choked down the swallow.

He sat there for a minute nibbling on some fries. Then he leaned over and quietly asked me if he could please have a little money to go buy some Lemonade.



For some reason, I needed to try this milkshake. Seriously, how bad could it be?

Oh my. It was so gross. If you ever go to Peter's, please do not get this kind.

We will be teasing Brett about it for a long time.

The milkshake must have really affected me because I didn't take any photos of Brett while we were there.

Okay I took one. From behind.

Alberta Vacation 2010

We had so much fun out west this summer.

We flew to Alberta this year for the first time in seven years. Our kids loved the plane ride. Scott and I loved it too. Especially the part where we didn't have to pack our kids and bags into the back of our minivan and spend 30 hours driving across the country.

We almost missed our flight as the power went out briefly the night before and our alarm clocks were reset. Luckily Jesse had a nightmare at 4:30 AM, came into our room crying, woke us up, and we were able to make it across town to the airport in the nick of time for our very early flight to Calgary.

Here are some highlights worth mentioning:

My cousin, Kennedy's wedding to an awesome girl, Nikki. It was beautiful.

Jensen family reunion. My Mom is the oldest of 9 children and we had 57 family members at our 2 day reunion. Some activities included the Barnwell parade, games, rope-making, huge family meals, a fireside, and enjoying time together to get re-acquainted with cousins, aunts & uncles.

Trip to Waterton with the Samhuri family. Hiking Bear's Hump and trying to avoid the rain that seemed to be following us. We saw a black bear just outside of the park.

Jesse and Samantha learning to roller blade and ride two-wheelers at their Stewart cousin's house.

Meeting our dear friends at Peter's Drive Thru for lunch where Brett ordered a one-of-a-kind milkshake.

Many walks around the lake with several children following behind some combination of Buddy, and /or Pepper and /or Copper. Scott's siblings like dogs. So do our kids. Jesse told me yesterday he is saving up for one.

Hill Siblings gathering for a huge Sunday dinner complete with roast, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, the works. We appreciated Kim & Mark traveling quite a way to come see us!

Cookout in Taber park where we got eaten alive by mosquitoes but were having too much fun eating dinner, roasting marshmallows, playing Frisbee and baseball to leave early.

The men went out to shoot guns. It's becoming a Barnwell tradition with Uncle Eric. Jordana and I skipped out this year because we didn't want to show the guys up two years in a row.

Seeing Mona & Jarom who flew all the way from Singapore and are expecting a baby girl this winter!

Seeing Sami too, which makes twice in 6 months. That's definitely a record.

Seeing one of my BFF's, Robyn, for the first time in so long. I miss that girl!

I love visiting my Grandparents. My Grandma will turn 78 this year, and is still quilting. Her memory is amazing. She loves her family so much. My Grandpa is turning 87 next month and still rides his bike almost every day. He has an amazing vegetable garden and raspberry bushes our kids are addicted to. He loves his family so much that he weeps tears of joy every time we visit.

I think Scott would probably want me to mention the night he went golfing with Parker, Matt & Jeff. They had a lot of fun together and some good uncle-nephew bonding time.

The kids? Would probably say the best part of Alberta was seeing all of their COUSINS!

Brett's Baptism

Brett was baptized on Sunday, July 18. We were happy to have so much family and friends here to be a part of his special day.

Saving a Baby Robin

A few nights ago Scott came home and saw a baby robin on our lawn. The robin appeared to be hurt, and was struggling to hop around to safety, as he was too young to fly.

After deciding that a night on our lawn would surely turn the poor little creature into a midnight snack for a hungry raccoon, Scott suggested we take him to Salthaven.

It turned out to be the right decision, as they quickly assessed that not only was his left leg broken, but he had a cat or dog bite on his back as well.

Samantha was very happy to be part of the rescue team and got to sit up front on our drive out with the bird in a basket on her lap.

A Celebration of Music

Our kids had their year-end recital for Piano on Saturday.

Unfortunately, Scott and I were in Moncton battling torrential downpours at the Play On! event site at the Moncton Coliseum, so we missed seeing their live performances.

My Mom got their pieces on video, and we look forward to sitting down to watch them in the near future.

In the meantime, our first full day back in town, we took the three of them out to celebrate a year of hard work.

Piano learning has not always come easy at our house. In fact, many practices have been filled with struggles, frustration, yelling, and tears.

Don't even get me started on the kids' behaviour.

But each year it does get a little more enjoyable, and it is so wonderful to see them venture over to the keyboard to play just for fun and not out of duty.

As part of their curriculum, each of the kids is required to write a composition, which is entered into a competition with MYC children nationwide.

We were delighted to hear that Samantha and Jesse had each won 4th place in their respective class levels with their own compositions this year. What a great accomplishment!

These were some well-earned Root Beer Floats and Sparkling Shirley Temples.

I love my girls

Update: 7 Random Things

This is the time of year when I look at the upcoming schedule and wonder if we will survive the next few weeks of complete insanity that is our Play On! life.

But somehow we always do.

Before it gets too hectic, I want to share a few random things that are happening right now.

If you don't hear from me again until July you will know why.

1. We had a wonderful family getaway last weekend. I know I said we were going to the cottage, but we changed our plans. About 5 times.

And when we finally rolled out of the driveway at 5 something PM on Friday night, only 7 hours later than we were hoping to get away, I still wasn't sure exactly where we headed.

But I packed bathing suits because I knew there was going to be some kind of lake or pool or water slide involved.

Scott found us two great hotels to stay in and we had an awesome time getting away from work and school and the business of life. Not that chasing five kids around a water park isn't busy too, but it was a good change of scenery.







2. My Mom is moving out of her apartment tomorrow and will be moving in with us for a couple of months until we move out when our new house is done.

She is going to watch our kids when we are both working or traveling to events, which is going to be such a blessing! She is amazing.

3. Samantha was home sick from school today. With a fever and upset stomach. She just fell asleep on the couch watching me blog. Apparently it's pretty boring.

4. Our washing machine is acting up. It works on ONE setting and only ONE setting and if you take it off that setting it will run water into the drain non-stop until you take it off.

Consequently, I can only wash teeny tiny loads right now, which means that I literally have to wash five loads a day to get by. Not catch up. Just to get by, which means to give everyone a clean pair of underwear daily and socks too if we're lucky.

5. Nathan made a "dinosaur party" for his friend who was coming over to play last week.

He loves his dinosaurs. It's probably his favourite toy right now, second only to playing Lego with Brett.


6. Tomorrow I am going to donate blood. I'm pretty much a regular donor at the blood clinics and have been for years. I have a rare blood type so it's always in high demand.

I'm also a card-carrying organ donor and hope that my heart, lungs, liver, or kidneys will help save a life when I'm dead and gone.

I worked at the Multi-organ transplant unit for a semester in high school and was heartbroken to watch people die while waiting for organ transplants.

7. Clara loves to chatter. Nobody understands her but she thinks we do. She loves the sound of her own voice.

She also loves to wear dish towels. She grabs them off the oven handle and drapes them around her shoulders and no matter how many times we hang them back up she steals them again.

Weekend Plans

Friday is a PD Day for our kids, and a perfect long weekend to head north to the cottage. So that's where we're going, either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Snapped this photo last Sunday before church.


Nathan looks... skeptical? Hesitant? Awkward?

At least he's smiling.

Sort of.

And I could barely convince Clara to stay on the couch for longer than 0.0002 seconds, let alone try to pry her two fingers away from her mouth while simultaneously getting my hand out of the way and snapping the picture.

Don't even get me started on the pink & white dog.

But after considering the outtakes, I'd say this one is a keeper.

The Joys of Baking

Easter Weekend 2010