Where did August go?

August was a very busy month. Some ups, some downs, but certainly not boring. It started off with somewhat of a crash and burn as the visit with my Dad took a nose-dive. No details required, but some fence mending definitely is.

The only place to go from there was up. Art's kids Sara (with husband Kevin and dog Brutis) and Treena came up and spent a week with us. At the same time, Art's sister Echo (with husband Grant and dog Buddy) drove up from Kamloops in their newly acquired truck and camper. With Art's brother Tom living just down the road and their sister Cheryl in Vanderhoof (1/2 hour drive away) and all their respective children, etc, we had quite the gathering every night for that week. It was a super good time that flew by way too fast. There was a lot of trail riding on ATVs and a lot of fishing. We even fired up the home-made smoker that a friend recently gave us and smoked a bunch of those fresh trout. Y-U-M !!!We ate well, laughed a lot and got to hang out with people that love us. What more could we ever have asked for? I think that's how it's supposed to be. I'm sorry that Sara hurt her back (while giving the intrepid Xena a bath) .... ouch! While Art and I weren't home, the kids took Xena for a walk to the pond behind our house. The water's a little low and there's a lot of black mud. This picture pretty much says it all.Well, the kids were afraid that we'd be mad, so immediately gave her a bath. The best picture is on Art's blog, where Sara and Kevin are hosing her down. I like this pic because I'm not sure if Brutis is jealous or saying "give her a break ... girls just wanna have fun!"When we got home, the first thing we noticed was how nice our puppy smelled. Then we found Sara flat out on the living room floor in excruciating agony. They gave her some good drugs at the local medical clinic and after a few days rest was up and about.

We spent the next week finishing the painting of the top half of our house. I took tons of pictures, but have yet to sort them all out and choose the best ones to showcase how gorgeous the place turned out. It's really, really beautiful.

Then we had to turn our focus to the Endako Community Hall. The event of the year (and maybe the decade for this little town) was fast approaching and there was a lot of work to do. It was quite dissappointing how little help we were able to muster, but I guess that's how it goes with these kind of projects. It was basically Art, me and Audrey (hostess of the upcoming party) that scrubbed, scraped, scoured and painted for 6 days. It was more work than I ever would have imagined, but dang it looks good! Again, I took a ton of pictures and will post them when I've sorted them. Here are a couple of the party, though. The tents were rented, as well as the massive mobile barbecue.















There was tons of food, tons of people, tons of laughter, great music and just generally a wonderful time was had by all. There was even a fun ceremony of Walter and Audrey renewing their vows, with Sherman (aka "Doc") officiating (that's Walter on the right and Doc on the left).Our friends, Mike & Carol (and their dog Moosh) and Bennett drove up from Burnaby to attend the party and visit for a few days. They all also did some ATV trail riding. I think it was Bennett's first time on one of those. I hope you enjoyed yourself, guy.



Yesterday, we had a surprise visit from our new friends Ernie and Bev. They live in Burns Lake and are fellow rockhounds. They stopped in to invite us for a few days of camping and exploration for opals at a spot not too far away. This area is well known for it's agates, jasper and opal. I think we have earned some R & R and accepted the offer with enthusiasm. Funny ... before we retired we were out in our Boler every single weekend, summer and winter. Now, we don't have time. Somehow that seems backwards.