Grade 6

Well this year D is in Grade 6. The top grade of our school. (Next year - junior high. I'm gasping on this end. ) I remember when I walked him to Kindergarten, we walked hand in hand. Not this year! Here he is taking all his school supplies on the first day. He is enjoying his first month of Grade 6. No fighting going to school this year.

Being in the top grade of the school gives the kids exciting opportunities and challenges to show their maturity. Below you will find D selling popcorn at the Meet the Teacher BBQ. They are trying to raise money for the Grade 6 final party. He was a great salesman. His team of 3 raised the most money. (Popcorn is always a hit at our school and for $.25 what a bargain.)
Come back and look for more leadership opportunities D is involved in.

Road Trip!

Summertime road trips, sounds exciting eh? Wait till you see what D and I ventured out to discover. This summer we had some of the best peperoni sausage we've ever tasted. So off we went to view the "big sausage monument", where the sausage is made. Lucky for us, 45 minutes down the highway you will come to a nice little town of Mundare. The home of the famous Stawnichy's Sausage Factory.
AND HERE IT IS! We laughed and laughed and laughed and then got out of the car to take some photos. It is the most disgusting tourist attraction I've ever taken a photo of. D and I agree ---sausage isn't the first thing you think of when you see it. Whatever you do, do not stand in the middle and look up- it is not very appealing that is for sure.
The things your mom makes you do when your young. I made D stand by the monument for these photos. He looked around to make sure no one he knew was around before walking up to it. And let it be known that we weren't the only tourists taking photos. After we took our photos and got some peperoni sausage we got in the car and headed home.

Summer Fun

What did we do this summer besides play ball? We did lots. We went and saw a few games of Oilers hockey try outs. D is really a Calgary Flames fan . The big draw of the day, was the fact that Ryan Nugent Hopkins was going to be there. We got his autograph and a photo too. So D was happy. (Unfortunately we do not know who this guy was signing autographs. ) I cannot post the photo of Nugent Hopkins, as I am making a Christmas Gift with it. Sorry.Well I am unsure the West had a real summer this year? It was cold most of July. However when your a kid and a large body of water is in front of you-- it is hard to resist the urge to at least test out the water temp. On a hot day it is called "taking a refreshing dip" on a cold day it is called"polar bear swim". As you can see by D being the only one in the fountain here, it is a polar bear dip he his experiencing!

Storms. Man did we experience 2 wild/wicked storms in Red Deer,AB. We even saw tornadoes forming in the sky. Brent and I so love storms. Below is D holding up some of the hail that covered the ground. Notice he is wearing his fall coat. The temperature went from being 22C to about 7/8C within minutes when the storm blew in. It was cold.

Rep Baseball

Well you probably know that D made the top rep baseball team. Here are some shots of him playing ball. The first photo D is at first base. The coach is behind first base, lets clarify this- it is not Brent! Brent was assistant coach number 44. D was number 19.

Here you can see Number 44&19. Dad & son. Our team finished as silver medal finalists for Alberta, Mosquito level. It was a long season but it was worth it.

By looking at the following photo you may have thought that Dawson got the chicken pocks this summer.

Wrong! It was a terrible year for mosquitoes. Being on the ball field 4X's a week, didn't help. The boys couldn't keep enough bug dope on. I felt so sorry for my boy. We had to use antihistamines to keep him from scratching. One night after ball he had 23 mosquito bites on his face & neck. He was at practice for 1.5 hours. I hope I never see mosquitoes again.

The Return

Hello! I am back after a long hiatus. I have so many photos of the last 6 months but will only post a couple each day this week. (Yes, each day this week.) Lets begin with Brent's Birthday. September 19 is Brent's special day. We celebrated it a day early. We had a nice steak dinner,oven roasted carrots and oven roasted potatoes. YUM! Of course you see Brent here with his birthday cake to finish the lovely meal off.

And of course we gave him some presents.

After opening presents, Dawson tell us he would like to have a birthday everyday, so he can get gifts everyday. That sounds good like a good life eh? Then Dawson realizes by the end of the year, he would be a ripe age of 365!!!! He decide with his mouth full of cake- that a birthday once a year is the way to go.