home…

27 Sunday Jul 2014

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finally home after a busy and fun weekend with the kids in the States…

we got up around nine this morning and after breakfast went for the last visit to the water park… it is lovely to watch how the boys spend time together as well as separately in the water…

final fun in the water park...

final fun in the water park…

then we packed up all of our stuff and headed to Grand Forks… visited three or four stores… had tacos for lunch and a very lovely dinner at a great steak house the kids had been to before… final few items picked up, and we were on the road home…

the sky was lovely…

clouds on our drive home...

clouds on our drive home…

the final purchase had been a few movies for the trip home…

"watching" a movie...

“watching” a movie…

happily we breezed through the border and drove past the wind mills (turbines) as the sun was setting… sadly the car windows were covered in bugs again, but I was able to get a few good shots…

sunset at the wind mills...

sunset at the wind mills…

kids dropped me off and I brought in all my goodies…

my shopping...

my shopping…

too late for a hot tub… I am going to bed!

 

fun…

26 Saturday Jul 2014

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lots of fun was had today…

started out in the morning when everyone piled on daddy, who didn’t want to get out of bed…

20140726-214623-78383963.jpgbreakfast in the hotel was good… some ordered from the menu and some had the buffet… then it was on to the shopping… we went into many stores and bought many bags full of treats for everyone…

20140726-214858-78538407.jpgCrystal took this picture when we got home from the first trip…

back at the hotel everyone except me went to the pool while I had a snack, read, and laid down for a rest just before the family arrived back in the room… headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings where we over-ordered, by a lot…

20140726-215516-78916634.jpgearlier in the day there was the odd sanity break…

20140726-215657-79017699.jpgquick trip through a store to pick up a few items requested by friends at home, bought a few things to drink and returned to the hotel for some time at the water park…

20140726-220248-79368093.jpglights are dim and drinks and snacks are being prepared… even having mini facials tonight…

Fargo…

25 Friday Jul 2014

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well, we made it…

left the city around five and had to take a detour to pick up something in Niverville…

and then we were on our way…

as we got near Emerson we saw the windmills… they look so peaceful in the distance although I wonder what they sound like close up…

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no wait at the border, where our middle guy corrected the security person’s pronunciation of his name, lol…

eventually, after quite a bit of construction, we arrived in Fargo, found the hotel and checked in around 9:30…

boys headed to the water park – not just a pool, and Crystal and I went and had dinner…

we brought back pizza for the guys and now everyone is in their beds watching a movie…

20140725-233952-85192361.jpgbusy day…

snacks…

24 Thursday Jul 2014

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on my way home stopped at Safeway to pick up some snacks for tomorrow evening’s road trip…

I am going to Fargo with my kids…

it is a three hour drive so I thought we’d need something to keep us all entertained and busy… apparently the tablets and phones will all be charged for the trip…

in our family, trips have always been an excuse to eat treats… of course, because we are crossing the border couldn’t include fruit or meat, lol…

got sunflower seeds for the dad, pretzels for the mom, a variety of chip-y things for the younger crowd, as well as Goldfish, pistachios, sesame crackers, and gummies…

think it should be enough to get us through the drive…

20140724-211831-76711807.jpgthankfully, my suitcase is packed so now I just have to figure out what bag the snacks will fit into…

injured…

23 Wednesday Jul 2014

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first thing I went out and watered everything with my fabulous hose…

discovered some flowers in one of the pots on a plant that looked like a potato vine… very cute…

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stopped on the way home and picked up a few things for supper…

was very happy to see beautiful local green beans…

between getting the supper ready I did laundry…

as I was cutting the beans I sliced right into my thumb… ouch…

20140723-205611-75371087.jpgwas thinking of George as I put on the bandage… he always had a bandaid on some portion of his body… he even carried them in his pockets and wallet, lol…

wander…

22 Tuesday Jul 2014

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spent a little time wandering in the garden tonight…

the hibiscus was quite lovely…

20140722-211215-76335625.jpgstill waiting to see if the baby’s breath is going to smell – like urine…

20140722-211345-76425652.jpgcan’t decide about the pink flowers… but I do have a friend who will take them if they don’t make the cut…

20140722-211643-76603053.jpgthe basket with the begonias in it continues to look amazing…

20140722-211751-76671851.jpgI turned the waterfall off as it was barely going… waiting to hear from the pond people about what I should be doing…

might have my son-in-law come and dig the pump out of the rocks and see if it is obstructed… don’t think our cheap sump pump ever got plugged up, lol…

going to get up early tomorrow and water everything before heading to work…

evening…

21 Monday Jul 2014

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rushed home to meet young friends who were wanting to borrow a prop for a birthday party…

they left and my friend arrived to pick me up to go for a walk at the Park… as we left home it had just stopped spitting… we had a lovely walk through the English Garden and around the Duck Pond…

the delphiniums were stunning in purple and blue,

delphiniums in main garden...

delphiniums in main garden…

lovely water lilies in the Leo Mol garden although all the ponds were filled with algae… not so pretty for us but likely make the ducks and geese happy…

water lilies in Leo Mol garden...

water lilies in Leo Mol garden…

and a wonderful rose in the main garden… think this was my best shot…

rose with rain drop...

rose with rain drop…

the datura were also quite amazing… in our zone, these are annuals… the gardeners lift them up in the fall, overwinter them in the greenhouses, and then put them out again the next year…

datura, also known as Angel's Trumpet...

datura, also known as Angel’s Trumpet…

we arrived back at the car just as the rain began…

then we went to my friend’s place for a lovely tenderloin dinner with rice, Asian vegetables, tomato and cucumber salad with peach pie and shortbread cookies for dessert… what a lovely treat…

home to watch a few shows and then as I was heading to the computer to write my blog post I looked out at the sky, found my camera and went to the front door…

the sky was orange… the colour in this picture is the exact shade…

sky around 9 pm...

sky around 9 pm…

very busy evening for me… now to bed, lol…

hungry…

20 Sunday Jul 2014

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another beautiful morning in the garden…

watched two squirrels snacking
under the bird feeder while I had an early morning hot tub… the bluejays were at the feeder and there is obviously a baby in their family who was located in one of the cedars, and he was very hungry from the sound of things…

20140720-194243-70963816.jpgfinished the book and watched squirrels drink and a bluejay bath in the pond…

20140720-194400-71040891.jpgcan’t figure out who is knocking over the plant in the pond… maybe a squirrel…

a dragonfly stopped by… quite red… got a good shot of it with one of the fish swimming over…

20140720-200720-72440681.jpgmade supper for the kids and had a nice visit with them… a beef roast with baked potatoes, cucumber in sour cream, salad and zucchini, mushrooms and fresh peas… they brought Slurpees, which was great as it was hot… even now it feels like 33.2…

dragonfly…

19 Saturday Jul 2014

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spent a good portion of the day in the garden…

20140719-200950-72590820.jpgit was lovely and not too hot… another batch of plants are blooming… they could be the same as the purple ones, only smaller… dark pink/red, not sure how I feel about the colour…

first thing this morning a dragonfly landed on the screen and posed for a few pictures…

20140719-201526-72926223.jpgmoved my chair so I was sitting right beside the pond… saw lots of babies… white and red, white and black, and gold ones, which look black in the pond… sadly I’m having issues with algae, not sure the fancy uv filter is doing its job… frustrating because putting it in caused the waterfall flow to be less powerful…

did a bit of weeding and had a lovely nap…

read most of a paper book and also put on my big girl pants and barbecued steak and zucchini, with potatoes, onions and mushrooms…

20140719-202300-73380961.jpgrestful day, but missing my beloved…

storm…

18 Friday Jul 2014

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had quite the thunderstorm tonight…

the clouds filled the sky before the rain came…

20140718-214136-78096495.jpgonly came down for maybe ten minutes but there was a lot of it and it was coming from the south… usually a bad sign for the basement…

once it stopped I ran down and checked and everything was dry… yay…

been giggling off and on throughout the day… middle of the night I opened the window

20140718-214557-78357111.jpgwasn’t till this morning that I realized I had taken the screen off to get some pictures and hadn’t put it back on… amazingly there were very few bugs in the house…

the fish seemed hungry this morning so I put out some food before leaving for work… they were happy…

20140718-215126-78686853.jpg