Medieval Wedding

The lovely couple cutting, er...slashing the cake made by Paula K.
The king and queen of the groom (knight)

The Minstral (Gabe) playing for the couple

Mr. and Mrs. Greek after they were announced

thelang6 dressed for the occasion

This was a fun wedding! It was the first wedding we have gone to in a while, and it was the first wedding that was our friends kid. I guess we are hitting that age where most of our friends are already married, and now the children of said friends are getting married. It was also weird going to a wedding and only having to bring a gift, show up in costume, eat and leave!

The wedding was held at Campbell Valley Park, and it was a gorgeous day for sure! We saw a lot of people we haven't seen in a long time, I love that about weddings!

My dessert last night....

Jenn made us this applecrumbley, caramel icecream goodness last night

from scratch (of course!)...

thats all I have to say about that!

Our Alaska Hwy Epic

This picture was actually taken half way through our journey. We flew from Vancouver to Whitehorse a few days before this to help my brother Aaron move his lovely little family down to the coast (thats what they call where we live!). Funny thing in Dawson Creek, we met our good friend Ray Spence here, quite by chance. I mean how does one bump into a friend 800 miles from home?

The nephews did VERY well. But occasionally as shown above, they got car sick...We named Aarons car the vomit comet... It smelled so baaad.

Jenn and I at the Continental Divide. The rivers all flow to either the Arctic Ocean, or The Bering Sea from here. We were THAT far north, but a VERY gorgeous spot on the map.

The Alaska Highway was FULL of beautiful things to see. In this case a herd of wild buffalo greeted us ON the highway. I asked my brother what we should do, he said "Wait for them to move, they won't move unless they feel like it!". (Kinda the same attitude as some of my tenants!)

We are headed off on an adventure, no we're NOT moving!
Well... we're not moving US!

Finally, 4 kids in school!

As a lot of people do, we take a 1st day of school picture, this year is our first one that ALL four kids are going to school. Gabe is going into grade 11, Josh is going into grade 7, Ethan into grade 3 and Emily is in Kindergarten.





The funny thing about having this many children this far apart is that we will have something like 23 years of getting kids ready for school by the time Emily graduates. We again have 3 different schools to get kids to this year so we are bussing again this year. Bussing is good!

Coming Back...tomorrow!

There will be a new post here tomorrow, promise! I'm already working on a simple post for the first day of school.

Landscaping

I'm sure everyone has an ugly corner of their yard. Our ugliest corner was the back right corner. We decided to take that very ugly, overgrown, waste of space and make some use out of it. We decided to extend our driveway all the way to the back. This is no small task, as our yard is 249 feet long!

We removed an ugly green shed, 2 trees, a pile of bricks, a pile of broken toys, and a 6 year old 4 foot deep by 60 feet long compost pile. ( I had visions of it being a beautiful garden one day...)

We also had to remove a freaking HUGE stump from the yard. My good friends at Stump Express helped me out with that! I'll update the pictures once I get it cleaned up.

January Highlights

Hello all of you that have been pestering me to update my blog! I will promise to update at least once a month. I won't bore you with the usual craziness of our lives, just give you some updates of whats happening. Like my birthday!
I got to go to Hemlock Valley for an incredible day of skiing with some of my favorite people, and then met some other favorite people for a great dinner at Blustone. I lost my keys and glasses that night... I found my keys in the engine compartment of my minivan... weird...

Ethan had a birthday too! My youngest boy has turned 8!! Ethan is an incredible little boy. I was praying with him one night and thanking God for his abilities, and I just kept on listing, and listing them. He is good at art, spelling, hugs, writing letters, giving gifts, lego, models, making juice, cleaning, organizing, building Ikea, scrapbooking, baking (he made and decorated his own birthday cake), matching clothes, really the list endless!

We went skiing/boarding again, but this time in Kamloops at Harper Mtn. While the boys were on the hill, the girls went shopping and got Emily's ears pierced. She did really good too! A little crying at first, but since then has been very 'big girl' about her earrings.

We wrapped the month up with a visit from my dad (pictured below). A good 10 day visit to reconnect with the family and get some shopping done that you can't do in the Yukon.
January was a fantastic month, filled with a few birthdays, a couple of trips, a New Year spent with friends, and so many events for what is traditionally a slow month. We do live a fantastic life!

Merry December!

Hello Friends! This month had Emily's FIRST Dance Recital ever! She danced with her class at the Clarke Theatre in Mission. I was moved, I cried, I definitely needed a tissue! A very cool thing about her dance school is that Sarah is in it too, so it was awesome to have the two of them on stage that night.

Emily is 2nd from the right in the front row of pink

We once again had our Christmas Eve with the Lang's at our home. We didn't let 'a little' snow slow us down. Once everyone was off work (they are all in the snow business) we partied, exchanged gifts, laughed and had our traditional Christmas Eve , BUT without church. Our 3 options for a Christmas Eve service all cancelled their service.

A highlight of the month was our new addition, seen above. Jenn has been looking for the right piano for 4 years. We finally found THE piano at a local store and it was EXACTLY the sound and price we have been holding out for.

So far this has been an amazing December. It felt like we needed a good month, we've had a lot junk happen in the last while. That said, we are expecting a terrific run to the end of the year!!

2nd Time for 1st Cell Phone

Joshua got a cellphone today. The coolest part is that Gramma arranged it AND is paying for it! Could you imagine as a almost 12 yr old getting a cellphone when we were kids?? Oh, wait...they didn't exist...


Gabe got a cellphone at 13, does this mean I have set a dangerous precedent? I wonder if Ethan will want one too...Then Emily?? EEks...

We were at Costco today where we discovered a box-o-fun, more commonly known as the Gingerbread House Set. We bought 3 sets, invited the neighbours over, and VOILA! Christmas fun for a Monday night!

Emily and Gabe did trees
Ethan was in on the construction phase - of course!

2 finished homes by kids and mom

The perfect Aunty Sue built home - just like on the box!

What a month!!

Needless to say, we have been a bit remiss in our blogging. but don't worry, we haven't been sitting at home. On October 18th we (Dan, Jenn & Diane) took off for a conference in Louisville, Kentucky. (Dan came along just for fun). We arrived two days prior to the conference, cuz the flights were WAY cheaper, and did some touring around the area. On day one we went to Churc.hill Downs museum and tour. Diane and Jenn loved it. Dan was a good sport and came along. On day two we decided to take the 2.5 hour drive to Nashville, Tenessee. (With a detour through Hodgenville, Kentucky the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln). In Nashville we visited the Country Music hall of fame, Grand Ole Opry and a beautiful old Confederate estate called 'Belle Meade'. We ate at the most amazing restaurant called 'The Loveless Cafe'. Totally southern cooking. We had BBQ pork, southern fried chicken, grits and even fried catfish. YUM.

We then attended a two day conference in Louisville. One day (Jenn's birthday actually) we drove to Georgetown, Kentucky to tour the Toy0ta manufacuting plant. It was amazing. We also had time for a short trip into Indiana.

On the 23rd of October, we boarded a plane for the Caribbean. Jamaica to be exact. We spent 8 fantastic days there. The resort was amazing, the food was incredible, the ocean was gorgeous and warm, we sailed, snorkeled, kayaked, swam, and did some incredible scuba diving. All in all it was an amazing vacation.