Where I’ve Been 4 : Arizona

Tara and I had a very relaxing and fun trip to Arizona for a week with Doug & Cindy.  Wolf & Laura were nice enough to take our kids and are so fun to be around that Michael & Elijah didn’t miss their parents very much at all.   Thanks to some very generous friends, we enjoyed a very nice house in Maricopa, AZ.  The weather was great, about 20 degrees and overcast the first few days, but then 32 and sunny for the rest.  Just about right.  Highlights included the Grand Canyon, Rain:A Beatles Tribute, and lots of relaxing by the pool, good food and great conversation!

Where I’ve Been 3: Easter Travels

We had a great trip to Calgary and Red Deer for an extended Easter Weekend.

Highlights included a 28 Things Birthday party for Harmony, Good(?) Friday service at Oak Park, and as always, a relaxing and enjoyable few days with Grandma & Grandpa Birdy in Red Deer.

From the Red Deer

We’re enjoying a great week in Red Deer.  Weather has been perfect, and it’s always lots of fun at Grandma & Grandpa’s house.  Tara & I even got to pop down and see Heather’s new house for a few hours on Monday.  I also got my yearly golf game in yesterday with the father in law - about 9 holes is when I start getting bored with the game, but that many is just right.  One more day then back to Saskatoon for Tara’s goodbyes and on to Regina.

Trail Ride

I’ve booked my ticket to tag along with Gary & Gene as they trail ride around the Yahatinda.  Looking forward to leaving for that week long adventure June 13th.

Tim’s traversing…

Well, I made it to Regina – got in about 10 PM last night, the drive was long, but not near as long as Doug’s. He left Yellowknife Sunday at 1:00PM, met me in Edmonton as I was getting off the plane, and was going on 4 hours of sleep when he dropped me off a couple hours from Regina last night. He still had 2 hours to go until he was at his destination – crazy! It was nice to have the time to visit with him all day, and with Jeremy & Harmony when they picked me up last night. Will spend the day here today, then to Kennedy to see the Grandparents tomorrow or Thursday. Raining here – hopefully it stops before our trail ride this weekend! I need to buy a bigger tarp to go over my tent…

“Blonde Moment”

If you can believe it, Brianne and I had a “blonde moment” while on the trip to Edmonton. Acctually this was on the way home, and I imajine we had had a few moments like this along the trip, but this one was so obvious and funny and we had it at the same time – which is wierd! We were wanting some upbeat rockin music on the way back so we decided to put Toby Mac in the player. I told her that it was the red one with the little white man on it and she said “ya I know” then she grabbed it and put it in. As soon as the first song came on I looked at her and said “This guy sounds a lot like the lead singer of Audio Adrenaline (which we had heard “live” the night before), don’t you think?” Brianne replied with “ya, it sure does – that seems wierd.” We continued to listen to “Toby Mac” until the start of the third song. At this point Brianne says, “Tara, this is Audio Adrenaline.” So we listened to Toby Mac for three songs before we realized that it was in fact Audio Adrenaline. We are sad to report that we didn’t even have Toby Mac’s CD in the car. Terrible!

Postive Things

It looks as thought I should comment on the things I liked about the YC weekend. “United” was amazing – what an incredible worship leading band. I was brought closer to God through them and really felt HIS presence in that room. Joyce Heron, she had a great talk about each of us being a neighbour to others wherever we live. David Nasser spoke and I do think he is a great speaker, but I have heard that same talk about 4 times now, so I would like to hear something new from him next time. Nicole C. Mullen did a great concert as well as the Newsboys, but I would have liked to hear more from them. See, it wasn’t so bad afterall!

YC

Well, I am back at work now after a great weekend in Edmonton. I went with Brianne Ashby and we met my sister Nicole there so that was great fun. We did a lot of shopping and we went to the YC youth conference. I think I might be a bit too old for it now. I found it repetative and impersonal. I really wondered this time what everyone was really taking from this weekend and would it transfer to their life when they returned home?

Tara’s Travels, Tim’s Trivial Traipsing

Well Tara is off with Brianne Ashby to “YC” in Edmonton for the weekeend. They took off Wednesday morning about 4 am and are in Red Deer until the conference starts on Friday. 17,000 teenagers/young adults in the Skyreach Center, the biggest Christian conference you can find in Western Canada that I know of. I’ve gone along with Tara the last 3 years with a group of young people – a good weekend each time, but often the most valuable time was the 17 hour drive either way. Nothing like builds community like enclosed spaces for long periods of time!? My ears will not miss the loud music, of this I’m sure.
I am left at home with Wyatt and Clayton Muller who is in YK for the summer. Tonight is my last night of work, off until Sunday and ready for a break. Will attempt to get some things done around the trailer this weekend – new gravel for the driveway today, I mean yesterday, and new stairs for the front deck tomorrow or I mean today(I’m mixed up it’s 4 in the morning:) courtesy of Craig Williams, a good friend and good carpenter. Will also try to get a few good walks in with Wyatt, since our Spring appears to have finally arrived(we hope). Saturday night I will lead the music part of a city wide worship service celebrating the finish of “Proclamation” a Canadian Bible Society project the YK Ministerial has put on over the past 10 days – during which the whole Bible is read out loud – should be a good time. That’s all for now – over and out.

Kennedy Crokinole

Grandma, Aunt Lois, Grandpa in the middle of an intense crokinole game… Grandpa and Tim were in “the zone” on this day, our spouses didn’t stand a chance!