Nona's Excellant Alberta Adventure

Has it only been a week????
Yup I've been home a week from 16 days with my girl Holly and my sweet kiddos Miles and Riley.
I'm not one for spilling a lot of personal stuff on my blog ---- I like to keep it fairly light.
However this one time I am going to get a wee bit heavy.
Holly is separated from her husband and he is making life kind of miserable .....
It would be awful if it was just her but it is affecting those two sweet kiddos ---- which is unforgivable.
Sometimes I think it is almost harder having grown up children going through life's difficulties.
When she was 5 I could give her a hug --- wipe her tears --- put a Little Mermaid band aid on it --- give her a kiss --- and send her back out to play.
My tummy is in knots knowing she is dealing with such unnecessary crap
I know my visit helped a bit. We did a lot of talking and I had tons of kiddo cuddles.

Okay now that I have got that out onto the fun stuff.

While there it was birthday #5
They had had a party the weekend before so we had a little celebration at home
Birthday pancakes ....then off to Toys R Us to pick out a couple toys.
Then Boston Pizza for an early lunch.

It was so early there was only one other couple so the kids figured Boston Pizza had closed down for them.
It was a terrific day for everyone.

Of course Canada Day happened.
We walked to a local park that was housing all the activities.

What a great time.
Lots to see and do...

Face painting ....


Hard to wait tho


Kiddos were very patient waiters

                        A
              petting farm

 

 

Train Rides

 

Ice Cream to end the day.

On another day we drove to Bassano --- about a 50 minute drive from Strathmore.
Holly's friend Della is from there and her mom and dad still live there on a farm.

Her mom ,Kelly, fed us all and then we went on a tour of the farm and met Della's horse ,Jessie.

Then it was off to the pool.
The kids had a blast....

And fell asleep on the hot drive home.

There was an ice cream date



We made pizzas.     

 

 

 Played in the backyard. Read stories. Constructed Lego. Watched movies. There were lots of hugs and kisses.

And Holly has adopted two wee kittens. Their momma was attacked by a coyote --- she survived but wasn't able to care for her babies any more. So now Holly has two new babies. Her boys are a bit peeved. Altho her one fella Charlie has taken over the mom role. HILARIOUS!!!!

 Chicken and Rainbow

 

 

It was a great time but as always too fast..

 

Love and miss them .....

 

Celebrations and a Heartbreak

Had quite a week here at the ole ranch

 

We were invited to celebrate a 1st and 60th birthday party.

HB and I were quite honoured to be included in the celebration.

It was for my walking buddy Deb's retired guy and granddaughter.

You can see the celebration HERE

 

 

Then we got to spend the afternoon with

 

 

Our sweet lil Miss D

 

Terrific weekend you are thinking.

And you would be correct ......

Until we came home Saturday night and found this

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big beautiful locust tree in our neighbour's yard had split and toppled onto our roof.

At first we thought it had been hit by lightening as we had been having some very bad storms.

But it just seems the poor ole tree was rotted.....

 

 

 

 

We found a fantastic arborist --- recommended by another neighbour ---

He came to assess first thing Monday morning and by Monday afternoon was working at getting the tree off our roof.

Unfortunately the tree --- which we have figured out to be close to 60 years old  ---- had to come down.

We are heartbroken over this

 

 

 

Neighbours Tom and Melanie watching the chop down :(

 

 

The arborist came back on the Thursday and took the whole thing down.

They chipped and chopped and took everything away.

Even cleaned up the street of all the rogue branches and saw dust.

 

Tom and Melanie are talking about planting another in its place.

 

After all of this I came down with one heck of a cold but I won't

 bore you with those woes.

Suffice it to say I am still recooping.....