Grandparent visits

The end of May and beginning of June brought visitors twice. First Beppe came for a week, as was noted previously, during the time of the 4H show and sale.   Abby thought she had found a gaming friend for life so when Beppe left there were many shed tears over the loss of her new companion.  💖  When family doesn't live close by we get the unique opportunity to have family over for longer time periods and also for more occasions than people who have family close by.  Breakfast, lunch and supper for days mean a lot of intimate time together and so you can really get to know the person who is over as well as I'm sure they really get to know us, wrinkles, the need for grace and love and all the rest of the good, bad and ugly that makes the world go round and a family a family.  Abby is used to this now and has big emotions when people leave. I'm sure she would love everyone to just stay here and we could all be one big happy family all the time.  Kind of like a colony :) 

Walk for Life fundraiser in Lethbridge

Great Opa and Oma came in June for a long weekend as they passed thru Alberta again on another trip to BC.   The day after they arrived we were treated by them to a breakfast out at Smitty's to celebrate their wedding anniversary. (I'm thinking their 59th but I could be wrong)  That was a fun treat although going out to eat with five kids these days seems like a lot of crowd control :) It was impressive how game they were to deal with us all.  I guess Oma did raise 8 children of her own.

We also enjoyed a campfire and s'mores one evening.  Beautiful way enjoy a long summer sunset. I love how Opa and Oma are so comfortable with having kids around.  They get right in there and we all feel at home. We sang some songs and told some stories and jokes.  Before we knew it it was past our bedtime. 

On Monday when they left to drive on we went with them a ways down the Crowsnest Pass to the Leitch Collieries, which is a collection of structures and remains from a coal mine and processing plant dating pre WW1.  At the time it was state of the art and massive, most of it built and never even put to use, and now rests as a Historic site. We'd never been there so this was the perfect opportunity.  We also went a few kilometers down the road to the Frank Slide site and spent a bit of time walking  around before the rain started and we went our separate ways.  We are always so grateful for these visits from Opa and Oma.  We pray God will continue to grant them health that they may continue to be a blessing to those around them.

These two thought using Oma's umbrella was the epitome of cool.