A weekend in Swift Current

After our visit to the farm we were home from Sunday-Thursday, and then we packed up our three little ones once again and headed for Swift Current, SK, home of Josh's grandparents, who were celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary the May long weekend.

I had a couple new tricks up my sleeve for the 7.5 hr car ride, like an old calculator for them to play with. Joy "texted" on it for quite a while! 

 They both traveled so well. I was proud of them! It was another long drive, but the weekend was definitely worth it.

We arrived around 6:30 in the evening, having left around 8:30 in the morning. We stopped over at Grandma and Grandpa's for a quick visit before going to our billets for the night. This little guy just wanted some wiggle space!!!

 He did pretty good to not play strange when all of Josh's family walked through the door shortly after we got there. :o)
We all had to laugh - in their 17 hrs of driving (coming from Denver) they stopped three times for a total of 54 minutes, (thank you, Daniel, for the stats) whereas in our 7.5 hr drive we had stopped four times for about 40 minutes each time! Ah, the joys of traveling with a nursing baby and driving through Llyodminster at noon hour on Friday of the long weekend! Eeks! :o)

On Saturday morning most of us went to the church, enjoyed brunch together, and set up for the anniversary party the next day. It was so good to be with family!

 Lorrie basically handed us girls the box of decoration supplies, told us approximately what she wanted, and let us figure it out from there. I had a blast!!! Joe and Rachel put out the table cloths, I "cut" the runners out of wrapping paper, Amy folded all the napkins, various people helped set the tables, and Andrew and Joy helped out with setting out the utensils. :o)

 With things in order, most of us drifted off to various things, Hope and Joy had their naps, and Josh, Ang, and I got some time to spend together on our instruments, putting together a little playlist for prelude music the next day. Philip watched from his stroller, like a good little boy, for about 30 minutes.

 Then, Uncle Daniel came to the rescue, having come in from playing baseball with his brothers. :o)

Orange + orange, love it!

 Then everyone headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for family time and a BBQ. That's Josh's cousin's boy, Caleb, who is almost 6. Hope and Joy loved having a playmate for the weekend!

 Relaxing on the patio.

 Siblings playing an old board game.

 Tulips in Grandma's garden.

She still puts in a large garden, even in her golden years. 

Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary, and we did manage to sneak away for two quick walks together, one with just Philip, and one with Joy and Philip. :o)

 Enjoying some different lawn toys than she'd seen before. :o)

 We had a grand BBQ, and the kids enjoyed being at their own little table.

 This was really all Joy wanted for dinner, though she was obedient and ate some other foods too.

 Waiting for dessert...

 We had a triple celebration of sorts, as it was soon to be Grandpa's 84th birthday, Michael's birthday (Josh's cousin) and our anniversary.

 It was so cute to watch Grandpa sing along as his own birthday cake was brought out.

 Special memories.

Someone was happy about something.

 Even happier when he and Hope got to blow out the candles.

 Espresso made by Uncle Rob. He and his wife, Carol just moved back from Germany to live with Grandma and Grandpa. They had been there over twenty years!

Get ready Josh - this is the real thing! Cheers! It was quite the drink, I tell ya! I tasted a bit so I would believe Josh as to how strong it was!!!

Sunday morning we had a simple service on the patio at Grandma and Grandpa's.

 Then, Josh lead in a time of prayer for Grandpa, as he faces the weakness in his body.

 It was a very moving time.

 Grandpa then prayed for all his grandsons gathered there and both his great-grandsons, and blessed them in Jesus' name.

It was an amazing time. I wondered if we were feeling some of what Joseph's brothers felt when Jacob blessed them at the end of the book of Genesis.

 Caleb, and his Grandpa, Rob. (Rob is married to Carol, who is Lorrie's oldest sister.)

 Meanwhile, Auntie Rachel got to practice up on her baby skills, happily anticipating the birth of her first child in October, Lord willing.

 Philip was so excited about that wind chime!

 He just went at it...

 and was quite happy with himself when he got it.

 Then, after a bit of quiet time, it was time for the party at church. And, as Andrew was using my camera to record the program, I really didn't take very many pictures of the celebration!
Guess which treat Joy wanted - chocolate! Ah, "you can dress them up but you can't take them out" as the saying goes. Thankful for good spray and wash to get the stains out of pretty dresses!

 Just before tear-down. (This really is very pathetic that I don't have any pictures of the celebration to post...)

 Hope and Joy made good use of the play room in the church basement after the program.

And Melody got lots of Philip-time! My arms were relieved. :o)

My sweetie, helping wash dishes after the celebration.

 I know it's blurry, but I just love how that dress fits Joy. It suits her. :o) (Several of these pictures were taken on my iPhone, hence the variance in quality.)

 The kids got to play with the helium balloons after.

And they thought that was great. :o) 

 Some friends of Grandma and Grandpa kindly put us up for the nights we were in Swift Current. It was so much nicer to stay in a home than in a hotel! There was a single bed for Hope, a double bed for us, and room for a playpen for the wiggly munchkin and another one for the baby, all in one room!

 Our hosts served us an amazing brunch the morning we left for home.

 Such a sweet, blessed couple!

 Driving home, we encountered something I don't think we have ever encountered before - a cattle drive happening on the highway.

 We literally had to stop the van, and watch them pass. Ironically, this was in the "Mosquito Reserve" land in Saskatchewan.

Auntie Amy rode home to Spruce Grove with us, as some of the family came to stay for the next while with us. Sadly, one of the helium balloons went up into space at one stop, but we just said that one was Philip's, as he wasn't old enough to know the difference. :o)