family reunion

This past weekend my Mom's family all got together.  A full reunion.  All 6 siblings and most of their families ... some travelling from as far away as Australia.  I think everyone had a good time.  Mixed feelings I'm sure as the majority of the family would claim to not like a fuss .... or get togethers ... or, well, people in general.  Even though there are a fair number of us, the weekend was pretty casual, so I think for the most part we caught up without getting into each other's hair too much.

We camped out at Kim & Jeree's for the weekend with Vince & Carrie (Jacob, Thomas, and MJ) and Mark & Heidi (Samantha & Luke).  There was always enough going on that we didn't get a lot of one-on-one visiting ... but we still had some quality catching up.

Weekend itinerary:
- Friday night pizza at the 'blue park'
- Saturday afternoon / evening we had the club room at the Elk's Hall.  Beef on a bun was brought in for supper.  There were games, drinks, a slideshow of all of us growing up, and of course a large table of standard Horne Family gathering desserts (including, of course, Angel Food cake with raspberries and/or strawberries and ice cream).
- Sunday was a day at the farm:  horseback riding; wading in the 'dam'; eating; visiting; water fights; marshmallow fights; campfire ...
- Sunday night, socializing became a bit more social.  There were many bevvies consumed (none by me), leading to a late night / early morning of campfire sing-a-long.  There are some great singers in the family; and ... some non-singers (y'all know who you are!!)  Words cannot describe.  Still ... I haven't had an evening that entertaining in quite some time!

The kids did OK.  Poor Maklin was saying, "I wanna go home now" about 3 hours into our drive TO Saskatchewan.  He was pretty overwhelmed and stressed most of the trip; just not quite himself, but he warmed up by the last few days (and thankfully is still excited about more camping!)

Mae travelled like a champ ... although with a bit of a penchant for early mornings.  This didn't always mix well with my late nights, but we managed.

Land of the living skies ...

tarred and feathered

[Disclaimer:  the pictures shown in this post may be disturbing to some viewers.  Viewer discretion is advised.]


The crows around our house have been ridiculous this year.  You hear them bouncing around on the roof.  They fight on our front lawn; steal food from our BBQ; sit on our fence and scream.  I did a little exploring; the town said they couldn’t do anything about them.  On the record, they didn’t have any recommendations for what we could do.  Off the record, I was ‘advised’ that a well-aimed slingshot couldn’t hurt.  We also heard that hanging a dead crow in your yard will keep the others away (at least for a time).  This, we had a good laugh over: “where are we gonna get a dead crow?? ”

Yesterday, when Justin is leaving for work, there are a bunch of crows hanging out on the fence.  As he does on occasion, he aimed at them with his bee-bee gun.  Yes – you’re not supposed to do this in town, but Justin’s bee-bee gun, even when pumped up to the max, is … tired.  You can watch the bee-bee come out of the gun, arc up, and s-l-o-w-l-y f-a-l-l.  You can imagine then how shocked Justin was when he nailed a crow and it dropped dead from the fence!


So ... what the heck??  We strung him up for a few days ...

post-note:  What do you know ... we haven't had any crows in our yard since!!  (although we almost scared off the neighbours with our voodoo magic too ...)

Duncan Ranch

We camped this past weekend with the Ewashkiws and Schmidts at the Duncan Ranch (where Cindy grew up).

What a great weekend!  For starters ... parenting is so much more relaxing when there are a bunch of amazing teenage girls around who (at least appear to) actually enjoy hanging out with your kids!!  Plus, these are card playing families!  :)

Highlights:
   * a leisurely horseback ride
   * playing cards out on the lawn
   * a fire (with other friends coming out for a visit)
   * great food
   * lots of laughs
   * Canada day hats, fireworks, and sparklers
   * an adorable puppy
   *ball toss (Justin at one point was labelled "world champion ball tosser" - but then lost the next game to Cindy.  He should have quit while he was ahead!)

While there aren't any good pictures depicting this ... Maklin spent the vast majority of the weekend playing in the crab shaped sandbox.  He has a sandbox at home (and does love it) but he was absolutely obsessed with playing in this sandbox.  He did come out occasionally for a few other adventures, but they were few and far between.

Miss Maisy decided to wake up at 4am one morning.  She was pretty loud and we didn't want Mak getting up, so Justin threw her in the chariot and headed out for a brisk early morning walk.  She conked out pretty quickly all bundled up and strolling in the fresh air.  When they got back to the trailer - Justin parked her, then, like a good papa bear, laid down on the ground under the awning so he could keep on eye on his baby girl.  Then it started to rain.  After a while he came back into the trailer to grab a few more layers and head back out; I tucked an extra blanket around him at one point - I was feeling so sorry for him out there!!  Such a dedicated Dad!!!  (I'm pretty sure I would have parked her and then crawled back into bed!)

Brilliant fireworks!

love at first sight

Molly is a new puppy at the Duncan Ranch.


Mae & Molly instantly fell madly in love with each other.

the containment unit

Spending so much time in the trailer this summer, we decided we needed to figure out something for Maeyer so we could camp sans playpen. The first few trips, we folded the table down as if making up the table bed, but instead of putting the cushions on, we set up a playpen on top of the table bed.  It worked well – but several times a day we were setting up and taking down …

Thankfully - we have a handy Dada!!  Mak is sleeping on the top bunk (with a bedrail Justin built for him).  And, after much discussion, Justin devised a hinged baby gate system across half of the lower bunk to essentially create a crib for Mae.  A ... prison-like crib.

Note:  the dangerous string hanging from the blinds has since been removed!!

check mate

Mak can identify all the chess pieces, name them, and set up the board.  Get ready Sully: Mak’s getting ready to take you on.  :)

baby 'courage'

Recently, Mae got a special gift from Great-Auntie Gail:  a baby cradle, a pram, and a little doll stroller that were hers when she was wee.  She’s been holding onto them all these years with the intention of passing them on to my girl. 

Mae’s not quite big enough for them yet … but Maklin LOVES the stroller (he calls it a baby ‘courage’).  

[said with scrunchy face] "Mae's gonna use this for dolls or something ...
but I'm gonna push around trucks."

And the pram?  A big hit with some of Maklin’s girlfriends at a recent baby shower we had.  And with the Moms.

Mak though riding in the buggy would be more fun than pushing it!

Thank-you for the sentimental gifts.  Maklin has a little barn that Baba made for Justin when he was little.  Sweet that Mae has some family pass-downs just for her too. 

And Mae – on behalf of Maklin – thank-you for sharing!!