Friday, September 26, 2014

Tennis Ball Adventure


It was such a beautiful evening and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it.  Learning the newer to me sport of tennis.  But of course when looking for some tennis balls, none were to be found.  With kids around it's seems like an impossible task.  No matter how hard I try to hide them, the kids still manage to make them disappear.

So, it was off to the store.  Now, I typically like to be efficient and well as keeping costs down, so I figured a stop at the nearest Dollar Store made good sense.  Voila.  A buck for 3 balls.  So, I picked up a couple packages and felt like I had scored.

Silke and I loaded up the kids, rackets and balls and headed off to a nearby court.  Excited to get out and exercise and improve my game.  Silke loves to play tennis so I was pretty happy to have someone who could actually return a serve to play against.

I got my self into serving position.  Did my thing which is to bounce the ball a few times before I make my serve.  Only... the ball didn't bounce back up more than 4 inches.  I tried it again.  Same result.  Then I thought, "maybe it's just this one ball," and tried the next one.  Only another 4 inches.

Wow, was I ever disappointed!   But, we decided not to let the nice evening go to waste and gave it a try with our un-bouncy balls.  It was a rather interesting evening of tennis. Another interesting thing was that not only did the balls barely bounce, after a few strong serves, the balls would also split in half!  Yikes.  Lesson learned on the purchase of tennis balls and the time to and not to shop at a Dollar Store.   Sometimes it simply does not pay to be efficient and cheap:)

Regardless of the terrible game of tennis it was still nice to be outside on these soon to be rare evenings.  And the kids loved to get out too.  So, making the best of playing with faulty tennis balls was still worth it.





Thursday, September 18, 2014

Carrying On With Tradition

Every year as we pass into and out of our favorite camping spot, we pass by this beautiful little landscaped hillside.  From the very first year 'Nkmeep Resorts beautified this little spot I started the tradition of taking 'remember when' pictures of our kids.

This year, we had a few more bodies to fill the frame.  And wow, do these guys ever look good!  I finally got some family pictures I am proud of to put on our picture wall to show off our new additions of Jonah and Ava.  

 Unfortunately they are still on my computer and not on my wall:(  It's on my list of many things to do, and nearly at the top.  











2013- Cayden at 8 years and Peyton at 2 1/2 years.




2012- Cayden 7 years and Peyton 1 1/2 years


2011- Cayden 6 years and Peyton 8 months


Monday, September 1, 2014

Dinner Party At The Kruliki's


As always, our yearly day trip to visit Michael and Shirley Kruliki was absolutely wonderful. They are such a joy and such gracious hosts to our family.  Even with 2 more kids in our family, they weren't scared away from inviting us for an afternoon of socializing and dinner. 

Michael and Shirley are long time family friends of Jeremy's parents and Grandparents.  The are so full of energy and fun. We always look forward to taking an afternoon away from our campground in Osooyoos and make the drive up to their condo in Pentiction.  Of course our kids also enjoy taking a break from swimming in the lake to swimming in their nice, clear and clean pool:)

The kids were overjoyed to be served 'special drinks', including their own mustache straws.  As well as being served monster-sized meatballs and pasta.  They even were gifted really nice matching shirts, which of course I really liked as well. 

Facebook has definitely been a part of keeping us connected through the year, even though we only meet once a year.  I am able to keep up with Shirley's 1/2 marathon races, which makes me envious of her energy and drive!  I even get to keep up with her kids and grand kids through Facebook which also keeps our connections. Her daughter has a little Peyton as well.  They are only a few weeks apart, which makes comparing notes alot of fun.

Jeremy and I really treasure our visits with the Kruliki's.  Hopefully we didn't wear them out too much, and we get another invite next year, 2015 :)