Olympic National Park Pictures

Over a year since the last post - I guess we're well overdue for something new. This summer we took an extended family road trip to Seattle-Calgary-Osler-etc. We covered 6363 km total which in some ways is an accomplishment with two small kids and ne'er a DVD in sight but I'm not proud of the fossil fuels consumed or green house gases emitted. Perhaps next summer we should consider the 100 mile vacation. However, we saw a lot of cool stuff on the trip as well as visiting friends and family. These pictures are all taken by my brother-in-law Danny during a three day camping trip they took us on to Olympic National Park. In hindsight it was a lot of extra travel but it was amazing. During our time there we saw the ocean, rain forest and snowy mountain peaks. The weather was perfect for the entire four week trip except for the day we drove through Yoho and Banff. Sunny and warm and the best part, for Winnipegers that is, no mosquitos!

Alayna's Room

When we moved into our current house two and a half years ago we were glad that no work needed to be done on the house. We did, however, paint and do some decorating in the girls' bedrooms. We were particularly pleased with the way Alayna's room turned out and finally got around to taking a few pictures of it. Valerie gets the credit for designing the room. We recruited the rest of the family to paint, etc.: Val's dad did the detailed painting of the animals, her sister Lori did artwork and the trees and my dad built the shelf with reversible change table/desk. The duvet cover, curtains and rug are from Ikea. Take a look:



Since it looks like we're done with diapers (yeah!) we flipped the change table over to the desk. Here's a before and after picture:

Christmas in Santa Fe

For Christmas this year Michael's family all went to visit Keith and Amanda in Santa Fe New Mexico. We had a really good time, and our hosts treated us very well. Highlights included a day of hiking for the Smiths at Kasha-Katuwe. We all enjoyed the hike, the rock formations were interesting, and the view from the top was incredible.


Valerie and I took a two day road trip with Alison and Danny to Carlsbad Caverns and the White Sands National Monument. Alison really wanted to say she had been in Texas so we drove just over the border to take some pictures. For a while it looked like we were going to see the space shuttle land at the White Sands Space Harbour (weather conditions were unfavourable in both Florida and California). In the end we were disappointed by the lack of the space shuttle but not by the White Sands.


Santa Fe is a really neat city and it's fun just to wander around maybe popping into one of the many art galleries. At Christmas time people decorate outside with farolitos (votive candles in brown paper bags or electric imitations). On Christmas Eve the tradition is to walk down Canyon Road where a lot of the art galleries are located to drink in the atmosphere along with some apple cider and maybe attend one of the many parties going on.

Some pictures of Santa Fe:


Keith's house and a family portrait taken in the back yard:


These photos are from a photobook Michael put together. You can view the whole thing here.

Fall in Winnipeg

Thanksgiving Monday we walked to the park at the end of our street to take some pictures of Laurel and Alayna in the beautiful fall setting. Good timing 'cause by Tuesday afternoon it was snowing. My mom knit the sweaters they are wearing.
- Michael




And one bonus picture:

More Pictures of the Girls

The girls chose flowers to plant in the pots they had used for their flower child assignments:

and a few more cute photos

Alison and Danny's Wedding

The wedding took place at the Shekinah Retreat Centre, a beautiful site. The ceremony was outside and the weather cooperated perfectly. Danny's father Jon Warren is a professional photographer and took the photos below. Here's one of my favourites of the bride and groom and a couple of them with our flower children:

More pictures that Jon took of the girls:

A long overdue post

At the Dick family reunion in Winkler on the weekend my cousin Karla commented that she hadn't seen any new posts on the blog for a while so I guess it's about time.

Alayna was excited about growing some things in the garden this summer, especially her purple carrots. Here she is with the bounty:

I seem to be having some difficulty uploading pictures so I'll try more later.
- Michael

More Photos

The next Einstein?

It's really tough to get her hair to behave.

Laurel and Alayna playing in the snow and puddles behind our house: