Flooding!

Here are some pictures of the spring flooding in the area near my parents house.   I have also included some older pictures of the same areas so you can see the comparison!!

These show the flooding at Lake of the Prairies in Manitoba where my parents have their trailer.

This was taken a couple years ago.  Do you see the boat upside down in the grass? 
Look for the red strip straight up from Sam's redhead...

I am now standing just above where that boat would have been.  The entire beach area is gone!



Near that beach is a boat launch area that is now completely under water. Notice the tiny white speck in the water just past the blue and white dock....

...that little white speck is this sign!  YIKES I certainly won't park there!

 

 To the left of the boat launch area is the fish cleaning shack.  Do you see that bit of bush in front of the shack?  I used to part the van by that bush!

 

A few miles down the lake, the parking lot and fish cleaning shack are flooded.  The trees on the other side of the shack are supposed to be on the bank of the lake!

Close up of the shack

Another place I won't be driving my van!

At another lake many miles away, this is my Aunt and Uncle's boat house.  Thankfully the water did not come up high enough to get in the cabin but it was very close.

Nope, won't be driving there either!


Many, many people were effected by this flooding. Including my parents.  While I was there water started coming into the their basement...what a mess!

Time travel?

I started out the month of April in North Carolina and was thrilled with a beautiful spring.  I took pictures like these in our yard and our neighbor's yard a day or two after the first day of spring...

Our house is in the background and is the view from my bedroom!



It was even warm enough to dig out some shorts!

but then I came to Saskatchewan and apparently travelled back in time to the middle of winter.  We woke up this morning to this...

We knew it was snowing but we didn't know how much because we couldn't even see through most of the windows!



All the snow was gone when we got here about a week ago.  This is all fresh snow!!



I am thinking it will be at least a couple days before I can drive my van!

This is at least a 4 foot drift!

maybe I should have packed more than raincoats and rubber boots?

and I had to exchange my flipflops for Papa's snowboots!
We were all dressed up and ready to go out into the snow storm...



We were not out very long, it took us longer to get dressed than we were outside. 
They were not impressed with being out in a snow storm!

 Oh and yes, I did check the calendar and it is in fact April 30.  So nope, not time travel just a reminder that anything can happen with the weather in Saskatchewan!  And yep I am really missing North Carolina right about now...

Santa!

Every year Santa makes an appearance at the TurkeyShoot supper.  He even gets a special ride on the local firetruck with ALL the lights flashing!  Very exciting!  I was impressed with my incredibly shy and bashful kids.  They all willing went and sat on his knee!!  I also think they knew that is what they needed to do to get the candy Santa was handing out. 

Sam did awesome with Santa. He was very nervous as you can see by his hands, but he spoke clearly and told Santa that he wanted a police motorcycle - no kidding!  He got police cars for his birthday and now he all he wanted was a police motorcyle!

Ben was also nervous, again you can tell by the hands!  I don't think he actually looked at Santa, but he did tell him that he wanted a search and rescue helicopter, although it was barely audible and I only know that is what he said because he had been saying that's what he wanted for weeks!

Then it was Carlee's turn and she was too scared.  A few more kids had to go before she was brave enough, but finally did it and she got up there. She never spoke to him - probably because she had no idea what she wanted for Christmas! Every time I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she would sigh and say "I just don't know yet." 

Nervous - again with the hands!   In this photo you can see she is looking over at his sack of candy and I am sure she is wondering how long she will have to sit there before he will give some to her.



She didn't have to wait too long, and she didn't have to talk to him.  But the moment he handed her that candy she leaped off his lap.  I barely had time to snap even this photo.  But just look at that grin of satisfaction HA!



Fall Colors

Have I mentioned that I used to hate fall.  But that was when I lived in Canada and fall meant harsh winter was on its way and soon...

Now that I have been living out here in North Carolina and Maryland and back in North Carolina I have become a lover of fall.  The beauty of it is breath taking...

I had to stop trying to take pictures while driving.  Kinda dangerous... so I would have to find place to stop

I had him sitting up on a branch and he really did not want to be up there!!

Sam turns 5

Can you believe that Sam is 5 already!  For his birthday adventure we invited some friends and went to an indoor bounce house.  It was a total hit with the kids, and even the big kid (aka my hubby/my fourth child) had a blast!  Sam chose McDonalds for lunch (big surprise) and after some more bouncing we came home for presents and cake.  Fun Fun day!

He is still our sweet boy - always ready to give loves and say thank-you for his gifts.

Can you guess what he wants to be when he grows up?