Family Matters

I'm sitting in my recliner in my living room, the sun shining through the windows. All the doors and windows are open and I'm hearing birds singing and the occasional sandhill crane squawking overhead. A fly is buzzing on my window, but I'll leave it alone for now. I'm relaxing, drinking my chai latte (homemade) and enjoying the quiet after a wonderfully busy week away from home.

I got to watch my two granddaughters play their last games of volleyball at the Canadian Nationals Tournament. Three days of cheering, laughter, sadness and pride. Of course my granddaughters played the best of all their teammates.....

I wore ear protection because three days of hearing than referee whistles blowing from all the other courts (and there were dozens per hall) and adolescent girls screaming can be hard on the ears. But noise aside, it was fun to watch the girls, catch up with my daughters as well as granddaughters. Fun to walk through the merch store and pick something out for them to buy.

I had to laugh at a super cute 'thing' that was going on through the tournament. Girls had many wooden clothespins clipped to their backpack. Each of these wooden clothespins were painted and decorated. The idea was that you could 'clip' someone on the sly and they would then wear that clip. My husband got his cowboy hay 'clipped' and my pre-teen grandson was also clipped. (he was secretly quite proud of that). It was really cute.

After the tournament my one daughter and I drove twelve hours to see my son, daughter in law and.....best of all....see our new precious grandson. So wonderful to hold him and have him looking up at me. (I think he loves me best). We had a lovely visit and then, made the drive home. My daughter and I meandered our way back, spreading the trip out over two days. We stopped in Vernon for coffee a visit with my son, Sicamous for ice cream and cheese, then had dinner in  Banff. Such a beautiful town! We usually bypass it because it's so busy, but we were early enough in the tourist season that it wasn't too bad. Overnight at a hotel, back to Edmonton, then me back to the farm.

Now, I'm resting. Taking a day to just relax and enjoy the weather.

So that's what has been happening here.