Movin' On Up!!!!

So, I'll keep this blog post short: Clay got promoted yesterday to the rank of Major! His promotion was an informal event but his boss did make sure that the kids and I were available to be there. I invited the Peachy's, who have been our dearest and sweetest friends since we arrived in Kingston 6 years ago, right from the second when Clay hit the play button to the Tommy T. Hall song "Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey, More Money."

Awesome Trip to Great Wolf Lodge

Hey All, we just came back from an awesome trip to Niagara Falls where we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge. We went with the Eberts family and had a great time. It's an awesome hotel with a waterpark in it. We got a suite with fridge and micro-wave, so we prepared our own meals except for suppers. It was supper awesome and the kids had a great time on the waterslides.



We also headed to the Falls to check them out. The kids were sooooo impressed. Even Grace understood the shear grandure of it all. We also took a cruise on the Maid of the Mist. It was super impressive and fun and wet, even though they gave us plastic ponchos.

Finally our trip ended with a visit to Jeff and Joanna Halls to meet baby Jayden. We had a great visit and Jayden was super cute! All good things must come to an end and fate took this literally on us. We left the Hall's place and our AC went out on the van on a sweltering hot 31C day. It was an aweful ride home, but we made it.

Riley's 7th Birthday

It's about time I got at it. He only turned seven 12 days ago (sense the sarcasm)! For Riley's birthday, we held his party at the Kingston Gymnastics Club. Two coaches directed the kids in activities and gymnastics for an hour. Following the gym portion, we went upstairs and had snacks, cake and openned up gifts. It was a great way to celebrate his birthday and made things a little easier for Clay and I since we only got home from our House Hunting trip 4 days earlier.

Riley had 9 kids at his party: two girls and 7 boys. There were 13 kids total, including himself and his siblings. They had lots of fun with the gymnastics games and activities. They got to bounce on the trampoline, play with hoops, climb and swing on monkey bars, and do rolls off of equipment.

I made him two Saskatchewan Rough Rider football cakes, which he loved. He got lots of great gifts from his friends: lots of legos and action figures. One of the girls bought him two water guns so that he and his brother could have waterfights together. I thought that was pretty sweet and thoughtful.

After the party, we had supper at home and invited the Eberts family. Good thing I made two cakes! We got to do the birthday routine twice. Finally, Riley's birthday was topped off by having a special guest: his Grandma Kotzer. Here in Ontario, we don't get to spend many birthdays with our family. It was so great to have her here and it was a super help for Clay and I. Here are the photos from his party.

It's Not An Acreage but It'll Do

Hey Everyone,

We are back from a relatively successful house hunting trip. We were going for an acreage: nothing less than an acre would do. But, we ended up buying in a small town east of Winnipeg called Oakbank. It's a great little community of about 3000 people. The kids will go to school, play sports, go to the doctor and dentist all in Oakbank. We will have a little driving to do for music lessons and the commute to work for Clay and I will be 30-35 minutes. Here is a picture of our new house.

10 Kyra Bay, Oakbank MB, R0E 1J1

Here are some photos of the outside of the house and the garage. The yard is 97x140 ft which is a pretty good size for a city/town lot. That's basically 1/3 acre. Not bad. The garage is a 2-car garage and by that standard, we are the poor people on the block as more than half the homes have 3-car garages. The landscaping is all done and there is an awsome garden in the southwest back corner of the yard. I contemplated throwing a few seeds in the garden during the inspection, but everything would have probably froze out anyway.

The pictures below are of the house inside. There are a lot of vaulted ceilings and neat features about this house. It has a total of 6 bedrooms, 3 up, 3 down. One of the bedrooms in the basement is so big that it will be used as a craft/sewing/work out room. I am looking forward to permanently setting up my sewing machine and having a place for the treadmill. The house is a raised bungalow so the windows are really big in the basement and let in a lot of light. The basement also includes a storage room and cold room for groceries and freezers and 4-piece bath with in-floor radiant heating. Upstairs there is a formal dining room and office. The formal dining room will be used as the music room. Here are the photos of the interior of the house.




Well, this will be our home in less than 8 weeks. We are really excited to move but are sad to leave the so many wonderful things that Kingston has to offer.