A Trip to Canada

In September we had the opportunity to travel to Victoria, British Columbia to attend our annual church convention. This convention is held at many locations around the world at the same time so we have the option of choosing where we want to observe it. We visited Victoria 17 years ago and had always wanted to go again because we enjoyed it so much. This trip was well worth it!



This is the view from our hotel room....the harbor of Victoria. The ferry boat docks right out there and passenger plans land and depart all day. It's quite interesting to watch all of the hustle and bustle that is going on.



On our first morning we had no meetings so we headed out walking. We came to this unique houseboat village! there were about two dozen really cute and different houseboats docked in what is known as Float Home Village. We were able to walk up and down the docks and check them all out. Some were even for sale. I'm not quite sure I would like living where so many people wander around and peer in my windows, as we did!



I think Mariah was in charge of the camera for this shot!



Nice, Mariah!



Gotta love all the fish and chips that was available everywhere!



Couldn't pass up the opportunity to have our picture taken with another Scotsman...



Notice the duck flying over Mariah's shoulder? There were ducks wandering all around the area. This is the front of a hotel where they have ducks that are trained to stay on the grounds, and twice a day they parade around the facility! It's quite a show to watch!



Waiting for Alex to get the timer set for our family picture in the rose garden at the Empress Hotel.



This amazing picture was taken on Saturday afternoon when we were out driving around by the most southern tip of Vancouver Island and overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is between Vancouver Island and Washington state.



This was too funny! We were at a go-cart track and everyone was required to wear a hairnet over their hair before they put on the helmets! Mariah refused to put it on while I had the camera out!!



Does this even need a caption?!! LOL! This was at the entrance to the petting farm area at the beautiful Beacon Hill Park where we spent two afternoons.



Beacon Hill Park contains some of the most beautiful flowers and plants, wandering ducks, peacocks, and little ponds.



One of the little waterfalls within the park.



This is down at the southern most tip of Vancouver island south of Victoria and is the area where we took the lighthouse picture.



On our second trip to Beacon Hill Park Mariah brought food for her feathered friends..



Back to the open water area on our last evening in Victoria. We wandered out on a long pier and were treated to a show by a frisky little seal!



We had friends on a cruise who just happened to be stopping in Victoria as one of their ports of call. We were able to be on the dock when their ship came in. It was right at sunset and was just amazing to be so close to the ship when it docked!



I'm not sure why this ship came into the harbor the day before we left, but it sure looked official....



Filling out the Immigration paperwork to reenter the USA.

Shirland Flood July 2010

Two weeks ago our area got between 7"-8" if rain in a 24 hour period of time which eventually lead to the flooding of the two rivers that converge just outside of Shirland. The picture above is Alex (far left) with water to his knees while standing on the road that leads right out of town to the south. Over several days the level rose rapidly and made for quite the spectacle for gawkers!




This is another view...the water whould be about 5' lower. Alex enjoyed riding his bike through the water the first few days when it was much lower, but that all ended the day a muskrat swam at him and hit/bit his bike tire! He saw it coming and didn't quite know what it was til it got right up close.



The water has all receded now and pretty much all that is left is the mud, fields of corn that have been ruined, a new, vicious crop of blood sucking mosquitoes, and lots of May flies that have apparently hatched and are little moths that rise in clouds around you as you walk or mow grass....something that I've never seen here before.....

Alex turned 15 this week which is kind of an "off" birthday.....just sort of waiting now for the big 16! He's been driving with us a bit already so I'm sure we will step this up more over the next 12 months as he gets closer to this milestone and the coveted driver's license....more gray hairs for me, I'm sure!

This past week was spent getting our ducks in order for the beginning of the school year so that the last weeks are not too hectic. Alex is starting high school and is required to wear a gym uniform so we picked up that and walked out $50 poorer.......Alex and Mariah had eye exams and both needed a change in prescriptions. Mariah has a cute new pair of glasses and Alex is sporting contacts. Yesterday he got them and did pretty good getting them in and out.

Our school has gone through many changes/pains in the last year dealing with administration and budget issues and this has taken up lots of Ken's time as he is a board member. Hopefully things will move along a little better now since a new principle and a 1/2 time superintendent have been hired. These people seem to know what they are doing and hopefully can get up to speed quickly before school starts in 2 1/2 weeks!

Belated 5th anniversary wishes to brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Michelle! I remember the wedding day so well....those 5 years went pretty fast and look at all the changes in your lives since then ;-) Also, early birthday wishes to mom, Teresa, on Sunday! I won't post your age since it's only a number and we are only as old as we feel, right?!!!!

Urgent Update!

I must correct my earlier post in regards to Ethan and the piano. Apparently it was JOSH who discovered this darling piano and conned Ethan into being his partner in crime! I'm so used to Ethan doing this and since Ethan is the one who kept talking about it I somehow missed the fact of who it was that actually found the ad. It's those quiet ones who must be watched more carefully from now on!

A few pictures from the last two weeks.....

Dearest son Ethan loves to scour the free ads on Craigslist and is always finding "interesting" items. He always asks me about them, knowing full well that I will try my hardest to help him see why he does not need the item. Well, this past week, while Ken, Alex, Mariah and I were on a mini vacation, he found a free ad for a piano and decided that it had Ethan written all over it!



Ethan and Josh took off to find this wonderful gem and lugged it home. It turns out to be an 1863 Bauer square grand piano that was brought by wagon from back east and the original owners paid $2,000 for it at that time. The value now......who knows! It needs much work.....sigh......and it takes up a lot of space in our barn......



This is the lake view in MN where we spent a few days with wonderful friends last week. Mariah got to ski, both kids went tubing, fishing, paddle boating, swimming and scuba diving. It was a much needed break and we are grateful to our hosts for their hospitality.



Mariah learned how to use the scuba equipment in our pool before heading to MN to try it in the bigger body of water.



We had an infestation of ants in one of our pine trees and tried for several years to kill them but never succeeded. Finally they had done enough damage that the tree was beginning to buckle and we had no other option but to take it down. Within 45 minutes the tree trimmer had stripped the branches and dropped the tree right where we wanted it.

That was the past week around here. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

It's Me Again!

The Pieper clan


The Harrar's



The Iiams gang



Sean, Cami, and Bruce enjoying the day.



Rex and Amy waiting for the parade to start.



Mia, Logan, and Mariah playing on Grandma's back steps.



In our family, Scrabble is the game of choice and it can get pretty competitive!



The girl cousins take on the boy cousins in the pool.



A toast to a great family reunion!



Max must be part fish because he stayed in the pool way longer than anyone else!



Little Logan enjoying a game of "Hang on Harvey"



Part of the explosives the boys enjoyed lighting off!



Sean and Alex getting ready to take a drive through town. Later on they drove to the river on this and went fishing!



The boys were pretty happy with their candy haul this year during the parade.



Ken's dad ready and waiting for the parade to begin.


Well, I've been reminded by multiple people that my poor blog has been terribly neglected so here I am again and I'll see what I can do to keep it current.

I haven't blogged since January and I thought about going back month by month to catch up, but that sounded way too time consuming so I think I'll just go back about two weeks.

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in March. That wasn't a good time for all of the kids and grandkids to come for a visit so it was decided that we would all get together the last week of June and into July. We eagerly anticipated and prepared for the arrival of sisters, brother, in-laws, and cousins! The weather was absolutely perfect almost the whole time which was amazing since it was terrible for weeks on end before their arrival and it's been hot and humid since they left!

We were able to do quite a bit of sprucing up of things at my parents place that Ken and I really couldn't do on our own. Many hands make light(er) work! Thanks guys! My sister and mom kept us well fed and the kids did an awesome job pitching in to help.

Some of the other activities included a canoe trip, a visit to the Mennonite grocery store, visiting the newly remodeled children's museum, and of course a lot of swimming! Ken's brother had gotten us a slide last year for our pool and Ken was able to get it installed in time for use while the family was here. It was a hit with kids of all ages!

Probably the highlight of the week, at least for some of the family (you know who you are!) was the 4th of July! The day started out with the parade which was 1/2 hour long and went right past our house. We enjoy very good seats each year in our driveway ;-) The kids loved collecting the candy and this year the big kids (Josh and Ethan) came up with the idea of making a candy bucket which the candy throwers in the parade could attempt to toss into. That proved to be quite entertaining!

The rest of the day was swimming, food, more food, etc....until finally time for the fireworks! Josh and Ethan put on a spectacular show complete with music, for our viewing and listening pleasure, right in our own back yard. The boys and four of their friends had spent quite a bit of time planning this event and it turned out wonderful. Apparently they had told quite a few people (who in turn told people, etc...) that they were doing this, because when I turned on the yard lights at the end of the show there were dozens of people in our yard! People with lawn chairs walking to their cars and I had no idea who they were......! Not sure how we are going to handle this NEXT year....., but perhaps the show has outgrown our yard and will need to be in another location.

The older boys had friends who had come down from MN to help with the show and with the addition of them we ended up with 19 people sleeping here the night of the 4th! I quickly discovered I did not have 19 bath towels.....but we did find places for everyone to sleep and enough towels to go around with just a little bit of creativity! We sure appreciated the loan of the camper from our friends for the two weeks we had it. It provided enough bed space in comfortable, air conditioned accommodations to allow for a good night's sleep for everyone.

All too soon the the visits came to an end and we resumed regular activities. Judging for the 4-H sewing projects took place last Friday and Mariah walked away with a blue ribbon for the dress that she made. Our wonderful friend, Bonnie, graciously agreed to work with her on this project and they did fantastic!

Now we are thinking already of what has to be done before school starts, like physicals, eye dr. appointments, etc....and scheduling them in before our time runs out. Seems like summer is quickly slipping away!

This kind of gets you current with our activities. Hope I can stay up to date now!

The Highs and Lows This Week....

Finally the week that the kids had been waiting months for arrived....Winter Camp!! This is the camp run by our parent church and kids come from all across the U.S. for this. There were even a brother/sister from the Bahamas that came. Most years there are 70-80 campers but this year there were 116! This was the first year Mariah was old enough to go so she and Alex were campers and Ethan was on staff helping teach dance class. He's pretty good at swing dancing! I kind of expected a little more emotion from my daughter as we hugged her and said good bye, but she was a trooper and said "see ya later" and that was it! No tears, no pleading with me not to leave her......sigh.........!

My concern from seeing the dorms last year was how many bunks were crammed into each room and how easily it might be to spread germs.....particularly H1N1 and I expressed those concerns to one of the directors several months ago. They were trying to take that into consideration I was told and would encourage the washing of hands and would try to keep any ill children separated from the healthy ones.

Well off we drove anticipating a week without children and the possibilities of what we would do with our time.....



It was decided that with no kids here it would be a good time to tackle the removal of our bathtub from the second bathroom. It had developed some major problems years ago and when we got the upstairs bathroom done we just kind of put this project on the back burner not quite knowing how to fix it or when to do it. As we drove home from camp we formulated a plan and stopped off at Menard's to look at materials and get ideas.

When we finally got home Monday night we found out that my mom had tripped and fallen the previous day (less than an hour after I had talked with her on the phone!) and had fractured her left ankle bone! She's now in a walking cast and is able to get around a little using a walker.

Tuesday morning we started in on the tub. It's cast iron so it resisted removal pretty good. The sledge hammer was very persuasive, though! After removing that and the flooring we discovered daylight peeking through the wall. That didn't seem right, and when it's only in the 20's out it lets in some pretty cold air too! Ken made good use of his time and after another run to the store was able to get that fixed and then the base started for the shower. We decided not to put a tub in and to just do a shower instead.


It's a little hard to see in the picture, but the limestone foundation is showing at the bottom of the wall and there is a 4 foot deep hole now where the tub used to be! The insulation stuffed in the wall was put there temporarily to close off the holes til Ken got it repaired.

Wednesday I spent the day at my mom and dad's helping with some things over there and taking some food. The problem with a broken foot and living in a two story house means that probably the bedrooms are on the second floor and that is the case at their house! My poor mom now has to try to sleep on the couch or in a recliner. She's tried both couches and the recliner and isn't too happy with any of those arrangements! This is going to be quite a challenge for her.

Ken and I spent the evening with good friends that night playing cards, having dinner and watching some tv and returned quite late to hear this on our answering machine: "Uh this is Ethan.......Well, I'm in the infirmary..............................in isolation...........................well.........ok. See you later." I about had a cow hearing that kind of message and knowing it was too late at night to find out what was wrong!!!! Thankfully Josh came home just minutes after that and he said Ethan had called him and that he had possibly gotten food poisoning!

First thing in the morning I called Ethan and apparently a stomach virus had been spreading through camp which actually started the first day. Ethan was feeling better Thursday, but they were keeping the kids in recovery for 24 hours after the last time they threw up to make sure they were ok. He was fine by Friday.

The problem was that by Thursday night more than 1/2 the camp had come down with this virus and the decision was made Friday morning to close the camp, get as many kids out of there as they could that hadn't gotten sick yet and relieve some of the stress of the health care workers who had been working round the clock to take care of 70 plus kids and adults that were vomiting all over the place!

Ethan called me at 9am Friday to come get Alex and Mariah and some of the other kids from this area so another mom and I took off with two vans to shuttle out as many kids as we could. It was a little hard tracking down all the ones I was taking as the kids had been moved a couple times from dorm to dorm. They kept having to move the well kids out of dorms and turn them into recovery rooms.

I finally got Alex, Mariah, and two other kids and we headed off. Each child was given a large garbage bag for the trip home "just in case" because the urge to "urp" apparently tended to come on suddenly! Mariah was beginning to show signs of getting it so I put her in the front seat so I could get her out the van door suddenly if necessary and off we went. She managed to fall asleep pretty quick and it was a very quiet ride........until.........a voice from the back of the van said "I don't feel so good" and then seconds later......"urp!!!" Thank goodness for the garbage bag! This boy was not even feeling sick an hour earlier! I had brought a roll of paper towels "just in case" so we kept on moving. Thankfully he was the first one I dropped off and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

Mariah went straight to bed and I began doing laundry! Nothing from their trip will be left unwashed! The sleeping bags are going to the laundry mat Sunday after Ethan gets home and I have his also.

This morning Mariah looks pretty good and never did get sick. She might have just been tired, and perhaps all the kids getting sick around her made her queasy. Only time will tell if we get it or not. Of the 116 kids at the camp only 30 had not gotten it and since I had one get it on the way home it takes that number down to 29!

Since the virus seemed to spread so easily and quickly I made the decision to skip church today and keep us in quarantine until Monday to try and keep from passing this around any further.

Hope you all had a better ending to 2009 and that 2010 will get off to a good start for everyone!

When Life Gives You Snow......Make Snowmen!

All this week my kids have done what I think is something strange: they are in the house all day and then when it gets dark they head outside! Are they bats?! Some nights this week they have been out there as late as 10:30pm! We had a bunch of snow that was good for packing and they worked several nights fashioning a fort in the front yard and digging a "cave" into one of the piles from the driveway. Two nights ago, before we got 24 hours of rain, they worked on a snowman. Alas, Mr. Snowman is no more, due to the rain, but it's currently snowing again and we've got a nice new base of fluffy white stuff. Unfortunately for them it won't pack at all. Fortunately for those who have driveways to clean, it will clear easily with a snowblower!



Apparently they got tired before putting the head on this snowman and Mariah improvised!

I think I need a winter hobby so that I'll enjoy the snow more. Cross country skiing perhaps?


I just remembered there is a shovel lying in the back yard that was lost the last time it snowed. I saw it yesterday but didn't go out right then to get it......now I can't find it agian........