:: Heine & Bonnie ::

Karen and her friend, Rachel.

Here’s a typical scene as everyone prepares to go off on a ride. You may or may not recognize anyone here. There was up to 15 riders at one time when the guys (and Theresa) went out.

You can see Heine fidling with someone’s (I think it’s Helena) motorbike. The grand kids were afraid of the bikes, but at least by the end of the weekend, they were reluctantly willing to sit on them with their mom. We had a great weekend, with 45 people in total. It’s a very dirty weekend, where everyone is more than ready for a shower when they get back home. The nights are very cold. This year was not as bad as most. The evidence was very little bum warming around the fire. This is such a fun and memorable weekend, that we usually have a couple of family members come out from Minneapolis, but this year 7 of them came. Hope you all had a good weekend this year too. Love, Heine and Bonnie

I did it! I’m not sure why we have a lone picture of the 3 grand kids on the site, but I’ll work on it. I did want to add more pictures to the site, but I couldn’t seem to get it. Helena already wrote about our time with them during Spring Break. We enjoyed it immensely, of course, and miss the little grandkids a lot. We are thrilled to have been able to see them 5 times already since July, and already have a couple more times planned in the months coming up. We treated the kids to icecream at DQ These are the shelves that Pake built. Rory didn’t think too much of being put into them at first, but after his sisters got in okay, he also thought it was pretty cool. Breanna is feeding Rory some “delicious food” in the picture to the right. Rory loves to spend quite a bit of time on the couch like is here, under a blanket, with a car in each hand, driving up and down the “hills”. Very cute! I think I’ve got this thing to work for me. Thanks, Helena for showing me. Sara - I can now give you lessons, or I can fax the instructions to you. Congratulations to Doug, Sara, Avi, Jill and Jack on your baptism this past Easter Sunday. Perhaps you could post a little account so we can experience some of it this way. Love, Bonnie

Heine and Karen at a bar in Edmonton playing a trivia game; Shaun is on the left, across from Heine. Theresa and Shaun at Theresa’s apartment Thomas and Mark at Theresa’s apartment Theresa in her ambulance uniform. We had a great time with our kids. On Friday night, Theresa had a nice meal cooked for us, and then we went to the bar to play a trivia game. That was fun. Karen, unfortunately had to work quit a bit while we were there, so we saw her the least. Actually, we saw Brent even less. He did get to go out to dinner with us, though. We went out for Ethiopian food on the Saturday night with all our Edmonton kids, Mark Striker and Karen’s new room mate Mara. On Saturday Theresa and Shaun took us around to a few places in the city. We slept at Shaun’s place for the two nights we were there. That was great! On Sunday morning we all went to church at the Pentecostal Assembly, where most of the kids attend on Sunday nights. It was a great service. On Sunday afternoon, we headed down to Lacombe and spent the evening, night and the next morning with Rick and Joyce and family. On Monday afternoon we ended up in Canmore with our friends, Al and Margriet. They had a chalet for a week (time share). We skied Lake Louise with them on Tuesday. What a huge mountain. We didn’t even touch most of the runs there. On Wednesday we drove back to Chase, where we spent a few more days before heading back home again. Heine changed the lino in the kitchen at our place in Chase. It looks great. We are very blessed to have the friends and family that we do. We love you all!!

(more…)

We just got back home from Ontario this evening. It was a long trip. We visited 5 airports today. It was a 16 hour trip from the time we left Ype and Gail’s until we arrived at our home in Agassiz. Our longest wait was in Calgary for 3 hours and 20 minutes where I ended up getting my hair cut (very short) as well as massage, and Heine had a couple of beer in Montana’s while reading his new book. The time went quite quickly, despite all. We’re home safely, and are of course thankful for that. Thanks to Ype and Gail for hosting us. Your new home is beautiful!!! Thanks to Sid and Arlene for coming out to visit us too! We sure did appreciate that. Thanks to Dave and Brenda for the use of your hot tub. We know that you also put in a bit of time for planning, feeding us, and visiting us. You did poop out on us with the “Phrase” game, though. And of course, it was great to get to know our nephews and neices, as well as their children some more.Besides visiting, we did some walking and “sight seeing” on foot. That was very enjoyable. We drove by the farm on Sunday, and met a number of people a church that we only get to see once a year. It was good to see Beppe again, and hard to say good bye to her. She was laying in bed on Sunday night when we went to say good bye and seemed to have a sense of what was going on. She told me not to cry (in Friesan). Even though it’s next to impossible to hold a conversation with her, it was still good to visit with her. It was Brenda’s turn to sing with a few others from church on Sunday, so Heine and I joined them in that activity. That was a special thing to do.

This is Travis who is trying to look like a monkey.

Sid. This is called break and entry. He’s not the only one who committed the crime.

Dad and Beppe. Beppe no longer walks. She is pretty content staying in the wheel chair. Most of our visit there, she was in a pretty good mood.

The Sunday sing a long (Easter Sunday).

This was my attempt to give you a taste of our holiday.

Bill and Clare: We totally understand your desire to be with your kids and grand daughter. Hope you had a good time.

It’s time for bed now, but I’m glad to have done this. More to come later.

Love, Heine and Bonnie