Thursday, 23 October 2014

Praise and Thanksgiving...


Praise and Thanksgiving
Let everyone bring
Unto our Father for every good thing
All together joyfully sing
       - song of unknown origin sung in my childhood

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. Here are some snippets.

We went on a nice walk on Monday morning before it was time to prepare the dinner.



Bronwen does pretty well for a 2 year old. She walked up most of the steps by herself, all the way up Mount Scio!



Taking a break with Dad at the top


Our beautiful city.. moody fall skies



Prepping dinner! Brian did most of it but I was the prep cook


The young man all dressed up


The new Mr and Mrs Crocker, our company for the evening


Delicious! Stuffing, beans, brussel sprouts, parsnip and carrot mash, mashed potatoes, and of course turkey with cranberry sauce and gravy.



Last Sunday we had a pancake breakfast since church was cancelled. Here are some of our guests..




Caught these two at a rare quiet moment.


Okay, I'm done reading guys.. time to get up to mischief..


Sliding in the backyard




Friday, 10 October 2014

Fall Fun

Well, it's over a week into October and I must say that fall has been just lovely here in St. John's! It's a lot drier than I remember from previous years... we have had a lot more sun and a lot less RDF! (rain drizzle fog, yes this an official weather term here!).

We have had some fun activities in the last couple weeks... first of all, two of my very best friends (one of them with her adorable daughter who I hadn't even met yet) came out to visit me. You can read about it on my friend's blog here. She was the one taking most of the pictures so I'll leave it to her to tell the story, but we did have a great time!

We have also enjoyed some pumpkin pie, played outside in the crunchy leaves, gone on some rides in the little red wagon, and visited the local Lester's Farm with their pumpkin patch! Here are some pictures from those adventures.

These two were so cute in the wagon.. especially since Bronwen took her job of holding John very seriously. But the moment I stopped to try and take a picture, she wanted to get out. Immediately.


Lots of nice trees around our house! (This is how the rare Newfoundland maple trees change colour... in patches).



At the pumpkin patch. Trying really hard to get a nice picture of the two of them...


Bronwen ran away.


Lets try the hay bale, then she can't run away..


But she can think about where she wants to run to...


And think very hard...


And when I give up, make a break for it.. the tractor!


The corn maze. We had fun until Bronwen decided she didn't want to get lost anymore.



Still having fun here..


On to the animals!


Still my favourites. Though I don't think Bronwen recognized them as rabbits since they are lop-eared..


hey, it's Babe.


This picture has a back story. I was browsing the produce inside the market when Bronwen saw another little girl get an ice cream (clearly she was on an outing with her Grandma). She was quite upset that I was not going to buy her "ice cweem" and shed a few tears. Clearly the lady behind the counter felt sorry for her because she asked me if she could get Bronwen an ice cream. I said, "Well, I wasn't planning on buying her one". She said, "Oh I'll just get her a little scoop on a cone, she can have it." I said, "Sure, why not..". So Bronwen got a free ice cream cone and was quite pleased with herself. She did share it with John though, out of her own free will- she loves to feed him things like her own personal baby.


Feed me sister.


You're my favourite.


Mr Blue Eyes!


Wednesday, 8 October 2014

BC Trip Part 3

After our time up north for the first two sections of our BC trip, we flew down to the Vancouver for the big event and original purpose of our trip- Jon and Rebecca's wedding! My brother married his lovely wife Rebecca on August 22 in Maple Ridge and we were honoured to be there for the joyful occassion.

We were able to see my whole family, plus some members of Brian's family... it was a great chance to catch up with a lot of people!

Here we are with the Pauls at a beach BBQ.


Wedding planning with the groom himself!


Brian the chef making brunch for the Bergshoeff family



Enjoying breakfast with those who came to celebrate with us


John in his handsome suit


Little man!


Family picture! Both the kids look a little grumpy, but it was hot and they were being carted around a lot during naptime..


Little lady takes off the shoes and is much happier walking barefoot..


Mother-son dance!

The dance floor


Beautifully decorated.. I have a talented sister in law!


We spent a day with Mark and Hillary in Vancouver. Here we are enjoying a feast of sushi at the park after church


John's first sushi experience


Unfortunately, I don't have many more pictures than this.. I relied heavily on my mum's picture taking and also the excellent wedding photographer John Kelsey.

So that was the end of our wonderful trip to BC! We were so blessed to be able to see both sets of parents, all of our siblings, all of our nieces and nephews, and quite a few more family members who came out to the wedding. It was a trip that we will remember for a long time!