Here I am, back again after after ten days of no blogging. It was a busy week. I had mentioned in my last blog that we wanted to visit Howard's sister in Edmonton so that's what we did.

We flew from Regina to Edmonton last Tuesday, April 27th. We left our car at the airport and were off after an hour delay. Our niece Mandy was waiting for us at the airport with their van. It was raining off and on as we made our way to Lacombe, less than an hour's drive from the International Airport. We got there just before 11 pm and were soon off to bed in their cosy spare bedroom on the main floor. Seven year old Drew and five year old Ty each have a bedroom in the basement.

The weather continued to be rainy and even snowy on Wednesday night so we didn't spend much time outdoors. Mareena and Gavin live right across the street so we were back and forth several times. On Wednesday Mandy made supper for all of us - stuffed manicotti was the yummy main dish. The next night Mareena treated us to ham and potato klub! I think Howard is finally getting to like this special Norwegian dish that our family (not his!) grew up enjoying as a special treat. We enjoyed visiting with Megan (now 10) Rylan (7) and Nola (soon 4). They each have basement bedrooms too.

This was our first visit to Mareena and Gavin's new home. I love all their closet storage systems from Ikea and wish we lived close to one of those stores. Their clutter free houses really impressed me. (I'm trying to get rid of some of mine now that I'm home. It will take awhile.)

We did get uptown on Thursday for a little shopping and browsing in an antique store and a fabric store. I got a new rotary cutter so am ready to cut pieces for quilts again.

Mandy and Rick just bought a new Catalina camper, drove to Michigan to pick it up. She needed dishes so I was able to help her out with some vintage brown Corelle ones that I had stored in the basement. I packed them among clothes and a quilt and they travelled just fine - all twenty some pounds of them! That's a great way to get rid of clutter.

The sun was shining on Friday morning as Gavin drove us to Edmonton where we met Ardis at Ikea. Gavin bought a bike for himself and one for Megan's birthday on Monday. They also bought games and groceries so made good use of the trip.

Ardis drove us to her son Kris and Stacy's where we spent two nights. It was fun to see Samuel (6) and Ava (soon 4). I had made a denim/flannel quilt for Samuel a couple years ago but hadn't done one for Ava. She was thrilled with the flannel backed one that I bought at the Metochos Ministries silent auction. Each block was different and most had fancy machine stitching in various patterns and colours.

Ardis took us to visit the museum and then to the "pyramids". They are four glass structures each with a different climate and vegetation - arid, temperate, tropical with over 700 types of plants in this Muttart Conservatory. A wedding party was getting their pictures taken in this lovely site.

We even got to watch Ava's first soccer game on Saturday afternoon as it had been postponed from Thursday due to the rain. On Saturday evening we enjoyed the movie "Invictus". Be sure to watch it when you get a chance.

We were up early on Sunday morning and enjoyed some of Stacy's delicious scones before Kris and Ardis drove us to the airport. There wasn't much traffic at 7:15 on Sunday morning! Our flight to Calgary left at 9, we changed planes there and were in Regina by 12:30. We got our luggage, paid our parking fees, found the car and were off to Weyburn in time to catch Abbey's first number in the dance recital at Weyburn Comp. We enjoyed KFC at Clare and Jodi's and spent the night there as it was back to Regina on Monday morning for Howard's eye appointment. We got home about four on Monday afternoon.

Now I have finished unpacking and am looking forward to the arrival of our new Maytag front load washer sometime this week. I'm actually looking forward to washing clothes again!

I almost forgot to tell you about Kris' latest venture. He has designed and makes earrings using a paper method. I love them and bought several pair for gifts. He sells them on Etsy.com and will mail them anywhere.

Well, it feels like bedtime so I will sign off for now and perhaps add a bit in the morning. I wonder if the ground will be white.