Thursday, June 30, 2011

Happy 40th!

While both Steven and I's parents celebrated their wedding anniversaries on June 11th, Steve and Annie's celebration for their 40th was this past week and was a surprise for Annie. Here are a few photo highlights of the event.
Flowers done by Lyn Syring (our wedding planner)

Wedding cake (replica of 40 years ago)

Steven toasting to his parents 40 years together.
The Stokes/Sakaguchi family

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Progress

Tom., onions, pepper, beans, peas, pumpkin, squash, cuc.
While we've stayed very busy these past few weeks, it's good busy. Steven has tackled a few yard projects that have been a couple years in the making and it's all coming together nicely. He tackled the massive task of cleaning the front landscaped area of old chips/soil that had accumulated and was ready to be hauled to the back of the lot so that we could put fresh chips down over weed cloth. Last fall I had finished putting in the last few ornamental shrubs and trees which have included a weeping fountain tree, cherry tree, a couple of evergreen shrubs, Japanese maples and of course a small lily for color. Somehow Abi manages to massively re-arrange the decorate pond rocks which is wonderful as she seems to have an artistic eye and they look great.  We got the raised veg gardens put in while Dad visited back in early spring and Steven got the boxes filled with soil and the surrounding paths covered with cedar chips so we don't have to mow around it. As well, the north flower bed has finally seemed to look like it's been getting attention for the last five years! The white, lavender, purple and yellow iris' are just past their blooming prime. In the mean time, the delphiniums, peonies, rose bushes, clematis and day lilies, and a handful of other lilies are laden with blossoms that I can hardly wait to see burst with colors. Mom brought out a few of her perennials for me to add this spring which included a painted daisy, shasta daisy and another that I fail to name at the moment, but added with the few annuals for color, I'm just thrilled to see the bed blessing us with cheer and color as we enjoy being outside as a family most nights.


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Cherish the Day

After returning from Minnesota, our world took off again. Because I will be training a colleague to pick up some of my caseload while on maternity leave and have to prep the remaining files to be completed before I leave, I am now back to working full time. Abi now goes to Bright Minds Mon-Fri except when Steven has two days off in a row and opts to keep her home with him. And since it's summer and all the families take vacation, it's also "mandatory" season at the fire district. Steven got mandatoried while we were in Minnesota and it looks like he will be again tomorrow but thankfully for just a partial shift so we'll have him home in the evening. When we have a day together, we try to squeeze some fun family time in if possible.  Saturday morning we all rolled out bright and early. Steven got up and was ready to come off a trade shift at 7:30am and Abi and I headed into help price items at the Young Adult Ministry Rummage Sale. It's so wonderful to belong to a church with wonderful people! We arrived and Abi took off to greet all the people she loves; apart from checking in, she followed everybody around all morning. By late morning, we had packed up our car and headed south to Silver Falls State Park and took off to hike the South Falls and Maple Ridge trails. It was a glorious high 70's by the time we were done and enjoyed our picnic and Abi played on the playground before we headed home.