a collection of what makes up our life here in this part of the world...
seeking balance, being present, living life, celebrating learning, capturing memories, being me
Our main reason for traveling to Edmonton this past weekend was to attend a very large family reunion for my father's side of our family. The Friday evening event was for the "Mundare" family - the location where one of the original siblings set up his business and home, my dad's dad. My dad comes from a family of ten siblings and we grew up attending many family events. I have lots of fun and fond memories of times spent with my many cousins (photo of first cousins who were able to attend is below). Many of them attended on Friday night and it was great to catch up and find out how they were doing. It was also great to see all my aunts and uncles - I don't get to see them very often anymore. It is a good feeling to feel so connected to such a large family!
Adam helped put together a slide show of over 150 photos of my dad's family, some dating back 100 years! This photo is of my grandparents.
The Saturday event, at the same hall, was for all the relatives of all the siblings of the orginial Nowakowsky family. These siblings had all settled in different small communities in northern Alberta. Most of the 150+ people I didn't really know but knew their names and some of their stories.
This photo is just of my dad's (Mundare) family and there was a big photo like this for each family grouping.
The boys busied themselves outdoors with their cousins and other relatives they met for the first time. We enjoyed eating Ukrainian food, hearing stories about family members, learning more about our family history, seeing lots of photos and other family artifacts, and buying some of my Great Aunt Barbara's pysanky for the boys.
The older I get, the more I feel the importance of family history and making sure the stories stay alive. And some photos only help to illustrate the stories!
We decided to arrive a day early for our family reunion and stay a night at the Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall. I didn't really know what to expect. We had been there once when we were in Edmonton for the last family reunion in 1998 so Adam was only 18 months old. I think that time we just walked around a bit and left. This time we took it all in and got a sense of its enormity. I am not a mall girl any more. I don't like shopping and I find the whole thing a bit excessive but I know that WEM is a huge tourist attraction for Edmonton and now, I can see why. We didn't do any shopping at all, but did take in some of the other aspects of the mall.
The boys spent most of Thursday afternoon with their cousins in the World Waterpark. We've been to many a waterpark but nothing compares to this - this place is huge and the variety is amazing. Neil and I did some tube slides with the boys (the family that plays together...) and then they went off with their cousins. Neil and I decided to try a few slides ourselves which was fun.
The boys enjoyed the wave pool with their cousins (try and find them getting crushed by the huge waves and in the middle of the crowds in this video!):
After dinner on "Bourbon Street" we met up with my sister and her two kids in Galaxyland and the boys did one ride with their cousins - a spinny rollercoaster thing. Then we all watched as my nephew and sister did the ridiculously fast, tall and triple-loop rollercoaster. The things mothers do for their children ;)
On Sunday, before we headed for the airport, we visited WEM one more time. The boys had heard about the shooting range there and Neil and I had said probably not all along, before and during this trip. And then my sister, her husband and kids went and did it Saturday morning and talked about how safe it was and it just seemed like an Albertan kind of thing to do. Without the boys knowing, Neil and I decided that we would let them do it because they understood why we had a lot of apprehension about it, respected that and didn't pester us about it at all. We knew this was likely a once in a lifetime thing for them and we knew they would be responsible. But oh, the parental angst I went through. I have very strong feelings about guns but I also know my boys. They have loved archery and target practice and nerf guns and water "shooters" since we finally gave in and let them have those. It is very much about the skill and technique for them and so, because we believe in being responsive and flexible as parents, we let our two boys shoot 9mm pistols with real ammo. They went after zombies on their target sheets. Oh my.
Adam shot a bullseye on his very first shot. The shooting trainers were very impressed and Adam had a perma-smile on for most of the day. Colin enjoyed it too but as you can see in the video, the guns are very powerful and Colin's whole body was affected by each shot. I can't even imagine how that feels. I think the boys are still in shock that we let them do this!
After all that excitement, we had some lunch in the food court and then played some glow in the dark minigolf. I tell ya, that WEM has everything! I can see how families can go for a little holiday there and never leave the building! There's also an ice rink, an aquarium with penguin and seal shows, bumper boats, arcades, theatres and of course, tons of stores and restaurants.
So although I am sure the shopping is great there, we enjoyed many of the other experiences available at West Edmonton Mall. Although we likely won't be back there anytime soon, I've learned to never say never ;)
My father comes from a small town in Alberta with longstanding Ukrainian roots. This past weekend we traveled to Edmonton for a huge family reunion to celebrate my father's family immigrating to Canada in 1912. A celebration of 100 years of a family in Canada.
On Friday morning, we drove out to the small town my dad grew up in, just east of Edmonton. The town has a current population of 712. Adam thought it was amazing that a whole town had fewer people in that his high school! There is one short "main street" and it really is a charming little town. Driving through the town and seeing the house my dad grew up in (with 10 children) brought back all sorts of memories for me. As I was growing up we traveled to Mundare every summer and even spent one Christmas holiday there. My sisters and cousins reminisced about trips to the grotto, the corner candy store, my grandfather's garage (and the chest of pop) and remembering to keep our mouths closed when we were riding our bikes so the bugs wouldn't get in.
There were no grocery stores in town (and still aren't) and I remember my grandmother's huge garden and have heard the stories of the chickens running around in the yard when my dad and his brothers and sisters were young. Families had to be self-sufficient in those days and everything was made "from scratch". I have fond memories of my grandmother's chicken and cream, perogies and doughnuts and butterhorns. Part of that small town, rural life is actually very appealing to me. When we visited when we were younger, we did a drive into the "big" town of Vegreville (which I think only had a population of 3000 now and it has grown so much) to get groceries and other things we needed. The world's largest egg/pysanka is Vegreville's claim to fame.
After some ice cream, we drove back west and stopped at the Ukrainian Village which shows what life was like in Ukrainian villages and homesteads in the early 1900s in Alberta. There were actors in role and traditional costumes and many historic buildings and replicas. We met up here with my sister's family and we all learned a lot about the hard life that early immigrants had in the prairies.
Friday was a full day of history and experiences. Lots of memories and connections for me and hopefully the boys are old enough now to remember this trip and a little glimpse into their grandfather's childhood.
When I first met Neil, he was a triathlete. I swam, biked and ran myself but could not imagine doing all three at the level that he did. Crazy. Over our marriage, I have watched him train for several marathons and when he needed a change from that, he began to train for long distance bike rides (and still keep up the running). Last year he did the RSVP from Seattle to Vancouver and this year he decided he wanted to do a solo ride down to Burlington in Washington state and back. He booked a hotel for an overnight stay, planned his route and on Sunday morning before we all awoke, he was off.
Now that we are texters, I asked Neil to text me every couple of ours to let me know where he was and that he was okay. The texts on the way down were uneventful, on the way back, not so much. There was pouring rain, soaking wet socks and shoes, no brakes and then having to stop and get new brake pads installed and then when he was through the border and on his way home, a flat tire.
We were happy to see him pull up the driveway on Monday evening, exhausted but smiling.
I totally get his need to get away and be on his own for a bit. I think its healthy to be with ourselves and in our heads. With the difficult year he had at work, the need for some peace was much needed.
I have great admiration for this man who sets a goal and is so disciplined in setting up a plan to achieve that goal. He's such an inspiration to me and our boys!
The boys and I drove up to Wood Lake in the Okanagan to spend three days with my sister, niece and nephew. We've been having a "cousins" trip like this for several years now, staying at different places around Kelowna. This year only 4 out of the 7 cousins were together and my niece had two of her friends there so it wasn't quite the same. Just the reality I think, as the cousins get older that things will change. We still maintained some of the boys favourite traditions though - they jumped off the dock into the lake, we rented a boat and they tried some new things.
The boys and my nephew went to a gymnastics place together and they also tried paintball for the first time. We've been saying no for quite a few years now but the place we found up there was more like an amusement centre and our three boys were the only ones playing so it felt like an okay situation to give it a try.
The boys loved it. Colin has a major welt on his arm but he seems to think it was all worth it!
They got to go out on a boat twice and loved wakeboarding again. We talked about the year they learned when an adult needed to go in the water with them to boost them to get them up and how we all cheered like crazy as each of them finally got up and stayed up! They've come a long way!
This year, they also got to try wake surfing which they thought was cool. I didn't go out on the boat with them for this (a first!) which was kind of hard for me. As the boys get older, I know I can't be a part of everything in their lives, but I still want to be ;)
My sister had bought a paddleboard and we all enjoyed paddleboarding on the lake. It was so much more stable than paddleboarding in Hawaii!
We had amazing sunsets both nights on the lake. Many photos were taken...
A trip to the Okanagan would not be the same without a few stops for fresh fruit. I stopped at a cherry orchard in Winfield to buy a huge box of cherries and I also picked up some sour cherries and yellow cherries and then we stopped by Paynter's Market in Westbank on our way home for some ice cream and fruit for the road. Stay tuned for some advetures in the kitchen with cherries!
This week Adam has been in a rowing camp at the UBC Boathouse here on the Fraser River. When I saw it advertised in the paper this spring, I thought it would be perfect for him - a "fast track" camp for those 14-18 year olds with no rowing experience. It was from 12-4 which I knew would make Adam happy as he could still sleep in. It was something new and different. We're all about trying something new and different around here and it's important to us we create opportunities for the boys to try different sports and activities, stretch their minds and see what their bodies can do.
Adam wasn't so sure. He agreed to go and try it out but wasn't super enthusiastic. After the first day, still not so keen. They spent the first day inside on the rowing machines and then on a stationary "stone boat" at the dock.
But the next day...they were out on the water and Adam's attitude changed.
Who knows if Adam will continue with rowing or not, but he learned some new things this week, both about a sport and about himself...and how to deal with blisters on his hands!
Twelve photos on the twelfth day of the month following Ella's Take 12 photo challenge. This month's prompt was to capture the significant scenes of summer and to capture a mixture of photos - some with people, some without, some close-ups and some zoomed out.
Today was a hot sunny day. Sunscreen for Adam as he was out on the water for 4 hours at his rowing camp. Colin had a swimming lesson and then off to fencing. We picked up another basket of red (all the way through) Richmond strawberries on our way home. Many of our July days have started with scones or muffins using fresh local berries - today was raspberry and white chocolate scones. The garden is bursting with growing vegetables and the summer flowers like daisies and hydrangeas are in bloom. The boys enjoy some out of the sun "downtime" playing Minecraft together. I was out at a seminar at UBC this evening and stopped to take in the view (thus, the appropriately named "viewpoint"). As I came home the setting sun was burning into the west-facing facade of our house.
The backyard is definitely a "scene of summer" in our house...during the day it is a place to have water fights, slip 'n slide, take care of the garden or to relax in a deck chair and enjoy the heat with a cold drink . In the evening, the hammocks might come out for some reading, we eat out on the deck and the deck chairs are used to escape the heat of the house for some evening reading. Our backyard is not huge but its our little oasis and especially enjoyed in the summer.
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