Family Time

Well, Wes is sleeping again and so I thought I would spend some time with all of you. First, I'll give you a quick update on Wes. He has one more day of taking his chemo pills, which will be tomorrow (Monday) morning. He is feeling fine except for the extreme fatigue which has been hitting him a bit harder as time goes on. But, all in all he is feeling alright despite the medication.

This past week I've been watching the CTV news reports on the Festival du Voyageur. It reminded me of when our boys were younger and we would go on day trips with them. One of the places we took them too was to see the snow sculptures. We would drive around and look at the various snow sculptures along the streets and in front of different businesses, then we bundled up and walked through the park to see the wonderful displays of snow artistry that many people had spent hours creating.

Seeing the displays they have today compared to way back when it is clear that they have become even more creative than ever. One thing hasn't changed though and that is inevitably the weather never seems to want to cooperate, but that is Manitoba. Some of the displays were nearly reduced to only a shadow of what they once were because of the rain this week, however the artists did not give up, coming back to recreate or repair their sculpture. Ah, to step back in time...

Besides the snow sculptures we would take the boys to other places like the Steinbach museum, Lower Fort Garry, the Grunthal Game Farm & the Children's museum. Or we would spend time with them at Tinkertown, tractor pulls, mud races and rodeos. We would race go-karts at Grand Prix amusements or spend the afternoon in the batting cages. In fall we would wait for the leaves to change and then go for an afternoon hikes through the Pembina Hills.

Come winter we would break out the old ski doo snowmobile and spend the afternoon snowmobiling. Most of the time we would invite our friends Abe & Brenda and their family out for the day. We had so much fun when our families got together.

We would tie a big black inner tube to the back of the sled and the fun would begin. And when the kids had decided that they had had enough fun and went inside to warm up, it was the adults turn to have some excitement.

Well, Wes decided that he would give Brenda and myself a ride on the tube and though we knew we were probably asking for trouble (Wes was not noted for taking any safe routes or speeds with the ski doo) we thought we would go for it.

Well, that was our first mistake, he took us through all of the most interesting areas he could find, up the various snow hills...the wrong way, what's the wrong way to climb a hill you ask? Well if there is a steep side and a sloped side guess which side he would take, does that answer your question? Then we flew through the shelter belt weaving in and out through the trees. He took us into the field and then purposely swing the snowmobile so that the tube would nearly fly around to the front of the ski doo.

Brenda and I hung onto each other for dear life as the snow came out from under the track of the snowmobile dousing our faces and gluing our eyelashes to our face while taking our breath away.

When we could catch our breath our screams could be heard for miles I'm sure, but then Wes decided to take us through the back portion of our yard where there were big fluffy snow drifts and that's when things got really ugly.

Wes picked up the speed just in time to hit a huge drift and without warning Brenda and I popped out of the tube like popcorn in a hot frying pan. She went head first into one snow drift and I flew out the opposite site into another. As we sat up looking like two dazed abominable snowmen, the two men, who had promised to love and cherish us for the rest of our lives stood doubled over laughing like crazy while we tried to catch our breath and wipe the snow from our faces. The guys didn't even ask if we were OK, because they were too busy trying to catch their breath in between the gusts of laughter. The guys have relived that moment time and time again and every time they do it brings the same response...unending mirth...ah, the joys of memories, marriage and friends.

"However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband." Ephesians 5:33

Just a warning to the men out there, the respect comes a lot easier when you're not laughing at your wives!