A heat wave passed through Ottawa at the beginning of this month. Even this poor squirrel was exhausted by the heat and humidity! (It was sprawled on the fence for about 5 minutes before it moved.)

The Lockert guys came over to help Patrick build new stairs for the deck. The old ones were rather treacherous.

Whoohooo! I can't believe how a railing could make me so excited...being a Mom has completely changed my view on life.

Here is the first hard copy of Patrick's dissertation, which was sent off to one of his readers before we flew west. Well done honey!

And a lucky treat for the kids...

...we were nearly the last ones off of the plane when we arrived in Edmonton. The pilots were very kind and let the kids sit up in the cockpit for a few minutes. (Brigitte later pointed out that she got the fuzzy chair...oh what they remember!)

Hours later, after months of planning, we managed to...not surprise Kristi with a birthday bash (as we had hoped) but rather celebrate life with all the quirks and stresses. Brigitte brought along her tea-set and made lovely salt and pepper tea.

Oma was such a sport with our very travelled and in-a-different-time-zone-tired kids.

A walk through Edmonton's river valley...one of Canada's most beautiful river valleys, in my opinion.

Alberta rose...