Well back at it again, I had to leave as the dogs were staring at me wondering what had happened to their morning walk. The picture is Jamie & our best buddy Marty.

Marty looking very stylish in Jamer's butterfly sunglasses. That was also taken the BC Day Weekend as is the one below where Jamie gets to see Darcee again. Apparently they get along quite well and Darce is now known as 'The Other Mother'. Works for me, wait til she has to pay for the wedding dress...

You know, you'd almost think they they liked each other! And you have to admit, they do look alike.

So enough of that, on the 19th of August we headed off to St Johns Nfld with Terry and Ann for some fun and the CDA (mostly fun). We were in St Johns last year and loved it, so we jumped at the chance to go again. Terry is from there and hadn't been back in something like 28 years. They rented a car and we tagged along with them and had a ball. The countryside is so rugged and so beautiful. I can't even imagine what it must be like in the winter though. One cabby told me that in 2001 they had 20 feet of snow!!! TWENTY FREAKIN' FEET!!! Unbelievable! Anyway we did our best to drink all the Bacardi at Kelly's on George St. Soooo wasn't well the next morning. There's just something about Irish music...

There is also the whole thing about what they eat out there. Ann was a trooper, she even tried fish'n'brews! We both tried cod's tongues (apparently they forgot to remove the little slimey thing that holds your tongue down...gross), we tried (we being Ann & I) pork scrunchins, which are tiny cubes of pork fat fried up and oh my God were they good. It really explains why the province has a 32% obescity rate (sorry, don't think that is how you spell it). And then we tried 'partridge berry puddin' cake' with rum (screech) sauce. We all shared one and I think it was possibly the best dessert I have ever eaten. You just wanted to hug yourself and float up in the air. Okay, I digress...sort of explains the butt doesn't it?

I took a lot of photos and had some good luck with some. I love this one. He is another photographer but I think he was just getting photos to put on canvas later.

The other one is just me fooling around with Photoshop.

I wish we'd had time to go to PEI and see Randy and Pearl but it just wasn't in the budget this year. We just got home from that trip and headed off on the boat to Desolation Sound and Squirrel Cove for the long weekend. Lindsay was due on September 3rd and we were anxiously waiting for news of the little munchkin but he still hadn't shown by Monday when we got home. Then Tuesday we got the word, Luke James Margenau came into this world on September 5th, weighing in at 8 lbs 11 ozs. Mom and baby were fine. It still brings tears to my eyes just to write about it. Kyle and Lindsay's mom, Lynne, were there for the birth and our girl did it in just eight hours! Way to go Linds!!! And he is so beautiful!! I would give anything just to be able to hold him. Grandpa is so proud it just cracks me up. He thinks little Luke is the cutest baby he's ever seen. He's already talking about taking him up to the Charlottes fishing. Just Luke and Grandpa. Gotta love it! So without making you wait any longer here's Luke James Margenau...

Isn't he somethin'??

Now that's a summer to remember. A wedding, a wedding announcement and a beautiful little boy. I sooo love our family.

Oh, and I have to say, Kyle, he looks like your dad.

Love all you kids so much, you have no idea.

Sue

Not too long after we got home from our trip we had Lindsay, Kyle and Kyle's parents, John & Carla, and his brother Scott come for a visit which was great. The weather was good so we managed an afternoon out at Henry Bay on Ceara and the guys even got in some diving. I don't think the water is quite as warm as Hawaii. Okay...some diving, some jumping. A great visit though, thoroughly enjoyed the company.

Summer continued with great evenings like this one. That's our friends Terry & Ann enjoying being anchored at Henry Bay.
We didn't get in much boating this year and actually have two, extremely tiny 'for sale' signs in Ceara's windows. Which is even more ridiculous when you realize it's a locked marina. Oh well, maybe some day we will actually list the old girl.

The BC Day weekend was a blast as usual. Jamie & Johnny & Heather came up and it was so great to see them. We spent one evening out at Darcee & Chris' and now the word is that James & John are going to get married out there next September. That would be so cool!!! For those of you who haven't met Chris & Darcee they are the best. It seems all our company gets one night out at their place for a fabulous meal and a lot of laughs. Te picture is Chris and his slightly insane cat Lex.

THE ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL COMOX GLACIER

Taken January 2006 & September 2006, quite the difference a long, hot summer makes!

So this is going to be my blog, I've tried to start one a couple of times but thankfully life has a way of interferring with messing about on computers. But Jim & I have had a wonderful summer and I just wanted to share it with family and friends.

It started with Danny & Jenny getting married June 3rd of the beach in Koh Samui, Thailand. It was absolutely beautiful as is our new daughter-in-law. Everyone one was there except Linds & Kyle but they had a great reason not to be and I will show you him a little later and poor Johnny who had to go to school.

This was my first trip to Asia and I absolutely loved it. Koh Samui was beautiful. Bangkok was crazy, dirty, fun & the shopping was amazing! I even had a few silk outfits made and Jim had a gorgeous suit made for a fraction of the cost it would be here. We stayed at the Oriental in Bangkok and Jamie, Heather & Eden joined us there for 2 nights which was a lot of fun.

After the wedding we all went our separate ways and Jim & I headed to Cambodia for a couple of days. We would have loved to stayed longer but didn't want to miss Dann & Jenn's reception in Tainan. A few years back Dann had toured Cambodia and brought back pictures of Ankor Wat. I was absolutely awestruck so that is where we went and it was everything and more than I expected. I have never been to a country where people are so poor and I wished that we had had more time to meet them. We hired a guide, Sok, to tour the ruins and he was a wonderful young man but seemed very angry and sad. The people are very aware of how rich their politicians are and how terrible poor they are and you can see it's been that way for a very long time. You can see it in the ruins.

The lady on the right was just sitting in the shade but her other children were trying to sell tiny brass souvineers to the tourists. If a policeman showed up they would all disappear into the woods and show right back up as soon as he was gone. Sok warned us not to buy anything as they would swarm you.

Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention, this was the hottest place I have ever been in my life!!! I seriously thought I was going collapse.

From Cambodia we flew back into Bangkok and then headed to Tainan. This reception was for Jenny's family and it was huge. I think there was 250 guests. Very different but we treated very well and had a wonderful time. They don't do big 'weddings' in Taiwan, they do big wedding receptions that are held in 'wedding restaurants'. It's a huge meal with a lot of toasting with cranberry juice which made Jim very sad.