The Hubers of the North

Is the grass really greener over there? Simon and Isaac go on a fact-finding mission.

All of the guys, along with Oma who sat on the bank with a book, took a trip to the Bow River near Shouldice park the other day. I caught one fish (a whitefish) and we all had a great time for an hour or so.

Opa put together his old train set (the link is to a contemporary version of the antique in this post) from when he was a boy - the New York Central. Simon and Isaac loved to watch the train go around and had a blast with it.

It's pretty amazing that a toy that Opa played with at Christmas in the 1950's is still in good working order today. Something tells me that the average Made-in-China, lead-infused-plastic toys that we buy at Wal*Mart this year won't be in working condition in 2057. Now, I might be wrong on that assessment, but I'm willing to take bets if you think that to be the case.

We spent the last week with Joyel's parents and with the Hus family at Family Camp #5 at Green Bay near Westbank in the Okanagan. Much of the time was spent in the sun, by the lake, just relaxing, reading, and watching the kids play in the sand and water. It was great having grandma and grandpa, and aunt and uncle, and three little cousins there to entertain Eli. He sure had a fun time on the beach and listening to the other kids sing at the fireside. He even entertained us with a few impressions.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa babysitting, we were also able to sneak away for our fourth anniversary dinner at the Quail's Gate Estate Winery, where we enjoyed a spectacular view of the lake over the vineyards and had a wonderful dinner of roast chicken and gnocchi and prawns, scallops, and risotto followed up by three varieties (honey almond, pistachio, and chocolate espresso) of crème brûlée and coffee.

After several days of relaxing at camp, we left for home. We had lunch at our favorite stop in Cache Creek, Horsting's Farm. Then we stopped overnight at the 108 Resort where we swam in the pool, had a dinner overlooking the Cariboo, and watched the sunset from the balcony of our executive suite. The next morning we had breakfast at the quaint little Gold Dust Cafe in 100-Mile House, lunch at Granville's Coffee (really fantastic coffee!!) in Quesnel, and arrived at home to enjoy the rest of the Saturday afternoon.

All-in-all it was a very pleasant and relaxing holiday. Many more pictures of our trip are posted in a little album over at Flickr.

All of the guys searched high and low and found their Easter eggs. Well, Eli didn't do much looking, but he was sure excited about his egg... no chocolate for him yet, though. (From top to bottom, Elijah, Ben, Isaac, and Simon)

This is a great picture, taken by Ben, of Simon and Isaac.

Simon just discovered that rose hips contain seeds which are "baby roses."

Isaac, Simon, and Ben helped Opa with replenishing all of the bird feeders.

We had a nice afternoon on Good Friday at Auntie Allene, Uncle Jeremy, Ben, Simon, and Isaac's house. But, before we could get in, we had to get past three Superheroes... SpiderBen, Simon the Squirrel, and Mr. I(saac)ncredible.
We all had a great time there, and a great dinner of cedar plank salmon, rice, and asparagus with chocolate fondue for dessert.
Opa and Oma Huber and Uncle Allan and Auntie J were there too. Elijah had a great time with everyone, and really had fun watching his exciting cousins.
For more pictures of this fun day, scroll down or take a trip to our Flickr site.

The three Hus Superheroes took some time out of their busy crime-fighting schedules to give us some goofy, and not-so-goofy, poses.

Simon the Squirrel had fun with Eli. We think that Eli thought that he was a big, animated stuffy toy.

As you cand see, Simon had a particularly good time during our chocolate fondue.

Auntie J had a great time with Ben, Simon, and Isaac on Good Friday at Allene and Jeremy's house.