Finally back in Canada

We finally arrived back in Calgary to find that spring had not sprung and after 7 years in the tropics we did not appreciate the snow!!!!

It was lovely to see our Canadian family after so long---I had not met Grace, Ashley and Aaron’s 3 year old daughter and neither Ken nor I had met Gabe the newest addition to our expanding family.

Isaac at 14 is almost 6 feet tall and Papa is becoming the smallest member of his family. Amy is about to graduate from 4 years of sacrificing to do her nursing degree—Congratulations Amy we are so proud of you!!!

Mike is living with his new partner Angela and they seem to be enjoying life.

I took a trip to Vegreville to spend time with Debra and Dennis for inspiration for my next pottery ventures. Dennis as usual surpassed all expectations and we dined like royalty!! I mixed and tested various glazes and will test more once we arrive in Saltspring Island—our new home.

Next was Gabe’s 2^nd birthday, once again it was nice to share another family milestone.

We “shopped till we dropped” taking advantage of the time and no sales tax in Alberta as we needed new appliances for our Saltspring home which has been rented out for the last 8 years and will be ready for a facelift. Ken bought a 4 wheel drive pick up to work on our 5 acres to help clear logs—I suspect mostly for hunting in September which he and Aaron have been planning for ever since we sold Cop Out.

We will be flying back for Amy’s graduation in a month so will pick it up and drive it back then.

We were driving a U Haul truck from Calgary and were going to pick up our shipment of the 36 boxes shipped from Malaysia from Cop Out.

The drive was uneventful and despite our concerns about clearing our goods it was seamless---we had been unnecessarily worried about the foodstuffs and the furniture we had bought in Borneo but our paperwork was quickly stamped and we were on our way.

We finally arrived at our cottage on Saltspring Island which brings our wonderful 7 year world journey to a close.