Thursday July 21st

Thursday July 21st

GT and Me drivin the course

Greg Kelly Kari and Darren in beautiful Banff

So many years during the summer holidays I have passed up the opportunity to do certain things and attend certain events because of family needs or cost issues. Today all caution was thrown aside as an event came together of epic proportion but could not be passed up.
I had an Eye appointment with a specialist, ran some errands in the south for an hour and headed home to pack up my golf clubs and some beverages for a road trip to Banff Alberta with my good friend Greg. We stopped in Canmore to pick up Kelly and Kari from the Saddledome and proceeded to the Banff Springs golf course. It was an incredibly beautiful sunny day as we got our power carts and had a spectacular day hitting the golf ball into the bright blue sky and mountain peaks.
Celebratory beverages were shared throughout the day and somehow Darren managed to shoot a game of his life posting score of 81. Had I not missed two short putts of less than 2 feet I would have broken an 80 for the first time in 20 years.
Post game celebrations included a trip to the local watering hole downtown at the Rose and Crown pub. We had a quick visit with a couple managers i knew and the wonderful and talented Weeble (Dave) before heading out of town.

Photobombing King of  Calgary

Nice Drive Moroz

We headed back to Calgary and stopped at Greg's mom and dads house to pick up greg's kids and back to Greg's place. I drove almost home and stopped at Steve's house to visit with him and several other couples to get caught up on Steve's trip to Europe. He had just spent three weeks in Italy and Spain and had some great stories to share. Headed home and did some more packing before calling it a night. We checked in to our flight and are seated three rows from the back of the plane. It should be a spectacular adventure beginning tomorrow evening as the 24 hour countdown is on!

Kelly Girl

Darren and his Dome Girls

Weeble - King of the Banff Springs Golf Course

Best damn score in years.... Thanks for a great day Gang!!

Wednesday July 20th

Wednesday July 20th

Another extremely busy day I spent A few hours in the morning packing. I cleaned the garage a bit more and headed out before 10 AM. I dropped some cables off for a friend, picked up my sunglasses, got fuel for the van,and filled a couple of extra jugs and went into Costco to return an impulse buy a toy from last month. I stopped and picked up a blowtorch I bought online in an auction and then hurried off to Fox Hollow golf course to meet Greg and Chris for a round of golf. Greg dared me to wear a muscle shirt and Jean shorts so I did and they both had a good laugh. I brought a golf shirt along with me and was promptly asked to put it on but we had a good chuckle.
The front nine had its ups and downs with a few oor shots but I kept it under 50. The line was stellar as I shot a 41 and was very pleased. I had to jump in the van and drive all the way back home again to pick up the boys and of the cat to deliver to Krista's mums house. Most of Krista's family were there for supper to visit before many of us went off on different travels across the world. We had a great visit with Tim and caught up on wedding plans for late August. Jessica and her two kids were there while Dan was in Edmonton for a conference.Kristas mom will be watching the kids for the next two days while Jessica heads north to Edmonton to join Dan. Andrew and Bobbi were there with the boys.
It was extremely loud and warm in the small condominium. Everyone went for a nice cream but I headed home to continue packing, cleaning the house and doing some work on the computer.
The boys and I stayed up for a while and watched some of the finals for "America's got talent" and called it a night.

Tuesday July 19th

Tuesday July 19th

The boys stayed up after midnight last night playing video games and we're not too pleased with your dad woke them up at 8:45 this morning to go to the orthodontist. Our house cleaner Judy arrived at 9 AM sharp and made the house look like 1 million bucks. The orthodontist x-rayed Jacob and measured him for his braces which he would be receiving on August 26.

Nicholas unfortunately will have to wear his braces several more months until his teeth move into The proper positions if he wears his elastics regularly.
We went to several stores and then headed home for lunch. The boys did some gaming while dad balance the books for the CCTCA. Nicholas went off to play foot golf with the neighbours and then hang out at their house for supper. I got all the bills paid and more trip planning accomplish this afternoon. I was able to watch the final five episodes of black sails and have them deleted off of the PVR.
Krista came home from work at 5 PM and went off to have a pedicure with a friend.
She returned home and we barbecued some steak and had supper. We watch some television and continued packing and tidying up the house getting ready for our departure on Friday evening. Time is moving so quickly and I hope our whole of the drags a lot slower than our holidays have gone by so far this summer.

Monday July 18th

Monday July 18th

Both boys slept in extremely late but their dad got up early, clean the house and headed to Northeast Calgary to have the van detailed for his lovely wife. They kept it for three hours and clean the interior immaculately by steam cleaning the carpet's and maths and making it look brand-new. I ran a few errands doing some shopping and ran into many different people I knew while out and about. I picked up the van and proceeded home.
The boys and I did a bunch of chores including some yardwork while Nicholas went out to play with some friends and search for Pokémon in the local area.
We were invited out to Rick and Michelle's house for supper to see their new place in Lake McKenzie. We had a spectacular meal and watched another amazing storm Roll through and rain and hail on South Calgary. We returned home after 9 PM and started packing for a trip to Europe. Since Krista decided we were going to backpack, packing was going to be interesting. We started several piles and then watched some television and called it a night.

Sunday, July 17th

Tuesday July 19th

The boys stayed up after midnight last night playing video games and we're not too pleased with your dad woke them up at 8:45 this morning to go to the orthodontist. Our house cleaner Judy arrived at 9 AM sharp and made the house look like 1 million bucks. The orthodontist x-rayed Jacob and measured him for his braces which he would be receiving on August 26.

Nicholas unfortunately will have to wear his braces several more months until his teeth move into The proper positions if he wears his elastics regularly.
We went to several stores and then headed home for lunch. The boys did some gaming while dad balance the books for the CCTCA. Nicholas went off to play foot golf with the neighbours and then hang out at their house for supper. I got all the bills paid and more trip planning accomplish this afternoon. I was able to watch the final five episodes of black sails and have them deleted off of the PVR.
Krista came home from work at 5 PM and went off to have a pedicure with a friend.
She returned home and we barbecued some steak and had supper. We watch some television and continued packing and tidying up the house getting ready for our departure on Friday evening. Time is moving so quickly and I hope our whole of the drags a lot slower than our holidays have gone by so far this summer.

Saturday July 16th

Saturday, July 16th Today was an extremely early start for Nicholas has he had to be at McMahon Stadium for 7:45 AM to try on his football equipment so he could participate in a Calgary dinos junior football camp from 9 to 4 PM Saturday and Sunday. We had signed Nicholas up for this camp a month ago before he got excepted for a job at stampede and with late nights, early mornings and serious tackle football he would sure to be in great shape by the end of the weekend. Krista was not so impressed that she had to drive him early in the morning as well while I got to sleep in. :) When Krista arrived home after 9, we sat down and went through our itinerary for Europe and made numerous changes as well as book some tickets to different tours and events all over the place. It was an extremely productive review of our holiday and before you knew it it was time to head down to the stampede. It was pouring rain again once I got off the train and had to do the mad dash under the umbrella and 1000 people to get in the gates and off to work.

 Nashville North was jampacked with several thousand people and another thousand in line who would wait anywhere from 3 to 5 hours to get in. People are crazy. Time flew by as I prepped tons of beef and buys him as we went through hundreds of burgers and Smokies between 5 and 10 PM. Krista picks Nicholas up from football at 4 PM and came down to the grounds to drop him off for work and proceeded to go to the chuckwagon races after touring the Barnes and the horses with Jacob. They wandered around for a while and then met Nicholas and I are headed back to grannies place to pick up the van. I somehow managed to talk the family into staying for the fireworks and we watched it from the top of Scotsmans Hill Park. It was delayed for 10 minutes but then the 15 minute show was more than worth the wait as it really was exceptional to watch it with the grandstand show in the background with the music while looking down on stampede Park from above. You could see all the fireworks shooting out of the waggons set up all over the back infield and the amount of smoke filled the sky it was quite ominous. By the time we walked back to the van and got home it was after midnight but Krista and I still have to go and retrieve my car from the Ctrain station at Bishop O'Byrne high school. Very exciting day that was enjoyed by everyone.

Friday July 15th

A huge thunderstorm settled into Calgary around Midnight and it rained like the dickens until 2pm.
There was almost 2 inches of rain in 12 hours. It was coming down so hard at one point, that the back yard swales were backing up and my swale covers were floating around the backyard.

The water on the street backed up so badly that we had a lake for a few hours afterwards.

The boys got creative and pulled the kneeboard around behind a bicycle to entertain themselves.

I fixed the woodpile on the side of the house as it was leaning on the neighbours fence - and rather than ask me nicely to deal with it she complained to Krista and made up the biggest lie that she had spoken to me repeatedly? sheesh

The sun arrived at 230 pm and turned into a rather nice day for a while.
  Nicholas and I tacked up and headed for the stampede to work our evening shift and true to form it rained off and on most of the evening. We got out after 10 PM and headed to the train but not before Nicholas had to catch a few Pokémon in the area.  It was sure nice to get moderately early for a change and get a good nights rest.

Thursday, July 14th

Thursday July 14th

These days seem to all be extremely similar when Krista goes to work and Nicholas and I are working stampede.
Today was a bit different as the boys slept in until noon but I was still up by 830 and doing errands around the house before heading out at 9:30. I sat in the chair waiting until 1020 before I was called in only to have the doctor tell me I need another week of eyedrops and I have to come back again before we leave for Europe. Oh joy oh rapture.
I drove up to Southland to pick up the mail for CCTCA. After leaving I decided I needed to have some pancakes so I stopped back in at St. Mary's University and had a quick plateful of sausage and pancakes. While I was there I saw numerous people from Saint Stephen's Ukrainian Catholic Church including Don and Pam Verdonck and Linda Dudar. I had a great visit but had to get home and meet another lady to sell the barbeque I posted online last week.
I spent several more hours cleaning the garage, installing new taillights into the truck and general filing. Jacob gave me a hand and did 20 chores before he was able to have the Wi-Fi back. Nicholas begrudgingly helped me with five chores before gaming. Lunch was had at the crack of 2 PM.
I was so excited to get a phone call from Tracy Yachnik who was in town with her son Phoenix and daughter Sophia as part of their Western Canada adventure from Victoria to Porcupine Plain and back  in two weeks. She had purchased a 1981 motorhome extremely similar to the one her parents owned and decided to go on an adventure.

She stopped by for two hours and we had an outstanding visit before Nicholas and I had to leave to head to the stampede grounds.
Nicholas has been caught up with the new Pokémon game on his phone trying to catch them at different locations around Calgary. He is extremely excited about it and really wants to try it out in Europe when we are there.
The train was completely packed and very busy. When we got down to the grounds, we hurried through the crowd and grabbed a bite to eat before our shift.
It was finally sunny outside for the first time in five days and the crowds were crazy on the grounds. I was extremely busy cutting vegetables and prepping beef and bison.
New bands had started to play yesterday and they are quite good compared to the bands that were playing earlier in the week. The days seem to fly by and the next thing you knew it it was 10 PM and time to go. I picked up Nicholas inside and headed to the train. We arrived at the last stop, jumped in the car, grabbed a Frosty at Wendy's and headed home for 10:30 PM. Krista and I watched some television and got caught up on the events of the day and called it a night. What a fantastic day!

Wednesday, July 13th

Wednesday, July 13th

Once again up very early to start packing and getting everything ready for my gig at René's business Bjornson Designs on Blackfoot/34th Ave. I loaded up all my band equipment and guitars and made it there for 10 AM. I set everything up and started singing at 10:45. My harmonizer worked exceptionally well and everything went very smoothly except for breakfast being several chocolate haystacks and a draft beer.
Andy Sakundiak joined me with his banjo before noon and we started making some fantastic music. We loaded all the band gear into my truck and then caught a ride down in the shuttle to the stampede grounds where we went to the rodeo for the afternoon. It was pretty exciting getting to watch all the events and visiting with many different people.

When the rodeo ended, we all went to Nashville North and did some dancing for a little while. I met a Manitoba girl who only had one arm and we danced a couple of times. She told me her story of how she had lost it when she was five years old in a terrible farming accident with a grain auger. I was absolutely shocked but boy could that girl ever dance!
I started my shift at 5 PM and worked till 10:30 PM. I walked in the pouring rain for an hour in my cowboy boots up the hill 30 blocks back to my truck and were my feet killing me!
I watched the fireworks from the parking lot and then went down to pick up Nicholas because he had to work until 11:45 PM. By the time we got home it was almost 1 AM. Another busy fun day at stampede 2016.

Tuesday July 12th

Tuesday July 12th

I had put our giant IKEA bookshelf for sale on Kijiji six months ago and someone actually wanted to buy it for the price I was asking. The difficulty was that it weighs over 150 pounds and is not easy to get up the stairs from the basement. You can imagine how excited Nicholas and Jacob were to be woken up at 9 AM to help me push this thing up the stairs and get it onto the back of the truck to deliver to Mckenzie Lake.
Nicholas was ecstatic to have the day off from stampede today and did not want to go down and do the rides so instead Jacob brought a friend named Vincenzo.
We parked the truck at the high school and caught the Ctrain as per usual. Vincenzo could not remember ever riding the train so I talked to his mom and she said he had not ridden it since he was five years old and he is now 14.
We arrived at the south end of stampede and got the boys their all day ride tickets and the boys proceeded to go on everything imaginable for the first two hours before it got too lined up and busy.
It was cloudy and threatening rain all day but held off for the most part while the boys were on the rides. There was no lineup for the log ride so I think they went about five times each. Both boys insisted on wasting money trying to win a mini motorcycle but no luck even though Jacob was very close one time. We had Hot dogs and corndogs for lunch and then went indoors to the corral to watch the motorcycle snowmobile ramp demonstration. Time flew by and it was time for me to go to work. Krista came from her office and took over. They all competed in the watergun race to win a T-shirt from the GMC truck display but had no luck as an older lady kicked their butts. Krista went off with them for the remainder of the day and did a lot of rides before it started to rain. By 9 PM she had had enough and took them home so that Jacob could have a sleepover at his friends house.
My day was the usual food prep, barbecue, exceedingly loud country music at Nashville North tent until 10 PM and then home on the train by midnight.

Sunday July 10th

 Sunday July 10th
An extremely busy and late night last night meant we weren't moving too quickly today. After I got up at 11 AM, Krista and Jacob were just returning from his soccer game where he lost a nailbiter two to one. We wrestled Nicholas out of bed and headed over to the Windsor Rose pub in Walden for brunch.
It was outstanding and we had a $20 discount as well as a $25 gift card so it was a beautiful delicious free breakfast! Krista and Nicholas went over to the train to head to work early for 2 PM and Jacob and I did some shopping at shoppers drug Mart and then walked home and caught a ride from Krista when we were half way there.
Once we got home Jacob did some gaming while Krista and I did some chores and then spent some more time organizing our train rides and tours in Italy. We locked down a few things which was highly productive and then I went off to work. Stampede was its usual madness with thousands of people, with some showers off and on all night, and loud loud music all the time everywhere.
Nicholas and I both finished at 11 PM again and headed home on the train arriving after midnight. He has the fortune of being able to sleep 10 to 12 hours whereas his father cannot.

Monday July 11th

Monday July 11th

Spectacularly poor sleep last night waking up on several locations and not being able to get back to sleep meant rolling around in bed till 10 AM. Got up, showered and headed straight for Stampede to go and watch Huey Lewis and the News at the Cowboys tent. I won free tickets from Cowboys last week and wasn't sure if they would work but they did but once I got in I was told it was not allowed to have a backpack so actually had to head on to the grounds to put my backpack at work and then walk all the way back to attend the concert. Friends of mine who were supposed to attend didn't actually end up going so met a few new people and waited impatiently from noon until 230 for Huey to perform. He played 90 minutes and it was a pretty good show but nothing remotely close to how awesome it was at the Bessborough hotel gardens in Saskatoon last summer which was absolutely epic.
When the concert ended I walked over to work and started at 4:30 and worked until 10 PM. It rained off and on most of the night and was quite slow but still kept very busy prepping food and meat all night. I went to pick Nicholas up at 10:15 PM as he was supposed to be done at 10 but there was a scheduling screwup and he had to work until 1115. Had I known that I would've worked an extra hour. Took 45 minutes to get home and once again climbing into bed at 12:30 in the morning isnt exactly my favourite thing to do...

June 2016

June 2016


Darren got to emcee the 2016 Calgary Ukrainian Festival on June 2nd and 3rd

June was an extremely busy month of baseball and swimming for the boys. Here are a few photos / videos of our adventures.

Nicholas gets a nice hit!

Jacob passes level 6 swimming in Okotoks

Trying out the Locked Room before it goes to the Calgary Stampede

Nicholas all dressed up for Grade 9 Graduation

Nicholas and Jacob wrap up a great year in band 

Absolute playing at the door for Avrey and Stephanie's wedding

Absolute rocks it up playing the door

Tuesday July 5th

Tuesday July 5th

Up and busy first thing in the morning but it was cool cloudy with occasional rain showers so we stayed in the house and got a few things done. I made lunch for the boys as usual and did some filing and organizing for the 2017 Calgary city teachers convention. I am the treasurer this year and doing the books takes a lot more time than I thought it would. Thank goodness we have hired an executive assistant to deal with most of the programming but the financial side of things is extremely busy with cheques coming and going all the time.
I had to pick up a couple auction items and run a few errands In the north before meeting up with Cindy to play some mini golf and catch up on our summer plans. We ran to the Italian supermarket and used a gift certificate to get some meat and cheese for our visit with different Cindy and Bruce later this evening.
We stopped in at original Joe's and had a quick bite to eat before parting ways and heading off for our busy summer.
I got to the soccer field around seven and picked up Jacob from his training. We headed home and our company arrived. We had a great visit over wine and cheese and talked about their holiday Italy and all the places they saw and recommended to us. We got some great ideas of what to see and what not to see while we are there. 10 PM rolled around and we called it a night.

Friday July 8th

Friday July 8th

With no curtains over the shutters in the guest bedroom, it is superbright at 4 AM so by 6 AM it is impossible to stay asleep. But I got up and proceeded to tinfoil all the windows so some tartness could be had after the many late nights expected from working at stampede. Once I got that finished, I have some breakfast and started working on the computer to doublecheck all our transportation and accommodation in Europe. Krista phoned and we arranged all our train rides throughout Italy which was problematic as the website kept shutting down and not accepting our credit cards but eventually we got it finished.
The boys made an appearance five minutes to noon so lunch had to be prepared and dishes done. I got the boys to help cut the grass trim as well as house clean for an hour. I puttered around in the garage and then went for a walk down the street to try to find the boat plug that fell off the boat yesterday and luckily I found it several blocks away still on the street. I put the fifth wheel assembly into the truck to prepare for tomorrow when Dan Jessica and I go to the farm to teach them how to hook it up should they use it while we are away on holidays.
The next thing you knew it was 345 and Nicholas and I had to head down to stampede. Today was Nickolas his first day and we were both eager and excited for him to do well. We parked our car at the high school and took the train down. Door to door was 45 minutes spectacular. Nicholas have not had much to eat before we got there but we met his supervisor away he went in working at Deli Manjou making little bread desserts smothered in cinnamon or icing sugar. I left him and wish him well and headed to Nashville North to work at my stand prepping food for the barbecue.
5pm is bbq rush hour and the lineup goes back hallway of people wanting to try either beef burgers, buns and burgers and Smokies, steak on a bun, shredded beef on a bun numerous other Alberta beef and bison products.

The weather has been a bit cooler with the lineup for four hours straight time seems to fly. I have never cut so much meat and vegetables nor done so many dishes in my entire life!! Ha!
Took a quick 10 minute break to go check on Mikalson he appeared to be having a really good time despite gig hungry know if you need any breaks today so I asked his boss if you can run over and grab a quick hot dog and return.
I headed back to work and time went very quickly and the next thing he knew it was 11 PM so I headed home on the train. Nicholas was finished at 10 PM and Krista picked him up she had been downtown already dropping her mom off after picking her up from the airport returning from Ottawa.
I arrived home before midnight and Nicholas was unconscious already! I guess I will have to talk to him in the morning!