Catching Up

Wow... life has been really busy lately.  Lots of little tidbits to update.  The girls have continued with their weekly riding lessons and are really enjoying being able to get outside with the horses.  I need to download a few snapshots from my digital camera and share them.  

We went for our annual family trip to Jasper last weekend and stayed in the cabins at Alpine Village.  Both of my brothers and their families, as well as my parents, were out for the weekend.  It was a pretty laid back weekend with everyone just relaxing and visiting.  The girls had a blast hanging out with their cousins.  I managed to get out for a morning walk along the Athabasca River with my Hasselblad and did a little photography.  We also went on a trail ride with Jasper Stables, through the forest and up onto the bench overlooking the townsite and the Athabasca valley.  Once again, need to download some snapshots and share them.

I have missed the last three hockey games with the Renegades.  First because I was sick, and then because we were away for an extra day for the Jasper trip.  The team was beaten badly, both times by a score of 9-3.  First by Papa Johns Pizza and then by the Raccoons.  Last Friday we played the Raccoons again, but this time, despite a short bench and a backup goalie, the guys managed a 10-7 victory.  I look forward to getting back on the ice with the team tomorrow night.

I've also been trying to catch up on processing my significant backlog of film.  This past week or so I processed several batches of Fuji Neopan Acros 4x5.  This is one of the standard films that I will be continuing to work with and I just need to finalize my preferred developer.  This older stuff was all exposed for processing in Kodak D-76 Developer, so that's what I had to stick with.  I haven't had time to scan all the good shots yet, but here are a few that all date back to 2010 and the first half of 2011.

The annual Dad and Kids camping weekend is coming up this week.  So between hockey games, dance classes and riding lessons, we are trying to find time to pack up the trailer.  Margarit is looking forward to having the weekend to herself so that she can continue with her home renovation project.  She is repainting the walls in our living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway.  She also removed a short section of wall between the kitchen and dining room, and an ugly old shelf unit at our front entrance.  Once the painting is all done, then some of the ceilings will be re-stippled, after which the old flooring... a combination of carpet and lino, will be replaced with new laminate, followed by new baseboards.  A very ambitious project and she is quite excited about it.  I have helped her out with a few little odds and ends, but for the most part she is doing this all on her own.  So the girls and I will be away camping, down to the ranch in the badlands.  A little trail riding, some fishing, hopefully a little photography too.  The forecast is not great, but hopefully that changes before the weekend.  At this point we are expecting around four or five dads and about a dozen kids.