The Story Of This Gun........(in my father's words)

"The gun, a Model "Remington Nylon 66" came out in the '60s. The "66" was a designation for the nylon used in the stock. I bought it for $39.95, which in today's money would be about $400.  Inflation, you know.  There was a magazine article about a shooter who set a record by using the same model gun to hit 10,000 small blocks of wood thrown into the air.  That convinced me ". 

"The case is a Christmas present I gave your Mother in about 1956-7 for her to use with her .22. A remington 513 (I think). We had a contest to see who could wrap the presents the best. I included an aspirin tin with a couple of B-Bs to confuse her when she shook the gift. I won the contest that year".

"Enjoy".


This gun and case is now ours to use. I am so glad that I know the story behind it because now it isn't just some gun that we bought somewhere.  If only guns could talk because my parents have lived in many different places! And..... if you could smell the case you would know it must have many stories to tell because it smells old and familiar!

Thank you Daddy for letting us take care of it now!

We Love Regina!

Chris had a conference to attend in Regina last week and asked if I would like to go and I said, "of course I want to go"! We were there for 5 glorious days and enjoyed every single minute of it.  I shopped, we visited good friends and we both just enjoyed being back "home" again for awhile.

Years ago the Mayor of Regina really wanted to get Reginans excited about living there so he came up with a program. There were t-shirts, posters, pins, tags and a bunch of other stuff made and this is where my tag has been for many years. On my backpack. I use this whenever I travel anywhere because I Love Regina!

PS The little lady bug buttons on my backpack were one of my mothers favorite things.

Now this place is a true landmark in Regina. It's on Victoria Avenue and it's very popular! It's been there for as long as Chris can remember. It's only open for maybe 6 months of the year but everyone who is anyone knows the best ice cream in Regina is at the Milky Way. (This picture was taken at 8am in the morning so that's why there isn't a line up around the building.)

This picture was taken while driving down Albert Street. Again, it's early in the morning so it's pretty quiet. Albert Street runs North-South and divides the city right down the middle. It's lined with trees as you head south. All along the right side of the street are most of the historic homes in the city.

This road is called Gordon Road and it runs East-West. We lived down this road about 1/4 mile and to the left. I have driven this road hundreds of times in the 18 years we lived in Regina. This is another road that has huge trees and is so pretty in the summer. There is nothing like Regina in the summer months! The very last tree you see way down at the end of the road used to be the edge of the city but right beyond that is now developed into houses and a shopping center. It just isn't he same anymore.

Okay, now this was a real treat for me. Room service! I felt very spoiled and enjoyed every bite. Yogurt and granola with fresh fruit. Our room was pretty sweet too because we had a corner room on the 24th floor. Seeing the view of the city from that high was really fun. We of course were right downtown so we were able to see 3 of the buildings that Chris built years ago.

This place is not in Regina. It's in Medicine Hat, Alberta but we stopped there on our way to and from Regina because a friend of Chris' from the College raved about it. And now we know why. It has probably 40 different flavors of milkshakes with one of them being called "I don't know".  I asked the lady at the window what the flavor was and she said, "I don't know, but that boy over there just ordered one so you can ask him".  So I did.  He said, "well, it kind of tastes like grape (pause) and kind of like mint". I think I will have to try that the next time we drive thru.

This is just a typical picture of the prairies that you see for kilometers and kilometers and kilometers. It's so nice though because you can see forever and forever and forever!

And this is what we came home to. Everytime Chris and I go somewhere we are always greeted with fresh flowers from Kelly!

Summer Snaps!

I thought I would do a post on random things about this summer. These pictures are not in any particular order because how could I possibly choose just one favorite snap of the summer of 2011?

This bunny appeared in our yard every so often throughout the summer. Guess he liked the clover in our grass!

I guess if someone was to ask me which of these pictures was my favorite I would have to go with this one. I love this Maui Babe sun lotion. I get so brown! Love it.

This is the river that Kelly and I floated down a few times. Really, really fun and relaxing. We float under Whoop-Up (in another picture below) and also the train bridge which just had it's 100th birthday and is still used today.

Every year the town of Cardston hosts the Mini Chuck Wagon Races. They are alot of fun to watch and can get pretty exciting!

These are the huckleberries that I picked at the huckleberry festival last month. I made a crisp with them and it was delicious!

This is Whoop-Up. This road divides Lethbridge from the west side which is where we live so we drive this road alot. At the bottom is a bridge and that is where Kelly I float under. The river is down in the coulies.

These are some of the strawberries I picked and made jam out of for the winter months.

Okay. If someone was to ask me what my second favorite thing about summer was I would have to say the sunroof in my car!

This is the map of Alberta. The 4 pennies are placed on certain cities. From the bottom: Lethbridge. Calgary. Edmonton. Fort McMurray. Caleb drove waayyyyy up north to Fort mcMurray this summer to install alarm systems for Vivint. He also worked in Winnepeg, Regina and Red Deer. I asked him yesterday if he minded all the driving and he said, "no, I am used to it from all the road trips we took growing up". :)

I took this picture from the car on our way to Calgary. Don't you just love a good summer storm? I have got to say though that the summer storms in Saskatchewan beat the summer storms here by a long shot.

This picture is hard to know what you are looking at. You will have to click on it so you can see it better. But set back into the coulies is the University of Lethbidge which is where Chris started working at the beginning of June.

New favorite CD of the summer. It seems to be "very California" to me.

I am very excited about these blueberry bushes that we planted in our yard. I have blueberries almost every morning on my cereal. Can't wait to have fresh ones next summer!

We have a VERY wet corner in our backyard that kills everything we plant. So Chris thought it would be really neat to plant some cat tails there. Early one morning we drove to a spot not too far from our home and dug some up out of the ditch. They are thriving!

This is a picture of the "beach" we go to so I can use my Maui Babe. It's called Park Lake and is only about 10 minutes from our house.

This picture has nothing to do with summer. Not really. It is something I am going to have fun with since Fall is right around the corner. Beatles Rock Band! Boo ya!