Calabogie Lake

This weekend we headed up to the McVeigh's cottage on Calabogie lake. This is a pic of Alexander and Hanna Rose on the Seadoo with Sean (owner/builder of the cottage). The kids had a lot of fun tubing, and riding the Seadoo. They also have a water trampoline that was a big hit. Sean and Carla just finished the cottage about two weeks ago and it is a beautiful spot. Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators is building a cottage right beside them. Hanna Rose is looking after the rope for the tubers in this pic. A great day at the lake. In the evening several of us went for a tour on the bikes / atv's. There are some great trails at Calabogie and also a track and sandpit right near their cottage. A good run.

The soccer season wrapped up last night for Alexander. He played in the Ottawa Premier league at the Under 10 age group. He was an under 9 player but ended up playing up a year. It was a pretty good experience for him. Their team finished in 6th place out of 15 teams and on many nights he faced a lot of shots. He ended up tied in the league for first place in shut-outs (3 in total). Considering it was his first full season as a goalkeeper we are thrilled at the progress he made this year. Alexander making a save off of a corner kick.
Alexander coming off the line for a challenge. As you can see, we were a bit outnumbered here. This was a fairly regular occurance on our team - which in one way was good for Alexander as he was never bored!
Alexander coming off the line to fight for a 50/50 ball. He ended up slide tackling the ball against a fairly large opponent and making the save.

That is it for my soccer pics for the '08 soccer season. Bring on hockey!! We have one week between the end of soccer and the start of hockey. We are going this weekend to Syracuse and Buffalo. Alexander and I are going to a Buffalo Bills vs. Detroit Lions NFL game while the girls do some shopping. Stay tuned.

End of Hanna Rose's Soccer Season

This weekend saw Hanna Rose's soccer season wrap up. The Greely Storm Hawks did tremendous this summer by going undefeated. The girls posted a 13 wins, 0 losses, and 2 ties record. Next year these girls are of age to try out for competitive soccer and certainly there are several that could make the jump from house league. I head coached the team and had a lot of fun doing so as the girls were great listeners and always tried their best. We really were the only team in the league that played positionally and passed the ball around. Here is a picture of Hanna Rose dribbling the ball. I think this picture is kind of neat because it shows that we do play our positions. There are 6 purple jerseys in this picture chasing Hanna Rose. By the way, house league is 6 against 6 plus a goalkeeper.
Alexander took this picture and he was quite proud that he caught Hanna Rose with some air time. The next frame of this pic is Hanna Rose face planting in the grass!
Hanna Rose in stride scoping out the play.

Dirt Biking Fever

Since Darrell is helping me learn this blogging I deleted several previous posts and have reposted some pics in the new format. Here is a pic of Alec riding at a spot across from the Rideau Carleton Raceway. A great spot for biking. Duane and Alec taking a break from biking on a beautiful Ottawa afternoon.
Duane cleaning out the carbon on Alec's bike. A Yamaha PW80 two stroke.
Duane getting some front wheel air on one of the two oval tracks. 3rd gear and jamming!
Happy Calli. Calli loves when it is her turn to have a ride on the bike. We were just after coming down a steep hill and then through the middle of a good puddle. When Alec saw how deep the puddle was he opted to take the side route.

Chilling with the Gillis family

We were able to spend a couple of great days hanging out and visiting with Kevin, Carol Ann, Mira, Dane, and Daria. Here is a pic of Kevin and the kids after returning from a drive in the convertable. A great way to cool down on a warm Windsor afternoon.

Kevin and his 1966 Pontiac GTO. Duane had just finished cleaning a bunch of the carbon out of the engine while driving beside a Mustang on Riverside Drive. Kevin and I were teenagers again like the days back in Mabou...hee, hee.

Sandy and Rosie's house: The New Look

You won't recognize the kitchen as it is minus a couple of walls and new cupboards and flooring have been added. You can also see the new table and chairs which was a gift from Kevin and Carol Ann - thanks.
This is a picture from inside the screen room after the new windows had been installed. With mother's help we were able to install the new windows. It has really changed the look of the screen room. More nice additions.
A look at the screen room from outside. The windows have four sections to them and you can put all up or down or somewhere in between. Very nice!

Chestico Days Road Race and Salmon Hole

Cathy participated in the 8 kilometre road race this year at Chestico Days. This is a pic of her coming to the finish line. She placed third in the Master Womans category!
Danette also ran in the race and had a very strong showing. She and Cathy look like they are ready to run another one!
Duane, Alexander, Hanna Rose, Calli, and Cathy spent the day at the Salmon Hole with Cheryl, Mitch and Ceilidh. Despite the overcast weather, it was a great day.

Mitch, Cheryl, and Ceilidh chilling in the river.

Molly and Rosie

This is the last picture we took in the screen room before we put in the new windows. Molly and mother are having some bonding time. Calli told mom that Molly needed to brush her teeth. Mom told Calli that she couldn't use her tooth brush to brush a dogs teeth. Calli was quick to point out that she wasn't going to use her own toothbrush, she was going to use grandma's!!


Alexander put through several tanks of gas while dirt biking in Cape Breton. Lots of places to go and lots of fun. In this pic he is driving at the Peeters' in Brook Village. Alexander is quick to point out that his front wheel is off the ground in this pic.

The first weekend at home was spent with the Mabou Consolidated class of 1988. JP, Wade and I cranked out quite a few tunes and pints that night. It was a great weekend with lots of laughs.




Class of 88: back row L-R
Perry Cu, Floyd, Raymond, Robert, Richard, Brian, JP, Wade, Duane
Lori Ann, Nicole, Leslie, Margie, Neila, Leona, Cheryl
Suzanne, Laureen, Christina, Mary.

Fishing in Rankinville

Our fist day on vacation in Cape Breton

We drove the dirt bikes down to the brook in Rankinville and did some fishing. Alexander and Hanna Rose both caught a brook trout and Calli was not quite as lucky. Everybody had fun all the same.