Was Canada always this COLD?!?

It was a balmy - 34 degrees Celsius this weekend in Edmonton.  Only the brave venture outdoors on a day like today.  We did so only because we were headed to the doctor to try and fix Kelsey.  She has been hit hard with Strep throat and a couple different ear infections.  So far Tyrn is holding strong.  We are decorating our house with it's Christmas trimming and we have realized that we have some truly ugly Christmas decorations.  It's fun when you pull out things and wonder how you ever came to own such an item and who would actually create something of this calibre in the first place.  We are trying to keep warm and trying to get healthy again.  Those 2 objectives, as well as find special presents for everyone on our list, are our main goals right now.  Once we get our Christmas stuff up, ugly or not, we will take you for a long overdue tour of our house.

Yes, our eye balls are frozen in this picture, in case you were wondering.  It took hours before we could move them again.  Frigid!

A year later...

Wow, what a difference a year makes!  We thought that we had an amazing trip last year and now we are appreciating more and more just how unreal it was.  We are now sitting in Edmonton in our comfy, cozy house and watching the news stories from many of the places we visited a year ago or less.  First Mumbai, we were only in Mumbai for a couple of hours to switch trains last year, but it still seems surreal that it is now in chaos.  Second, Bangkok's airports.  We went through the International Airport in Bangkok a total of 7 times.  That's right SEVEN!  Now, not even a year later, people in the hundreds of thousands are stuck.  Last, Venice is under water.  The water levels raised in the sea and there has been stormy weather which flooded the city.  Looking at pictures on CBC is crazy.  Almost exactly a year ago we were enjoying the floating city and some of the neatest people and experiences that we had on our trip were in Venice.  Now, the pictures show St. Mark's in waist high water and people carrying their luggage over their heads and out of the water as they try to make their way out of the city.  YIKES!! 

We find ourselves often talking and dreaming about what we were doing last year. Well, exactly a year ago we were in one of our absolute favourite countries- Egypt. Thanks to Josh, Marc & Kylie, Jody, Auntie Joan and Uncle Brian, it was truly an amazing time. Brian and Joan are back in Egypt with Jody and their oldest daughter Allison. It definitely makes us want to be there as well. If you want to remember what Egypt was like please feel free to check out such posts as "Superheroes and Day & Night" in the Egypt section.

Last night, Tyrn and I had a great time with my little bro and his fiance. Kevin and Lori are getting married in June this year. Congratulations!


Yep, a year can make a huge difference. This Christmas season we are surrounded by our first white snow coat, and Christmas music is seeping in through the seams. The thing we missed most on our trip was of course our family, and it feels good this year to be able to make plans that involve more than a borrowed laptop and bad connection for Christmas.
K

Proud Parents

For all our friends and family that still check the blog- thanks for sticking with us.
We are embarking on a new adventure with a house, new jobs, married and "settled" for now. There was only one thing that seemed to be missing. Yes, you guessed it, we bought a new laptop! We are proud to say that we have a beautiful, bouncing 15" MacBook Pro. It is amazing! It smells VERY good and we feel so much more connected already. Tyrn is at parent-teacher interviews tonight or I am sure he would want to give you all the P's, Q's and wonderful features of his favourite new toy.

Our Mac commercial.  Isn't he cute!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I LOVE fall.  We really have missed fall and are trying to soak it all up.    

Tyrn and I hosted Thanksgiving for my family.  Of course it was a GREAT time.  Here you see my Dad, brother Kevin & Craig and Ty, trying to get the EXTREMELY heavy freezer out of our basement.
After some deliberation, they were able to move it to the garage.  This was the pre-workout to make room for all that Turkey!

How many Lawson's does it take to make gravy?

My Bro's in the kitchen.

My family.

Armstrong Thanksgiving

Next we headed to Armstrong acres for another amazing day of family and food.

Here we are trying to free up some space for more of Deb's cookin'
The country around Elk Island where Ty's family lives is SPECTACULAR.
This is our leftover tower that we got to take home!  MMMMM... I love Canadian Thanksgiving!
Our apples are still holding strong.  They look like bulbs all hung with care.
We finally feel like we have settled back into home!  I hope that everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and please feel free to drop by anytime.

K

  

I'm a plant in the school play

On Saturday I played a gig with Pre/Post, a slick new project headed by former Plainsay frontman, Mat Halton. Despite the fact that it looks like we're just playing in our living room, there were lots of people in the room and they were diggin' it from what we heard. I'm looking forward to a club show with this band. Stay tuned. The gig was part of the Kaleido Arts Festival put on by Arts on the Ave in Edmonton. You can probably tell we didn't play on the mainstage this weekend by the fact that I'm wearing a tree, but the venue was probably the sweetest of the fest. It was at The Carrot, which is an arts and coffee house on the corner of 118 Ave & 94 St. This area is really spurring an arts community and so if you have a chance, stop in for a great coffee and listen to some tunes or browse the local artisans' offerings du jour.
You can tell by the look on my face in this next one that I had to concentrate really hard in this gig. There was basically no sound monitoring so I had to headphone Jon's beats while trying to sound check myself for the room and the rest of the band. Put me to the test.
keep it funky,
T.

Our New House!
We're not giving props to Val Read here. We moved in on August 29th. Well, lawn chairs, thermarests and toothbrushes anyway.
Kelsey's lil sis, Carla, helped warm the place up with a nice meal on the bed-box table.
Stan and Louise made sure we could see the neighbours.
Combining the homes of two formerly single adults into one is an exercise in compromise. We each had a truck and trailer full of stuff. After traveling and living light, we actually don't have much trouble letting go of 'that old stack of Reader's Digest' or 'that lamp that just needs a new base and shade'.
This is all we need. (the family, not the mullet)
Good Grampas let their Grandaughters pick their nose if they want to.

Rachelle and Dave's Wedding

Ty's sister got married this summer. It was a great day in southern Alberta at their place near Lomond, which is near Vulcan, which is near Lethbridge-ish? Lethbridge is not really near anything.




Sorry for the 2 months sans-blog. After the laptop was stolen we were busy house shopping and moving. We both have started new jobs as well. Ty's teaching at a new-to-him Jr. High school and is re-connecting with long lost bandmates. (Gig this Saturday at The Carrot on 118th Ave - 94 St.) Kelsey is now an education programmer at the Telus World of Science. EVERYTHING IS CHANGING!

We'll tell you more about our house soon, and our great neighborhood.

T & K