Prince Albert, Sask

After flying out of Mt Tremblant, we headed over to Prince Albert to visit with Karis's family for the week.....and to do a few things around the farm :)  Nothing makes a Z happier than to be productive!

Korey and Rachel came up as well for a few days, along with Rachel's parents Al and Marilyn Deininger.  Connie (Karis' mom) had just had a hip replacement surgery literally two weeks prior, so it was nice to have all of the helping hands to take over cooking/cleaning etc so that Connie wouldn't feel pressure when she was just recovering.

Parents and the three boys

the whole group!

Grandkids

It was awesome as always to see the family, we always love going up there.  Emily was at a special summer program, so we were disappointed not to see her - good thing we go back at Christmas!

While there, the men tackled the chore of finishing the second half of the roof.  You may remember that when we were there two years ago, they did the one side.  Now it was time for the other side.  It literally took from Monday to Friday with Karis, Korey, Kent and Dennis working full-time on it.  Korey left Wednesday and there was another half-day when Karis went in to town with us to get the kids' their equivalent of a Canadian Social Security number (Social insurance number up there)...but the rest was all roof.  The kids got up there and helped as well many times, with Addison being the very first one up on the roof (much to Amy's dismay).

The length of the roof is actually longer than what is in the picture....it was a big job!

Nik & Addison

Zach and Connor

Kaleb and Kaylie

While they were up there, they found the initiatives of Dennis' brothers on the original plywood!

The weather was lovely while we were there, so we were fortunate as it would have been miserable up on the hot roof if there hadn't been some cooler weather some days (while some were pretty warm).

We did our traditional trek to the bowling alley, where the kids had fun bowling this time multiple games.  The 5 pin bowling is a completely different experience than the 10 pin bowling, so it is a lot easier for the smaller hands to do.

No vacation is complete without lots of food and celebrations, so we celebrated all of the summer birthdays while we were together! Lorie and Amy had the same idea separately, so the younger kids baked a cake while the older kids baked cupcakes at her house - so we had lots to enjoy!

We had Rachel's parents, but we were missing Emily so we had 1 extra person than we will at Christmas.  It was a very tight fit so some people migrated to the kitchen table, not sure if we'll all get around the table at Christmas time but we'll give it a try.

The cousins always have a great time hanging out together, it is one of our kids' favorite trips every time - we look forward to seeing them again soon!

Thankfully no-one ended up crying on this, but they sure had fun wrestling in the yard!

No trip is complete without the farming game!

Snuggle time with Papa-Z

And playing on Grandma's electronics

Hanging out on the scaffolding 

These two were our climbers of the week!

 Nik and his Auntie Amy had fun making pancakes every morning for the family - he was a great little chef!

We headed home that Sunday, so we were gone a full two weeks!  It is hard to believe how fast it goes by, that's for sure! We had a lovely time with family and in Mt Tremblant, so we made some really fun memories along the way!

Big bear hug good-bye for the two brothers!