Matt's New Toy!

The other night my Opa took my family and my Uncle Ron's out to the Mandarin! We had an awesome time and ate ourselves almost sick! But hey what esle is the Mandarin for?! :)

After we went to my Uncle's and saw his relatively new house. There we also got to check out my cousin Gary's electric guitar. He bought it out in Edson, Alberta when he used to live out there. Anyway he had a nice system and he got Matt all pshyced up about it, so Matt went out last night and got one for himself!

It sounds pretty cool and I'm pretty sure it won't leave Matt's arms for a while! The only way I managed to get this picture is cause he's gone to work...he said this morning when I dropped him off that he's going to be thinking about it all day!

All thanks to Gary! (not a good picture)

Time goes by....

How quickly time flies! While the hours from 7:30-5 in a stifling greenhouse often seem to drag by unbearably slow, when I look back over what has happened in the past few weeks I am amazed again at how fast life is flying by.

Graduation took place and I never posted pictures of the event...I apologize for that. Unfortauntely I still don't have them on this computer so they're still not going to get posted

...maybe sometime in the future...

Here are a few notes on what's happend in the Boekee lives in the past few weeks...

- Track and Field Day came and went and was again one of the hottest days of the year. Devissers came again to our place and stayed the night.

- We had an amazing July the 4th weekend. On Saturday we spent the day in Orono park. Orono celebrated it's 175th year as a town. Some of the festivities included a CF-18 jet which flew overhead and two parachutes (with people - I can't think of the right word) landed on the baseball diamond.

From left to right:

Scott, Matt, Kara, Mike, Chris, Melissa, Nicole, Me, Janita and Susie, with Mark sitting up top.Sunday we left bright and early. We went to church in Toronto and from there we went to my Uncle Art's and Aunt Jeanette's and had an amazing weekend and made memories that will last for years to come.

- Playing in the sand dunes and gravel pits and getting sand in every single part of our body.

- Singing 'The Pirates who don't do anything' and 'The Wheels on the Bus' in our tents at 12:00 in the morning.

- Playing a three hour soccer game with a score of 4-4. How many times did we say 'Next Goal Wins'. We literally played for almost an hour and a half with no scoreing. We finally declared a truce and all won!

Wednesday we welcomed back Opa and David from there 3-week journey out west. They had a wonderful time and we thank God for the safety they had on their trip.

Friday our YP hosted a fundraising baseball game in Orono park. it was a great success, beautiful weather and we had an awesome time.

The latest exciting news is all the rain we've been getting lately. After a long dry couple of months we are finally getting rain again. Our God is faithful...

Last night we had an powerful thunder and hail storm and a breathtaking lightning display. Today again we had little thunderstorms all throughout the day we torrential downpoures which lasted for a few minutes each. The temperature here in Orono was 45 with humidity. Between the pool and our air conditioned bedrooms we are all surviving the heat.

Hoping you all are having an enjoyable summer!

Miscellaneous Pictures

Chris and Cory the other night - Cory said he was paying Chris 5 cents an hour! I think they were pretty desperate for something to do.

Dave and Opa the night before they headed out West!

So far it sounds like they're having a blast. Last I talked to Dave they were in Banff and were spending most of their days walking around Lake Louise. They had beautiful weather (after about a week of straight rain) and they've seen tons of animals, including 3 bears by Lake Louise! I'm so jealous!! Latest addition to the farm. There's 300 of the little things!
When they first came they were adorable, however my brother soon reminded me that 'in six weeks off goes there head'!

Unclear pictures of the sunset.

More pics from Grad to come...

Brockville Conference

8

This past weekend a bunch of your YP group went up to the Brockville Conference. Though I've met some of their young people before this was the first time I actually went there. We had an amazing weekend.

Our speaker was Rev. Jeremy Veldman, and the theme was 'Running the Race'. We had three amazing seminars and I really enjoyed them all.

Saturday aft. after the seminars we went for a hike up Blue Mountian (not the one in Collingwood). Though it was quite a hike and there were a million trillion horsefly's and twice the many mosquitos it was really pretty and and a ton of fun.

Unfortunately my camera is a piece of junk and quickly becoming worse so the pics aren't the greatest quality but here's a few anyway.Standing around before the hike waiting for everyone to come.
From left to right: Natasha, Ashleigh, Mike, Devon, Sarah, ?, Jen, Jason, Matt' shoe, and Chris' shirt.

View from the top of the 'mountian'.

Matt and Issac

Rhonda, Jolena, Nancy and Sarah at the top of the mountian.Jacqueline and Jeremy (our speaker),That evening we went to Dan's house and played some sports and had a campfire.

Sarah (the one waving), Richard and Michelle

We stayed at Ashliegh's place. They had a gorgeous house and property.

Here's the view out of the front windows:

We had an awesome time. Thanks again for everything everyone did! Looking forward to next year's!!

Walk-A-Thon

Today was the annual walk-a-tho for the Precnancy Help Centre. My brothers Dave and Mike raised money this year.Melissa and Rob on the trail. Rob said 'the walk was really, really long and boring. My favourite part was the ice-cream!!'

One of the kids that were there....an amazing piano player. He had the awesomest piano pieces and it was all out of his head. It's so cool to see young kids who can play so good.
Ashton enjoying the jumping castle.

Susie between two of her new-found friends - Samuel and Daniel.

Mike getting a snake painted on his arm. Snakes were all the thing this year, all the kids wanted them.

Susie getting a baby deer, and Owen waiting in line with his 'sword'.

Prizes go to the people who gather the most money. Mike and Dave got first place and their prize: a portable DVD player and an awesome case to go with it. They were thrilled.

The boys with their door prizes. Rob was so stoked about his 'Bubbles Bottle'. :) I'm not sure what the expression on Mike's face is for....

The kids playing in the Jumping Castle. Samuel got his face painted as a Chettah and I think that's what Susie's trying to be....

Anyway all in all it was a good day with awesome weather with lots of fun had for a good cause.

Toronto Zoo

Monday we went to the Toronto Zoo. We had airmiles to use and my Dad had figured we could either get 1/2 the people up the CN Tower or all the family half-way up or everyone could go to the zoo. SO we chose the zoo.

My friend and ancestor!

Random

A zebra - in case you hadn't figured it out!

A giraffe, I've never seen them do the bending at the kness thing....looks very uncomforteable.

A big, fat lazy rhino!

They had so many signs warning of bears it was ridiculous. I mean of couse there's bears, it's a zoo!!! Hello? They made it sound like they have bears wandering all the zoo pathways and you should usually try to avoid them! Duh?


Here's the scariest of all the bears!!! Like the sideways effect? :)


Mr. Boa Constrictor!! David doing one of his favourite things.....chasing the millions upon millions of Canadian Geese that were wandering around the park.

Chris at the man-made but cool waterfalls!

Mike - I'm not sure if he's trying to give me a hug or a punch..? The latter seems more likely.

Susie in the rock caves.

Matt a sittin on the rocks.

Matt and Chris