Well I figured I should make a new posting since I know this weekend we are doing something that may cause me to take a couple pictures. By a couple I mean a couple hundred. Yes we are spending time with Mary and Gwen and Joey, Nadine and Jacob may join us as well. Should be a fun day.

Less than 2 months till we go to Ontario. I think everyone is getting excited. I promise that I will pack early as not to stress out my wife like last weekend. And I'll use the new bag she got me instead of a green garbage bag which did the trick as far as I was concerned LOL

Speaking of last weekend we took a drive to the mainland. Like last year on my birthday I wanted to go to the BC Lions football camp which was held in Kamloops this year. I told Patty she should get Friday off and go with me so she did. We took Ben and Ryan with us. The ferry ride was boring as usual and the drive was pretty uneventful for me with tons of construction on the hwy every couple kms. As usual it was pretty stressful for Patty but I'm used to it now. She likes to squeeze the heck out of the door handle. Half way to Merritt her hand was hurting her. We arrived in Merritt a few seconds before 3am and proceeded to wake up Natalie. She was very cheerful for being woke up at that unruly hour but she was expecting us. I had an early morning planned so a quick hug and kiss and I was off to bed.

Shortly after 7 I awoke and got dressed, kissed the wife good morning, goodbye, and one or two just for the heck of it. Then I had to pull myself away from her before I ended up staying. I'm sure she would have liked that but I know she loved the extra sleep.

I was off to Kamloops about an hour away to watch a BC Lions practice. I first went to the stands to sit with other fans then I saw an opening with a keep out sign but ducked under the rope and walked out onto the field. Once I was in and especially with the big lens on the camera no one bothered me. I took some pictures and walked around then after the practice I walked out onto the playing surface and found Andrew Harris who was surprised to see me and we chatted about how camp was going. He said it looked very promising for him this year and that he was going to be starting Sunday against Saskatchewan. He had to go do football stuff so I went mom and dads where I waited in the car for them to get home.



Mom (Carmel, mamasitta) and Dad (Pat) are two of the nicest people you could meet. I haven't spent much time with them since barging into their lives by marrying the love of my life (Their daughter Patty) and wanted to spend some quality time with them this trip. Right away the fed me and made sure I was full then Dad and I took a drive. He showed me around, especially the track they use to do laps on in the winter. It's a huge rec center which has a pool, lots of weight rooms a huge track and basketball and volleyball courts. It's also joined to the stadium where the Lions are practicing so many of them were wandering around. Mom and Dad stay very healthy by walking lots! We left there and went to meet mom at the mall for a cool drink. Dad sat and ate and mom showed me around the big mall. I went into a store to check the price on a BC Lions jersey with #33 Harris on it. You have to order them so I didn't bother at the time.

Mom and dad left there to do some shopping and go home and I went back to the field to take more photos and talk to Andrew some more. On the way home I stopped and rented a movie for us. We sat and chatted and dad showed me around his office and the 3 books hes working on. He was a government worker for many years and has done lots of research for the BC government. One book is on the government dept where he worked for many years, another is a biography on his brother and he is working on his own autobiography. I was going to put about himself but duhhh LOL. We watched the movie then went off to bed. Patty stayed in Merritt to go partying with her sister and friends. I told her what happens in Merritt stays in Merritt LOL.

Saturday was another day or morning of football. It was their fan day and they do it up pretty big. Oh I forgot to mention the temperature that weekend stayed around 29C! Much hotter than on the island. The fan day was ok but pretty much just a practice and I didn't take many photos. The year before they held a scrimmage which is more exciting but because they were playing Sunday they just wanted to walk through plays for the game so there was no contact. Mom and dad showed up and I took mom to meet Andrew and took their picture together. She was so thrilled and everyone says she looked 20 years younger. She thought Andrew was so handsome.



We walked over to meet dad and there he was all dressed up in a nice pink shirt and tie to impress Natalie and Patty when they showed up later. I got mom to take a picture of us.



I truly hope someday I'm as handsome as he is! The pink shirt he had been trying to get for a while. a couple years I think. He wanted it for anti-bullying day. He looked good in it and could where it any day. I said Patty would probably have a heart attack if I ever wore a shirt and tie let alone a pink one.

We went home to meet up with Patty and Natalie and the boys and heard about their exciting adventures in Merritt. They had a fun time but it wasn't football!! They surprised me with a cake and candles. Not 48 thank goodness the smoke alarm would have gone off. I had pretty much forgot it was my birthday although Patty had called that morning to wish me one. I got a message later that Jean and a couple others had called too but sorry I wasn't home to get them. We went for a drive then went back home so Natalie could get her car to return home and wait for a call from her loving Peter! We all went out for supper. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing and the sky was a beautiful red!



Sunday morning we got up and mom made us all breakfast. I took off for a couple hours to see the wolves at the Kamloops Wildlife Park. I ended up taking longer than expected because the wolves were sleeping and they were going to feed them and I wanted to see that. After that it was goodbyes, hugs and kisses and the long drive home. Other than a 2 hour wait in line for the ferry it was pretty uneventful. I think it was less stressful on Patty too!