Well It's Been a Moment :)

 Gosh it's been a while.  I have no pictures this time, just some memories to document. 

Blake's ball team had a fun wrap up party.  They all went out for dinner and then played some scrimmages together. They had a gift for the coaches and just hung out.  They timed it to have wrap up go right into drop in.  Dave and Blake have enjoyed going to drop in together and playing ball.

One of Dave's aunts past away.  We took Blake out of school and went up to her funeral.  We sure love hanging out with Blake.  He really is a spectacular kid.  It was a very nice funeral.  Lots of great stories.  I never really knew her, but after listening to all the stories, I would love to get her biography and read it.  She seemed like a nice lady.  The first talk was given by one of her sons.  He started out by saying he needed to thank someone in the audience.  He went on to say some very nice things about Dave, he talked about how at his Uncle Dave's funeral his son Dave spoke.  And how it was uplifting and made him laugh, great memories but he could feel the peace. How it was a turning point for him in his life.  Later he found Dave and they talked about it more.  He thanked Dave again, Dave said he thought he was giving him way to much credit.  This guy said, no that talk had truly turned his life around and changed him for the better.  It was very humbling and kind of him and it was interesting to learn the impact Dave had had. We got to see most of Dave's side of the family which I haven't seen for years.  It was a nice day. 

We had a really great stake conference a few weeks ago. Our stake presidency was changed.  I think our old presidency did a great job and they will be missed.  Very excited for our new presidency, they are going to be amazing.  We were able to have Elder Hamilton and Elder Griffin come visit for our conference.  They were excellent.  I loved their talks and stories.  Very personable and funny.  Dave had to go early for leadership Saturday night.  I decided to just watch online since gas prices are insane now.  We all went down Sunday and got there very early to get a seat.  After the great messages and conference was over, Blake had Stake Youth Committee Meetings. We planned ahead with dinner in the crock pot, knowing we were going to be right ready to eat when we got home. 

There was one last basketball game.  The All-Star game was hosted in our high school this year.  We went up to support the two from Blake's team that had been chosen and just to get to watch one more game.  I have always loved the All-Star game.  Cora played twice and Leah was picked to play her last year, then everything went down with her team and she wasn't able to.  Still sad about that.  But it is fun to watch those that have played against each other all season, come together and be united.  It is just a fun game.  We got there part way through the girls game.  Dave and Blake needed to feed cows first and got it done in record time. When we walked in it was PACKED. More people then I have every seen at one of our games.  We were standing along the edges.  Blake got asked to run the camera for the boys game.  He wasn't super excited.  We took a few extra chairs into the crows nest and squished in. It was pretty fun. 

Stake dances have opened back up again.  Just turned out that there were two last weekend.  Blake has hated dances, he didn't have a great experience the first and only time he went.  But some friends convinced him to go.  I thought he was going to back out right up until he walked out the door.  Came home super excited.  He had loved it.  Had a blast, meet new people and is ready to go next time. I was glad he had such a good time.

We won't be preg testing cows this time around.  Didn't get it booked in time.  So I guess we are going on a wing and a prayer :) Last week we got together with Jared and Emry and got them all sprayed and into the pasture where we calf.  We had invited the girls and their friends down, but they were not able to make it.  Ended up being a good thing since it only took us just over an hour.  Would have been a long drive for that short amount of time of work.  But we are really hoping they can all come when we move cows.  We can use the extra hands then and it is a fun activity to do.  Growing up we always had friends and family come along.  Dad would plan the cattle drives so when we came back from school etc we could be involved.  It was a big fun family activity that ended with mom's amazing sloppy joes. Good memories. Ones I hope to build with our growing family and that it will be an activity they look forward to being involved in with spouses and kids on day. 

I am really enjoying working at the clinic.  They have started training me to do referrals as well.  I am a little intimated by that, but am starting to get the hang of it.  I work with great people and it is so fun for me to be back in the medical environment.  Dave's work is also going well.  We are sure thankful for the job he has.  And for the kid's.  They all have good job's and people they work with.  Cora and Ammon are having fun and Leah is living her best life. She has had a lot of stomach problems the last 6-7 months.  Finally got a recommended Dr in Edmonton she could see.  After some tests they are pretty sure she had an aggressive ulcer, which explains so much about her lack of sleep and nausea and general health.  Hoping when she starts her Rx that it will help and she can finally be pain free. 

Life continues to be great and we feel overwhelmingly blessed.

Basketball Wrap

Basketball season is finished for the year.  It has been a great one.  We really like Blake's coaches this year and really hope they come back for his final year.  By the end we were able to attend in person with out masks and no limit on numbers.  It was great.  By volunteering to score keep, Dave and I were able to attend every game in person, even when things were shut down.  They has some tough games but overall it was good. 

This kid can jump.  It is amazing to see him grab rebounds, especially when he puts it straight back up. It's a sweet shot. 

He has enjoyed most of the boys on the team and with no bus we had lots of time to drive together.  Blake didn't want to have a bus and have to travel with everyone, so it worked out great. There were some good tournaments and some close games.  Some they got beat bad, but still a good season. 

At their League Finals, Blake dunked the ball in warm-up.  He has been able to touch rim for a year and a bit, but kept trying for the dunk. And he got it.  I was glad Emry got a video of it, I kept missing it.  He was pretty proud and it got him pumped up for his game. 

We are so glad he got to play this year.  He was getting a little tired of the constant going out and ball 3-5 times a week.  He was exhausted from late nights and travel.  Monday he was ok that it might be their last game.  Said he would miss it again for sure in a month or two, but was ready to be done.  It was a fantastic game to go out on.  Neck and neck, it could have gone either way. They played as a team, no one was angry, Blake played so good.  A super great game.  They lost by 3 points.  Later that night Blake said nope he wished they were playing the next night, he missed it already. :) Can't wait till next season.  For now Dave and Blake are going to drop in ball together. 

 

Reading Week

The last few month Blake had been meeting with the Stake YM's and a few YM in the stake to plan a winter camp.  Blake was very excited as he has never been on a YM's camp.  They just haven't done them in our ward.  Reading week was when it was planned for.  Leading up to it they got the activities finalized and numbers in. They stayed in heated cabins, which was good since those three days were bitterly cold.  In the end from our ward only Jared, Calum, Armin and Blake attended.  Blake met up with some of his friends from Claresholm and they had a blast together.  They went ice fishing and snow shoeing.  Blake was in charge of teaching them all to build fires.  He had competition set up to make it fun for them all.  He as a little slow getting to the site as they snow shoed in and when he got there, most of the fires were all built.  He thought that was funny.  They ate very good and had lots of snacks.  He told some fun stories about light going on at night and noises, finding a tree house and walking the train tracks.  He enjoyed the firesides and being with so many other YM from the stake.  It was a great experience and he was very pleased to finally have a camp.

I had switched Thursday for Wednesday at work so I could be home when Blake was. (Well originally it was to go to Justin's reception, but yet another wedding event I have missed :( ) Wednesday night Dave announced he had Thursday night and that he was taking Blake to Fernie to ski.  I thought that funny.  I had a lovely day by myself.  It was pretty sketchy skiing.  Mostly icy runs.  Dave said they had to stay on the easier run because you could literally slide ride off the mountain.  They had fun together anyways.  It has been fun for them to try different hills this year.  Even though they haven't skied much.

Dave is thoroughly enjoying all this time with Blake.

On the weekend we got together with other Puzey's to inoculate the calves. They had not been doing well and we had lost quite a few.  Dave and I had been looking up and researching about pneumonia in cows.  Apparently Jared had has well and had also called the vet.  So we ran them all through again to give them meds.  They seem to be doing better.  It was a warmer day and went well. 

We did not sleep in much on our week off.  Dave and I still had to work.  But we had some fun things and Blake got to go camping.