Tourists in our own Province

Monday morning, our camping adventure brought us all out to experience the Hopewell Rocks. The NB Tides have done a number on those old rocks eh!?

This international camping gang is comprised of (from left to right) Joel, my cousinette Rebecca, Harry Morell's good friend Kat, my brother Ben, my other cousinette Sarah, Mark-Andre, Rebecca's friend Melanie and my beautiful adventurous wife Katie!! Others present were Pascal, Sarah's husband Davie and myself.

When we first got there, we started doing the camera thing. Everyone was getting some great "rock shots". Katie and I decided to make an action shot of us jumping off one of the huge hopewell rocks............well, it was big ok.

I took a few pictures myself, I was dwarfed by the talent of Ph D. Parson, but I like this one. I call it "big rocks, little girl"


The guys soon tired of the photo shoot and decided to climb the cliffs!!





























Pascal was so excited about the Hopewell Rocks that he started flipping out..........literally!!


We ended off our adventure by playing in the Fundy Mud. So pure, so brown, so pasty, so slippery and sooooooo much fun!

Once the fun was done, Katie cleaned off her feet and had me carry her out of the mud with my brute strength *flexing*.


Me on the other hand, I had a lot of brushing to do at the top. They have sweet water guns to help clean off your feet, but the power went out while we were on the beach. We all said our goodbyes after a great pinic lunch and Katie and I headed back to Monk Ton.

I love camping

We needed to leave the wedding a bit early in order to get home do a Canada day show with the African Children’s Choir. So it was about 8:00 when we finally got home. We had a wonderful surprise when we got home from the celebration. We found out that Dee was in town and she was on her way to our house! We spent the evening eating pizza and talking all night long! It was so much fun.

Our church was having a HUGE Canada Day celebration on Sunday, so Dee got to come and hear both the adult and children’s African choir sing! It was a great service. After the service we had a BBQ which had to be moved from outside indoors due to the rain but it was still VERY VERY VERY fun!! The gym was packed with huge blow up things that the all kids (big and old) loved! They also had a free ice cream truck which was one of my favorite things! After watching all the kids have so much fun in this really big blow up train that you could go through like a fun house, we decided to find some kids who were too “scared” to go themselves and took them in. Really this was just a plot to get in on the fun so after eating, Dee and I spend the afternoon running through this train with lots of the kids from the church!

Soon it was time to say goodbye to Dee once again. After Dee left, there was no stopping for us. Within the hour we had our tent, cooler and bags packed and we were off to Fundy to join a group of friends for the night!

Last time I went camping I didn’t really have a great time due to the freezing cold weather but since my husband enjoys camping very much I decided to be a good sport about it and LOVE camping! We enjoyed great fellowship with new and old friends around the fire as we ate smores and spider dogs.

And the two shall become one...

Our weekend started out great!! We were so blessed to be a part of Jamie and Marie-Helene’s wedding. We headed home to Saint John Friday after work and arrived at the Peterson house just in time to enjoy a wonderful meal of Sea food chowder and hot biscuits. When we were finished eating we headed down to the Dayspring building to help decorate for the reception. Once all the decorations had been "sporadically" placed around the room, it was time for bed!




We woke up bright and early to finish up some final touches on the property before getting ready for the morning wedding. We headed into the foggy city of Saint John around 10 am and soon enough the church began filling up with friends and family. After making the groom sweat a little, Marie-Helene and her girls finally showed up. It’s a good thing she had her brothers and the Mainvilles keeping everyone calm with their soothing music!



The wedding was a very beautiful service in both French and English. When it was all over the couple opened the big doors on the old Stone Church to find a beautiful sunny day!!! They took all their pictures at Dayspring, so while they were doing that, everyone had a chance to take their own family pictures, walk around the property and maybe catch a frog or two!




I did however make a point to get a picture of the beautiful bride and groom!!!


The reception was very beautiful with a fabulous spread of food! We all got to enjoy strawberry short cake for dessert and strawberry smoothies for our toasting! When we had finished eating, we enjoyed a slide show presentation of the life of Marie-Helene and Jamie before watching them share their first dance together has husband and wife!



It was a beautiful day filled with God’s blessings and Love!!!

Ocean Fortress

Father's day was great! We all headed to New River Beach for a pinic and day of relaxing. Now when we go to New River Beach, there are only really two things that we do. (A) catch as many crabs as possible or (B) build a giant sand castle and defy the vast and terrible ocean with a highly complex ODS (Ocean Defense System). I think you know which one we picked!

We start by building a castle. Due to the impending threat of the highest tides in the world, time does not permit us to fully exude our creativity, but we have to make something that is worth defending. Shiloh and I worked hard on a central castle with a star tower design.

Emma was busy helping get sand with her dad and she also helped her grandfather create the first level moat defense. Jonah felt that it was necessary to test the walls and moat early on to keep us informed of possible weaknesses. We call this Rapid Defense Development. Build-test-Build-test, and so forth. Jonah can be seen here carrying a live ocean test to the construction site.



The next phase is the Barrier Wall. As most of you know, waves tend to crash into things. Therefore the Barrier Wall's strength becomes the defining feature of the ODS. We used a large bucket to pack sand tightly and dump load after load after load onto the Barrier Wall.


For the final touches, Josh mounted a pepsi look-out tower and then we both worked on a pre-moat defense (these are only possible if you have time before the first wave strikes).


Once the battle started, we carried over a log to help the Barrier Wall. I tried talking the ocean down, but it would not negotiate.


After fighting off the first wave of waves, the castle stood strong, but the ocean was relentless. The Barrier wall kept taking blow after blow. As the waves grew larger, Josh and I knew that the only way to protect the castle was to soften the blows with our bodies.


With all hope lost, Josh and I went on the offensive. In a blaze of fury, we dove and flipped and kicked and belly-flopped the waves to smithereens, but as we looked behind us and saw the seaweed flag sink down, we knew that the war was lost once more.............

Next year we are going to bring concrete!!



We hope you all had a wonderful father's day too!

Micah is very very sneaky

Micah, being the wonderful husband that he is, decided to throw me a birthday party. We usually keep Thursday nights free for our “date night” so, like always, I was getting ready to curl up on the couch with my tea for the evening. Until there was a loud knock at the window. Micah ran to the door to get it and when I got to the door there were all our friends ready to shout Surprise!!! We had such a fun evening with, of course, lots of food.

Micah and Stephen turned the TV around so they could play video games while us girls did what all girls do….chit chat!

I was blessed to have my friends come over and I was very blessed with all the wonderful gifts they brought. After we ate our ice cream sandwiches and our treatza pizza from DQ, we had a time of prayer. It was a wonderful 23^rd birthday!!!

Raclette Party

Even after the 4 days of wedding feasting with Nat and Naomi there was still room in us to enjoy a Raclette Party with friends who where down visiting.

Raclette is a type of cheese from Switzerland that is prepared with vegetables on a special Raclette grill, then it is poured over a potato. We set up 3 different Raclette machines and had one table that was just for holding the potatoes and cheese.

Each grill heats 8 small pans in which each of us melted the Raclette with vegetables (which have been fried on the grill top) and other toppings of his or her choice over the potato. This is such a great way to share a meal together because it takes a few minutes for you to cook everything so it really allows great conversation!

Something new, something old, something borrowed and everything else.......BLUE!!

On the weekend of June 3rd, Micah and I had the privilege of being a part of the wedding of our great friends, Nat and Naomi. The celebrations got underway on Thursday June 1st with the rehearsal. After all the formal stuff was out of the way we headed over to the Phinney’s to enjoy a feast! There was such great food there that I can’t even describe it! It was an early day for all of us on Friday as we headed to the church around 9:00am to start decorating and getting everything ready for the big day.

The bride was even there to help us out!!








Later in the afternoon things did get a little crazy and the Phinney's dog abner had to come help out! Oh little abner, how you've grown!




The wedding day was a little rainy but that didn’t stop anything. The groomsmen carried around these beautiful umbrellas. The ceremony was beautiful with each of the bridesmaids wearing silver. Naomi was wearing a beautiful blue dress! The day was so great!!! ( I can't seem to find a picture of Nat and Naomi. When I get one I will post it)

After the wedding we enjoyed a fun filled reception!!!! Marie-Helene and I were the MC’s and we really had fun telling stories about our dear friends!!! The food was also every delicious….chicken, salmon, rice and vegetables. To top that all off Wedding cake with ice cream!!! God Bless you Nat and Naomi as you begin your journey together. We love you lots!

Get out the Tuxes!

My Brother Ben (shown here at Christmas reading a classic novel to his beloved) is getting married to the beautiful Quebecquoi Johanie! He posted this anouncement on his blog, go check it out!

Ella Mae

We had a special church service over the long weekend were our family and Matt's family dedicated my little cousin Ella Mae to the church. Micah and I had were honored to be asked to be her God parents along with one of Carrie and Matt’s good friends Dawn. Ella was very peaceful during the whole thing and never cried once, not even after the Rev. poured water all down the front of her by mistake.

Part of Micah’s responsibilities of being the “God father” was the wearing of the special baptism hat. This is a very heavy hat made out of solid wood but I married a very strong man who hung in there and was able to carry out the responsibility…

Ok your right Micah didn’t have to wear this “special hat” and your right it’s not even a real hat. It’s the top of the baptism bowl but Micah did think it was a great party hat and tried it on!

The Newsboys

Micah and I had the chance to go and see the Newsboys over the long weekend at Harbor Station. We had such a fun filled day traveling to St. John with my Mom and Dad. While in the city we enjoyed a delicious supper at the beautiful Reversing Falls Restaurant. Micah and my dad enjoyed steak, while I had sea food casserole and mom had baked fish. I took full advantage of this restaurant and even splurged for dessert, blue berry cheese cake, it was fantastic!

Now that we were all really stuff and feeling some what uncomfortable it was time for the show. We got to see a lot of our good friends, old campers and friends that we don’t get to see that often there. We found our seats, then found new seats and got ready for the concert to start.

Micah and Dad both enjoyed using the binoculars!

I happened to get this shot of Micah while he was watching one of the drummers play!

After two opening bands and intermissions the Newsboys finally took the stage. The concert was really great. They were focused on worshiping God and not on being worshiped by the crowd. The lead singer (Peter) gave a great sermon on living for God. It was great to hear such a powerful message by a guy who was looked up to there by many youth group teenagers, young adults, parents and pastors. Peter spook very clearly about being “saved” and asking God into your heart is great but it’s the Power that Jesus has to “transform” us to become a new creation in Christ by shedding off our old sinful behavior that really shows that we are Christians. He talked about the power that music, TV, media, movies and friends have on us and that we need to very careful about what we let into our lives through our eyes and ears. This topic has been one that a lot of our friends have been talking about. Its one that a lot of Christians are now waking up to and saying YES we need to be different and we need to walk away from “worldly” things and get back to the thing that is the MOST important….The word of GOD!!! I feel in my spirit that the message that Peter spoke is going to have an affect on many of the people who were there. I know that it hit home with Micah and I!!!

Sis is in Town

My sister Shiloh is in Monkey Town for a visit. She is actually here blogging with us, we are teaching her the tricks of the trade! It's always a blast hanging out with my sister! Here you can see that she blasted my nose with some tasty butterscoth pudding that Katie made! We will be unveilling my sister's blog address as she gets a laptop and starts to make posts. Love ya sis!

Enjoying the Sun!

We woke up on this bright sunny Monday and decided that it would be a great day to test out our new BBQ at Centennial Park. We called around to our friends and made plans to meet there after everyone was done working for supper. The new grill worked great as we enjoyed sausages, hotdogs, vegetable skewers, garlic and parmesan potatoes, and a delicious Greek salad that Renee made.

While Micah did all the Barbequing the rest of us played a game of Frisbee. It was great fun playing with two people (Renee and Phil) who are both pro-ultimate Frisbee players. Harry, Genieve and I all learned some new moves, which will come in handy for playing with them!

After supper we enjoyed some freezer banana pops! Which were a new creation that was a big hit and tasted delicious! Once those were gone everyone exercised their supper off with more Frisbee and hackie sack.

A Time for Everything

"A time to mourn and a time to dance."
"A time to keep and a time to throw away."
Ecclesiastes 3

Well, I write to you today with mixed emotions. I am overwhelmed with joy at the Lord's provision for us, and I am saddened by the loss of a good friend.



About two weeks ago, I nervously took my little Honda Civic (better known as the Farts mobile for the sticker on the back window) for it's yearly inspection. Inspection time for my car is usually like going to the dentist when you know you have a few cavities. You know it's not going to be pretty, but you hope the bill isn't too much. Fix a brake here, patch some rust there. I was hoping to get one more year out of her, but it was not to be. The car doctors said that she only had 14 days to live. My heart sank as I thought about our 7 years together. She was a good car. Taking me everywhere I needed to go and anything I wanted to bring with me. It took me through the snow covered valleys of Antigonish in frightening Storms to see my love. It carried all my belongings around as I moved from place to place in University. It carried more drums and musical instruments around than any car I know (I once fit a full drum kit, 2 large guitar amps, two guitars and three people in the car!!! Danny and TC, you know what I'm talking about!). It lived a long and useful life, 17 human years! That's like 100 car years, something like dog years. Needless to say, I was a little sad to see it go!


Katie and I immediately started our search for a replacement vehicle. We looked at used cars which seemed pretty expensive and then checked out all the local car shops. The Japanese cars were very impressive, but also carried a heafty price tag. We also looked at GM cars and soon matched up our budget with a little Chevrolet Aveo5. It's one of the cheapest small cars available. I was clearly looking for the quality of Honda in my next car, but the Lord seemed to be guiding us to the Chev. We prayed about it a lot and at one point we almost gave up because even with all the deals that GM wanted to give us, leasing a new car seemed impossible for us in our situation. Sunday came and different people prayed that God would provide a functional car for us so that we can do his work. Our pastor even put his big hands on my shoulders and prayed in faith that God would provide. Well, that evening, God brought two people to our house that gave us the exact amount of money that we needed to finance the car! It was amazing!!! Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus! The next week, we marched back to the lot and began the process of signing papers and stuff. Marco was a huge help and explained everything we needed to know. He passed all my tests and if anyone needs a car, he is an honest salesman (at Lounsburry)! Thanks Marco!


We are very humbled and very joyful. God's blessing is almost too much to understand sometimes. One name for God that I know from songs is Jehovah Jireh (Pronounced Ji-rah). Katie and I decided to name our new car "Jirah". It was a sad goodbye, but like King Solomon says: "A time to keep and a time to throw away". The baton has been passed.........

Pandrew Gardens

Well, you know what they say..........."Rain in spring makes things in May" *confused look*, ah yes, "Aprilish showers makes snow peas in August", something to that effect anyway. IT'S GARDEN TIME! So Phil and Genieve live right on the way home from my work and while we were hanging out the other day, Phil and I decided to make a garden in his backyard! In case you didn't know, I am a snow pea freak!! I don't eat them all year because they are so expensive, but come garden time, I get really hyper and start thinking about 6 foot tall vines with my little green friends growing on them. In our little garden Phil and I will be planting peas, carrots, tomatoes and squash. We got the name from combining Peterson and Anderson (which we believe comes from Andrew's son).

First off, we marked out the territory....


Then we started the tilling, without a tiller.....


We found a few worms, so we saved them in a box for a fishing trip!


We finished up and agreed to plant some seeds in a few days!


Overall, we felt pretty manly digging in the dirt and stuff and our beau-ti-ful wifes cheered us on from the balcony! There you have it guys, if you want to capture that young lady's heart, just go get out there and some plant peas..........then invite me over in late July. Happy Planting!!

*mumbling to myself* April flarrots bring May's carrots?