Long time no blog

I could say that university was the main reason I haven't kept this blog up, but really it was the classic "oh, it's been so long, I can't catch up" feeling.  The thought of posting a recap of the last several months is overwhelming - so I won't even try. 

But since it's the last day of August, at least it makes sense to have some summer highlights.

It was a sucky spring - we had snow all the way to the end of April, and then after that, it rained:

We did, thankfully, have good weather at the beginning of May when we went up to Calgary for Gabby's wedding. It was awesome staying at Trish and Mike's. I love family get-togethers, not just with my own cousins, but my kid's cousins, and my mom's cousins!

The kids look awesome all dressed up:

Mike more or less willingly unpacked his brand new Rock Band and everyone tried, with varying degrees of success and coolness:

And my mom and her cousins played cards in the basement, oblivious to the noise from above:

It was also the scene of the infamous "Ginnamon Stick Incident", the remembrance of which still puts a hurt on Tim (and also queasiness). The scene of the crime:

That same weekend, the kids concluded another Ukrainian Dance year with the annual Vesna performance, which this year included dancing perogies:

While all the fun was going on, I applied, and was accepted to grad school. This is all good excuse to eat cake.

In June, our fourth - yes, fourth! cousin Cindy Fuentes Grey visited Langley and mom flew me down to meet her. It was amazing how family still feels so much like family, even if your common ancestor is a great great great grandfather. Here's Mom, Cindy, and Cris, in front of Gassy Jack, bemoaning the gentrification of Gastown in Vancouver.

Back in Lethbridge, it got hot, hitting temperatures of 37 to 38 at the end of June. This all ended on Canada Day, when we were hit by a flash flood. Behold the wrath, or at least the hissy-fit-ness, of nature!

The highlight of the summer was the Verzosa Family Reunion. In actual fact, our immediate family made up 90% of the attendees, but it was SO exciting to see Liana, Judy and Tita Carmen from Ontario, and Voltaire from Las Vegas, that it was a huge celebration. The entire photo collection , with pictures of the reunion as well as the slideshow of Verzosa family history can be seen here, but here's the whole gang:

The reunion was a huge success probably warrants a whole post on its own, which I'll get to - er, later. Meanwhile, I just realized I need to upload some pictures of Isabel, Rosa, Trish and Mira's visit in early July, so more in another post.