Wow the month of April has come and gone in a blink! What's happened in May? Well first of all my dear cousin Sandy got married to her beau Mark, but unfortunately we couldn't afford to make it to Ontario. She's also expecting in the fall and I'm so excited and happy for them!
At the end of the month we flew to Calgary to catch a long drive to Regina with Wayne's cousin Steve and family. We met the rest of the family to bury Dad Cassidy's ashes at the RCMP Depot's cemetery. Sadly he passed away when Sam was just 3 months old (refer to 2005 archives). At the same time we took Nanny's ashes along, as Regina was her hometown. This was a big trip for all of us, but despite the circumstances it was nice to see everyone again.
Lucky for Sammy there was a big waterslide at the hotel!!On my side of the family, the Hagens had a family reunion. Unfortunately it landed on the same weekend we left for Regina, but there will be another one next year or so. Hagen reunions started at my grandma and grandpa's in Forestburg, Alberta on their farm they named the "Flying Shirttail" in 1973. Family reunions became the "Flying Shirt Tail Shoot-out" every long weekend in Sept. when everyone competed for various awards shooting clay pigeons out into the field. This was a Hagen tradition until grandpa and grandma sold the farm in the early 80's and moved to Camrose. THEN came the first Hagen Fish-Out, which was moved to the "Redwing", my great uncle and aunt's log cabin at Lac La Nonne, AB in 1984. Instead of shooting clay pigeons, everyone went out fishing for their awards. Now that all of us kids have grown up, we're asked to round up our own kids and grab the 'grandfolks' for the 35th anniversary for yet another Hagen Round-Up in Devon. I cannot wait to see pictures. Thank goodness for Facebook, as I've been keeping in touch with one of my cousins, so I hope to view some great pics of this event! Aaaahh, so many memories from the good ol' days. I can't wait to finally see and meet the new members of our family another time!
Back on the homefront, I'm still saving us some money and making our own whole wheat whole grain bread. As I mentioned before, at the cost of bread these days and the amount of it that we go through in a week, I've come to no choice but to bake it myself. My dear best friend in Ottawa has told me she's also doing the same thing and as she's calculated, it's only costing to make a whole loaf for about 25 cents! I would be buying the same bread for $3 or more @ about 3 or 4 loaves.
I started my landscaping and dug 2 ft. trenches all the way around the retaining wall. I planted 3 lavender shrubs and made a pathway with the red lava rock I took from the front yard. Stay tuned for more as I work in stages.
