I'M 6 TODAY!

Hi!

This is Cassia ....... it's my Birthday today - I'm 6 - so Mom said that maybe I would want to say something on the blog today - for all you ...... people.

I can't believe it's my Birthday today! Can I tell you something (I say that a lot) .... ummmm ..... I got a John Deere Tractor for my Birthday.

And....... I was up really early - about 5 ..... Mom said to wait - not to wake my Dad up because he was up real late putting it together. I waited but I was so excited that I just couldn't wait anymore. 

Mom didn't even have her coffee in bed this morning! Her and Dad got right up and I ran out and they watched me ride my tractor from the window.

Here I am at 7:00 this morning - driving around for the first time. It has slow and fast and reverse and a radio and brakes!

I love it!

Dad loves it too. I think that's why I got it for my Birthday. I think that if it's something to do with farming I know I'll get it - Dad likes farming stuff. I don't think Mom likes it as much - but I asked Dad and now I have a John Deere tractor!

Then I came back inside to open my gifts. 

I got lots of cards and things and money from my family and friends. Here is the card from my Auntie Diana and Uncle David. 

Here's some of the stuff. Then I talked to my Oma .... then I talked to my Grandma. My Auntie Q made pajamas especially for me - they glow in the dark.

Then I went back out to my tractor. Look at Rufus beside me. Look at my wagon - I'm pulling my stuffed animals.

Then Dad hung up my pinata. Remember when we saw them in Mexico? Mom said we would make one for my Birthday. I helped a little bit - it is with paper macha. Mom didn't look like she needed help so I let her make it. I love it. It's a star. 

Hahahahah it almost hit me!

Look at all the candy I got.
Mom said that the kinder surprise eggs probably weren't a good in the pinata. 

Yummmmm.... 

Then later Mom made the whipped cream for my cake. Before I wanted an Ariel princess cake ... but then I told Mom that I wanted the same cake that she had but with blue icing. Blue is my favourite colour. Mom looked happy about that.

I put the candles on ...... I'm 6 but I wanted more candles.

I love my cake - it's blue. I love Blue. Yum.

After that Mom and I went for a walk in the park to look at the big orange tractor in the hayfield. Look at all the fluff.

Look at the pretty purple flowers.

I was trying to pick a flower here - it was too hard - Mom had to pull it for me.

Mom took lots of pictures - Mom always takes lots of pictures - and a movie - here - watch.

Later I made a house on the porch with my new box. I put lots of my things in there. Mom said something about it being an expensive box ...... what does that mean? I love boxes.

When Dad came home from work we had lunch and then we had the cake. I made a wish!

Here are all my cards. 

Britt who works here brought me two big bags - it had lots of craft stuff for me to do. Clay and markers and paper and even a pink flamingo lantern - what is a lantern? Dad put it together for me.

It was a fun day.

Mom played hide and go seek with me ...... we went down to the creek because it was hot ..... there is an island there - Dad and Rufus came then later Mom came .... 

I was waiting all day for my tractor to charge - I was waiting for the orange light to turn green. My Auntie's called tonight - I miss my cousins......

What a great Birthday - I can't believe it's my Birthday.

Mom says to say 6 things about me because I'm 6!

Ummmmm........

1. I love dinosaurs. And I love Scooby Doo. And I love treats. I love popcorn - Mom is smiling - Mom why are you smiling?

2. My favourite colour is blue.

3. My name is Cassia Wood.

4. I have a bunk bed now - I sleep on the top.

5. I think the Marmots here are soooooo cute. I love animals. I love Rufus. I love M our cat.

6. I'm 6 now!

That's it.

Mom put this here for me. I can't use the computer yet. I can use the ipad though. I have games on it.

Goodbye blog people.

I'm tired. 

Cassia

FINTRY ESTATE SPRING FESTIVAL

Going back a few weeks to my Birthday and Mother's Day - one of the reasons why it was a great day was that it was also the day of the Friends of Fintry's Spring Festival at the Fintry Estate. It took place on the Manor House lawn.

Although it was a busy weekend of campers, we took some time out to enjoy the festivities. There was music, artisans and growers, food trucks and fun stuff for kids. 

Here's the few hours we were there in pictures.

Cassia went straight to the kids area. First up, the making of blue slim.

Then the obstacle course - her first!

Lots of artisans and sellers on hand. This guy had some neat stuff.....

as did the Potter. 

I didn't take any picture of the only place we did buy something which was the plant guy - Tom. We purchased four tomato and two pepper plants from him.

Firefighter Cassia.

A great idea. The local firefighters were on hand to raise money with this set up for the kids. 

Nothing better than a bouncy castle.....

and face painting.

For the rest of afternoon Cassia was replaced by a black meowing cat.

We enjoyed listening to the bag pipers - here the are in front of the Manor House.

We finally got our chance to look around inside the Manor House. It's quite large and as you would expect. 

Except for this of course! A cave complete with a bear in Mr. Dun-Waters den.

He was an avid hunter and collector. I believe this giraffe came from the Penticton Zoo.

Britt had told Cassia there was a dear with fangs in the house so it was this guy we were here to see. Not really a deer I don't thing although maybe an ancestor. I cannot recall what the lady said it was.

Derek with Dan Bruce - a volunteer with the Friends of Fintry Society, and our contact person with the group. A super guy whom we share a passion for gardening with.

Local celebrity Mike Roberts was the MC for the festival. 

We were happy to snag a picture with him - Derek recalls watching Mike back in the 80's. He was the weatherman on Chek TV for 40 years having just retired in 2013.

My aren't we official looking....

So, in addition to being spoiled with breakfast and cake on May 10th - we also did all this.

As I mentioned - it was a great day.

Of course today is the 25th - 15 days later. The days are just rolling by. These days our park is full during the weekends but still relatively quiet during the week. With some rain and a whole lot of sun and warmth everything is growing fast. Derek has his work cut out for him with the weed whacking and mowing. 

Next post I'll show you how the grounds here at Fintry, and our gardens, are looking these days. 

Teresa

WE HAVEN'T BEEN LONELY

Nor will we be until mid October - we do work and live in a campground after all. 

We certainly weren't lonely over the last weekend. I doubt we could have fit one more person into Fintry for the May long weekend. Every site was full and even the overflow was full. Many sites were even double stacked. It was crazy. All went pretty well - I think everyone had a good time with the weather holding out except for a shower Sunday morning. 

Sadly, our power was out for about 4 hours starting around 5:00 am. When that happens our toilets don't flush so off Derek went at 5:30 am to close the buildings. Britt and I spent the morning cleaning and reopening the 12 washrooms and 2 shower buildings. It definitely showed us that we need a 'power outage' plan for when it happens again.

In addition to all of our campers, Derek and I have been receiving a variety of other guests over the last few weeks. 

As I said on facebook - I felt like we were visited by RVing royalty a few weeks ago when the sanidumps.com crew came camping. At first I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them roll in. I was speaking to a fellow who was looking at our water treatment center when the two fifth wheels came past with the sanidump logo. He must have thought I was a bit off to get so excited over their arrival. 

I was happy to spend the next few days visiting with founders John and Chris on the right and KC, Karen and son Lee to the left. What a great group who are regulars to Fintry. I await their future visits.

As Kevin mentioned - who of us travellers don't use their valuable website - or should be if they haven't. Since Derek and I don't stay in parks often when travelling in the USA, we have used their site many many times - we highly recommend it!

We've been visited by this amazing couple, Chuck and June, twice over the last few weeks. They first stopped in a week or so ago on their way to Alberta. The last time we saw them was when they came camping up at Kentucky-Alleyne last summer. 

Have I mentioned that some of our best friends are campers that we have met at one of our parks? We know Chuck and June from my days of travelling from Skihist to Gold Pan every night to clean and register. The same park that I met our other good friends Randy and Shirley!

Chuck and June returned on Friday to bring us some special cargo! Since I haven't taken any pictures yet I'll wait until a future post to show you what we received from them. 

We've even had family visiting!

Derek's dad, Lloyd and sister, Lisa, were on a road trip and stopped in to see us. Since it was their first time visiting us here they were happy to see our new digs. It was a short visit - just over night but we made the most of it with a bbq. 

Here is Derek ready for work the next morning with his dad.

Grandpa and Auntie were on playground duty for the morning.

A family picture - three generations. 

And if you are all wondering where the heck Jean and Skip are, they are here with us at Fintry! It's so fun for me when fellow bloggers and followers stop in to visit. Although I've seen them in blogland and Jean has commented on our site, we've never met them. Even better that they arrived after the weekend so I was able to visit with them a bit during my rounds during the two nights that they were here. Jean was going through a bit of wifi withdrawal out here in the forest. I don't blame her - that was us up at Kentucky-Alleyne last summer - remember?

Last week we were also visited by a couple from Ontario who found our blog while they were wintering in Arizona. Our pictures of Fintry from the spring convinced them to come camp here for a few days on their way to visiting family in the Okanagan. Another super couple that I enjoyed visiting with.

How nice to have such good people to visit with here at Fintry. One of the things I like best about this job are the great campers I meet as I go around registering at nights. Let's be honest - they are not all great, and many don't even want to talk to me much - but there are many that I really hit it off with and find it hard to pull myself away from to continue on my way. 

So - who's next? You know where we are! Peter?!

Teresa

45 at 45

(Because we've been busy and without internet last weekend - this post is very late. Since I had written it before in anticipation of May 10th I thought that I would go ahead and post it for the reasons I've written below.)

So, it was my Birthday last Sunday on Mother's Day!

I was born on Mother's Day May 10th, 1970 very early in the morning.

It's been 12 years since they have been on the same day.....

and this was the first time that my BD was on MD when I've been a Mother.

It was a great day! (More pictures coming soon in an upcoming post).

Recently I saw a post on another blog where the author listed 35 things about herself on her 35th Birthday.

I'm going to steal that idea.

This is definitely for all of you out there that follow us but only know us from the blog. By the time you finish this list you'll REALLY know me!

However, it really is for our daughter Cassia. One day all this will be hers to read; to learn about and recall her youth. In case she doesn't have a chance to find all this out - this is how I can tell her about me at 45 years old. I'm not as I used to be and I'm not how I will be in the future.

This is me now.

So - here we go. Forty-five things is a bit daunting - I may be scrapping the bottom by the end....

1. I was born in East York, Ontario.

2. Until I was nine we lived near highway 401 and the Toronto Zoo.

Our home! The wonders of google maps - it's been painted but looks just like it did!

3. We moved west to Cochrane, Alberta when I was 9.

4. I am of Dutch heritage. As both my parents were born in Holland, I am first generation Canadian.

5. I have one older sister.

6. I loved to draw and create as a kid.

Me a bit younger than Cassia is now. Remember the Regal school books?

7. I had long legs compared to waist and spent much of my time wearing floods growing up.

8. I grew up on the Love Boat, Chips, Threes Company and the Flintstones.

9. Mr. Dressup was my favourite show as a kid.

10. Mr. Muggs was my favourite school book as a kid.

11. I had a teal blue easy bake oven.

12. Lego was my favourite toy.

Derek making an omelet for breakfast on my Birthday.

13. I had a (security) blanket for a long long time - until 13 I think!

14. I'm better at math than english.

15. I'm a horrible speller as you regular followers can attest to.

16. My favourite music in the 70's was ABBA.

17. My favourite in the 80's was Culture Club, Bryan Adams, and Michael Jackson.

What can I say, I was a kid of the 80's. At least I'm not wearing neon. 

18. My all time favourite singer is Neil Diamond. (I've even seen him in concert!)

19. My favourite song right now is Alan Jackson's 'Remember When'.

20. My other favourite song is George Strait's 'The Road Less Travelled'

Me and my girl at the Friends of Fintry spring festival on Mother's Day.

21. My two favourite foods are popcorn and pineapple - definitely not together though!

22. I'm NOT a risk taker.

23. I'm fairly shy.

24. I was a mother for the first, and final time, at the age of 39.

25. I have naturally curly hair.

26. I rarely let loose. I'm a bit of a stick in the mud. Having a child has helped with that somewhat.

27. I'm stubborn.

28. I'm serious.

Derek made my cake but Cassia (aka the black cat) and I made the whipped cream for it. We all know why she was happy to help!

29. I love to cook and bake.

30. I can sew (sort of).

31. I spent 9 years at the University of Calgary.

32. I have a Bachelor's of Urban Studies with a minor in Latin American Studies and a Master's of Architecture.

33. I was married for the first, and final time, at the age of 32.

The happy bride and groom. 

A picture of a photo picture .. one of the items in our long lost storage items was our wedding album.

34. My favourite colour is lime green.

35. My second favourite colour is orange.

36. My favourite flower is gardenia.

37. My favourite ice cream is coconut. (Actually I'll eat or drink anything will coconut in it!)

38. I have a lazy eye.

39. I have green - blue eyes.



40. My favourite season is the fall.

41. My favourite movie is the Sound of Music.

42. I'm more of a cat person (gone but not forgotten my pals - Muffin, Tuk Tuk and Bailey) than a dog person. (I know - we have a dog - I married a dog person!)

43. I'm a recovering magazine addict.

44. I love to read - books. My other hobby is gardening.

45. I'm a big picture person - not great with the details.

Darn! I'm at the end - I was actually having fun writing this list.

It was much easier than I thought it would be - I could go on.....

But I won't.

Today is Saturday - the eye of the storm we call the May Long Weekend - Queen Victoria's Birthday and the 'unofficial start of summer'. For us Park Operator's at a campground our most challenging days are those when the campers arrive (yesterday) and when they leave (Monday). The in between time is pretty calm except for keeping up with the cleaning.

Fintry PP is more then full - in fact our overflow is almost full. We have 100 sites here and many have 2 RV's parked in them. It's a bit crazy but it seems that everyone is having a great time. The weather this weekend so far couldn't be better.

Sorry for the lack of posts. The loss of our internet last weekend was not good, and could have been disastrous if it didn't get fixed when it did. All of our reservations are on line as is our accounting and paperwork.

I should be able to catch up on a few posts next week.

See you then!

Teresa