Family visits.

In the story of my life, late summer 2011 will go down as one of the major chapters. Greg was offered a position as the lifeskills\autism teacher at Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt, BC ... a province and a thousand miles away, and a drastically different climate and landscape.

The sea! No more prairie winters? Ah, but there were all manner of factors to consider, and we had just a few days in which to decide ... should we stay or should we go?

Greg left Edmonton August 21st to find us a place to live on the Sunshine Coast. I stayed behind and began advertising for tenants to live on our main floor and in our basement suite. It was a harried time.

My mother and her best friend from girlhood, Judie, visited in Edmonton in late August, and the following weekend my son, Logan, flew out from Saskatoon. I hadn't seen Logan for over 15 months, as he'd been living and travelling across Australia for the past year (he also spent three weeks in the Philippines).

Photos below:

From left: Judie, Shelley, Helen (aka Mom)

See the sunflowers? They were at least 14 feet tall. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the blossoms before I left, September 8th.

While Greg was out enjoying the coast -- and catching a 20 lb salmon ...



Logan arrived for the long weekend. We share several common interests, like cycling ... it's hard to beat Edmonton's river valley trails.

And going to the horse races ...

Logan studies the race details.

We drove down to Calgary and High River to visit my brother Kirby and his wife, Laurel, and while there Logan tried to slingshot a wasp's nest out of one of Kirby's trees -- he made the slingshot himself, years ago.

I enjoyed my visits with mother, "Aunt" Judie, and Logan immensely. Now, if only I could secure some excellent tenants ... (stay tuned)