Our friends Javier and Alex posted a bunch of pictures from our trip to Cuba on their web-site. You can see them here: http://web.mac.com/sanmiguelcaro/sanmiguelcaro%40shaw.ca/Cuba_2007/Cuba_2007.html

I had a surprise trip to Jordan this year. I left on halloween (sad that I missed seeing Ceili in her kangaroo outfit), to give a presentation at an environmental assessment public meeting in Amman. I spent two days in London preparing, three days in Amman working, then took three days off to look around Jordan. I enjoyed Jordan very much.

First off is the highlight...Petra. Here's the famous shot that everyone takes:


I really had to rush around Petra; I only had about five hours because I spent the morning looking around the desert where our plant might be located in the future. Basically I walked through the siq, then climbed up to the place of high sacrifice, then took the back round down past the Roman Solider's tomb and Garden Palace until I returned to the main path. I then ran up the mountain, ran back down, and took a donkey back to the mouth of the siq so that I could get back to my taxi on time. This is an incredible place!

I rented a taxi and driver for three days to take me around Jordan. The first day was visiting the plant site (Al Lajjun) then Petra. The second day was holy sites (Madaba, Mt. Nebo, the Baptism Site, the Jordan River), then a visit to the Dead Sea. These were all incredible. The Dead Sea is nice to float in; you are very buoyant, but I prefer Australia, Mexico, or Cuba if I wanted a nice holiday on the beach.

Speaking of Cuba, we joined some friends on a week long trip to Cuba. We stayed at an all inclusive resort (the Blau Veradero), and had a GREAT time. It was really nice to go with friends. Ceili loved the beach (except for when she did a faceplant then rubbed the sand in her eyes), and Ceili and Catalina had a great time playing together. The only thing that wasn't too fun was dinner time...Ceili was too distracted to sit and eat. She always wanted to run around and play.

This is a picture of the group that took a daytrip in to Havana. Havana is a really nice city.

Sunset on the beach...

The kids danced at the Dauphin Ukrainian festival again this year. Afterwards we went to a little park at the top of the Selo and took some nice pictures. There was an older lady watching us...she was quiet and sitting by herself on a bench. We talked to her for a while after this photo and I think we cheered her up quite a bit....turns out her husband was the founder of the Ukrainian festival, had organized it every year, and had made this park "happen" - and he had died earlier that year. She wasn't sure if she could make it through this festival. She came to the park to sit and watch people enjoy her husband's life's work, and it made her happy to see these beautiful kids enjoying the park...

In September we visited our friends Andrea and Tim in Phoenix again. We had a great visit and nice weather. One thing I remember from this trip was how much I enjoyed going to the playground with Ceili, sitting Ceili on my lap on the swing, and swinging back and forth for an hour while singing to her. It was a lot of fun.

Andrea was the first to dunk Ceili's head under water. Mom almost couldn't bear watching, but Ceili - sort of - liked it.

Our third wedding anniversary was on October 09. We went out for a really nice dinner at the Bear's Den restaurant in Bearspaw.

We felt bad because Ceili was shy around Doug and Nancy but, after a bit of time and with the help of chocolate ice cream, we managed to get one group picture:

After visiting Doug and Nancy's, we dropped in the see Autie Donna. Once again we had to bribe Ceili with goodies:

Then it was off to Baba's house. We had a really nice visit in Dauphin with everyone. One of the highlights was making pickles with Baba:

Time to Catch Up

It's time to catch up! Things have been very busy here as you can tell from the extended delay updating the blog. I will also add some new videos to our YouTube site (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=GolfSteve55)

These are great shots of the great-grandkids at Grandma's house this summer.



Grandma and her sister Alice:

Alecia and Breanna posing:

When we visited Uncle Doug, Ceili was being very shy. Uncle Doug had to bribe her with chocolate ice-cream before Ceili would visit him, and even then she kept her hands behind her back.