Auntie Norma and Uncle Ken come for a few days.

After the crew left by 9:30 Friday morning, it was time to get all of the laundry done and prepare for the next bunch. lol A pretty quiet weekend otherwise. Starting to tidy up the deck box gear on the dock in preparation for our US trip down south this fall. Hard to believe we are near the end of August already.

Sunday afternoon we were on the dock enjoying the quiet drinking our piña coladas.

Monday morning was a little cloudy with marine fog and then the sun broke through. Another gorgeous day here at Lake Cowichan. I spent the first part of the morning helping Ray pack his suitcase for our cruise to Alaska this weekend. As with me, he has a bunch of new dress clothes that we bought last year in preparation for going on a cruise that we have not had a chance to wear yet. With the weather up in Alaska being so variable you need to pack lots of layers we are told.

At 10:15, I headed out to the Highway 18 junction to meet up with my cousin Gord, to pick up my aunt and uncle. Norma and Ken are staying here for a visit for a few days. So excited to see them.

Ken, Norma and Gord

After bringing them here and settling them in with their stuff, it was off to lunch at Jake's at the Lake, especially since Monday is senior's day with 25% off all food. lol

Back at home we spent the afternoon on the deck looking at the lake.

I left for Duncan at 2:45pm to take Freya for her vet check so see if the antibiotics were working for her infected anal glands. Unfortunately, the answer was no. She is a little better but still has a little blood inside. So the option at this time is to keep her on the antibiotics until we get back from the cruise to maintain and on the Monday when we are back they are going to do a needle aspiration under sedation to see what's going on ... perhaps cancer or just a fibrous cyst situation. Not very good news. As Freya is 9 1/2 years old, with arthritis and a torn ACL, we would not be going down the chemotherapy route. So we will wait and see. Hopefully there is an easier fix with just a little surgery.

Back at home by 4 pm. The whole house pretty quiet. Ray was laying in bed watching TV and Norma and Ken were napping upstairs. They were pretty tired after getting up at 4 am to catch the 8am ferry from Tsawwassen this morning. Everyone was up by 5pm and I was well into getting our fresh buns made to go with the chili for dinner. Kristi and Jason also came down for dinner to have a short visit with Ken and Norma before heading back home.

Kristi on wasp patrol.

Kristi looked exhausted. She putting in many hours on call at the hospital covering a colleagues shifts as well as her own. I bet the first part of our cruise next week she will spend napping. lol After dinner, Kristi and Jason with their dogs in tow, headed home. The rest of us sat outside until about 8:30 pm when it was declared bedtime by our guests.

Tuesday morning another gorgeous day. Ray and I were up early as usual, but our guests were in bed until 9:15 am. After a light breakfast of toast and juice we were off to tour the small town of Crofton and walk the boardwalk with them. A beautiful warm sunny day.

After our walk it was time for lunch at the Osbourne Bay Hotel Pub. Fabulous halibut and chips sitting on the outside deck.

After lunch Ray took over driving (I had a beer with lunch lol) and we drove on the old highway to Chemainus where we took a quick driving tour through to see the murals. The next stop was for Ken ... the Chemainus Antique Emporium on the highway.



We all wandered around there for about 1/2 an hour. Both Ken and Norma were amazed at how much they were asking for old costume jewelry that Norma has a bunch of. I am sure the stuff the family all thinks is junk in Ken's house that he has collected, would bring a pretty penny.

Back home by 2 pm it was time to get into our swimsuits and get into the lake. 30C here today. Ken stayed up on the deck snoozing in his chair.

It's cold!

 Norma and I stayed in the water for about 20 minutes getting some exercise.

Very pleased with my new dock ladders. Very stable for people with limited mobility. Norma had no problem getting in or out.

I left Norma down at the dock to sunbathe and headed up to get the pork rib roast on the barbecue.  Glad we have A/C today. About 1/2 an hour later she was back up to the house and said her legs felt the best that they have for quite some time. The swimming must have helped with her circulation.

After dinner it was back sitting onto the deck until dark as it still was pretty warm outside.

Back inside to watch Global News that we had taped and then to bed by 9:30 pm. A fabulous day with my aunt and uncle.

Wednesday morning Ray and I were up at 6 and it was so warm I actually sat down at the dock with my coffee for a while. Once the crew woke up at nine, I made breakfast, bacon and scrambled eggs for Norma and Ken. Ray went to cut a pat of butter and it was soft and the milk with breakfast warm.... oh  oh!  Our not even a year old Kitchen Aid fridge quit working.

Once everyone had eaten, I did a quick run into town to the pharmacy for some last minute things for our cruise while Ray started to unload the fridge.  This is when he found the freezer had thawed everything too .... Awhhh Nuts!

My planned day of dock time with 30c weather, turned into a big cooking day.  Gathering up everything salvageable I made a big pot of chili and another big pot of spaghetti sauce. Ray kindly took Ken and Norma for a drive to the park for the outing today as I was way too busy with all the cooking and all of the dishes created. Fortunately they did not mind taster dishes of my sauces as their lunch as I was way too busy to make anything else.

Ken and Norma at Lakeview Park, next door to us.

By 3pm I had finally finished cooking and all the dishes done. My cousin showed up for an hour's visit and to pick up his parents for the drive back to Victoria and over to Coquitlam. Gord enjoyed my chili and ate two bowls. He said it was the best thing he had eaten all week ... especially since there was steak in it. lol They all headed out about 4:15 pm. What a day! The good part is I was able to utilize a bunch of meat and veggies and now have quite a few meals for our winter vacation.

Once everyone cleared out I quickly put on my bathing suit and jumped into the lake. It was pretty hot cooking all day even with the A/C on in the house.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day ... unfortunately I cannot get anyone here to look at the fridge until next Tuesday. They said they will put me on the cancellation list but at least I have 2 other fridges that work in the house for our company to use while they look after Freya for us during our cruise. Malc and Kathy arrive tomorrow.