PROUD PARENTS

Today Naomi received a letter from the Yukon Education Minister. This letter was to inform her that she received more than 80% on her provincial English exam in June. Because of her outstanding performance she earned $300 towards her post-secondary education. She had earned an additional $200 last year on her grade 9 Yukon Achievement Tests. We are extremely proud of her. She loves English and plans on taking Honours English at school this year. She reads everything she can get her hands on. She is leaving for school on Monday. Guess what the first thing she packed was? Books! We are going to miss her terribly, but will be in Whitehorse as often as possible to see her.

PERSONAL BEST

Today I ran a virtual 5k race. It is a race where everyone runs it at home and posts their age and times on the site. I have been slowly working up to this since I got home. Last week I was running about 3 1/2 kilometers. This week I really kicked it up a notch. On Thursday I ran the whole 5k in 34:18. My goal today was to run it in under 33 minutes. So, I got on the treadmill and decided to push my speed up a bit. I really pushed the last 6 minutes and managed to finish the 5k in 31:52. A personal best for me!

A FAILED ATTEMPT AT HUNTING

This morning Brian and I arose bright and early and ventured forth on a hunting trip. All was well. We had our coffee in hand while we journeyed down the road towards our destination. The one we had scouted out last week.) The place we were going is about 50 km down our dirt road. We were just pulling up to the turn off and Brian put on the brakes only to discover that we now had a problem with our brakes. It seems that we had no rear brakes. He pressed the pedal all the way down and there was not much there. So we pulled off the road and discovered that the rear brake line had broken off at one side. We didn't want to take the chance that the brake fluid would leak out while we were hunting so we turned around and headed back home. We made it all the way home without stepping on the brakes until we had to stop at home. Thankfully the local mechanic had an extra line so we were able to replace it today - a rare occurrence in Ross River. So, here we are with our freezers still empty and another hunting trip (hopefully successful) planned for next week.

GREAT PICS

Naomi finally downloaded the pictures from her camers and I thought you might enjoy these.

Josh is almost as big as an gorilla, as evidenced at San Diego Wild Animal Park:

He really has a thing about gorillas: Naomi poses with some cacti during a break on our river rafting trip down the Colorado river. We had seen the big tall ones but never stopped for a picture - this was the best I could get.
Hannah showing off her Jack Sparrow look:

Of course they had to sit in the "soak zone" during the dolphin show at Seaworld:

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Today we took Hannah to Faro to write the test for her learner's license. The deal is that we pay for the first test, but if you fail and have to rewrite the test then you pay for it out of your own pocket. Hannah, never one to turn away freebies, studied like mad and passed it on the first try with only 1 question wrong. Now we have another driver in the family. She drove home from Faro and did a wonderful job. She was so nervous at first that she couldn't stop giggling, but she was soon regaling us with Spongebob and Simpsons stories while she made the long drive home. She is going to be a fantastic driver. She seems to just have a natural ability and instinctively knows when to apply the brakes, etc. Of course it started raining on the way home so she had to work the wipers as well as concentrate on just driving. We got home without incident until we arrived at the local gas station where she pulled up a little too close and hit the pump. But all is o.k. and no permanent damage was done.

I have also been busy studying to get my class 4 license. I just joined the ambulance team and need my class 4 to drive the ambulance. Now if the examiner would just come all would be well.