Tree Planting Day 46, July 19^th, (Shift 11, Day 4):

                Happy Birthday Garrett!

                We woke up this morning and I was so warm I didn’t want to get out of bed. But I got up anyway, and got Richard ready for his last day of the shift. So far the day has been chilly (for me) but sunny. J I hope he has some good land so he can enjoy this weather. lol

                Once the dishes were done I did the chores, all but the laundry (we’re going into town tomorrow so they’ll really get washed then lol). Then I sat down with Lesley and one of the planters who stayed home and we talked about living in apartments and bachelorette parties. lol

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                I went out and played football with Lionel then hung in the hammock and read my Bible for a while.

                Richard came home and he was so happy. It was the last day of the shift and he just felt like he had had a good day. I loved it! He was all bubbly and happy. J First thing in the morning I had snuck a note in his lunch box; he got it around lunch that day and apparently it really lifted his spirits. J

Richard’s Blurb:

So, just for clarification, I actually wake Olivia up every morning…once she’s up, then she makes sure I get ready, lol. Once she’s awake, she’s up and going…I don’t work quite like that, lol. I am very slow in the morning because I don’t usually quite wake up until I’m at the block, which is around 2 hours later, lol. My chore is waking her up; she takes it from there J

Oh, and today, as we were driving to the block, we saw a random car stuck in the muddied up roads and then later on we saw an old pick-up truck stuck as well. We saw some guys trying to get it out (I think they were going to the oil rig camp up the road), so we stopped and helped them out. Apparently they had been stuck since 2 in the morning (that means they were waiting for help for around 6 hours)…pretty brutal.

Tree Planting Day 47, July 20^th, (Shift 11, Day Off):

                We got up first thing and headed into town again. We dropped off the laundry and went to breakfast at Tim Horton’s, went back to move the laundry over and then stopped at the movie theater.

                Shelby had told me that the new Batman movie came out on our day off so we went to get tickets before they were sold out. As we pulled up we saw that the theater was already open! (Normally they don’t open the doors until noon.) We went and noticed they had a showing within the next 30 minutes so we bought tickets and took our seats. The movie was amazing! We both loved it; they did a great job carrying the quality of the last two movies over into another one. Richard said that this trilogy ranked up there with the Lord of the Rings. I don’t necessarily agree but they are really very good. lol

                After the movie we grabbed our laundry, had a snack at DQ, and went to get the groceries. Then we hurried over to McDonalds so we could use the internet. We bought Richard some wrist braces. He’s been complaining of them hurting the past shift so I thought we might as well get them now before they get worse. He wore one of them all day and said he could really feel a difference.

                We headed home not long after dinner…at A&W, go figure lol.

                On the way home I saw a coyote run across the road and a little bit further down I saw a van on the side of the road. As I passed by I recognized Rhett. So I woke Richard up and told him what was going on. He had me turn around and we went back to see if we could help any. As we pull up Richard gets this huge smile on his face as a man steps out of the van. He looks at me and says, “That’s Shaun.”

                Shaun was Richard’s foreman last year. He moved to Bermuda after last season to be a teacher but came back to Canada for a family reunion and decided to stop in for a visit. Richard was so excited to see him.

                After introductions were made we went to go take a look at the van. It was completely out of oil so Richard gave them the extra he had in the trunk of the car. We checked the oil and then tried to start the vehicle. Still nothing. Rhett had taken off to get someone to come help fix it so Richard and I gave the two girls that were traveling in the van a ride back to camp. From that point on Richard drove. J

                While we were in the car one of the girls asked to hear mine and Richard’s love story. Richard and I laughed and I asked her if that was what she really wanted. She said yes so we informed them of our friendship in college, courting long distance, his proposal, and then the wedding. Lol poor girl didn’t know what she was getting into. They loved it though. They were asking questions and laughing and commenting so I guess we didn’t bore them too much.

                Once we got back to camp, we unloaded the car and headed to bed.

Poor Rhett and Shaun didn’t get back until 2 a.m.

Tree Planting Day 48, July 21^st, (Shift 12, Day 1):

                Up again with the alarm; we’re on the early shift but thankfully it’s only for three days. J All our clothes were clean and fluffy which felt great! We got ready for the day, Richard put on his wrist braces and then headed out to work.

                One of the planters stayed home because she pulled a muscle in her back so she helped me by drying the dishes as I washed them. Shaun came in and talked for a while. We talked almost all day, all of us in the cook shack, about every subject to do with tree planting and how our summers were going. It was great! I was so distracted. lol I didn’t get much done today because I had so much fun talking to Shaun. lol

                I got to go out with Lesley and Bonnie to go try and walk on Bonnie’s slack-line (tight rope). It was loads of fun and now, sitting down, it still feels like my feet are wobbling underneath me. lol

                I didn’t have really any chores today because the laundry was done yesterday. So I just kinda hung out. Now I’m scrambling to make sure everything is done and ready for Richard to get home…which should be any minute…lol I was such a slacker today. lol Oh man! 

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                So, Richard comes home. Greets me with a kiss and then tells me we’re leaving. I was so shocked I just kind of stared at him. He has tendonitis in his right wrist (his planting hand); it takes a while to get over and we only had a few days left so he decided it was time to leave.

                After dinner we made some phone calls to make sure we could stay at the places we had planned to spend the night at even though we were moving the date up. We packed up everything that night and went to bed with nothing in the tent but our clothes for the next day and our sleeping bags.

Tree Planting Day 49, July 22^nd, (Shift 12, Day 2):

                We headed out first thing after breakfast.

Well, that was an unexpected end to my time in the Alberta bush tree planting. Slightly anti-climactic but hey, we can’t all live in the movies. lol We spent two days in our travels home. We stopped in to see Vicki and Nathan (Richard’s sister and brother-in-law) at the West Edmonton Mall where Richard took me on the world’s largest triple loop indoor rollercoaster. We walked around for a while and he bought me a pocket knife for my two month anniversary gift. J hehehehehe I got him a ten minute aqua-massage. Then we met Vicki and Nathan at Boston Pizza, had dinner and went to see Spiderman again (they hadn’t seen it yet J).

                After the movie we got a tour of their house and then headed to Justin and Ashley’s (brother and sister-in-law) for the night. They were gracious enough to house us in their spare bedroom and feed us breakfast the next morning. Meanwhile, Richard and I are reveling in the fact that we had a shower inside (with great water pressure), there were fluffy towels, and it got dark when we wanted to go to sleep! Oh, but above all, there was a bed. A wonderful comfy bed with covers and pillows, and we slept on it! Woohoo! It was great! lol J

                One thing interesting did happen that next morning. Richard and I went to take a shower. About half way through he starts messing with the shower curtain and pulls the whole thing down. The next few minutes were spent scrambling trying to find the missing piece that fit on the end. We finished the shower with me and Richard trading off holding up the curtain while the other rinsed. Then we put the rod back together and wedged it back up onto the wall. Our first time back in a civilized shower and we break it! lol

                After breakfast with Justin and Ashley, we headed out so that we could make it to Three Hills by lunch. There we met with Grandma and Grandpa Tiel (Richard’s grandparents from his mom’s side), had a wonderful lunch and gained a jar of candy for the trip.

                Back on the road we stopped, not too far away, at the Tyrell Dinosaur Museum. We tried not to spend too much time wandering around but ended up staying for over an hour. lol (If anyone knows Richard and dinosaurs they would understand why! J) My husband took so many pictures of the dinosaur bones that he killed my camera! lol We loved walking around and critiquing the evolutionary thinking in all the exhibits. lol

                It took us until about 7 to get to Richard’s parents’ house. We had dinner and then headed over to see Grandpa Reimer (Richard’s dad’s dad lol). Once we left there we came home and unpacked the car a little and fell into bed….exhausted.  

                We had a great trip and a great summer (At least I did lol)! Now we are here in Coaldale, Alberta, Canada preparing for college. J I can’t wait!