Grand Bend Run last fall...

The girls under the hammock...
Even the children ran!
Go Karin, Go!
Home Sweet Home (away from home)
Gary, Julie and Karin (yes, the boys did come up and drink beer to support our efforts!

Me, Julie, Marlene and Karin (Mom's united for 5K)
Smiling, as it is just beginning!
Phew...almost done! Next time, I ditch the jacket.

Of course, we took the trailer up to the Pinery Provincial Park where the run was held, and camped for the weekend. The weather was fabulous.

It seems that I missed posting the Grand Bend 5 km run last October.

Us "Moms" decided to get off our duffs and relive our youth (well, we used to be able to run that far!)

We all did darn well!

See our results posted at Ontario Road Race Results

My time was a personal best of 33:49.

Julie was back home for a short time...

Julie hanging in the crowd with Aunt Colleen, cousin Erin and hockey fanatic Chris!My how they are all so alike...scary!
Sandwiched between the two Uncles that usually end up putting her in a garbage can!
Hanging around with her favorite Uncles and Aunt...

Godmommy Julie was back from New Zealand for a short time over the holidays and managed to swing by for a couple of visits and see Jenny and Emma play a couple of hockey games!

Now she has jetted off out West in search of Canadian employment...although I really don't think teaching scuba diving and extreme sports are quite what the Western education system is looking for in a teacher! I'm sure she'll wow them with everything else she knows how to do!

We wish you all the best Jules!

Walker Family Christmas

Christmas in the Grove this year...lots of fun! (although we missed you, Trevor!) Trevor, however, had a good excuse for missing this year's festivities...he is engaged to Melissa and was busy meeting and greeting his betrothed family and friends.














Just me and my bro's...Katie leaving again soon for Vienna...boo hoo!






























Henry and sister-in-law Jane just can't handle all of us Walker's at once!


I honestly forgot that I was wearing the hat!




Merry Ho Ho...until next year!

Family skate with Henry's hockey team

Michael, Jenny, Emma, and Henry getting ready to skate...

Karin: waiting for me to stop taking pictures of everyone and skate with her...Casey: ready to push us along!
Henry: looking as if he should be coaching or something!
Jenny, I'm sure telling Tyler what to do:

A short time ago, Henry's men's league hockey team invited all the families to come out and skate. A fun night was had by all!

Karin and Casey and all of their children were there...Michael and Jenny zipped around with cousin Emma. It took me a while to get a picture of friend, Tyler, upright instead of on his butt!

Yes, even I skated...I found it funny that Casey came up behind Karin and I and told us that if we wanted to talk, we had to skate faster (I'm almost positive that he was insinuating something here...)

International Silver Stick Champions!

ELGIN MIDDLESEX CHIEFS

2008 BANTAM AAA INTERNATIONAL SILVER STICK PORT HURON MICHIGAN ''CHAMPION''

The Elgin Middlesex Chiefs made it to the finals to play against No. 1 ranked Detroit's Little Caesar's and came away with a 3 - 1 victory!

Michael played and received the MVP for the game.

"Elgin Middlesex received a strong goaltending performance from Mike Roefs to earn the title.

Roefs earned the Bill Lalley Memorial Award for his effort as the championship game MVP."

As quoted from the newspaper article below...

Here is the write up from the Michigan newspaper...

Bantam AAA Silverstick Champions!

International Silver Stick Finalists!

Michael's team is going on to the finals in the International Silver Stick Championship game this afternoon at 5:00. They will play Detroit's Little Caesars; the top ranked team in North America.

For $14.95, you, too, can watch from the comfort of your own home on your computer as I will be!

International Silver Stick Bantam AAA Chiefs Championship game

Tournaments galore!

Still waiting to download all my photos from Jenny's amazing tournament last weekend. They made it to the finals, played a great game but lost with an empty netter at the end 2 - 0.

Will post photos tomorrow if I can find my camera!

Michael is at Silver stick in Port Huron this week (Thursday - Sunday). I stayed home with Jenny and her three hockey ice times on tap for the week, but thanks to technology, we can pay and watch online (although the reception can be intermittent which sucks when it goes into overtime and you miss the goal!) However, the boys beat the Toronto Marlies tonight and advance to the semi's tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. You can see all the match-ups at the web site below:

Bantam AAA Silver Stick

Mom's best friend...

Henry is temporarily out of the dog-house! (although I still don't quite trust the van starting!)

He decided he had heard enough complaining, and bought me a new man that cleans floors. (I decided it was of the masculine gender just so I could enjoy the idea a little bit more)

His name is "Robbie"...yes, I named my new best friend.I have wanted this vacuum for two years, and it was the only item on my Christmas list this year (to further emphasize how much I REALLY wanted it).

Yes, husbands sometimes listen...and yes, sometimes actually follow through!

For those of you that know that cleaning is not my forte...this is a huge breakthrough for our family and our floors!

Long live the dust bunny!