We have two, no three granddaughters who have their own diary. It is somewhere to write what they think or feel, more likely feel I suppose but it is their own words and their own thoughts. I thought I might do the same, rather here. Not so private, but what do I have to say that needs to be private.

First of all, let me tell you that we have just concluded a bit of a holiday with Rick and Alison over on White Lake. Rick and Alison are the most generous, most welcoming people and they have the gift of hospitality. Do you remember the gifts of the Spirit that are listed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. Among the gifts of preaching, teaching, administration, etc, is listed the gift of hospitality. Without this gift, the church is cold and sterile. It is a club with only membership and privileges, it is a group of people who have no connection with each other.

They welcomed us, as they do others and have done in the past. They are good friends, now long-term friends. Going to their lovely home on the lake is becoming a regular thing – we need to make it evenmore regular.

This was Nugget’s first long road trip, and he did really well! In fact he was wonderful! And when we got the hotel in Revelstoke. But the real fun was seeing him with Ebenezer and Olive. Boy did he love being one of the pack.

Yesterday however, after taking him down to the dock a couple of times, he got a bit bolder and splash he went head first into the lake. I wish I had taken a picture but I was a bit worried and ran to pull him out (without jumping in fortunately). We gave him a bit of an outside shower and got him dried off, but he does look hilarious when soaking wet. Time for a hair cut it appears.

On our way back from White Lake we stopped in to Banff. Don’t do it. The roads were clogged, RVs everywhere, shuttles taking people into town, sidewalks full. We didn’t even get all the way into town, we turned around and drove out. With Canadians staying home and Europeans skipping the USA this summer some of these places are going to really busy. Great for business but I’ll go back in the autumn months.

Rick has a game he plays with the dogs – it’s just throwing the ball, but they have to run up hill and then back down the hill to drop the ball. Nugget and almost all Shih Tzu’s know nothing about retreving. It just isn’t in their DNA. Throw the ball, they just look at you like “hey are you going to go get that?”. Nugget however did get into chasing Ebenezer while he ran for the ball. It was great fun and they did it for quite a while – this clip is just a minute of the whole exercise. BTW – Nugget slept really well that night!

Dear diary, he had a great vacation!

And so did we!