Love of Music

One thing we love about Europe is the continent's love of music, not the 80's hits you hear in all the cafes, but the classical stuff. This is coming from a sports guy too :) Both Tahlia and Mikaela have enjoyed learning and we are grateful for how God has provided good instructors. Tahlia has been playing piano for several years now. Mikaela has sang in a choir, learned some piano, but is now at the music school learning classical guitar and theory. Here is a pic of her last performance. We really hope they stick it out and can fill our home with music in the years to come!

Chivalry is Not Dead!

It snows here in the winter, ALOT. Not that we get tons of storms, but when one blows in it can easily dump a couple feet at a time. This leads to a ton of work at trying to remove the snow from our driveway. The neighbors usually all work at this together, including Majda who is 60+ years old. This snow removal can punish you and can easily take a few hours of work. That is why this picture below is so precious. The boys did this work without being asked. Ashley just happened to look over and see the boys cleaning snow from Majda's driveway. It really does melt our heart and cause us to realize that the things we are teaching are beginning to set into their hearts, even when it seems like it isn't! Thanks Braden and Karsten for your hearts of service!

Hazel vs. The Neighborhood Bully

So much of our life is posted on Facebook, but I really do want to keep this blog going! If you are not friends with us on FB, please friend us at Chris Ashley Wick. Onward to our dog.

This is Hazel on Christmas Day with a new toy. Neither the toy or the dog look like this 2.5 months later, but Hazel hasn't changed much in look, just size! This picture was taken about 1 hour before we went on a walk through the neighborhood. It was on this walk that a German Shepherd tried to have a labrador for his Christmas dinner. Poor Hazel got mauled pretty good. At the scene of the incident it seemed like she was ok all things considered, but when we got home and cleaned her up we discovered she had a few puncture wounds on her back. Being Christmas day we thought we would just wait a day and get her to the vet the following day, but that was a poor choice. Infection set in so quickly and she struggled to breath with each breath. Ashley contacted a vet early in the morning and within a few hours Hazel had an operation to clean out infection and put in tubes. 

The whole experience was fairly traumatic for Tahlia and Ashley who were with the dog away from the rest of us. But when I (Chris) heard the screaming and finally got to them I was amazed to see Ashley restraining this massive dog and really saving the life of our own. This is probably why Hazel is completely attached to Ash, which is completely appropriate since Ashley is the true dog lover of our family!! Hazel is completely healthy today and almost over her fear of other dogs :)