Mark is a Director of Buiness development (energy) at PWC in Calgary. He has had a successful international business career in high technology in Canada, USA, Japan (President, Japan, BAY Networks), Australia (President, NORTEL Asia Pacific). After retiring from high tech at 38, he was involved in land development and building in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark's wife, Dana, has a degree in business from ASU and has her own business in interior design. Their daughter Amanda, has a degree in architecture from Rice University in Houston, worked in London for one year, and now works for the KPF firm in New York. She has started running, and just completed the NY Womans half marathon

Scott has a degree in Physical Education from the University of Calgary, and is a financial advisor with CIBC in Calgary. His wife, Natasha is a personal assistant for a VP at the ATB Bank. Nathan is in grade 4 and enjoys playing hockey. Mikaela will be starting grade one in the fall.

Shari is a grade 3 teacher in the public school system, and teaches piano out of her home. She has degrees in both education and music. Craig, her husband, is the principal of a middle school. Robyn is at the University of Ottawa studying international business. Michael is in grade 10, and is an "elite level" hockey goalie with a vision of becoming a professional level player.

"The following are a few memories I have about Grandma and Grandpa over the years of about 1940 to 1950, my young years before we moved to Saskatoon. We lived at 595 Powers Street in the north end, almost to Kildonan, but in the later years I could ride my bike back and forth. The Salter Street bridge over the railway tracks seemed a big barrier until one cracked the fright of scaling the "big hill".

"There were many things I could likely recall, but these are just a particular few that some of you can probably remember as well if you ended up for a visit to 717.

"Grandpa worked for the railway every day for over 50 years, as he had joined the Strike of workers in Winnipeg (about 1919?), and lost all his pension rights. Being invited to join him for coffee after he came home from work seemed to me to be a great honor! Grandma always kept a pot of coffee heating on the back of the stove in the kitchen and she would simply throw some more coffee and water into the pot as required - by the time it was used, it seemed to me to be really thick and dark colored.

"As I remember, she would fill up two large mugs with coffee and thick cream - one for me and one for Grandpa. Then out came the soda crackers, butter and sugar. The idea was to butter the crackers and pile sugar on. Then you floated the cracker very carefully on top of the coffee and waited a few minutes while the cracker became soft and full of the coffee mixture, and the butter and sugar slowly flavored the coffee. A spoon was required to eat the crackers before one could have a drink of coffee and repeat the process. A delightful experience for a young fellow, as normally no one would ask a youngster if he would like to have a coffee (I was likely a magic age of 5 or 6 years old)."

"Grandma always wore a apron over her dress, and could usually be found sitting in her chair in the kitchen (at least when she was not upstairs watching TV wrestling - her favorite entertainment - and you have never seen her as excited as when her favorite wrestler was getting beat up on the mat). There was a front pocket in her apron, and inside was her little black purse. As soon as she saw a grandchild, out would come her purse and if you were lucky, she would find 10 cents. In those days, 10 cents would buy a pop, an ice cream treat, or a comic book, at the convenience store down the street. What a treat!!! And perhaps it bought a little peace and quiet (as a grand parent, you might pay almost anything for a few minutes of quiet, particularly if there are two kids in the back seat of the car after you have picked them up from school and they have a great need to describe which has done the best at school that day!). Although I am sure we cousins never were known to be noisy or rambunctious."

"Christmas at 717 was a magical time to us grandchildren. I remember the Xmas tree set up in the second living room (I don't remember what it was called) across from the dining room table, all light up and surrounded by gifts. What a sight.

And the food! Much of the Icelandic food was only prepared for Xmas or special occasions. I don't remember how much was made by Grandma and how much was made by family members, but I am sure she had some help. The dining room table would be set and the chairs placed around the table.

Of course us young ones were all excited and looking for things to do until everyone would arrive. For some it meant going to church (First Icelandic Lutheran) first. For some of us it would likely be running up and down the stairs, and going bumpidy-bump down the back stairs into Grandma's kitchen. The other thing would be to crawl under the dining room table and imaging it was a tunnel or something like that. Which as I remember, created lots of concern by the older members of the family, particularly if they had sat down to eat."

The following two pictures are of our Icelandic Cousins visiting Canada and Calgary at Ron and Leni's home about 1987 (we don't remember their names - does anyone else remember?). As we remember, he is/was a concert piano player that tours/toured mostly in Europe. Aurora and Florence had visited them in Iceland in 1969. The cousins kept money in Canada as there were laws that did not allow Icelanders to transfer any/much money out of the country.