End of summer fun

We had a great time this September long weekend. We used our last few days before Joel started school to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. We took the boys to the Watershed where they rode their bikes like crazy (a foreshadowing of things to come) and we took them to Sasamat Lake on the Monday where we hiked around the lake and then let the kids cool off in the water. It was a gorgeous weekend and we loved having the time together as a family. Sadly these days seem to be fleeting with my return to work on the weekends...every weekend. But that's for another post.

Soccer boy

Our life of being a "soccer mom/dad" has begun! Joel started in the Delta Youth Soccer League a few weeks ago and he loves it! He runs fast and hard and loves to score goals. His coach is great and he likes showing off the new tricks he learns from her. We may just have a little soccer star on our hands :)

The After (the street) Party

We enjoyed the company of a few friends and family to celebrate our little 3 year old!! Nate we love you and hope you had a great 3rd birthday. You have grown and changed so much in the past few months. You make us laugh, you drive us a little crazy and you are always ready to melt our hearts with your big smile! You love to sing and you love to play with your Cars cars and Thomas trains. You are a fun little boy and you love your brothers and your friends. Thank you all for celebrating Nathan with us! You are all very special to us and him!

Street Party Boys!

Fabulous food, a fire truck, face painting and fun inflatable slide & bouncy castle... all added up to a great way to celebrate Nate's 3rd birthday! The weather was fantastic and brought out lots of people from the neighbourhood as well as from the church. If you don't know - the street party is an annual thing that our church puts on in the parking lot for the community.

Turning 3.

*Update: mere hours after I wrote this out that sweet boy was returned to his home and was found sitting on the couch. Thank you God. We know you hear us. Thank you for Your compassion on him, his family and all of us...


Today is Nathan's 3rd birthday. We celebrated today at the Bethany Street Party, we gave him a few gifts including a train table and a Cars car from Joel, a Playmobil knight from Micah. I made him a cake. But in my heart, the most important thing is that we got to celebrate him.
My heart is burning, aching, crying out for little Kienan to be found. To be alive. I have been in constant prayer for that little boy. For his heartbroken parents. I can't imagine. I don't want to imagine. I want to live my happy life where the worst thing that happens is milk getting spilled, my hair not working, even burning a dinner... and I know I feel nothing compared to this boys family.
Oh God - hear the cries of a nation searching for this boy. Hear the ache in our hearts as each day passes without him coming home. God, bring this boy home to parents. Lead him back. We know you know. Where he is. How he is. God put your arms around him. Be a wall of safety around him. Protect him. Protect his parents. Give them peace. Thank you for being our Hope when all else fails. Amen.

First day of K

Too bad it only lasted 35 min!! Joel found out today what class he's in - his teacher is Mrs. Yip and Camryn, Madison and him are all in the same class! It's going to be an exciting year! We're happy to see other kids from the preschool and from soccer in Joel's class too. I think he's looking forward to going back tomorrow...he wasn't totally thrilled with today though.

Just blabbing

I just ran. For the first time since I was in PG with my broken toe. I ran. As I ran I had some time to think, although not for long as I only went to Nordel and back (approx 22 min). I came to these conclusions.
1. I need new shoes.
2. I do really enjoy running (that may change with one bad run though)
3. I love the moon. I love sunsets. I'm not overly thrilled that both are seen around 8pm now.
4. I miss Jen. With every single step I miss her.
5. I miss my sisters. I hate being apart from you. I just feel like I'm missing out on a life with you. Mike - I miss you too but I don't think we'd ever run together so you weren't in my thought process - sorry :/
6. I often say things I don't really mean. I just told everyone, yesterday in fact, that I was done with running. Don't believe everything I say (sad, I know).

I think that's it for now. Sometimes I just have to get my thoughts out. It felt good to move. I also figured I should at least try to get some use out of all the stuff I just bought at the Lululemon Outlet!

Our new digs...

Well, we've done it! Purchased our first R.V. Camping here we come! We - especially the boys - are so excited! We got the camping bug after hanging out in Shuswap with the family and are hoping to get out for one weekend this September - just to make sure it all works (I'm sure we'll find out if the furnace works!!). We know we'll make lots of great memories with this trailer! Looking forward to spending time in our great outdoors :)

The Besties - Mom version

Sunflower

That just may be the tallest, ugliest sunflower ever. Abnormal if you ask me.

the beach

3 Little Beasties - I mean BESTIES ;)

Katie, Isabella and Joel spent a busy but FUN weekend together. On Monday we spent the day out in Steveston, did some playing at the playground, did some eating at Pajo's and did some walking at GarryPoint Park. The kids were exhausted! Well, maybe the adults were too but it was a great way to spend the day with friends.

Yesterday

Micah turned 11 months...only one more month and our baby is 1. In the past month he has continued to hit some milestones. He now has 8 teeth and has taken his first steps (on Aug 18 to be exact). I wouldn't say he's walking but he will take 2 - 4 steps, even stopping sometimes and standing. He'll be running around before we know it. We have a super busy month coming up. Joel starts Kindergarten in a week, Nathan is going to be 3, Micah turns one and there are a whole lot of family birthdays aside from ours. Joel has also started soccer so in a few weeks he'll be going to that twice a week. My mat leave is ending in 2 weeks although due to some leftover vacation time my first day back isn't until the middle of October - seems like a long way off but we know how fast these months go by! There's a bit of an update for now!

BFF

Joel and Katie were reunited this week after over a year of being apart! To them it was like no time had passed and they were able to play and have fun like it was last year - the only thing missing was the fighting! If you knew Joel and Katie together, you know they always acted like sister and brother....This week they were friends. Best little friends. We miss her already.

Ready to Roll!

The boys were just a little excited to pack up for our first camping trip in 4 years...

Napping Nathan

yep, water is calming.

Shuswap 2011

Every few years we get the courage to go camping with the Costleys and Leboes...I say courage because with all those kids and nowhere really for us to stay (we always just end up taking over someone's trailer), it gets a little tricky! Lucky for us Mike and Julie ended up going this year and graciously allowed the 5 of us to join the 5 of them in their trailer. Thanks guys but sorry for the semi sleepless nights! We only had a short couple of days to take it all in but we sure made the most of it. We spent lots of time at the beach, got in a round of mini golf, visited the nature house, played at the playground, took many bike rides and sat around the fire. It was a great weekend and it made us pretty sure that we'd like to invest in our own tent trailer. On a side note and to stay true to my character I have to write that of course someone got sick...happens every time we go somewhere. Poor Nate had not such a great first day but recovered quickly and did NOT pass it on to anyone :) Hope to see you guys up there again next year! It really is the BEST place...

the Yard

Sunset. Aug 16, 2011 White Rock

Our Swiss Visitors

This summer we welcomed the Frei family to Canada! We were so excited to have them here and to finally see them all again! We had a great first few days with them - we welcomed them at the airport and gave them only a short time to get used to Canada time! They spent the following 2 days downtown Vancouver, enjoying the MANY sights and sounds of the big city. On the weekend the girls and Micah went shopping to the Adidas outlet and a few others which was very exciting for Melanie and Sabrina - they could hardly believe how cheap it all was in comparison to home! We wrapped up the evening with s'mores around the fire pit and they took off for the ferry and the rest of their adventure in the morning. 3 weeks later Sabrina showed up at the airport again and we got to spend another evening with her before she left and after another week the rest of the family showed up to prepare to fly back to Switzerland. We wrapped up their time with a gorgeous evening out in White Rock - it was absolutely perfect! Thanks BC for showing yourself as beautiful as you are! In the 4 weeks they spent here they only saw a few hours of rain :) We loved having you visit! Hopefully we'll see you soon again!