Fall 2013 Re-Cap

Understatement of the year... We've been a little busy these past 6 or 8 months. We had tons going on, and no time to write about it. My time was mostly taken up with school and work, while Jan was busy putting in a new bathroom for the kids, and the kids were busy with school and swimming and gymnastics, and all that jazz.

Aside from one little blog post about my trip to Chicago, I didn't have a spare moment to get any blogging done this fall or winter, and now here we are at the start of spring! So the least I can do is give a quick look back on the memorable times this fall, with hopefully a winter re-cap to follow at a later date (no promises).

First the kids went back to school...

Seriously, this was a big deal folks, my baby boy started preschool this year!! Not only am I out of the baby phase, I'm also out of the toddler phase - my baby is a preschooler!!
Starting school has been an easy transition for Levi, there have been no tears, he loves his teacher, and he always comes home with a smile on his face. Gavin started kindergarten this year with only a couple days of holding on tight when we left him at school, but nothing like the hard time he had with separation in preschool. Mikayla started Grade 2 this year, the year started off a little bumpy with some playground politics, but that seems to have passed, and she has settled right into things.

I had a birthday this fall, and it didn't even get missed in the shuffle of our busy life. Jan and I were lucky enough to have a date night while the kids all slept over at my parents' place. Then the following day I was surprised by a cake that Jan and the kids made for me.

Another "school first" this fall was Gavin's first field trip...

He and his class took a trip to Butterfield Acres Farm on a beautiful fall day, and I was able to come along as a volunteer with Levi in tow. The class had a pumpkin hunt, decorated the pumpkins, and looked around at animals on the farm.

Of course Halloween happened again this year, but a first for me... I actually dressed up to take the kids door-to-door. I haven't dressed up for Halloween probably since university days (a decade or so ago)

And with that, the post I started back in December is finally done! A very small snippet of Fall 2013, a time I will look back upon one day and say... "how did we survive that?" At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the course I'm taking right now will be done in a few weeks and I'm not registered for anything in Spring/Summer semester! Yippee!!

Mikayla's 8th Birthday Questionnaire

Even with the insanity that is our life right now, I couldn't let a birthday go by unnoticed. My Mika-moo turned 8 at the end of February, and it has been a year of big change for her. She has grown up a lot, and sometimes it makes me tear-up a bit thinking about it. She is no longer my little girlie-girl, gone are the days of loving everything pink or sparkly, the little girl I couldn't bribe to wear jeans now only rarely wears a dress. Now instead of playing babies when her friends come over she's playing "just dance" or listening to her iPod. Oh boy, my baby girl is now 8-going-on-16!!! Without further ado, I give you the 8-year-old answers to our birthday questionnaire.


1. Favourite Colour? Light Blue
2. Favourite Food/Place to Eat? Tacos. Home
3. Favourite thing to do? Hang out with my mom, hang out with my friends
4. Best Friend? Eva
5. Grade/Teacher? Grade 2, Miss Bever
6. What do you want to be when you grow up? Singer and artist
7. Favourite Book? Robert Munsch Aaron's Hair
8. Favourite Movie? The Lone Ranger
9. Favourite animal? Puppy
10. What makes you happy? Friends, Mom, Dad, Brothers
11. What are you really good at? Art, singing, dancing and playing nice
12. Where is your favourite place to go? School
13. What do you like to do with your brothers? Drawing
14. If you could have a super-power what would it be? Helping others
15. What do Mom and Dad do that makes you happy? Everything
16. What is one thing you've done that you are most proud of? Standing up to bullying
17. What do you like best about school? Everything
18. What would you like to learn to do better this year? To be quiet
19. What is the scariest thing you've had to do? To stand up to kids who bully me and my friends
20. What is you're biggest achievement/accomplishment to date? Making my very first diorama

Camping at Sandy McNabb

We've been doing a lot of camping at Sandy McNabb the past couple of years, it's close, the facilities are nice, there's a good park for the kids... what's not to love?
When we went at the end of this summer we ventured down to the river to check out the damage from the flooding in June, wow, it was unbelievable.

Gavin hanging around at the park

 Mikayla climbing up the chain

Levi playing in the fort that the daddies put together. One bonus of big rains/flooding, there's lots of debris to build forts with afterwards.

At the Sheep River... kids were having fun throwing rocks, I just couldn't get over the flood damage.

More pictures of the Sheep River...

We drove up the road a bit to the falls, and again couldn't believe the flood devastation.

The family at the falls

My gorgeous kids

Gavin cools off with a dip in the river

It's making me miss the summertime fun! And now there's snow on the ground... ugh.

Camping at Johnston's Canyon

Oh how I miss blogging! I've been drowning in a sea of clinical practice guidelines and community assessment models (don't be too jealous). But I handed in a 3000 word essay last night, and a I have a whole morning with all 3 kids in school and my next assignment looming in the distant enough future that I can blog a bit, yay.

We went on a couple camping trips at the end of summer that I never did get to post about, the first was at Johnston's Canyon, where the unthinkable happened - the first night our site didn't have a fire pit! But after one night of near-torture for Jan, we got a beautiful double site for ourselves and our friends, complete with fire pit, and all was not lost.

 Here we are at the falls on our hike at Johnston's Canyon. Jan made me take off my hat for the picture, please ignore the horrible hair day!

 There always seems to be someone with their tongue sticking out!

I have the craziest kids. They make me smile.

 Levi and Daddy at the twisted tree at Johnston's Canyon

Mikayla climbing the twisted tree.

Scenery picture on our hike.

Posing with the bear, not sure why Levi is crying in this picture, I think he wanted to sit where Gavin was.

More to come... (I hope).

Chicago

At the beginning of this month something unbelievable happened, I had a weekend away! Just me and my sister. Four whole days without cooking or dishes, spills or laundry, arguing or time-outs! Of course I missed my family immensely while I was gone, but it was a good mental-health break from the craziness of daily life.

My sister invited me to visit her in Chicago, and the two of us had a really good time walking around the city, sight-seeing, and eating. How much walking did you do, you ask? Over 20 miles in four days according to Tamasin's bracelet that monitors how many steps she takes. She lives right in downtown Chicago, so we were able to walk just about everywhere we went. There's tons to see, so close to her place, and amazing restaurants at every turn. Don't even get me started on the food!!! So yummy!!

I barely scratched the surface of Chicago's amazingness in my four days there, but here is a look of some of the stuff I was able to take in.

The architecture in Chicago is quite fantastic, I've never really been an "architecture nut", but the buildings there are really something else.

"Chicago" sign

The view from the Trump Tower Observation Patio.
Don't ask me to name all the buildings, there are far too many to remember all their names!

The boat we went on to take in a tour of Chicago architecture. Really a highlight of the trip.

The Trump Tower (this one I remember the name of!)

I have no idea what this little building was built to do, but it sure is pretty.

More buildings, from the boat tour.

Me and some pigs. Actually they are not meant to be pigs, some other animal, but I think they look like pigs.

"The Bean"
It's just so cool, and looks different from every angle! It's pretty popular too, we saw 4 wedding parties getting pictures  taken there in the 15 minutes we spent there.

The Field Museum.
This is the main thing I had on my "must see" list, and it didn't disappoint.
Yes I am a geek.

What a fantastic time I had in Chicago. Thanks Tam for having me, I can't wait to come back, and watch out because I'm bringing the whole family with me next time ;)

My New Mistress

I have been very absent from blog writing as of late, it's because I have a new mistress... NURS614 Foundations of Advance Practice Nursing. Sounds like fun, eh? Well, actually I have to say that I'm enjoying getting back to the books! Clearing the cobwebs out of my skull and exercising some brain power again has reminded me that I love school, and more education is what I had always planned on doing.
That's not to say that my crazy kids have stopped doing things worthy of blogging about, I guess I'm just going to have to be picky about what I can spend my "free time" on. That is if you can all 4:00am, when I'm on break during a night shift, my "free time"!
Here are a couple photos from my phone to keep this post interesting....

Buzz and Woody. 

Visit with my sister in Chicago

Elmo and a Monkey (try not to notice the monkey costume is 3 sizes too small on Gavin)

Gavin learning to tie his shoes

My girl keeps getting more and more grown up! I think she must be just about ready for university herself!!

And, now I must go back to work, then sleep, then study, then work, then study, then sleep and repeat a million times over in the foreseeable future.

... And they lived happily ever after.

I wonder how long "ever after" is? Like they say in fairy tales; they lived happily EVER AFTER. I've come to the conclusion this week that this life I'm living right now is my personal "happily ever after". Our "ever after" reached a huge milestone on August Second, when the husband and I celebrated TEN years of wedded bliss. I wasn't actually feeling the magnitude of this milestone leading up to it, after-all my parents just celebrated Forty and each set of my grandparents made it past Sixty! But as Jan and I got away from the kids for two days of alone-time together, I felt more and more pride in this milestone we've achieved. Why not be proud of each step along the way, instead of waiting for some unknown time in the future to reach "happily ever after".
Jan and I had a great time away from everything to celebrate, believe it or not, this was the first time the two of us had been away from our three kids for two nights in a row - ever! We didn't have cell phone or Internet reception, so we really had some quality ALONE time. I didn't even go into technology withdrawl, and had only a slight moment of anxiety that we couldn't be reached should anything happen with the kids. We stayed at the Cedar Chalets in Nakusp, BC. Right beside the hot springs! We were able to take advantage of the the hot springs 3 times in two days! Ahhhhh, bliss. Plus we got to sleep in until 11:00, I don't think I could have asked for a better way to celebrate our anniversary. Seriously. Perfect.
I love you Johnson.

Looking forward to many more decades ahead my love!

Happy Anniversary

Gone Fishin'

We're on our annual holiday out to "the lake" to visit Grandma and Grandpa! Kids are having a blast catching minnows, burying themselves in sand, going for boat rides, fishing and riding quads with Grandpa, and picking cherries and raspberries. Jan is having fun making homemade rootbeer, taking a day trip for fruit and veggies from the Okanagan with his dad, pickling cucumbers, pitting cherries and freezing them, and fishing too of course. I am having fun taking pictures of all the fun being had, and soaking in the sunshine, and even getting the odd sleep-in! Oh wait, I also forgot we've also had a trip to town to spend the kids' holiday money on ice cream and toys, a fantastic dip in the hotsprings as a family, a community BBQ at the park, and a beach bonfire! Sounds like we've been busy this week, and there's still another week to go!

Levi and Grandpa ride a quad around the yard

Gavin gets a ride too!

She makes it look like a really fast, crazy ride

Mmmm... raspberries are one of my favourite things!

There may have been a little more eating then picking going on!

Look Ma, I got a raspberry.

It was getting dark when they got in from an evening of fishing... Gavin "helped" Grandpa reel in a 7 1/2lbs Rainbow!

Mikayla had a successful early morning fishing trip with Daddy and Grandpa.

We BBQ'd both hers and Gavin's that night, and I couldn't believe how much the kids ate!!!

I can't even count the number of times I've buried my children up to their necks in sand this week!

Good thing you've got those goggles on Gav, you never know when they might come in handy!

Washing the sand out of all the crevasses after being buried!

We took a little boat ride to see this water bomber that was anchored just down the lake from us. It is huge, this picture does not do it justice.

Mikayla helped Daddy pick cherries, which Jan later spent an entire morning pitting and freezing for us to take home for smoothies and pies!

Another child up to her neck in sand!

Boat ride

That's my boy!

My hot hubby

Up next... We get to sneak away from the kids tomorrow for two nights to celebrate our anniversary, I can't wait! Then some peach canning and more beach time to round out the holidays!