Lovely visit

This morning we had a chance to visit with Susan Naus and her wonderful kidlets, whom we have not seem for, well I'm not sure, but it's been a long time. :) Sue, Julia and Sam are out visiting from Ontario this week and I'm very glad they made time to go to the park and hang out with us. It was also great to hang out with Sarah and Lesina and even Mekaiah and the Hillsons for a little bit. Elise and her kids came too so we kind of took over the park -hahaha.

I was excited to meet little Samwise. He is a very sweet, relaxed baby and I enjoyed holding him and visiting with his dear Mommy.

Grace and Rachel both love to hold babies so they got their chance today, taking turns holding Sam and Lanae.



We met at Eagle Mountain Park, which I had never been to before but it was beautiful up there. It has nice playgrounds for older and younger kids as well as a trail for walking/riding bikes, a tennis court, and a basketball/street hockey court. Evan rode over to the gazebo and came rushing back to tell me that it was the most beautiful view he had ever seen. :) I imagine it would have been nicer if it wasn't such a smoggy day!

Pool fun

We set up our pool on the weekend and the kids are having tons of fun in it. The water is a little cold for my old body but they don't seem to mind a bit!

Entrepreneurs!

Here is a picture of five little entrepreneurs. They were all playing so well together out in the front yard and called me to come and see their "museum." "But," they told me, "you have to pay us ten cents - and it has to be in pennies so we can divide it up, two for each of us!" I was so proud of them for thinking up the idea and for figuring out the math that I gladly paid the ten cents and enjoyed viewing the museum which consisted of: one dead bee, two fossils (brought over by Grandma), one lava rock, and a rock that is cool because it is "almost a perfect oval."

They were so pleased with their money-making schemes that they decided to have a rock sale. So they set up a table and attempted to sell Evan's rock collection. I wasn't buying this time but they did find a couple of willing victims, I mean customers! :)

Aquarium

This past Thursday we did a field trip that we have been trying to do for the last month. The kids and I drove in and picked Ryan up from work just before lunch and we all went to the Vancouver Aquarium together. It was a wonderful, relaxing day of family fun and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Here are some pictures of the things we did and saw.

The butterfly room was very cool. There were butterflies everywhere and they weren't afraid of people at all. Evan rescued one that had fallen in the water and put it back on a tree. The huge sea lion was really funny. When he swam by the viewing window, he would rub right against the glass. Then later, when I took this picture, he was sitting up on the rock showing off - he loved his audience!

The dolphin show was a highlight for me. They are such beautiful, graceful animals.

Update

It has been a busy few weeks in our household and that, combined with major computer troubles, has led to my lack of blogging. My apologies to my one or two loyal readers (sorry Mom!) Anyway, here I am up past my bedtime and taking a few minutes to blog some of the highlights of the last few weeks while all the keys on the laptop are actually working.

We went and picked strawberries at Krause farms last week. Evan and Grace were really great helpers and even Rachel picked some (in between eating) so we ended up with lots of yummy fresh strawberries to take home. I made some jam and froze some berries and we ate lots fresh but the best thing we did was dip some of the strawberries in melted chocolate - DELICIOUS!

Last week was Evan and Grace's last gymnastics class of the year. They were in a class of just six kids, including the two of them, this term so they got lots of time on the equipment and lots of help from their teacher. They both really enjoyed themselves and learned lots of new skills. Here they are in a tunnel that they got to play in on the last day.

I guess it's just the time of year for lots of lasts. We had a BBQ last week to wrap up Evan's baseball season. He has played on the same team with most of these kids for the last 3 years so they have gotten to be good friends and they play really well together. It's great fun to watch them play.

Grace also had her last game the week before and we went out for ice cream with her team to celebrate but I forgot my camera - what a horrible mother! :)

Here's another highlight - last week we were visited in our own cul-de-sac by a Reimer truck! Ryan has worked at Reimer for almost 11 years now and the kids are very used to us yelling "Reimer Truck, Reimer Truck!" when we see one on the road so they were jumping up and down with excitement to have a Reimer truck at our house. They were a little disappointed that they didn't get to ride on the power tailgate but it was a thrill nonetheless!