Gettin' buggy!

Pre-warning, no kid pics in this post:-)

I haven't brought out my SLR camera that much lately, but I usually carry around our Canon point and shoot. I`ve had the camera a couple years and I had not used the Digital Macro function on it. While in Westbank last month a grasshopper jumped in the pool and when we fished it out it wouldn`t move, perhaps it was drying out? So I tried out the Digital Macro function on my grasshopper friend.

Then I thought I'd try a crane fly

At home I found a bee that was dead but nicely preserved so I made it pose for me.

A few days ago a dragonfly flew into the trampoline net and when it was freed, it was also quite stunned and wouln't fly away, so bringing out the point and shoot seemed a good idea.

The next morning we found the dragonfly still on the rose as it succumbed to its injuries, hopefully it appreciates being captured in it last moments of life.

Anyway it's been fun trying trying out this function, who knows what I'll come across next?

Boys camping weekend II

Seems to be becoming a trend to camp the weekend after Labour Day. The last few years the weather had been excellent. Last year we had our first boys camping weekend. So we thought we would try it again with Jason and his boys. Actually our plans changed about 4 times but we eventually settled on an overnight camp at Rolley Lake near Mission. Here is the lake.

Since the weather was quite warm swimming was a nice option. The water was refreshing.

After having a campfire ban most of the summer it was nice to have it lifted to roast wieners and marshmallows! I mean isn't that what camping is about?

The boys having a balanced dinner, not sure what Aaron's problem is?

As dusk was approaching we went out for a couple geocaches and made it back to camp while there was just a bit of light left.

We ended the night stoking up the fire and roasting marshmallows and then all six of us ended slepping in one tent.

The next day after breakfast we went for a walk around the lake.

The highlight of the walk was when Aidan spotted a snake.

We watched the snake for a while, but it was clearly scared.

After the walk we went for another swim and the kids also played in the playground. The theme for the weekend for the boys was Transformers as they took turns being different characters in Transformers and usually arguing over who was who. We capped off our time at McDonald's and I think they all had a good time camping together! Next year again?

PNE

After missing the PNE last year, we decided to return this year with the Sawatsky's on the last Friday of the exhibition. We had planned to go a few weeks in advance and were unsure of how the weather would be, fortunately it was a beautiful day, contrary to what was predicted earlier in the week.

The biggest attraction of course for the kids are the rides, which they did quite a few of.

The Doodlebops did a concert that day and we decided to take the kids to see it. There were a lot of parents, toddlers, strollers etc and was quite crowded. As we were making our way through the crowd a mom thought I was going to stop and watch the show right in front of her after she had been waiting 2 hours! She became quite accusatory and started to yell and get physical with me, even saying i stepped on her child, I thought I was at some hard core rock show! Eventually I made my way to where I was headed and avoided the all out brawl at the Doodlebops! Who knew orange, pink and blue haired people were worth fighting for??

We cut the Doodlebops a little short in order to check out the Superdogs, a PNE tradition!

After we had dinner, checked out the exposition hall and then more rides!

For the Scrambler ride(not sure if that is the right name or not), it required an adult to ride with kids under 4 feet, so I reluctantly went on the ride with Kyle as Shelby went on with Madi and Aaron. I was OK for a while on the ride but near the end I got quite light-headed, but it was fun!

Aaron on the swings

The kids each got to pick out one toy they wanted. Kyle picked an inflatable hammer and Aaron picked out a lightsabre

The main concert the night was the Gipsy Kings which at least the adults wanted to check out. By the time we got there it was so packed that you could barely see the stage. At least we could hear it. We stayed for about half the show and then headed over to wait for the night show.
As we were waiting for the night show to begin I had a few minutes to go a take some 'night shots' Here are a few rides I experimented with.

I have to mention that Glen was with us, he was a real trooper for putting up with us and our kids. It was a long day and we finally made it home at midnight quite exhausted! I think we all had a pretty fun day though!

For a long time Shelby has wanted a nose ring and one day she spontaneously got one at the mall. She had been careful to try to keep it clean and not get any infections. She only had the nose ring for a couple of weeks but it slowly become a pain to not get infected and she finally took it out for good. So as a memory to her short lived nose ring, here she is a the PNE.

Summer ends (Westbank trip)

On the 26th of August we headed up to Westbank for week of holidays before the kids go back to school. This time our friend Glen from South Africa joined us. He is now living in Toronto going to school and pastoring a church out there.

One of the first things we did was go back to the go karts, the big difference this time that Kyle got to drive his own kart! He actually did pretty good, he crashed a few times on the hair pin turn, which was kind of funny. They both had a lot of fun!

At the park in Kelowna

One day we drove the boat to Rattlesnake Island and tubed on the way back.

On the weekend Dave and Estelle visited us, on Sunday we went out waterskiing. They hadn't skied in while so they got out there and did well.






Dave taking a 'secret' read at Estelle's intriguing novel



We had a fun visit with Dave and Estelle(we always do;-) but they could only stay 2 nights.
On Monday we went to Penticton for the day. I had never been tubing down the channel before so we took in a Penticton tradition and floated.

Soon after started going down the channel, we ate our lunch. We were headed to the side and we asked Aaron to push us towards the center of the channel. As he was trying to push us, he fell out of the tube with his sandwich in hand! Needless to say it got soaked, Aaron was upset but we found it rather humorous:-)

It was quite hot out, so a swim in the channel was refreshing.

After we went to Skaha Lake and to the waterpark nearby

We each got an ice cream, Kyle like the ice cream, but not the cone.

At the waterpark

We visited with Shelby's grandparents and had a wonderful dinner

At the beginning of this trip I was trying to get Kyle to jump in the pool by himself. He had done it last year, but eventually got scared of doing it. He might have hurt himself one time. I was trying to help him get his confidence back, but it seemed to no avail. Towards the end of our trip, without any prompting from us, he starting jumping in on his own and he didn't stop. He literally must have jumped 50 times in a row!

So we had another great week in the Okakngan and it was a nice way to end the summer holidays for the kids and us too!