Canada Day Looong weekend

We were up in Westbank for the Canada long weekend with our friends Ray and Ginny and their children. We added a few days to our long weekend to make it even longer.

We arrived on Thursday, the kids ended up not napping that day which suited Aaron fine, but when there was a bit of down time Kyle conked out.




On Friday we were able to have a swim in the morning and went to a park with the kids.





Lexi had an interesting moment as she ran down the slide instead of sliding down, gave her parents a bit of a scare...crazy kid!



With Kyle's lack of fear, running into the creek nearby seemed like a good idea, so Shelby helped him out.


In the afternoon there was a torrential downpour. Around 8pm the clouds started to break and the sun started to come out again. Ray and I headed up to Mission Hill to take some pictures.



Saturday the sun came out and it stayed out for the rest of our trip getting warmer each day. Swimming in the pool was very common and also was a relief from the heat.











For Canada Day the kids each got a Canada tattoos and Canada hats.







Shelby made us special drinks that were very yummy.





Here is Madi pretending to be a cat, watching her eat as a cat was pretty funny.




Bubbles were a big thing with the little kids...






and the big kids too!





On the last day Ray and I took Madi and Aaron to the lake which they really enjoyed.
Some people were coming in with their kayaks to the shore, so they let the kids sit in the kayaks for some photo ops.







The kids enjoyed blowing dandylions on our way back to the car






Here is us at our Canada Day dinner.



All in all another great trip had to come to an end...till next next time!

Our trip sans enfants

I am trying to do a bit of catch up on this blog.

Last month we took a trip to Vegas and then rented a car and went to see the National Parks of Utah and the Grand canyon. It was our first trip without kids since we had kids, so we took advantage of that and tried to see as much as we could in a week. Here is a brief summary and a few pictures from our adventure.


These are a few nights shots from Vegas. It reached 110F during the day so walking around at night was a bit more bearable.









This is Bryce Canyon, we enjoyed walking into the canyon. We did it first thing in the morning, so it wasn't too hot.








Then we were in Moab, UT which is close to Arches National park and Canyonlands National Park, which are both great.












We also made a trip to the Grand Canyon which was nice as well.



We really enjoyed our holiday, maybe next year we will be able to something like that again.

Music-related videos

Here are some recent music-related videos of the kids.

Earlier this month we were visiting some friends and on the way home Ballroom Blitz came on the radio...



Have you seen Sammy Stevens and his Flea Market Montgomery video?
Basically all of us have been singing this lately especially the 'it's just like, it's just a mini...mall!' part.

Here are Aaron and Kyle singing it, the first take didn't go so well....

Love my Belly: Part Deux

A few weeks ago Shelby blogged Love My Belly, here is the continuation of that post.

I drew a happy face on their bellies and they were very happy to show it off.

Shelby is responsible for these pictures....

Catching up

Trying to keep up on the blog...
Last Wedenday Aaron's preschool went to the firehall. I accompanied Aaron as he learned the basics of fire safety. They learned about diiferent dangers around the house and acted out a pretend fire, first they were firefighters and then the were the family in the burning house.
They also got to witness a firefighter in full gear and check out the fire trucks.










Shelby has started jogging a few times a week and sometimes we have joined her to hang out and the playground nearby.





Here is Aaron on a trail near the playground.





On Monday we went to the Fort Langley parade, last year we were in the parade and this year we watched. Our Noise friends were there as well as other friends.


Here are the kids in the street waiting for the parade to start.



Good buds!


Crazy kids!




Later that afternoon we had a BBQ at our house. There was some great food and we played bocce and volleyball. Aaron got to entertain baby Carter and Carter thought Aaron was hilarious, pretty cute actually.






Today Aaron decided to dress up in his construction outfit, which isn't that unusual, but today he added eggmuffs. Not quite sure if they suit him?




Kyle's pretend eggmuffs


Nice face Aaron!



I have more to update but I'll try to add it tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Our celebrity look-alikes

Mother's Day recap

For Mother's Day we decided we would skip church and spend the day out as a family. The weather was cloudy and a little cold, but at least it wasn't raining. We went out to Mud Bay for a walk along the trail near the beach. It was a bit windy down there, so the kids we bundled in their winter jackets, so it may look a little colder than it actually was.

Aaron got to see the Amtrak train quite close up, which he enjoyed, but would not be the last train he would see that day...

We brought the stroller with us and Kyle rode in that a lot, but he also wanted to walk and this picture is Kyle running. We also found a geocache on the walk and there was a whistle in the cache. I gave it to Kyle and he quite enjoyed blowing it as loud as he could. The whistle may be 'accidentally' missing now...

This was my attempt at a creative photo on our walk.

After our walk we went to Art Knapp's(yes the plant store) in South Surrey and they also have a large model train collection with trains of all sizes. They even have a ride on train in which you can take a tour of Art Knapp in. I think it's better than it sounds, anyway the kids enjoyed it.

This is an attempt a a mothers day shot, getting everyone to smile and look at the camera wasn't easy.

Aaron and Kyle watching the outdoor trains...

and playing with the Thomas the train collection inside.

This was my last attempt at a mother's day picture at home. Aaron is holding his mother's day present for Shelby. He made her a little pot with some sort of paper flowers and an umbrella in it. Something only a mother could love?

Question: Are husband's supposed to get their wives mother's day presents?
I opted for the safe answer and ordered her something online, but it hadn't arrived on time, it is still coming though. So my backup plan was to get her a Starbuck's card(always a good option for Shelby) and made her a shirt with the kids picture on it(you can kind of see it behind Aaron and Kyle), it says "We love our mom" and it's true.