Fall-ing

I haven't written a blog post in a while, I guess that's what happens when you get into the fall routine. Seems in the last 2 weeks the temperatures and the Canadian dollar have both fallen, much to our dismay.
Kyle and Aaron both are enjoying school, Kyle is learning new songs and loves to play with his friends at school. Aaron likes going to the library and also been bringing home books to read. He also has kilometer club where he runs around the track and is aiming to get to 100 or 200 laps I can't remember which. He also has a different task to do at home, whether its counting as high as he can, to setting the table, to counting all the round objects he sees in a day, among the other many things he has to do.

Aaron is also getting the hang of soccer. At first he wasn't enjoying it much as he was confused as to the point of it all, but seems to have caught on. He almost scored a goal in his last game, so maybe he'll get one soon.

I think it was over over a week since I have taken a picture, but our kids both got their Halloween costumes this past week, so I took some preview pictures of them in their costumes. Since it's still a bit till Halloween, you only get a preview too! You can try and guess what they might be and you'll see more pictures when Halloween comes.

On Sunday we are heading to Victoria to visit Mark and Sylvie and have Thanksgiving together with my family.

So to my 3 readers out there, I wish you Happy Thanksgiving and if you are American Happy Columbus Day!

New Beginnings Part 2

Last week Kyle had his first day of pre-school at Wind and Tide for 3 year olds. He is in the same class as his friend Michael and also knows a few other kids as well. Kyle had a gradual entry to pre-school. Once they are in full swing Shelby will have 2 free mornings to herself.

Last Wedenesday Aaron had his first soccer practise, then on Saturday had his first game already! Needless to say, Aaron and most of the other kids are still trying to figure out the rules of soccer. Making sure they shoot the right way is quite important. I think even the obect of the game, to score a goal on the other team, Aaron is just figuring out. Anyway it was kind of amusing to watch. Soon they'll get the hang of it. Here are a few pictures from Aaron's first soccer game.

Camping Video Highlights

Boys Camping Weekend

Last weekend, Jason and I took ours boys camping to Allouette Lake. On Friday afternoon we picked up Aidan and Michael at their house and made our way to the ferry and off to find a campsite. After Labour Day campgrounds don't take reservations, so with it being a sunny weekend I thought claiming a decent campsite would be a good idea. Jason had to work till 4, so I had all 4 boys in the car for a while. Listening to 3 and 5 year old humour for a couple hours is enough to make you go crazy, but this is afterall only the beginning of an all boys weekend.

When we got to the campground there was a decent amount of choice and finally settled on D-5. It was a bit of a maze to find our campsite, so I told the boys to remember D-5. Then we went back to pick up Jason at the ferry with chants of 'D-5, D-5, D-5!'

When we got back to camp, we set up the tent trailer and got dinner going. Supper wasn't till after 7 and I think they were happy to finally have dinner together.

Despite someone's car alarm that went off at 3 in the morning in the campgroup, we all slept pretty well on our first night and Jason and I thinking we were doing pretty well without any women around. I did forget my pillow, but made one out of a blanket. My boys were awake at 7am while the others continued to sleep a bit more, so we headed for a walk to the lake where it was nice and peaceful.

Jason made an awesome pancake and bacon breakfast that, we hardly knew we were away from home:-)

After breakfast we all headed to the beach. The water was a little chilly, but the boys didn't mind and Jason went for a swim as well.

In the afternoon we went for a walk and a geocache(how could we not?) The boys liked playing along the river, walking on the rocks and throwing rocks in the stream. I was sure one of them was going to bail at some point, but they all did pretty well, except Kyle who wasn't walking much around the rocks.

Here is Aaron hanging out at the beach.

And Aidan deciding to douse himself with water with his clothes on.

Later on the kids were hanging around a pretend fire, probably waiting for dinner.

Dinner included roasting wieners and making smores, although Kyle would only eat a plain marshmallow and Aaron preffered raw smores better.

I saw these mushrooms as we were walking, so Jason took this picture of them.

This was sunset on Saturday...

And this was sunrise on Sunday

In the campground there was a playground which the kids also enjoyed a lot.

After that, we went for a last time at the beach.

Sunday was warmer than Saturday, so going in the lake was very refreshing.

For some reason Aidan didn't want to be in a picture, so they all made angry faces.

We had our final lunch at the campsite and then packed up the tent trailer to make our way. As I tried to start the car. the battery was dead. Seems one of the kids turned on a light in the back of the car the day before and drained the battery overnight. Luckily someone was around to help us get started.

On our way back home we stopped at Maple Ridge park which had a playground...

and a water park.

It was a nice stop for them on a warm day.

I also got some funny videos of our camping trip, which I may try to post sometime.

Overall the weekend went well. 'Farting' and 'bums' seems to be a common topic among the boys. At times it seemed like they were the best of friends only to be a few minutes later the worst of enemies, only to be forgotten when the dads provided a diversion. Bringing only 3 Tonka toys for 4 boys was a mistake on my part(I thought I had packed 4). I am sure you could imagine the grief from the one boy who had to take a turn being left out.

Our wives did help us a pack,which was very helpful(thanks), but I thought Jason and I pulled off the weekend fairly well and made for some good memories.

New Beginnings

Last weekend we bought a 2 wheel bike with training wheels for Kyle to upgrade from his tricycle. It took him a bit to catch on, but he seems to have go the hang of it.

Aaron has finally taken off his training wheels and started biking on his on. He is still pretty shaky and has had a few falls which temporarily put him off biking, but we try to encourage him to keep at it.

Here is a video of Aaron riding his bike

Today is Aaron's first day at kindergarten. They have a gradual entry to kindergarten so they start a bit later(don't want to stress the kids out these days!). I know he's been looking forward to this day, even if it is only an hour.

And we are not sure if Keisha is trying to send us a message by this or not, maybe there are too many changes around our house.

Westbank with D&E

Last Tuesday, Shelby went up with the kids to Westbank. I came up with our friends Dave and Estelle on Thursday for 2 nights. The weather was mixed, but we were still able to enjoy the pool and the boat.

On Friday we went out with the boat for a couple of hours. Most of us got to try the Big Mabel again. Dave and I took a turn together and I think Shelby tried pretty hard to flip us but we hung on!

Here are a few pictures from our boat ride

Back at the house we spent quite a bit of time at the pool and using the colour accent feature of our camera. These next 2 pictures were taken by Estelle.

We also used the WP-500 in the pool, to help accentuate Dave's husky body.

When you travel with friends you often learn new things about them and I learned that when Dave plugs his nose underwater, he can make bubbles come out of his eyes! How does one figure that out? Maybe I have that hidden talent too or you out there?

On Friday afternoon Dave's brother and his family came to visit. They have girls, the same age as our boys, so they got along pretty well. They played in the pool and then we went up to Mission Hill. Dave's brother, his wife and Estelle took a tour, while Uncle Dave looked after the oldest girls as they hung out with boys running around, playing hide and seek and checking out the wishing well.

When we got back to our house we were greeted to a nice full rainbow. I could have done a better job stitching the panoramic shot of the rainbow, but i think you get the idea.

On our last night we played monopoly and I had fun, maybe it's because I won too:-)

Anyway it was good to hang out with Dave and Estelle in the 'tropics' again and a nice way to end the summer break.

Retiring after 35 years...

After coming home from the Okanagan, we spent one night at home and hooked up the tent trailer to head to Vancouver Island for Garry's(Shelby's dad) retirement camping party. We arrived a bit late as I had to check in briefly at work and our ferry was a bit delayed. Anyway as we arrived they started the presentation for Garry's service in the force. He served with the RCMP for 35 years and was awarded with various achievements. This was his official last day with the RCMP and many co-workers and friends came for this special occasion. With our arriving a bit late and by the time the 'ceremony' was over and we finally set up the tent trailer and had dinner, the kids didn't get to bet till at least 10 o'clock!

The next morning we were treated to a pancake breakfast and we joked with Kyle that the plate with pancakes for everyone was just his. As we started to take the pancakes from the communal plate, Kyle slowlly started to...

burst in to full tears as we were taking his pancakes. He was consoled and seemed to understand that he couldn't eat all the pancakes.

Apparently Auntie is not a fan of this.

A self portrait with her nephews

At night we had quite the fire going, which included a visit from the park host to keep it down, the fire that is not the noise. The 80 year old blue grass band nearby should have received the noise violation!

Here is Kyle being serious...

and not so serious.

Besides all the friends, family and co-workers that showed up, there were also a number of dogs there, at least 8 if not more at times. I don't have pictures of all the dogs that were there, but I did take pictures of dog in our extended family

Keisha

Kody (Keisha' dad and Shelby's parents dog)

Lacy (Shelby's parents other dog)

and Mr Jack Black (Sara and Jamie's dog)

On Sunday we went out for a fishing trip with Bubba, we took the kids as well as Auntie and Unc Unc.

Kyle took a turn behind the wheel, good thing the motor was off.

The kids were helping Bubba and Unc Unc fishing.

and really driving the boat.

Auntie and Aaron

Garry and Jamie were actually catching a lot of fish, but usually it was rockfish or dogfish, which were just returned back to the ocean, but then Jamie with some help pulled out the 15 pound halibut! Looks like nice eating, if I liked fish!

The boys hanging around a fort that Aaron helped to build out of the driftwood.

Sara and Jamie had to leave Sunday evening and this is Shelby and her mom attempting to put their thermorest away with Shelby's grandma looking on, looks like they were having fun.

Garry and his friend Dennis went for an after supper fishing excursion and as they were coming in a rainbow appeared(although we didn't see any rain) and a nice sunset too.

On Monday morning we packed up and headed home, were fortunate to not have any rain on the weekend. It was good to spend time with family and see as Garry heads into retirement to perhaps another career? Time will tell.

Sara just completed a post about this weekend as well which can be viewed here.

As an FYI, all the pictures in the last 2 posts were taken with our point and shoot camera.