Camping with Daddy

Since Hannah had such a good time the last time we went camping - and Kiera did not - we decided that it would be good if Jason and Hannah had a father-daughter trip and Kiera and I stayed home. A couple other fathers and kids joined them as well, Dan and his little girl, Dahlia and Brian, Jason's brother, and his four kids, Brianna, Alyssa, Matthew and Katie. They went to Cultus Lake and had a good time for the first two days and the first night. Then it started to rain and since I was there visiting with Mandy and our two little ones that evening, we just decided to bring the older ones home with us. The men stayed behind for the night so they could pack up the next morning. It turned out to be a good thing we took the girls home because Jason discovered a pool of water in their tent when he went to bed that night. Everything was soaked. He was able to join his brother and his kids in the tent trailer, fortunately. The next morning when Hannah woke up she said she wanted to go back to camping so I guess it must have been a good time. They went to the lake a few times, although it was too cold to swim. I am told the kids played cards together and did lots of colouring. They also got to make s'mores and feed the resident mouse until it ended up stiff in the bushes beside the campsite. Hmmm... maybe people food wasn't so good for it.

Birthday Week

Since there are only four days between Jason's birthday and mine, we usually celebrate together every year. This year we ended up having birthday celebrations that lasted almost a week. It started on friday with a birthday lunch with four generations of women: my grandma, my mom, me and my girls. What a great thing to be able to do! It reminds me of a picture I have from when I was a kid and my great-grandma was still alive. That evening Jason and I went out for dinner and to a BC Lions game. Just for the record, Jason's gotten some teasing for making me watch football for my birthday but I was the one that really wanted to go to a football game. I thought it would be fun to do something different. It was different. I don't know anything about football and it was too loud for Jason to explain everything. So I watched the Felions, the "dancers". They are definitely not cheerleaders, just a distraction for the men to watch between plays. Maybe next year we should celebrate our birthdays in the winter and go to a Canucks game so I can at least understand some of it. :) Anyway, it was a fun night, hanging out with my best friend. The kids had a great time too, thanks to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who babysat for us.
Next came dinner at my other brother-in-law and sister-in-law's on saturday, then dinner at my parents' on sunday. Then Jason and Hannah went on their father-daughter camping trip (more about that later). Kiera and I went up to visit them the second day and I took along a basketball cake for Jason's birthday. On wednesday, which was Jay's actual birthday, the girls and I decorated the front window to welcome him home after camping. In the evening we went out for dinner and then over to his parents' for desert. And that's it! Birthdays are over in our house for another year. Although... we still get to enjoy my father-in-law's birthday tomorrow! :)

Our First Crop!

We finally got the first tomatoes from the plants Hannah and I planted! We started them from seeds and have watched them grow quite tall. They don't look that great but amazingly enough, they still produced some fruit. They developed blight or something. I am not a gardener. I think I actually have a black thumb. But we put off turning them into fertilizer and were surprised when they still grew fruit and it eventually turned red. We haven't tasted the tomatoes yet though, so that will be the true test.

Quotes and other things

Hannah quote: rolling her tongue, she says "I can fold my tongue like laundry."

Kiera quote: "UP!"
Okay, that is not a funny quote but it was very exciting to hear her first real word last week (that we recognized anyway). Now she also says "hi", "ow", "yup" and of course, "Mama" and "Dada". She also signs "all done" and "more". I never really intended to teach her signing. I never did any with Hannah. But I did it a couple of times for the fun of it and she picked it up right away, so I decided to teach her a few more. She is growing up so fast. She also took her first steps last week. What fun!

Wedding, birthday, birthday, wedding, wedding, birthday, birthday...

That pretty much sums up our summer! Every weekend this month we have either a birthday or a wedding, sometimes two per week. Two of my cousins have gotten married this summer already, Hannah had her third birthday, my dad had his 60th, and now we have two more friends getting married this coming week and then both of our birthdays and my father-in-law's at the end of the month. For Hannah's birthday we decided to give her a real party with her friends since birthdays have been such a big thing for her this year (every night she wants to talk about everyone in the family and what they would like to have on their birthday cake!) We had planned for a princess-themed pool party in her little kiddie pool in the backyard. The weather turned out to be too cool, so we had it indoors instead. Three little girls came and we did crafts and had hotdogs and mexi-fries for lunch, followed by a princess cake. I was amazed at how quiet and calm the whole party was because I know how this group of three year olds can make noise when they want to! Everyone seemed to have a great time and felt like princesses in the crowns and necklaces they made.

The next day was my Dad's party. Lots of people showed up, friends from way back and from all different times in his life. We had made him a scrapbook of his first 60 years and everyone got a chance to write him a note in the back. Friends and family that were too far away to come for the party sent notes by email as well. I made the cake, which was a real test because I had just finished my first cake decorating class a few days before.

My second what? How many times removed??

This past weekend we went to my cousin, Jeremy's wedding. It was Hannah's first wedding (that she can recall) and she had a blast. She met her second cousins for the first time and became fast friends with Abby, who is just two months older. Once they got to know one another they were inseparable and walked around hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm the rest of the day. The kids also had a great time on the dance floor. I had a good time getting re-aquainted with my cousins as well. We only see each other every few years so we had a lot to talk about. We also got to meet the youngest member of the family, my cousin's daughter Makayla Avery who is only two months old. What a beautiful baby! She is not the newest member though since we welcomed in Jill (the bride) and her daughter Tirzah.

Camping!!

So we decided to give camping another try this year, only for one night. We joined my parents at Hicks Lake just past Harrison. Aside from the bugs, it was the prefect location. We had a great spot right beside the lake and the playground. The geese made the grassy beach almost unusable with their "deposits" and the playground was designed for oddly-shaped children with long legs and short necks but other than that it was perfect! We found a spot on the beach (not the beach with the geese) that was so great. We had our own section of the beach all to ourselves. The water was clear and the weather was warm. It was so good that we didn't want to give up our spot so we brought lunch to the lake and cooked our Kraft Dinner on the portable stove. We had a good little set up for sleeping too. The girls slept in one tent and we slept in another. Kiera cried herself to sleep after more than an hour of fighting it. Then we had some nice relaxing adult time of game-playing until bed. Then the fun started. Kiera woke up at 2:30 wondering where she was and too terrified to go back into the playpen. After some deliberating and realizing that we couldn't let her cry it out now that the rest of the campground was sleeping soundly, Jason decided to drive her back home to sleep and come back the next day. It was a good solution for sleep, just not so good on gas.

After they left I decided to wait outside for a bit to make sure they got out the gate okay. I was standing quietly beside the picnic table and not moving much I guess. I heard some strange noises coming from in front of me. I must have moved slightly, because I suddenly heard the sound of a frightened animal scratching its claws on the cement under the picnic table as I startled it. Terrified, I backed away from the picninc table and waited to see what would emerge -- and in which direction (hopefully away from me and hopefully away from Hannah sleeping in the tent on the other side of the table). Then I saw it, wandering into the forest to the next site -- a smallish black creature with a white stripe down its back. I had been a foot or so away from a skunk, startled it and managed to not get sprayed!! I was so scared my legs were almost too weak to carry me back into the tent. Then I spent most of the rest of the night imagining what every other sound in the forest could be. Needless to say I was pretty tired the next day.

It was a good time camping though and we were so proud of Hannah, sleeping in her own tent, in her new sleeping bag with no complaints (although, she was really trying to help Kiera get to sleep in some very unhelpful ways!) She loved camping so much, we know we have to take her again soon. Next time it will be a father-daughter trip though and Mommy will stay home with those under 2!!