Camping Out (& In)

We've been wanting to go camping like every weekend since the snow melted but it just seemed like it was always one excuse after another.  We FINALLY made a huge effort to go and the kids had a blast.  I emphasize that the kids had a blast because in the end it didn't feel too much like a "vacation" for me and Greg what with all the prep and watching of possible dangers around camp (esp. with Gavin), but we were happy to do it for them.  Besides, we figure it won't be too much longer before they get a little easier to take camping--or maybe that is just wishful thinking.

We sold our old tent at our yard sale to some friends and with the money, we were able to buy a new one.  Me and Greg have vastly different tent philosophies.  I want one with lots of windows so we feel like we're outside while we're inside the tent.  Lots of windows also means lots of ventilation.  Greg wants more of an igloo style that would survive the most torrential of rains.  We have an igloo tent that we got years ago but now we finally have one with windows.  It is a Coleman instant tent and it literally goes up in just minutes.  The kids and Greg took a trial run with the tent in our backyard to make sure we could put it all together and figure out sleeping arrangements (Chloe's favorite part because she is such an organizer).  Since it was a screaming success, we set off the following weekend to do it all again but in real life.  (Do you like how the tent takes up our entire backyard?)

The kids did a lot of rock collecting (I wonder who they got that from), digging, stick finding, wandering and of course lots of squirrel watching. The bathrooms were an event in and of themselves too because they were DISGUSTING! In fact when we got home, Chloe commented about how nice it was to pee without any flies on her. It is always an adventure roughing it but even better to get home.

The weather was a bit tricky because it was quite cold at night already but crazy hot in the day so the kids went without their naps then couldn't fall asleep because it was still light outside until like 11:00pm. and all our neighboring campers were crazy loud.  Still, they survived and what they lacked in sleep, they caught up on later as we drove home.

We borrowed a kayak to take along since we knew we'd be right on a lake.  The shore was a bit scummy, but it was still beautiful.  I think someday, a kayak will be a future purchase, or a canoe, or both.

We were virtually alone on the lake shore. It was so peaceful and nice:  no agenda, no schedule, nobody waiting for us.  We went to the shore two days.  We stayed there for hours and hours and the kids just dug holes and made castles, played in the water, and snacked. It was just what our family needed. The kids were a bit sad that none of our friends came camping with us, but in the end we were glad to have our family all to ourselves. It was also nice for Gavin because he had some crazy diaper rash so he loved just running around nakey and he only peed once outside and that was a big thrill for him.

Chloe begged me to include this "how to" video of her eating seaweed. She's a goofball.

Hopefully next year we can get out camping earlier so we can go more than once.

A "Dino"mite Adventure

We had heard of this dinosaur forest not too far away but we have never gone until now.  It was so cool.

Basically you walk around in a wooded, semi shaded forest (with wood deck trails) and amongst the labeled signs of plants and nature, you watch a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs.  They would go on a timer and also had a motion sensor so when you'd get close, you'd trip the sensor and they'd start growling, moving, eating, or fighting.  The kids LOVED it!  Gavin was a little scared at first but then he'd laugh and just stare and stare. 

At the end of the trail they had a really fun playground with bones to dig up and brush off.  The girls were in heaven.  When we were going to leave, you have to exit through the gift shop.  They had all these "minerals" and rock sample kits.  The girls kept getting so pumped about these kits and they wanted one SO BADLY!  Greg kept scoffing at how idiot they were and how overpriced at like $20 for a small kit with rocks.  He told the girls that he'd make them an even better kit.  So on the way home, we stopped by dollarama and bought some of those divided sewing tupperware thingies.  Then when we got home, Greg busted out his rock hammer and took the girls to the basement and to his boxes and boxes of rocks.  Then they each were able to pick out their own samples and put them in their own boxes.  Then I decorated the lids and we ended up with these beauties:

Makes me feel sorry for all those kids who bought those kits at the gift shop.

Summer Relish

**I wrote this in Aug.  Just finishing it now.

Gavin is finally 18 months old!  Oh my!  I can't believe this fool is growing so fast.  Look at that profile and that smile.  Don't you just want to kiss him?  He's so fun and so cute and so difficult and so full of attitude and so full of affection so that sounds just about right.  Here are some things Gavin excels at:

• Pooping
• Smiling
• Being naked
• Drinking milk (cow's milk thank you)
• Wearing shoes (his or other peoples')
• Running away from you fast
• Laughing

Things he can say in sign language:

• more
• please
• milk
• all done
• cracker
• cereal
• water

Things he can say in normal English:

• Dada
• Mommmmmmmmy!!!!
• keys
• cheese
• car
• paci (pacifier)

Body parts he can point to:

• nose
• eye
• teeth
• tongue
• hair
• tummy
• privates by name
• leg
• hand
• finger
• ear
• toes
• feet

Animal sounds he can make:

• Dog
• Bear, lion, dragon, dino (all a roar)
• Cow 

WE LOVE HIM!

Summer Teriyaki Sauce

I'm just going to keep going on my condiment post list for my birthday post. 

It was a day full of things that I love.  We spent the whole morning yard saling.  We loaded the kids up into the car and just drove around going from sale to sale to sale.  We scored a bunch of awesome canning jars and also some misc. kids toys.  The thing with the toys is they are sometimes old and crappy but they provide weeks to months of entertainment for our kids and then we just donate them to the thrift store so they can be recycled to another home and some other kids.

Greg was able to get us a reservation at a Japanese restaurant for lunch.  It was so fun because the tables look like they are built into the floor.  The food was delicious and the girls were having so much fun but then Gavin turned into a terror.  He was climbing on the table, trying to push down the paper screen divider to the next booth and was determined to spill the soy sauce everywhere so he eventually had to be removed from the establishment (by his Daddy).  Us girls lingered a bit just talking and eating more.  Chloe told me that she LOVES Japanese food.  We had to convince Tati to try bits of the food and she would only eat the chicken with her eyes closed b/c she said it looked gross.  Hopefully she'll move past pb&j sandwiches at some point--or so I'm hoping.

We had strawberry shortcake for my cake with real whipped cream (of course) and I accidentally made too much pound cake so I had to continue eating my cake for 2 days.  Woops.

It was great.  Chloe made me a rock with my name on it and Greg and the kids made me a beautiful birthday sign.

Chloe decorated the "L" with rainbows.  She said that was special for me.  Rainbows are still rainbows for her.  Sad that they won't always just be rainbows.  Greg bought me a camera bag.  He gave me the disclaimer that he was pretty sure I wanted a different bag but he bought that one because he wanted to have an actual present as proof that he had thought ahead.  We ended up taking it back and not finding the one we like yet but I have a camera bag coming as soon as I find one I like.

I'm such an old lady but my kids and husband made me feel super important and young.

Summer Ranch Dressing (Pt. 2)

I decided to split these into two since there were so many pics.  These are our water day pictures.  We spent everyday we could outside and near the water.  It was so fun and so beachy even though we were on a lake.  We went to the most beautiful beach on one of the most beautiful and enormous lakes I've ever seen.  It was clear, cold, and clean!  No leeches!  Well maybe there were leeches but we didn't see any.  The weather was warm and sunny and beautiful most of the days and even when it was a bit cold and windy, that was fun too.  I just love this town!

See?  Even their welcome sign is awesome. 

Brenda busted out some bubble mixture and the kids had a blast popping and yelling over the bubbles. This picture pretty much sums up the whole trip.  But I'm going to post more photos anyway.  ;-)

We took a walk on the marina and played at the nearby park where Gavin had his first turn on the monkey bars.  He had a lot of fun until his grip weakened and then he freaked out.  That might be the first time he has actually felt true fear and panic.  It was sad.  He was so relieved when Greg caught him and didn't really want to do it again.  I also saw one of my favorite graffitis ever (click on the pic to see it bigger).  Isn't it crazy how much that looks like the ocean in the background?

We went kayaking, made sand castles, Tati caught some weird little fish (some dead, some alive in a bucket), floated around on noodles, ate lots of food and watermelon, chilled, smiled a lot and I even managed to fit in reading a People Magazine (which was so fun b/c I never have time for such frivolity).

P.S.  Do you like how Tati's buns can't fill out a bathing suit?  It makes us laugh.

I loved this vacation.  I love this place and I loved the people we were with!

Summer Ranch (Dressing)

At the end of July we were lucky enough to head out to the farm again.  It was originally just going to be me and the kids but thankfully Greg was able to take some time off too and join in the fun.

I really can't get over how much I love the farm life.  I never would have guessed but all the fun we had there at Easter couldn't even compare to how fun it was in summer.  AND it was so green and lush and beautiful both on the farm and in town.  We went crazy taking pictures so I'll try and limit.

I also need to say how amazing Brenda's parents are.  I have never felt so included into a family that wasn't my actual blood family.  They are the nicest most chill people ever and they treated my kids like they really were their grand kids.  We also spent some time with her sisters and their kids.  It was so cute how quickly my kids were calling them their cousins and planning things to do together in the future.  The sad part is all their real cousins live too far away to see.  It was one of those bittersweet parenting things.  Happy for them and sad for them all at the same time.

We were lucky enough to be in town for Pioneer Day.  The church there went all out with a dance (where the girls danced with their daddy to oldies sung by an old person band), an ice cream social, a parade (where they got to ride on a float with all our fake relatives and throw candy--which almost hit me and several others b/c it was thrown with such vigor),

games and food and even a dunk booth.  It reminded me of how fun pioneer day was when I was little growing up in CA and our stake did a big carnival/party each year.  I was very nostalgic.  We jumped right into all the events and had a blast.  I loved watching Greg hop his little heart out in the potato sack race and man I can't remember laughing as hard as I did when I was trying to carry his legs in the 3-legged race!  It was great that the events were split by age too because Tati wanted to do all the events also.  And she was fast (but she didn't win).  Greg did and gave her his prize.  She also fell right back into the swing of things with her fake cousins.  She even teamed up with Kaleb to win the 3 legged race in their age group.  All the winners got popsicle coupons so that was a big thrill too.

Chloe jumped right in the line to be in the dunk booth.  It was fantastic to watch her.  She held her nose the whole time awaiting the fall.

The kids made more sugar cookies with Grandma Beth (which I guess is a new tradition they'll have with her), hit up a pinata (for no other reason than it was fun and Grandma thought the kids would enjoy it)

 sewed some marble bags with Grandma (since we brought a bag of marbles for all the kids),

got to feed, Scribbles, the baby cow his daily milk (even though the mosquitos were coo-koo in the barn);

went out quadding and looking at cows (and a giant bull that was very anatomically obvious which was hilarious to hear all the children react to him),

threw some rocks in dug-outs, and we even made some tie dyed shirts--although some of them were hideous (Gavin's shirt started out orange and ended up a gross brown color with the mix of dyes. Luckily we bought a few extra white onesies.).

Greg went on a date to the local thrift store (surprise, surprise) and we scored some amazing lamps for $4.00 total!  They joined the rest of the items in our basement for our future, someday house.  It was fun to go out and be together and also probably one of my favorite things in the world is going to out of the way and small thrift stores.  You never know what treasures you'll find.

If I could pick somewhere to live in Canada, I think I'd choose Cold Lake.  I just love it there.  Then again rumor has it that I wouldn't be singing the same tune come Winter. At the very least, if we can't live in Cold Lake or on a farm, then I would love to have a home like the Beth and Bryce's where everybody is welcome and life is just plain, more fun.

Long Nail Girls

The tooth fairy gifted Chloe some fake nails a while ago. Supposedly they change color in the sun and are especially made for little kid fingers. The girls were all excited to wear them until they needed to scratch or pick something up and then they were super over them.

I tried them on afterward too. They did look pretty cool (and yes it is a bit embarrassing that kid nails fit me) but I just don't think we're made to be long nail girls.

Summer Mustard

This summer we finally made it out to explore several lakes in this great province.  It is funny that we haven't gone out to do this sooner.  Had we known how beautiful these places are, we probably would've done it sooner.  Anyway, this is a lake pretty close to home.  Our friend's parents have a house here so it was nice to have a real bathroom to use after sitting on the sand and playing in the water.

Gavin had a great time just walking in the sludgey sand.  The bottom of the lake was a bit skummy and gross but the kids didn't even seem to notice.

At one point, our friend, Scott came out of the water with a giant leech on his leg.  I'm not going to lie when I say it put a damper on my desire to swim in that lake.  He calmly walked up to the house and poured some salt on it and it fell right off.  For the rest of the day I was in a panic examining legs and limbs when people exited the water looking for any more leeches.  Ahhhhhh!

Tati found a bunch of shells and made a collection in her bucket.  This girl makes more collections than anyone I know.  Love her.

Chloe took a while to work up the courage to jump off the dock but finally did it.  She was so proud of herself.  She is really growing up. 

I even got into the action with Brenda.  It was quite funny, it was super hot and we decided it was finally time to get wet.  So we got up to the dock and then the clouds and wind rolled in.  We had to wait several minutes for it all to clear up b/f we finally went it.  It was refreshing and fun but then that ole image of the leech on Scott's leg came into my mind and I couldn't get out fast enough.  ;-)  I'm not one to think I would put a "movie" of myself running in a bathing suit but this was so memorable and it ended up so fun that I couldn't resist.  Sometimes you just need to have a sense of humor about yourself people.

Super fun day.

As we sat on the beach and dried off, we noticed a beaver off in the distance.  I approached him quite close.  There was a wind blowing the reeds as I walked so he didn't hear me.  That or beavers don't have good hearing.  I was impressed at how fast he ran and then swam away.

It was beautiful there.  The thing I loved the most was how it felt like I was almost at a real beach in California.  It made me feel more at home.

Summer Ketchup

I've been trying to get caught up on all our awesome summer adventures and I will now be a more consistent blogger once again.  So be prepared for lots of posts to come.  Lots of our adventures this summer came through our friends.  We've been so grateful to be friends with so many amazing people here.  Here is our first one.  This is our trip to get Chloe's passport renewed (wow, has it really been 5 years already!) and since we have to travel quite a ways to get to an American Embassy, we decided to turn it into a vacation.

First we headed to the mountains with some friends.  We went on one of the most amazing hikes I've ever been on. I wrote about that one here. 

The next leg of our vacation took us to the city.  So we headed to the zoo.  The kids had such an amazing time seeing the penguins.  It was a super awesome exhibit.  You can see all the penguins up close. These were some of my favorite penguins.  (You'll have to click on it to see it better.)

We had heard a lot about this exhibit and how awesome it was but also how long people have to wait in line to see the penguins.  Luckily, we were there on a rainy day so it wasn't crowded at all.  We went through the exhibit twice and spent a really long time the second time.  It was super cool.  The penguins were marching and jumping and swimming and squawking and man, they were LOUD!

The rest of the zoo was just ok.  The kids had a blast though and it got them really nice and tired out.

Overall it was a rough day though.  You know those days that are just "off"?  Well we had tried to re-start our day a few times but it seemed like we kept having somebody cranky (even a Mom and Dad) and then some arguing or fighting would occur and we'd have to apologize and regroup and then try and restart again. 

After some failed attempts at stopping at nice rest areas and the like, we finally decided we'd make one last stop and then just push ourselves to get home.  We stopped off at a famous for delicious donuts place, called "The Donut Mill".  If you're a fan of heavy cream (which I super am), then these donuts are a must.  They are delicious and not overly sweet.  They are filled with flavored whipped cream.  Our favorite is the orange creamsicle donut.  Tastes just like it.  We barreled through 1/2 dozen donuts and finally with all those endorphines in our system, felt positive that we were all now in good moods and ready to get back to life in our town.  Then our car decided to die.  Like completely.  We could get it to go into Reverse but just enough to be able to back out enough of our parking spot to be a menace.  Then we had to have Chloe steer while me and Greg pushed us back into the parking spot.  Luckily the donut place had free internet so Greg called the transmission place back in Edmonton to see what they could do for us b/c we were sure that we hadn't gone over the miles or kilometers that it was covered for.  They gave us somebody to call in Red Deer who quickly came to the rescue with a tow truck.  In case you don't know, a tow truck def. doesn't fit 5 people let alone children's car seats so we were going to try and see if maybe a hotel had a shuttle service but then this really nice guy came up and asked if there was anything he could do to help.  Todd.  Turned out he was a member of the church just moving here from AZ where he just finished dental school.  He was on his way home to Calgary after having spent the day in Edmonton taking a dental test to be qualified to practice here.  He was heading home for a family wedding.  He dropped us off at the hotel.  He was seriously a miracle for us and a light of sunshine on a VERY cloudy day.  He'll never know what a difference he made to us.  Upon entering the hotel and unloading all the kids onto the couches in the foyer, we noticed that neither one of us had gotten our wallets out of our car (Are you kidding me?!).  So Greg literally ran the 5 blocks over to the transmission place and grabbed them.  We only grabbed the absolute essentials but of course that means that I grabbed stuff for everybody else and didn't get any fresh undies for myself.  By now it was dark and the car place was locked up, so I had to use the blow dryer on them.  And this all happened after a crappy morning with lots of not listening and arguing.  So this might very well be our worst day ever.  But then again there was Todd so we have to be grateful for something.  But we're the idiots that didn't even find out his last name so we could send him a card or something later.  Thanks Todd wherever you are.  I hope your wife wasn't mad that you got home late since you were supposed to babysit your kids tonight but you ended up helping us for like an hour when we couldn't find, the lady at the convenience store couldn't find, and your GPS couldn't find the hotel we were supposed to stay at.  Hope you receive some Super blessings because the Super 8 we were at wasn't really that super.

The next day we had two more miracle people help us.  The sister of a friend of ours lived in that town.  Our friends had called her on our behalf and asked if we could stay at her house while our car finished being fixed so we wouldn't have to pay for another day in the hotel.   She got a babysitter for her kids so she'd have enough room in her car to pick us up, took us to her house, fed us lunch, and she and her kids played with our kids.  She was such an amazing girl.  She made us feel welcomed and like we were old friends.  She also was able to add a little bit of humor to what was not a very humorous situation for us.  She was amazing.

Then a different friend from home drove her van down 2 hrs. to this friend's sister's house to pick us up and directly drove the 2 hrs. back to drop us off at home.  She was just doing her grocery shopping when we called her.  She dropped her groceries at home and directly came to get us. 

We were so humbled by the willingness of people to help us out.  It dulled the pain and struggle of having such a horrible travel experience.  It was a testimony to me of how much people are placed in our paths to help us out and how much Heavenly Father is aware of our lives and our struggles. 

It wasn't the vacation that we had hoped for or wanted, and it definitely wasn't all rosey, but it was a very memorable trip and a great learning experience for us.

Heritage Festival!

We finally made it to the Heritage Festival this year.  We've either always been out of town or busy this weekend.  We had a great time.  Well, mostly we walked around eating food and taking pictures in cut outs but still it was fun.  We even took our favorite babysitter, Emma with us.  She is a great girl.  If our girls end up half as awesome as Emma, we'll be happy. 

Our favorite things were listening to the guy from Peru play the guitar.  He was seriously so good, he could have made a c.d.

We loved the displays at the Ukranian section and I even bought some Russian doll earrings. Hey, speaking of Russian dolls:

And some Russian warriors maybe?

The Japanese booth was a thrill because they had a box of free origami shapes so the kids each picked one out.

The Indian dancers were really fun although the boys looked like they were going to die of embarrassment and totally made me and Greg laugh hard.

The Irish dancers were the best dancers by far. Their kicks and music kept the kids super entertained but man, was it ever hot sitting in the sun.

The Canadians had a booth for kids to do face painting and stuff and it was a nice break because we could sit down and be in the shade.

The Scandanavians had the most hilarious picture cut out ever. It cracked me up extra because Greg has never been fat and to imagine it is just funny.

We ate lunch at the Korean booth and I'm so glad we did.  We got bulgogi, rice and some kimchi.  I don't know if it was because we were starving or if it was really so amazing but we felt like it was the most delicious thing we had ever eaten. Then we were proven wrong when we headed to Romania.

The Romanians were the big crowd pleaser  because they had this enormous funnel cake elephant ear thingy.

We bought two and thought there was no way we were all going to be able to eat it all. But of course, we did. Then on the way home and again in the days that followed, it was common to hear, "You know what I'm totally in the mood for right now? An elephant ear with caramel sauce!" Yeah, it was insanely good. It's probably good that there isn't a place that sells these at other times of the year because I'm sure we'd go and buy too many of them.