I find it weird that up until ten minutes ago my kids and I were outside hot as can be... actually sweating. The kids were running in and out of the pool and throwing water at each other, I was starting to think that I might actually need some sunscreen (that doesn't happen easily!) Anyway, a cloud blew in front of the sun. A big black cloud and now the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees and it is crazy-windy and I can see rain coming. Rain. So much for a beautiful day!
I also find it weird that there are seagulls here. I mean I am about as land-locked as you can get and there are seagulls... I wonder if these land-gulls aim as well as the ones by the ocean?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sweet Summer Solstice...
I always have loved the summer solstice mostly because it is the start of summer... Really, what more reason do you need... but it was always especially nice in Squamish because at this time of year you would actually have light for a long time during the day. With the high mountains there the days were considerably shorter than elsewhere on the lower mainland. Ladysmith was definitely brighter as there were only hills, not mountains and then we were right beside the ocean so the sunrises in the morning were quite early...
However, up here where the land is so flat and wide open not to mention so far up north... holy cow. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I noticed the sky starting to get lighter at 2:30 in the morning... last night I saw the sun rise. Rise! At 2:45 am... and it was still very bright when I went to bed at 11 pm that night so I don't know what time it went down... It was a beautiful day.
Allan just got his medal for gymnastics...
Maria with her gymnastics medal
However, up here where the land is so flat and wide open not to mention so far up north... holy cow. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I noticed the sky starting to get lighter at 2:30 in the morning... last night I saw the sun rise. Rise! At 2:45 am... and it was still very bright when I went to bed at 11 pm that night so I don't know what time it went down... It was a beautiful day.
On a different note today was the wrap-up for baseball and gymnastics... here are some pictures!
Maria with her t-ball medal... go Jets!
Maria with her t-ball medal... go Jets!
Allan just got his medal for gymnastics...
Maria with her gymnastics medalThursday, June 19, 2008
June... what happened to it?
Well, I guess I know... it flew by and kicked my butt in the process!
Hubby has been working absolutely every day since early June and he will continue to until June is over... Allan is going to preschool three days a week and Maria has switched to all-day kindergarten every other day to help her transition to full days next year. T-ball is wrapping up which means wind-up tournaments and bbq, gymnastics is wrapping up for both of the kids which means a show as well as award ceremonies for each and then there are the field trips with their schools... We are all tired!
Another thing has started which is good, but adds to our schedule is birthday parties... we were out of the loop of birthday parties for all of a month and a half with our move - which was soooo nice as between Maria and Allan there seemed to be one almost every weekend during the spring... However Maria has been invited to one this weekend and that is awesome too. To know that in a month and a half she has become one of the kids, not just "the new kid"... wow. Now we just have to try to curb all the talk she has been doing about boyfriends...
Hubby has been working absolutely every day since early June and he will continue to until June is over... Allan is going to preschool three days a week and Maria has switched to all-day kindergarten every other day to help her transition to full days next year. T-ball is wrapping up which means wind-up tournaments and bbq, gymnastics is wrapping up for both of the kids which means a show as well as award ceremonies for each and then there are the field trips with their schools... We are all tired!
Another thing has started which is good, but adds to our schedule is birthday parties... we were out of the loop of birthday parties for all of a month and a half with our move - which was soooo nice as between Maria and Allan there seemed to be one almost every weekend during the spring... However Maria has been invited to one this weekend and that is awesome too. To know that in a month and a half she has become one of the kids, not just "the new kid"... wow. Now we just have to try to curb all the talk she has been doing about boyfriends...
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Kids are Amazing...
Our biggest worry moving up here, was our kids. You can't help but worry about them... will they like it, will they find friends, will they get frostbite...
We talked to our kids a lot to prepare them for the move, and most likely sugar-coated what it would be like, but overall we just let them know everything we could think of and answered every question they had. In the few months leading up to our departure, Maria was actually excited about moving (which I have probably mentioned about 15 times to everyone I talked to, but I was amazed!) She was so excited to go on this big adventure with us and see what it was like to live in a different part of BC. She was sad about leaving her friends and school, but she saw the bright side too. Allan fed off of her excitement so he was pretty happy about the whole thing too, but probably wasn't exactly sure about the whole thing... he was more concerned about having people, "other people" live in HIS house and be in HIS room... and I get that and agree somewhat!
Anyhow, when we moved the kids were still excited and eager to see everything, it was about a week after we moved that reality set in and it probably felt like this adventure was over and now we should be going home... except we were staying. So we definitely went through some whining and sadness about things not being what they were... but overall, the kids have done so amazingly well, I am overwhelmed.
Maria has friends everwhere, at school, on our street, even ones she just met at the park, and she has been doing amazingly well at t-ball and gymnastics. Allan doesn't have any friends yet, but he has made himself quite at home playing with whoever is nearest, he doesn't care how old they are, just as long as they play... and so far they all have. The kids on our street all call him "little man" and he thinks that is so cool... they ride bikes with him and chase him and turn him into a lawn-mower... Allan has also started pre-school so it is probably a matter of time until he finds a new buddy of his own. His teachers commented that he has made himself fit in so well that it is like he has been here all year, I think that is the best you can hope for.
Both my kids were in a gymnastics "show" last weekend, they have only been here for just over a month but they both wanted to be part of it and they did awesome. I have the best kids.
The four of us at the gymnastics show
We talked to our kids a lot to prepare them for the move, and most likely sugar-coated what it would be like, but overall we just let them know everything we could think of and answered every question they had. In the few months leading up to our departure, Maria was actually excited about moving (which I have probably mentioned about 15 times to everyone I talked to, but I was amazed!) She was so excited to go on this big adventure with us and see what it was like to live in a different part of BC. She was sad about leaving her friends and school, but she saw the bright side too. Allan fed off of her excitement so he was pretty happy about the whole thing too, but probably wasn't exactly sure about the whole thing... he was more concerned about having people, "other people" live in HIS house and be in HIS room... and I get that and agree somewhat!
Anyhow, when we moved the kids were still excited and eager to see everything, it was about a week after we moved that reality set in and it probably felt like this adventure was over and now we should be going home... except we were staying. So we definitely went through some whining and sadness about things not being what they were... but overall, the kids have done so amazingly well, I am overwhelmed.
Maria has friends everwhere, at school, on our street, even ones she just met at the park, and she has been doing amazingly well at t-ball and gymnastics. Allan doesn't have any friends yet, but he has made himself quite at home playing with whoever is nearest, he doesn't care how old they are, just as long as they play... and so far they all have. The kids on our street all call him "little man" and he thinks that is so cool... they ride bikes with him and chase him and turn him into a lawn-mower... Allan has also started pre-school so it is probably a matter of time until he finds a new buddy of his own. His teachers commented that he has made himself fit in so well that it is like he has been here all year, I think that is the best you can hope for.
Both my kids were in a gymnastics "show" last weekend, they have only been here for just over a month but they both wanted to be part of it and they did awesome. I have the best kids.
The four of us at the gymnastics showThursday, June 5, 2008
The Missing Lake...
So we had a lot of company for a while... Hubbies parents were here for nearly a week and one day after they left my parents arrived for nearly a week. It was wonderful having company to make this place feel like home a bit more... now they know where we are and can visualize what we are talking about... But it was also nice to have home to ourselves again. On Sunday after my parents left we were so tired and so greatful that we finally had a day with nothing planned.
No school, no work, no sports, no company, no anything... ahh this is nice. Well, a few hours into the day of doing nothing and we felt we needed to do something.
So we decided to find Cecil Lake. We had seen the signs pointing to Cecil Lake just up the road from our house and wouldn't that be awesome to find a lake close to our house. So we drove, and drove, well it would be nice to have a lake kind of near our house... and we kept driving. It was a beautiful drive, down and then up a small canyon with a nice river running through it, beautiful scenery through a bunch of pasture land (cows, cows and more cows even cowboys and cowgirls on a cattle-drive!) but no sign of a lake.
Eventually we turned a corner (a corner!) and we could see some buildings up ahead and signs that said Cecil Lake... we saw a cool, OLD church (no pictures unfortunately), and not much else until we got to an ice rink and school... in the middle of nowhere. If you build it they will come, I suppose.
So Allan is starting to fall asleep in his seat now, so we decide to stop and have our picnic, that we packed, at the playground between the ice rink and the school. We had a very nice picnic, the kids had fun and enjoyed running around playing and having a picnic... but there were a lot of mosquitoes so eventually Hubby and I had enough, so we started looking for Cecil Lake again.
Red-Winged Blackbird (I assume) I see these a lot up here...
We drove back through the "town" of Cecil Lake but never did find any sign of a lake anywhere... So instead we stopped at the river we drove past on the way through. What a great place! So many very cool rocks and the kids playing in the mud and water, stripped to their underwear... and just us.
So we never did find Cecil Lake, but I think we have found a place we will go back to, things are good.
No school, no work, no sports, no company, no anything... ahh this is nice. Well, a few hours into the day of doing nothing and we felt we needed to do something.
So we decided to find Cecil Lake. We had seen the signs pointing to Cecil Lake just up the road from our house and wouldn't that be awesome to find a lake close to our house. So we drove, and drove, well it would be nice to have a lake kind of near our house... and we kept driving. It was a beautiful drive, down and then up a small canyon with a nice river running through it, beautiful scenery through a bunch of pasture land (cows, cows and more cows even cowboys and cowgirls on a cattle-drive!) but no sign of a lake.
Eventually we turned a corner (a corner!) and we could see some buildings up ahead and signs that said Cecil Lake... we saw a cool, OLD church (no pictures unfortunately), and not much else until we got to an ice rink and school... in the middle of nowhere. If you build it they will come, I suppose.
So Allan is starting to fall asleep in his seat now, so we decide to stop and have our picnic, that we packed, at the playground between the ice rink and the school. We had a very nice picnic, the kids had fun and enjoyed running around playing and having a picnic... but there were a lot of mosquitoes so eventually Hubby and I had enough, so we started looking for Cecil Lake again.
Red-Winged Blackbird (I assume) I see these a lot up here...We drove back through the "town" of Cecil Lake but never did find any sign of a lake anywhere... So instead we stopped at the river we drove past on the way through. What a great place! So many very cool rocks and the kids playing in the mud and water, stripped to their underwear... and just us.
So we never did find Cecil Lake, but I think we have found a place we will go back to, things are good.
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