Camping Trip #4 - Fintry Provincial Park

*I have been super busy with going back to work and school start up. I had several posts written that I didn't hit publish on, so they will appear over the next couple of days. 

Our fourth camping trip this year was spent with a group of families who have adopted locally. Cory and I have been very blessed to connect with some amazing families who have been a great support system as we jumped head first into parenting. Many of these families have welcomed children into their homes during these past few years and friendships have flourished between the children (and the parents) while enjoying our play dates, summer camping trips, park days, skating afternoons and winter cabin weekends away.   

Last year, as few of the families got together and rented a group site at a local provincial park.

 
We had a great time and decided to do it again this year. In the end we had close to 60 people, with about 45 of those kids. It is a great low key camping weekend with families visiting and no set schedules of events. The kids spent their days and evenings splashing in the lake, tubing/wake boarding behind the boats, playing on the playground, hiking the local trails, roasting marshmallows, running around with glow sticks, and generally just having a great time.
(Side note: I don't have many photos of my kids without others in them, and I don't like to post those pictures unless I have permission from the parents, so photos are lacking in the cuteness factor!). 

The playground where many hours were spent...

 Some families went on one of the local trails to check out the Fintry Falls...

One of my favorite memories was the large group game of "kick the can" one evening. This game is similar to hide and seek, with almost all the 45 kids (toddlers to teenagers) hiding together behind tents, trailers and picnic tables.   

We even had our (now) annual communal pot luck dinner of deep fried turkeys and all the side fixin's as we all gathered together to share a meal of thanksgiving! On the following day many more adoptive families joined us in the afternoon for a BBQ lunch, it was quite busy as there was close to 125 people (and several hundred wasps lured in by the smell  of food!). I'm sure we must have confused many other campers about how we were all connected! The BBQ was hosted by the Adoptive Families Association of BC - thank you Diana for bringing all the food and hard work organizing the BBQ! 

If you live locally and have adopted (or are currently waiting to adopt), keep your eye out for the dates for our next year's AFABC Okanagan family camping trip!   

Our little Jawas....

Sigh...it appears that my techie/science fiction loving husband is trying to indoctrinate educate our children on some of the essential classic sci-fi movies.

On the top of his list is Star Wars. In order to foster a connection he is focusing on the various short stature characters, starting with...the Jawas. For those of you who have lived under a rock since the late 70's and don't know who the Jawas are... (you can read about the Jawas HERE)

Jawas as conceived by George Lucas.

How is he doing this you might ask? Is he subjecting them to hours of movie watching with pop quizzes afterwards? Is he testing their knowledge of obscure facts about the different movies, or asking them to hum the theme song? Is he helping them to speak wookie, you might ask? No, he is much more diabolical and covert than that. 

When drying off the girls at night after their bath, he asks them if they would like to be burritos (arms wrapped up) or Jawas. The girls usually ask to be jawas. I think they are a little cuter than their counterparts above, right?

 "Daddy, we want to be Jawas!"

They of course find this hilarious and laugh and laugh...

Double sigh...not sure how he is going to incorporate the other characters into their vocabulary, but I am sure the Ewoks are next. George Lucas would be proud. 

Better late than never!

Yes, we have been home for ten months now, but we've been busy! I can't believe how much she has grown over such a short period of time! Her smile continues to make my heart sing with happiness...I can only hope we can give her the same measure of happiness she has brought into our lives. 

Our announcement cards will be going out in the mail sometime in the next week or so depending on how my the school start up goes, so those of you in our families who actually read our blog now have had a sneak preview - watch your mail boxes!

More visiting with family...

After spending our four camping days at Mabel Lake, Cory's brother and his family came to our house for a few days to continue the visit (and maybe sneak in a shower and a couple loads of laundry - remember we had no electricity or water).

Burning off energy in the back yard

Daddies hard at work..

Playing at the splash park

Checking out the snow birds on BC day, a spectacular albeit short show this year.

Luckily we had front row seats for the show. Cory's work is right down by the waterfront, so we took in the show from the roof top! No crowds, clean bathrooms and a clear view - score!

Some audience members had an even better view...

Thank you for the wonderful visit Uncle Kevin, Auntie Laura, Cara and Katie! Looking forward to seeing you all again next year!

Camping Trip #3 Mabel Lake

Although our summer weather was rather delayed, we had scheduled a camping trip with Cory's brother Kevin, his wife Laura and their two little girls earlier in the year.

We decided to go to one of our favorite recreation camp sites (no running water or electricity) Cotton Wood Beach on Mabel Lake. 

Afternoon view of Mabel Lake, finally the sun is out!

Our girl's were so excited to see their cousins who are similar in ages. The girl's ages are 4 (Cara), 3 (Sylvie), 2 (Mary) and 1 (Katie). Four children, four and under. But just wait, Cory's brother had a friend from university traveling out this way camping so they decided to join in on the fun. Their daughters are 5 and just about to turn one. So SIX girls, five and under. Yes, there was a lot of estrogen in the air.

The Drinkwater Grandchildren! 

Katie, Cara, Sylvie & Mary!

Here are a few pictures of the memories we made over the four day camping trip. We ate too much, drank too much, played in the sun a little too much, stayed up late a little too much, missed our afternoon naps too much, giggles and laughed too much... life is good!

Making the girls into "mermaids"!

Building sand castles...

Getting dirty...

Swimming...

Our girl's don't get to see these cousins often as they live in Saskatoon, a measly 14 hour drive east...where there are NO mountains....only canola fields. Luckily for us, they drew the short straw and drove out here to visit us this summer, so I guess that means that we are on for next summer. Hopefully the mosquitoes next year won't be so plentiful or hungry in Saskatoon as we heard about (I know, what am I thinking?)!

Ten years ago today...

I married the best man I know...

And we went from this...

To this...

To this...

Who knows what the next ten years will bring? Happy Anniversary to the best father and husband I know!

Vancouver Trip

We don't only camp during the summer you know...we also visit family! We decided to take in a little of the big city life and hopped into the truck for a little jaunt down to Vancouver for a few days to visit Uncle Brian and Uncle Paul. First order before heading to the big city - hair cut and nail polish!

 Blowing on their nails to dry them faster...

This was the girl's first time getting nails polished, and it was a big hit. While I wasn't impressed with the quality of the haircuts, the glitter hair spray and pink nail polish included with the cut made their day.

The girl's were very excited to see their uncles, as well as the kitties. Unfortunately, the kitties weren't as excited to see the girls and spent a large chunk of our time hiding in the bedroom away from prying eyes and hands. Too bad the kitties didn't realize our girl's are expert cat hunters!

Here's Tucker hiding in the closet!

And Sophie deciding to just sleep and ignore the girls...

We spent the first day fulfilling little kid dream's - riding city transportation. I am sure other kids are the same way, but ours love to point out buses when we are driving. In fact, when talking about our China trips, Sylvie's favorite memories is riding the buses! So we ended up by the end of the day taking advantage of Vancouver's vast transportation system and rode the city buses, sky train, sea bus, along with going on a few elevators and escalators. Our kids loved it, and the adults loved seeing the happiness and excitement on their faces.

That evening we were able to visit with more family, as our cousin and her husband were invited over for dinner. It was great to see them again and spend the evening reminiscing around the dinner table with a couple bottles of wine and Uncle Paul's cocktails. Thank you Uncle Paul for the delicious supper (as well as all the other meals you cooked for us and the girls!). 

Uncle Paul made us breakfast every morning!

We spent the second day walking the water front and exploring all Granville Island has to offer. The girl's loved looking at all the food vendors and devoured their cookies. They also were impressed with the very insistent, aggressive friendly sea gulls and other birds who were quite tame, and enjoyed being feed french fries and other tidbits by fellow picnickers.   

Some of the places we visited while exploring the city were China Town, the Water Front, Longsdale Quay, Granville Island, and English Bay.

The Sylvia Hotel (and Bar) on Beach Ave.

The Chinese gardens in China Town

Having our picture taken by our astrological sign - The Rat!

Quick blast from the past, last summer August 2010...

Our girl's loved the waterfront. Unfortunately summer has been slow coming 

to Vancouver as well this year, so no swimming this time in the ocean :(

Thankfully there were uncles around to help "shoulder" the load of walking around downtown with toddlers! 

Checking out local art on Beach Ave!

The girl's discover that although one uncle is pretty good...

Two uncles are better!

Thank you for the wonderful visit Uncle Brian and Uncle Paul. Hope to see you both again soon!