So bitter sweet the passing of time especially when you mark it with your kids growing like weeds! I cannot believe Claire & Rhys are now finished grade 2. They were in a split class this year and they did so awesome both socially and academically. There were some hiccups along the way and they both handled themselves so well. We are so proud of these twinadoes 🙂
Our annual last day of school tradition is to go out for dinner somewhere fun. They love these ice cream volcanoes at Milestones!
Claire & Rhys turned 7 in December!
We organized a fun party at FiredUp! where they learned about ceramics and painted a design of their choice. We had a lot of kids from their class attend and I am pretty sure this will be the last combined birthday party so we made the most of it and had a blast!
Last summer we traveled to Vancouver for a mini vacation. We wanted to spend time checking out all the fun tourist things and to visit old friends. We stayed downtown for two nights so we could catch the sky-train and walk around the city. We visited the Aquarium, did some shopping, visited Science World and had a blast.
After our stay downtown we drove over to North Vancouver to stay with our good friends Faye & Niels. I have known Faye since my first year at University. She was my roommate in residence! The University placed us together randomly and have been friends since. We had a great two nights spending time with Faye and her family. We also visited with our friends and the kids surrogate grandmother, Evelyn, who was our neighbor in our old condo building when we lived in North Vancouver. We spent some time with her and her boyfriend Barney. They were so sweet and it was nice to catch up on all the condo gossip 😉 We also had some time to have a picnic with our South African friends Kim, Ryan and their two sons Kye and Fin. We spent a lot of time together when Claire & Rhys were babies as Kim and I worked together and had an overlap with our maternity leaves. We used to swap child minding which I miss so much! A bonus of staying with Faye & Niels is we tagged along to another friends big BBQ so we were able to see lots of old friends and they have the best backyard that Claire & Rhys made the most of.
We had a great trip and we are excited to make it an annual summer adventure.
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Science World:
Aquarium:
Lions Gate Bridge to West & North Vancouver:
Faye & Niels home:Faye & Nield
Evelyn & Barney:
Kim & Ryan clan:Kim & Ryan
Lisa & Sean’s BBQ…best backyard for kids:
And of course….Jimmy found a pool to skate 😉
Every summer a bunch of our friends that I have known since University organize a group camping trip. This year at the end of the summer we all met at Parksville.
On the way to Parksville and on our way back home we had some time to visit the Chemainus & Ladysmith skate parks. No vacation is complete without a sk8 adventure.
We had such a great time visiting with friends and having some solo adventures as well. The only downside was Claire getting stung three times when running through playground and a hornet got caught in her jean jacket, Ouch!
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[wpvideo fiUcNcIE]
After our fun time in Drumheller we caravanned to Medicine Hat and had four sunny days that we spent with family.
Our good friend Annalee drove from Northern Alberta to visit us while we were in Medicine Hat. Thank-you for making such an effort to see us! We had a wonderful visit with you…. ice cream, swimming, and a lovely lunch out.
I was able to visit with my Godparents- Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman, we had a family BBQ to celebrate my Mom’s birthday and we visited the Medicine Hat skate park and various tourist spots around the town.
Thank-you for the wonderful visit everyone! We will be back soon. xo
Annalee:
Cousin Sophie:
Cousins Sophie & Aubrey:
Back L to R: Deanna, Sarah, Mom (Tricia), Dad (Vern), Caithlin, Ethan, Michaela, Hayden
Front L to R: Rhys, Claire, Sophie & Aubrey
Little Reindeer:
World’s largest teepee:
Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman. The best Godparents ever:
Heading back to Calgary for one last night before flying home:
Victoria: