We are in Canada visiting, and we are so happy to be here! It has been so nice to enjoy some cooler weather (even the stuff everyone else thinks is too cold… this pregnant lady is loving every minute), and being surrounded by family. The kids have really enjoyed exploring and have managed to find a ladybug, and two caterpillars, each which kept them busy for at least an hour or more. I am pretty sure all insects, in the end, were accidentally killed though… oops! I took a lot of pictures of them with the big caterpillar. Owen was the only one that wouldn't hold it… he did try and touch it a couple of times though! (oh, and mommy… they are a little yuckier than I remember them being! Cute.. but I didn't want it crawling on me!)
Grandpa helped them build two fires in the backyard too, which they thought was pretty cool. Especially Mason who loves building fires. They cleaned up the yard, and with all the debris roasted hot dogs and s'mores! It doesn't get dark until like 10 here at least, so it's easy sometimes to forget about bedtime!
We made a sort of spur of the moment trip up to Lethbridge for my cousins's baby shower so that we could see her and her new little sweetie and also lots of other family! It was quick, but fun! Then the next day we headed over to the new Telus Spark Science Museum with cousins. It was fun with lots of neat things for the kids to explore! Brenna's favourite, and the only one I took a picture of, was pinning the clothes on the mannequins. She loved it and had to get a picture with each one before we left!
It rained for the first week and a half or so that we were here, so we didn't get outside all that often, but it has since cleared up and been pretty nice, and the kids enjoy getting out to parks or lakes or in the backyard to play! Their cousin Curtis comes over most days too so that they can play!
Brenna LOVES her little cousin Curtis… like really. She also thinks she should take care of him and lift him and help him always, and it's a little overbearing. Curtis usually doesn't mind though! I guess you can't get too upset about too much love!
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| collecting debris for the fire! |
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| Mason collected a bunch of little pine cones and was pretty excited! |
We have done lots of fun things that I haven't photographed.. I'm not that quick to pull out the camera these days! We have gone to the lake a few times to play at the park, and once the kids even got in the water and had a blast! We have gone with my mom and sister a couple of times, and once I went with my friends! I have got to hang out with them a couple of times, and it's been so nice! I miss those girls and hope we will always keep in touch! It helps that all of our kids get along like a dream too!
The kids love my parents ward, and it's about as opposite from ours as you can get! Ours is full of young families with a booming primary and nursery, and theirs is tiny, but suddenly all of my kids who are mostly a little shy, can't wait for primary every week, and even Owen loves going into nursery! Not that he doesn't like ours, but it's fun to see how excited they are! I guess they thrive on more individual attention or something!
We got to be here to celebrate Holden's 2nd birthday with our new group of best buddies too! Too bad I'm the only one that doesn't get to stay for future play dates! We had a blast!
Jeremy got here and we were so excited to see him again! It's nice to be all back together! We went to Southland Leisure Centre to swim one day, and I think that may have been their favourite thing so far! They were having so much fun! It was nice to watch them, even if I had to be in a swim suit at 8 months pregnant at a public pool. They were so independent! They went down water slides by themselves (the older ones) even though they were below the age limit, we couldn't keep up! They jumped off of the swinging balls like 100 times even though they were like half the size of anyone else in line, and even Owen jumped off the diving board all by himself a few times! My little fish! It was exhausting trying to keep up with them, and I didn't even have to do any stairs or much of the chasing! I was glad to have Jeremy here for the swimming day! Grandma and Aunt Jessica were great at taking them on slides too!
Then we got family photos! We aren't together often, and so for Christmas us kids gave my parents a family photo shoot, but it's been 6 months and it's the first time we've been together… too bad I got to be about to have a baby at the time, but oh well! Everyone was looking especially handsome and pretty!
I stole a couple of our family so that I could have some immediate gratification, but we can't wait to see how they all turned out! The weather cooperated pretty well and so we were all happy about that!
We have just over one week left and it will be busy, and lots of fun! We are off to a reunion and seeing family, and also have plans for Calaway Park, and maybe squeeze a few other things in too if we can! I'm sure when it's time to go we will wonder where all of our time went! It's so nice to have these opportunities to spend time together! I know as my family grows and life gets busier it will get even harder to make this happen, so I appreciate it that much more! I get emotional often, only enhanced by the hormones, for reasons I would probably even find hard to explain! But we are having a nice time, also I am more ready to have this baby every day! I will be 35 weeks in a couple of days, so it's coming up quick! We will be very busy until about 38 weeks, but I wouldn't complain if she decided to appear any time after we get home!
To be continued….
