Japan-land

September 10, 2012
I left my house early in the morning and headed to Renee and Sean's house in Belingham.  I picked them up and we headed to SeaTac for our flight- which was already delayed before I left home.
We parked and caught the park and fly bus with our 5 suitcases and 6 carry on bags- yikes.  We checked in and headed to the gate- for our 2 hour wait. Renee met some people at the gate who were traveling to Asia from Egypt- expats- making friends along the way.
Eventually we boarded and as luck would have it- I had a free seat next to me.  Thank goodness as 10.5 hours is a long flight!  I watched 2 movies- Safehouse and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  We were served an early dinner and then the blinds were all drawn, as we were flying towards tomorrow we never had darkness.  After a few hours sleep I was awoken to ice cream bars being handed out- weird but okay, I'll have one.  I managed to lie down and get some more zzz's.  Before I knew it breakfast was being served.  An hour later we landed and it was 6:30 Tuesday evening!
We arrived into Narita airport, had to go through customs and we were expecting hustle and bustle when we go there-but it was very quiet.  We sorted out Sean's school papers, organized delivery of his air freight and got him a cel phone.  We then headed to the airport bus limousine and awaited the bus- outside- oh boy it was humid.  The bus arrived and we traveled for 83 minutes on the bus- really not seeing much as it was dark.  We arrived at the hotel Otani and then had to catch a taxi (remember 5 suitcases, 6 carry on bags and 3 of us!). Thank goodness we only had to go about 3km's (820yen's worth), bungee trunked and front seat piled high.  Eventually we arrived at the Jal City hotel at about 10 at night. Exhausted and jet lagged we went to bed.  Wednesday would bring new sites, smells and sounds.

That was the beginning of 9 amazing days in a city I can't wait to return to.  Tokyo had sites to see the likes of which I never new.  We went to Akihabra- Manga crazy and electronics heaven; Harajuku- girls you have the coolest look; Shinjuku (where we stayed) amazing eats and treats; Shibuya temples that were amazing and so much more.  Cannot wait to go back to this amazing city!

Summer is almost here...

We had a great start to Summer- waaay back in April. We got a ton of yard work done and the gardens look amazing thus far. We even managed to get a few bike rides in and some fun family hikes. Then the craziness that is May and June began. May is busy with getting ready for summer and school stuff coming to an end. June is crazy with year end activities and trying to enjoy each moment of sun (if any)! Plus we have so many family and friend birthdays in June it is crazy. Last weekend we managed to get a great hike in with friends. We caught the ferry over to Bowen Island and did a 3 hour hike/walk around the lake there. We had never been to Bowen so it was a great adventure and fun to be a tourist in our own town.

So Cal

Saturday morning we left a very soggy Vancouver and headed to Seattle for our flight to LAX! This was the first time we had flown Virgin airlines and it was a great experience. the girls got to sit in the captains seat and see all the buttons which was too cool! Each seat had its own tv and we got to watch tv for the entire flight. Landing in LA the sun was shinning and it was nice and hot. When we arrived at Thrifty car rentals that was not a great experience they were very rude and told us we were stuck with a mini van- this was not going to work for us as we were going to be doing a lot of driving and we needed something small for parking purposes up in Manhatten Beach. After an hour of arguing we had to pay $100 more for a compact Ford Focus! An hour later we headed south to Escondido- we arrived at about 7 checked in then headed in to town for dinner! After driving around for a good 45 mins we eventually found an Applebee's and had a so so dinner! The we went to Von's and stocked up for the week. We eventually got to our condo at about 9:30- we were exhausted!

Sunday
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to spend the day at the pool! The pool at our complex was closed so we headed up to the Boulder Springs clubhouse and the huge pool and water slide up there! The girls were in their element, me too as I got to relax and read my book(Dreams of Joy!)! After a few hours of sun we were crispy. We headed back for lunch and then took a walk up to another clubhouse for ice cream sundaes. Sunday afternoon we chilled, had a BBQ dinner and then some family pool at the kids clubhouse after - what a great start to our holiday.


Monday
Another gorgeous day greeted us, we decided to head to the beach! So we drove to Oceanside and took a long walk on the long pier. It was beautiful, with tons of surfers and at the end of the pier we say a few pods of dolphins- awesome! We then drove south to Carlsbad and lunch time. We had a great lunch at Swamis and the headed down to the beach? It was so nice and warm we all chilled for a bit. Then we decided we needed some retail therapy. The Carlsbad outlet mall was close and off we went. Frank found some good deals but they were missing a lot of good stores. We shopped for a bit and then headed home. After a full day no-one felt like cooking so Pizza Hut it was. Another great fun packed day!

Tuesday
It was a little cloudy today and Frank and I had to attend a timeshare presentations- not sure how we were roped into that. It was too long and they were giving us the hard sell- so we left. The girls int he meantime had a great time at the kids club and had made tons of origami and had a good lunch too. We then drove to Mission Beach and Belmont Park, the girls each got a wristband and went on all the rides. Danica went on the roller coaster about 6 times- she liked it a lot. After a few hours we headed to the soft serve ice cream stand and each had a massive ice cream- yum. Then we took a walk down the beach- it is so nice and relaxing down here. After a few hours in Mission Beach we headed to Point Loma- Karen had told me about this and it was an amazing site to see. All the white crosses in memory of fallen soldiers- truly a site. We could also see all the way to Mexico too- what a great place to visit- too bad we were too late to go to the museum at the point. Then it was home for a pasta dinner.

Wednesday
The sun was out this morning so we decided to have a chill day- we headed up to the pool and spent a few hours there- I discovered the adults only hot tub at the pool and spent a bit in there. The girls had a great time in the massive pool. We had an easy lunch followed by a nap. Then we woke up and had to go to Von's for some food items. Frank dropped me at Ross to do some shopping and headed to the Whole Foods nearby. Coming home we got caught in the traffic and we worried we would due late for the 7pm Illusionist show we had fix too. We dashed in - had a dinner of leftovers and made it in time to the Welk Theatre for the Anthony Hernandez show. It was an impressive show- there were birds and bunnies and ladies cut in half, even an underwater Hodini escape. The girls were mesmerized and got toe meet Anthony after- not bad for a free show.

Thursday
The fog was abound in the morning so we headed to the beach. Our first stop was the wine town of Temecula- a great little town, with lots of antique shopping and wine tasting. I had an olive oil tasting- which was a little weird as they don't use bread- but the oils were delis and I ended up buying a few bottles- will be a challenge to fly home I am sure. After a few hours here we continued on our adventures for the day and stopped at the Mission Lui Del Rey- one of the many missions in So Cal. It was lovely to see - the architecture was beautiful and the church so restful. They have the oldest pepper tree in North America planted here- pretty huge.
Next stop was the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad- wow! Frank and the girls had a blast here- surprisingly I was not bored- there were great displays and many instruments to play. i really liked the electric harp the most. The girls each got a mini harmonica necklace here too- cute. across the street for the museum were the ranunculus flower fields- they were lovely and colourful- a great site to see. A quick stop and at Starbucks and we were headed back to the resort. The girls got to go swimming too- fun packed day was had by all.

Friday
It was pretty cloudy today and so we headed to Balboa Park and the Nat-The National History Museum. There were huge dinosaurs in the lobby so we knew this would be good. The first floor had water etc in california, the next level
showed dinosaurs and how lad masses move- relevant to what Dani is learning in school now so that was great. The top level had skulls- so many different sizes and shapes- they also had a display of how they clean the flesh off the skulls- maggots!! The lower level was my fav- it was all about gems- there were some impressive diamonds and other stunning rocks down there.
We popped in the Spanish Arts Village after the NAT- we saw how they make fimo beads- we can do that!! Then lunch and off to Las Americas mall for shopping. This mall is 2 miles from the Mexico border- in fact there parking lot backs on to the border and you can see Mexico across the fence. We did some damage to our bank account here that was for sure- but the deals were great. Danica who is growing like a vine- go the most followed by Frank and his shopping habit. After a few hours- we were pooped and headed back north to the resort and dinner at Chilis. Frank was so hungry he finished off his meal- half my burger and the girls chicken chunks- must have been all that shopping. Then we had to go back and pack up to leave the next morning.

Goodbye 2011

2011 was a bad year for a lot of people around me, but for me it was a pretty good year. I had started a new job at the end of 2010 and was well into it at the beginning of 2011, although working from home was getting a little lonely. Spring Break was awesome- we went to Hawaii for 2 weeks- one week on Oahu- where we go to spend time with the Liquorish Ohana. I haven't seen Wes in over 20 years and to get to meet his amazing wife and delightful girls was such a treat. We also hung out in Waikiki for a few days- that was pretty amazing. I think the highlight was seeing an episode of Hawaii-50 being filmed- too cool. After a week we flew to Maui and spent a week with the Chandlers in paradise!


Then Frank and I got to go to England for a week. Frank was asked to be the best man at his good friends wedding. So we left the girls here in good hands with family and headed to the UK. We had an amazing week, first hanging out in Somerset with the bride and groom and all the wonderful sites to see in the country. I think Wells Cathedral was my ultimate fav. We also spent 2 days in London with my cousins- that was so incredible to see everyone- lucky us.

The summer was a whirlwind as always - Oregon was fun and Camping at Golden Ears was great. The Freers lived with us for 2 months too- between houses. The weather was great for these adventures although the rest of the summer left a little to much rain in its wake.

Back to school was good- Dani went to middle school - which was a giant step for us parents. Boo's into grade 3 with Mrs.Chu- she was happy.

November we headed to Cali and Disneyland for a surprise trip with the Quinn's. It was a brief but great trip. We flew from Seattle to Santa Ana airport and stayed at the Red Lion. We spent the first day in Disney and managed to make it through the park in 11 hours or so!! Saturday we headed to California Adventure. It was a pretty cloudy, cool day so we had no line ups to deal with- awesome- hence the need to go on the TOWER OF TERROR 4 times! Ugh! Sunday was Dani's birthday so we went back to Disney for the day- followed by a swim in the pool at the hotel and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. What a great birthday treat. Monday we rented a car and spent the day in Santa Monica- then it was home.

Before we knew it December was upon us and all the fun festive activities- what a great year it was!

Oregon

Another wonderful week gone by, spent with friends on the Oregon coast. We truly love heading down to Oregon each year and doing wonderful family activities.
Friday July 29th we left work early and headed to the border- thank goodness for our Nexus pass, as we were through the border in no time and on our way to Olympia. Denise and Ian were ahead of us and texting about how bad the Seattle traffic was- so we headed to the 401 and by passed the jam. We arrived in Olympia to the Phoenix Inn and suites and what a lovely hotel it was. We all walked down to the Mercato Italian Restaurant for dinner. They seemed to have a hard time seating 8- but we eventually got a seat in the back of the place. After a great feast it was back to the hotel and to bed after a long day.
Saturday was a gorgeous hot morning- we had the buffet breakfast and then headed towards Salem. We made a detour so Frank could buy a new bass and then headed to the Walmart in Salem. We stopped for subway and food supplies (boy is it cheap!) and then we were coast bound! We arrived in Neskowin at 2ish, go the key and headed up to the house.
Frank and Ian were headed to the the White Snake concert that night - so we made an early dinner and then Denise drove them to the Chinook Winds for their concert. We hit the sack early- all that fresh ocean air is tiring.
Sunday, Denise and I decided to hit the outlet mall for a few hours while the guys headed to the beach with the little people. We shopped for a few hours- got some awesome deals and then back to the house.
After all that shopping we were not in to making dinner so we headed to Pacific City and that wonderful dune. We climbed the dune and the kids ran ahead. The menfolk also ran to the top. On my way up I was greeted with Danica coming back down as she had sand in her contacts- poor thing. So she and I headed to the Pelican Pub to get the sand out and book a table for 8. The rest hung out at the dune and we turned back at one point to see a herd of horses at the top of the dune, poised to run down, and run down they did. The kids got to pet the horses at the bottom. Dune climbing is tiring work, so we eagerly sat down in the pub and ordered our fish and chips. What a great setting for a pub. After dinner we enjoyed the lovely sunset- after all that is what Oregon is about.
Monday we figured that it was time to get some food- so we all headed to the Safeway- the guys were going to drop us off and go to the Lincoln City beach for a while- as we go out of the car, I noticed that our tire was flat- flat- flat! So Frank and Ian installed the spare and went in search of a tire repair shop instead of the beach as planned. We headed in to Safeway to shop.
When we were done, there they were with the tire al fixed- thanks Les shwab! Denise and I went back to Neskowin with the little ones and Frank and Ian and the older 2 set out in search of an Internet cafe! We headed to the beach for an afternoon of kite flying,sand castle building and reading our books. The guys joined us much later. After dinner we were too tired for a campfire so we deferred in until the next night.
Tuesday we started off the day early and headed to Florence and the sand dunes. It was a long 2.5 hour drive but we arrived and headed to the dune site to book our sand rail experience. It was a long wait, which we filled with a picnic lunch and mini golf. But it was so worth it. We had Me, Frank, Dara, Delaney and Denise in one sand rail and Ian, Danica and Quinn in the other. It was crazy- we went up over 800 feet and felt like we were on a crazy roller coaster. The girls screamed and screamed but LOVED it. It was a 30 min thrill ride. What a great experience!! Then it was back home - stopping at the Fred Meyer in Newport for some Starbucks and supplies for the house. We picked up Papa Murphy's take and Bake pizza and headed home. No fire Tuesday either- we were pooped!
Wednesday Frank, Ian , Danica and Quinn, headed up to the Silitz river and rented a boat to go fishing, while we went to the outlet mall and shopped for back to school for the little ones. No fish were caught but lots of clothes were bought. Wednesday night we had a huge fire on the beach- it was awesome. There were marshmallows to be roasted and fun was had by all. Until we had to come home- then it was dark and we had to walk across Hawk Creek in that dark and cold! Then Denise fell on the stairs on the way up - it was not that much fun!
Thursday we had to take the older ones shopping for back to school- so to the outlet mall we went for a hours and then we headed to Foggerty Creek for a BBQ lunch and a few hours of agate hunting- a favourite pass time.
Before we knew it Friday was upon us!! We decided to spend the entire day at the beach. We headed down in the morning spent the day on the beach with a break for lunch and then we were there late into the afternoon until the tide was almost up to our towels. We headed back for dinner and then back to the beach for a bonfire!!
Saturday morning we cleaned up the house and headed for home-too short a trip!
We stopped at the Walmart in Salem for school supplies. Then it was straight up to Tullalip and some last minute deals there.
We reached the border at 9:30pm - exhausted from a day of travel- sailed through the border and homeward bound.
Another awesome trip under our belt and memories to last a life time.

Spring?

Well, the one advantage to this rainy Spring we are having is that I have been able to catch up on my scrapbooking. I am perpetually 6 months behind. But with rainy days and some spare time I am closing that gap. I have also been able to catch up on lots of reading as the girls have started Spring swimming-which amounts to 10 hours a week that I am at the pool. So reading and scrapbooking have been at the top of my things to do.
We had a great Spring break getaway in Hawaii- but that tan has faded fast. 1300 photos or so were taken in those 2 weeks away- thank goodness for mac books otherwise those photos might never have seen the light of day!
It has been a pretty busy year so far- so there have been lots of photos taken and so I do hope to get on top of all that. There are so many other projects around the house I wish I had time to do too. I have managed to paint the bathroom, but still have the master bedroom and all the windowsills in the house to paint. Not to mention the yard work. The flowers are late to bloom this year due to the continuous rain, but the weeds don't mind they come up no matter what.

Where is summer?

As the days start to get longer again, I am so looking forward to summer. It seems the cold is very much in my bones and I long for some sun on my face. Spring break cannot come soon enough for a get away, but oh summer where are you?
This last summer we seemed to cram so much in and yet still never got to do the things I really wanted to- like hang out at the lake more often, go swimming (other than swim club) and more long bike rides. We did actually manage to get down to Stanley Park once- which was awesome. But this summer I hope we can get some more canoeing, bike riding, hiking in. It is going to be a challenge- especially now that I am working 5 days a week- but here's to hoping.

Chucks

Oh my word- my girls love their chucks. I could not believe the state of Danica's when I had a close look at them! I had the hardest time convincing her that they needed to be chucked away! She claimed "they are soooooo comfy"- but I do believe she was walking on pavement through the heels!! So we threw them away and got her her 4th or 5th pair- she seems to need a new pair every 6 months or so. I know how hard it is to find a GOOD pair of shoes so I am glad that she has found that in her chucks.

Vegas Baby

May 2010 Linda, Denise, Nat and I headed out to Vegas for 4 days. Linda and I flew out of Vancouver at some ungodly hour on the Thursday. Nat and Denise dropped the kids at school and then made a run for the border to Bellingham. As luck would have it we all landed at the same time. We were in Vegas baby!! We caught a cab to the Planet Hollywood Hotel, checked in and we were rearing to go. Wow, is all I can say. I have not been to LV since 1998 and it has changed so much.


The hotels, if possible, are bigger than ever, and the glitter and bling is incredible. Needless to say we shopped and shopped and saw so much (and that was just the first day). While we were there we saw the Cirque show Zumanity- amazing, rode the roller coaster at NY, NY, ventured up the Eiffle Tower, floated down the lagoons on a Gondolla and then shopped some more. After 4 amazing days in Vegas we were ready to come home. We were exhausted. We had so much fun though it was well worth the exhaustion. Denise is the only one who won 'big", we mostly just sat at the slots to get the free drinks! It was a great trip and we hope to do it again soon- thanks ladies for a blast.

It's been a year!!!

Really, it has been a year since I posted a thing- that is pretty sad ;(
I have been busy scrapbooking this last year- I still seem to be a year behind, but managed a year in review collage. I really like this idea as I can get a lot of info into one page.
2010 was a great year - we had some fantastic family holidays, we did a lot of fun stuff and spent some wonderful family time together. The girls had a most amazing summer- with one camp and the next. Winter brought a tiny bit of snow- but this winter has yet to bring a huge snow dump as was promised. The Christmas holidays were a whirl as always, but a great time none the less. I will try and post more in 2011, really I will.

2010 Winter Olympics

I remember the day they announced the Olympics would be held here in Vancouver- I was 9 months pregnant with Delaney. Now 6 years later we are enjoying them. For months there has been a buzz about the city- mostly people complaining of the inconvenience. Now as the 2 weeks of the Olympics are upon us, I see nothing but Canada wear, I hear everyone commenting on how much fun downtown is and what a great spirit is in the air. I have never seen so much patriotism, everywhere you look are Canadian flags and people in Canada gear. What a great time for our city and what a lot of great Canadian pride we have.
I took the girls downtown on the Friday of the opening ceremonies-we really had a great time and got to see so much. We even got to see the medals at the Canadian mint. Before we know it will be over- i sure hope we can all hold on to that Patriotism for much longer than the 2 weeks of the game!

Christmas came and went....

We had a wonderful Christmas this year- although the older I get the faster they seem to come and go! We managed to squeeze in all the fun activities we could and still came out ahead of the game. My only problem was that I was wrapping on Dec 23rd and I would have liked to have been done by that time. But the day came- the girls had a great time and as usual were incredibly spoiled. So were the grownups though- it was a great year!
New Year's was a blast- we had a smaller group this year- but we had so much fun. The music was great and the dancing as fun as ever.
After New Year's I even managed to get some tidying in- got the bathroom cabinets done, the kitchen pantry done and filing is all almost up to date- I'd say a good start to the year so far!

Christmas is here!

The gifts are wrapped, the cookies are baked and fun has been had! Now we wait. I cannot believe that Christmas is 2 days away and I don't have to go near a mall. This must be a first. But it is true- we are now officially just waiting for the day. The girls are so excited- they are bouncing off the walls, this is awesome to see. They have the spirit of Christmas all over them... We have completed most of our holiday traditions and so today we will have to try and find a new one as it will be a long day if we don't do something with these wound up children.
Merry Christmas to all- hope it is wonderful.

October came and went!

Wow- the time sure flies when you are having fun. My girls were so excited for Halloween- they had their outfits picked out early in the year and could not wait for the day. Luckily this year Halloween stretched over 2 days for them. The 30th was the day they celebrated at school- with a parade and hot lunch. Saturday was a long day of waiting for the big trick or treating expedition. We passed the time carving some great jack o lanterns and raking up the leaves. The weather was amazing- it was supposed to rain but it turned out to be the most amazing Fall day you could imagine. At 6:30 they were off! They returned half way through the night to drop off some of their stash- and then went back out for more candy. 2 hours later we had more candy than we could possibly imagine- now 2 weeks later I wonder where it all went?!!!

Summer is over!

Summer seems to officially be over. We have had the most amazing weather ever and the rainy wet coast we live in seems like a distant memory. That was until this weekend of course- the rain came with a vengeance - which is fine if you don't have to stand on a soccer field and watch your children play...
The only downside to the great weather is that all the pumpkins ripened very early this year, so the choice for Jack-O-Lanterns is not as large as usual. We managed to grow 2 pumpkins in our garden this year- but they are pretty small so we need to go and get some more from the Pumpkin Patch.

Summer Fun!

It has been a crazy, awesome summer so far. We have been to Oregon, we have been camping and this week the girls are in summer camp all week long. They seem to be having the best time ever and the camp is like the one you see in the movies- honest. Today they did archery and kayaking- amazing. We haven't done as many outings as we had planned but we have had a few local outings around town. There is still so much I want to do and the days are already getting shorter and the evenings cooler... Where does the time go? Next week is the last week of summer holidays so I will be sure to do something extra fun with the girls- what to chose from?

Gone Fisihing

We had a great Canada day at the lake. After a great picnic dinner, grandpa took all 5 of the grandkids fishing. Dani and Boo's have been fishing a few times and are a little discouraged as they have yet to catch a fish. Well what do you know, Dani feels a tug and next we look over and she is pulling in a trout. She was over the moon, until we realized that we couldn't throw him back as he had swallowed the hook. But grandpa gutted him and we had him for dinner the next night. What fun!

Catching up

I am getting more and more behind on scrapbooking. I have been trying to catch up and every time I get a few pages ahead I take a few more photos!! I am trying to figure out why my camera takes such dark photos. On the automatic setting it seems fine but when I switch to AV and adjust the white balance I have to go 2 F stops up to get them lighter- this is ever since I had a broken camera- I wonder if it was something that broke in the camera!! Anyway I guess I am eternally grateful to RAW photo adjustment in photoshop- I can't seem to look at a photo now without wanting to adjust it. It takes that scrapbooking to a whole different level and doubles the time to scrap a page {sigh}.

Moms gone CRAZY!

Hey ladies- here it is! The talent at the talent show was amazing and what a way to end 27 great performances!!

Holiday

We are back from our 2 weeks away- although it already feels like an eternity ago! What a great holiday we had. The first week we were in Orlando and did the Orlando touristy things- minus Disney. I love SeaWorld, we saw pretty much all there was to see there. My fav of all is the dolphin show. Our second week was on the beach and what a great place. Our condo was literally on the beach. We loved the hot weather and the sea- I have no idea how many sunset photos I took! The high light was having the manatees swim with us for about an hour one day. The next day the dolphins swam by as we ate breakfast- ahhh the little treasures. Now I have over 800 photos to scrap- wow that will keep my busy.

Happy Easter

What a wet Easter! We had 4 days in a row off and we had heard that there was rain all weekend long, so we didn't bother to get topsoil and work in the yard. But Friday turned out to be a wonderful day, it would have been great to work outside. Saturday started off rainy but ended in sun, another afternoon that would have been great to get out. Then Easter Sunday- oh my word- how much rain could possibly fall?!!! It was not just rain but a downpour all day- yuck.
The girls were up at 6:30am eager to see if the Easter Bunny had been! I was not thrilled to be up that early on an awful rainy day!! My bed was so warm! But up we got and then really lazed around the rest of the day- it was great. A around 3pm I had to put the ham in the oven as we had 14 people over for Easter dinner. And we had a great Easter dinner- what a great, wet day!
I am so looking forward to sun- we are off in 2 weeks for sunny skies and I cannot wait- summer seems so far away. I am still scrapbooking last summers fun and I tell you summer cannot come fast enough this year...

Memories of Summer

Being almost a year behind in scrapping, makes me look so much more forward to summer. I am so longing for long hot summer days. I look at our photos of last summer though and cannot believe that we didn't go to the beach more often than we did. White Pine is 10 mins away and we only went a few times. I think summer is just too busy- we have to take the time to enjoy the little things {sigh}! The good news is it is SPRING AHEAD weekend so the days now become longer.

Fishing

With all this snow STILL around I am dreaming of Spring. Not even so much Summer- just Spring would be fine! I look at the damage the snow has done to my yard and I can't wait to get out and clean up. I know that there is no point going out now though as there is more cold weather still to come... I so look forward to the Spring bulbs - oh wait I don't think that I will be able to see any bulbs this years- as the pesky squirrels, of which there are many, have been frantically digging up the garden and chowing down on all bulbs they can find! Oh well, I am looking forward to Spring, bike rides on the trail and fishing at the lake!

SNOW!

Wow, what a winter it has been thus far. I cannot believe the amount of snow that is on the ground. The idea of a white Christmas was wonderful, but the reality of it is another story! We started off our cold snap up on Grouse Mountain for our annual peak of Vancouver trip- it was soooo cold up there I thought we wouldn't make it. It was roughly -25C with the windchill. That is cold for us West coasters. Then the snow settled in down below.
We had so much snow on Christmas Eve I thought we were going to be house bound- but a power outage made sure we shoveled ourselves out! We went to Frank's brother and sister in laws for our regular Christmas Eve, which is always fun. Coming home was not so much fun- we got stuck on a side street and spent a while digging out of there.
Christmas morning we woke up to still more snow and off to Maple Ridge we headed! Thank goodness it eased up a bit. Boxing day- more snow- then rain and boy did those piles of snow turn to puddles of water FAST. New Years Eve- more snow- enough already!! Then the weekend of January 3rd- we had a further 30cm or so!!! Well back to school on Monday was awful- the little ones were stepping in snow up to their waists, there were no sidewalks to be seen and the traffic oh my gosh- a nightmare. Now we are stuck with huge piles of ugly, dirty brown snow- these piles will be here until the Spring- yuck!

A little behind

I really love digital scrapbooking but it seems everything gets in the way these days and there is no time for it. I am so behind in my pages, but trying to catch up. I am still working on Spring break 2008. Halloween just passed and now I am even more behind. BUT what should happen to me - the worst thing ever- my camera broke!!! i have no idea how I bumped it- but I did and it is now broken. So I am not taking nearly as much photos as I usually would- so this is a fine time to catch up!

All done

We finally put the play structure together for the kids. I cannot believe how many parts there were. It took me almost a full afternoon to sort all the screws into their own little areas. We then spread the 200 pieces of wood out- across the entire yard! Then it took us 4 days of working together to assemble the thing. I tell you I thought Ike@ products were bad. But we are finally done- the girls love it and that' s all that matters! I hope that the sun actually stays out for the next few weeks so they can enjoy it- the days are already getting shorter, don't take the sun away!

Disney Photos!

Yahoo, I have finished scrapbooking all my Disney Photos. I still have to do the Santa Monica ones but at least these are done. What fun it was too...

My grid stage!

I am so far behind in scrapbooking but feeling a little uninspired. Not sure why as I have so many wonderful photos to scrap. i am just getting to Xmas though and it is so hard to scrap Xmas in May- what with birds chirping, flowers smelling lovely and weeds waiting to be dug up! I am trying to just put photos on paper and then move on. So it seems I am at my grid stage- I like grids as you can fit lots of photos on a page. I need to be done 2007 so I can start in on this years photos!

I need a holiday

I am so amazed at how fast holidays fly by. We went away for 4 days over spring break and it flew by, but we knew we had a 10 day holiday coming up in April. We were so looking forward to it- and it was a fantastic holiday! But now it is over! I can't stand that we look forward to holidays for months in advance and then poof they are over. Anyway Cali was amazing - the weather was great there were many memories to be had, The girls LOVED Disneyland and 5 days was perfect. Then 5 days in Santa Monica was great, relaxing and awesome. Oh- I need a vacation.

Violin

My DD has taken up violin- her choice. I cannot believe how good she is. She has been playing since Sept 07 and I was fully prepared for the squeaking and awful sounds that might come form learning a new instrument. Much to my surprise there is the odd squeak, but she is amazing. She had her first recital on Valentines Day and I thought for sure she would be nervous- no way. She played the song and it was perfect!