Sharing her Pearls of Wisdom...
Do you remember me telling you about "the Crazy Baby"? When Hayley gets excited she...well... goes crazy. Here she is at the reunion, teaching her cousin Livvy "the Crazy Baby".
And this is a tame one...
Best Vacation Ever - Part Uno
Well, we are home. We were on vacation for 9 days - staying in Calgary, Salmon Arm, Victoria, and Merrit and driving almost 3000 kilometers (around 1800 miles for you metrically-challenged folk).
I took approximately 103 pictures, but coming from me did you expect anything less? My Mom lent me her memory card for my camera so I was in H E A V E N.
Hence the 4 PART trip summary to accommodate all the pictures...you'll see...
We started off our trip on Saturday the 18th. We headed to Calgary and went to the Zoo. It was really fun. The kids of course had a blast, and by kids I mean Jared included :) It was so fun.
We stayed at our friends Shane and Lana's house that night. It was great to see them and their little guy, Gabe who is the same age as Hayley.
Best Vacation Ever - Part Duex
On Sunday, we started our long drive out to the Okanogan. The kids did pretty good. They started out the trip like this:
And soon ended up like this:
This picture is right outside our little cottage we rented on Shuswap Lake. We stayed there for 2 days and it was a nice, relaxing little place. It is such a pretty area (made Jared wish he was back in BC again). There were alot of fun things to do at Shuswap. We swam, rented a little peddle boat, and looked at all the huge boats and houseboats at the pier in Salmon Arm.
We hiked up to Margaret Falls on the second day. It was such a pretty hike, through a little canyon with lots of really big trees and a little stream.
Best Vacation Ever - Part Three
On Tuesday morning, we drove to the Ferries outside Vancouver. This was probably the highlight for Carter. He loved being on the huge boat, couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the trip.
"We went on a HUGE boat and you put your car on the boat cuz it's so HUGE and we looked for killer whales and dolphins but we didn't see any on the HUGE boat". That's basically every conversation he had with anyone for the next few days. It was cute.
Once we got to the island, we drove to our hotel in Victoria and just chillaxed for a bit. Then we went downtown and saw some sights. The wharf was really neat with all the boats docked there. Double decker buses. The Legislature grounds. Street performers festival. Lots to see and do.
The next morning, we went to Beacon Hill Park. There was a little farm there with so many animals that you could pet. This was the highlight for Hayley - the 'animal lover' in her really came out. She loved all the baby goats and squealed in delight the entire time.
Then, we spent some time at Oak Bay beach. We saw so many jellyfish and crabs. We discovered that every single rock we turned over would have little hermit crabs scurrying out. Carter loved that. He was so scared of the jellyfish, though. Even the dead ones. I think we have Finding Nemo to blame for that.
Best Vacation Ever - Part Quattro
Late afternoon on Wednesday, we got back on the ferry and headed back to the mainland. Hayley had definitely had enough driving by this point and I had to get a picture of her "get-me-out-of-this-car-now" face (...don't worry, I'm not pulling a Britney, we were stopped waiting for the ferry).
After the ferry ride, we headed to Langley to spend the night there at a hotel, and drove to Merritt early the next morning.
In Merritt we camped at Nicola Lake for the Whidden Family Reunion. This was my first time meeting most of them, and it was so fun for me to finally put faces to names. There were over 50 people in attendance and we swam, boated, fished, and visited for three days straight.
The kids had fun on the beach, building sand castles with Papa. Ben, Andrea and family came up from Utah, too. We didn't even know they were coming so it was such a fun surprise to see them pull up at the reunion. Carter had SO much fun with Livvy and Cooper. He and Liv were pretty much inseparable.
By the last day, Hayley finally feel asleep somewhere other than her bed or carseat. There were so many strollers under the trees, filled with sleeping babies. They were all so exhausted. This is a pic of her and Rowan (her second cousin who is 3 weeks older) sleeping in the stroller.
On Saturday, we packed up and headed home around 3 pm. In Valemount, we stopped at this salmon watch area and saw some salmon spawning, It was really cool too see such huge fish in a shallow little stream. We got to Hinton around 11pm to try and find some hotel.
I realized that the days of just driving around and finding a cheap hotel are long gone (all our other hotels, we booked on the internet before we left). We found one but I'm not sure if it could actually classify as a hotel. It was seriously so rundown and gross. The bathroom had towels hanging over the windows as curtains and there were so many random things left there, we wondered if it had even been cleaned. A juice box, the office's cordless phone, etc. So weird...I was so paranoid, I didn't even sleep under the covers that night. Eww...
Anyways, we were very excited to finally get home the next day. I think the kids really enjoyed sleeping in their OWN beds for the first time in awhile. We have been gone so much this summer that even our "sink-in-the-middle" old bed felt great.
Well, that wraps up our crazy month o' travel. It's so nice to be home, but at the same time, I'm sad the summer's over. We've had such a busy summer - it went by way too fast. We had so much fun and I am so glad we were able to do so many things. It's raining here today and I realized that winter is going to be here in a month or two (Nooooo!). We live in Edmonton, remember?
Boo.
* This isn't our house, but it's a pretty good depiction of Edmonton winters. I just searched for it on Google. The funny part is this picture originates from a real estate website. Yea. Cuz that's a great selling point.
3 words: Sweetest Thing Ever
The past few days, Hayley has been obsessed with looking through Carter's baby book. She LOVES it...
Little Bow
This past weekend, we went camping at Little Bow with the Jarmans. The site was really nice and the weather was great. I was a little worried because we drove through rain the entire way there, but it stopped right before we got there. The night before we went, I was up all night with a fever and achy body so I was wondering if we should cancel. It ended up getting worse and for the first day and a half I was really sick with the flu, running to the outhouse every five minutes. Started to have some deeper sympathy for this fellow camping gal. But I got better and by Saturday night, I was feeling brave enough to eat again. Nothing stands between me and my tin foil dinner. Snicker.
I must say, Isabelle is a great little camper.
Jared and Carter caught whatever I had on the last day, but their's wasn't too bad. But despite the flu, we all had a great time...and that is quite the feat so you know it must've been good! Thanks again Jarmans!
Coincidence? We think not...
In our church, 19 year old boys are called to go and serve a mission for 2 years. My twin brothers turn 19 in September. They submitted their papers 6 weeks ago and have been anxiously awaiting their replies. The letters finally came so, last night, we went over to my family's house to watch them open their mission calls. It took alot of coordination, but we finally got Lisa and Trevor on the phone in Calgary, and tracked down Carly at EFY to get on the phone, too. Joel opened his call first and we were all very surprised when he read, "You have been called to serve in the Russia Rostov mission".
Then, Dallin opened his letter and read, "You have been called to serve in the Russia Moscow mission". We were all so shocked and excited for them that they get to serve in the same country, just different missions. They even leave the same day - October 24 - so they'll be in the MTC (missionary training center) together...learning to speak Russian!
Trena and Andy's Wedding
Yesterday, we went to a wedding of some friends of ours. I went to junior high and high school with Trena. We lost touch after high school, but then we moved back here and Jared started working at Randstad. I went in to meet his co-workers one day, and who should work there too, but Trena! So, we have gotten re-acquainted over the past year and gotten to know Andy, too. We were so excited to watch them get married - Trena looked so beautiful and they make a great couple. Congrats guys!
I also got to see quite a few old friends from school. This is a picture of all of us who met in Grade 7 and were friends throughout junior high.
And Hayley looked pretty sweet, too. She is sick so we took her to the ceremony, but then put her to bed in Sherwood Park with Joel for the reception.
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