Sept pics of the boys

Here are the boys at Camryn's birthday party - they had such a blast!!
Our little Rider Fan (whether he's aware of the fact or not)





Landon has discovered the wondrous joy of the Sears Wish Book!! LOL He tore out his favourite stuff, slept with those pages for about 2 weeks, before the catalogue was so destroyed I needed to toss it. Maybe -- MAYBE -- we'll bring a new one home again in November :-D

Niagara Falls

Landon's trip to Niagara Falls

Hanging out after the butterflies - both boys are a tad bit tired I'd say!

When we first arrived, Isabel and Landon set off to do some exploring!!

All the kids loved the butterflies. Landon was amazed at the butterflies "eating".














Chasing butterflies. Landon did not catch any of them though ...

Arlan's trip to Niagara Falls

Chasing butterflies -- Arlan was on the floor studying this one, which was so co-operative to just sit there with him.


Wet, and wanting to check it all out!

Arlan was in heaven 'driving' this video game!! Too funny :-)

Niagara Falls picture

Talk about silly :-) When we went to Niagara Falls, we went up the 'tower'...of course they offer to take your picture before you get on the elevator. The first one was miserable, but this silly picture turned out pretty well. We had no idea what they were going to do with it, we were just told to put our hands in the air and act scared :-) I love Arlan's expression!!

How can it be a month already

I know how a month can go by so fast - we've been SO busy! I have LOADS of pics on the camera, hoping to get them up here Monday!

What has the past month brought? I was gone to Pennsylvania Aug 8 - 12, so the boys had fun everyday with Chantelle (our neighbours daughter who babysat for us). There was no problems that I heard about, and both kids liked to eat crackers all day! aiaiai

Then home for a week - Landon went to daycamp again, and this time there were no illnesses contracted which was great. He sure enjoyed himself, and didn't complain too much when I dropped him off. I have to admit, those afternoons with Landon at camp and Arlan napping were dreamy!

Aug 20 we flew to Toronto - stayed a week and came home Aug 28. Liz & Rob kept the boys while John and I traveled on to Montreal for a wedding (which was actually 1.5 hours north of Montreal). The wedding was a LOT of fun, and it was so great to get out and see John's friends without the kidlets.
Then back to TO for the week. We had a lot of fun - swimming several times, we drove to Niagara Falls one day, we went to the Canadian National Exhibition and the kids went on rides ALL day -- so much FUN! It really was a great week. (except when Landon got bit by a yellowjacket ... that wasn't fun for him, right under his nose poor kid!)

Then home again to all the stuff I hadn't been getting to this past month, and here we are Sept long weekend already! It's been an incredible summer - so many great memories and visits! But I'm glad to stay home for a couple of weeks as well :-)

Watch for some pics to come...

PS - John took Landon's training wheels off of his bike today, and he zooms along the back path like nobody's business! How did he get so big??

PPS - And Arlan climbs out of his crib like a pro too ... started the week before Toronto. He actually dive-bombs out of it into the lazy-boy recliner sitting beside the crib. This morning I woke up to patting on my head "Mommy, I up now!" at 6:50 am :-/ Big boy bed coming right up ...

final beach pictures

Landon's belly flop that ended the "Landon tossing" fun!


And look at that sandy face ... too funny!

These ducks came by the beach late in the day as the sun bathers packed up. They knew what they were doing! Someone had dumped some cheesies on the beach (and chosen not to clean them up), so we fed them to the ducks (I know - don't feed the wildlife!! They were going to get the cheesies anyway, we just participated in the fun).
Then Arlan would "shoo" the ducks, which we have a video of because it was priceless! I'll see if I can get that loaded up on here as well :-)

More beach

We spent a couple of days on Juniper Beach in Kalamalka Provincial Park. The water was glorious, the beach smaller, and the water got deeper much quicker which meant we could really throw Landon high in the air (like dad's doing here). Landon thought that was fabulous, until he did a belly flop with mom!! lol















At first Landon only wanted to swim with "floaties" or water wings on (like in this pic with dad). But on the second day (which you see here in this smoky picture) he discovered that swimming with his life jacket was even better. He would even lay on his back "floating" ... told me he was sleeping there!
Despite the smoke, this picture is pretty nice and is making me miss the beach :-(

You can sort of see here the beautiful colour of the water through the trees. This was taken on the path walking to the beach and is of Jade Bay (the side of the point where boaters pull up, we didn't swim there due to that, preferring Juniper Bay as it's buoyed off for swimming).

Some beach pictures

Arlan playing in the sand. We were SO happy to have the happy HEALTHY Arlan back!

Two busy boys -- making holes and filling them up. We only had one pail (silly silly parents), but luckily someone left behind their broken sand pail which we scavenged and the boys loved all week!! One person's garbage is another's treasure...


The view on the beach at 7 pm - how lovely! We would head to the beach in the morning, go back for Arlan's afternoon nap, and return to the beach between 5 and 6 for another hour or 2. Gotta love that!

Davison Orchards - Vernon, BC

Hanging out with the trucks in the play area. All the fun stuff to see & this is where he wanted to spend his time (surprise surprise)

heading out on the orchard tour - the tractor pulled about 7 cars behind it ... plenty bumpy and dusty, but a pretty cool tour 9in my opinion, Landon wasn't as impressed)


"driving" the old truck in the play area. It was so hot he didn't last long ... see his red cheeks??
the "market" ... full of yummy things like homemade bread, pies, ice cream, real apple juice, plus the produce of the orchards. Not to mention the toys (yes, Landon and Arlan each got a toy, even though Arlan wasn't with us as he was still sick at home with dad ... I'm so weak).

A cute sign leading in to the petting zoo. I can attest that it was the parents and grandparents that had fun ... the kids were all like 'meh'

misc holiday pics

Reading stories to the boys before bed. Landon slept in the top bunk almost every night (some nights he was so sleepy after stories that he'd stay on the bottom to go to sleep, we'd lift him up top after). Either John or I would sleep in the bottom bunk, then other in the 'master bedroom' with Arlan. Why? The master bed wasn't as comfy as the bunk bed, but the bunk bed was too hot for both of us to sleep. oh yeah, and John was snoring every night!
The boys playing piano together. Arlan loved the "demo" song on here, Landon would cover his ears. But they both enjoyed making noise ...er I mean music on it!
Mom and Arlan - as you can see here, he was fully recovered from his illness and being a stinker again!
Landon had fun spraying dad with the water gun. The weather was so gorgeous, even into the evening, that we didn't mind getting sprayed with water at all!

The view from the balcony of the house we stayed at on Friday July 23 in Fairmont. On the beautiful Fairmont golf course. Saturday morning I was awoken by a golf ball hitting the wall right beside the bedroom window!

And we're down to the wire...

Our last night on vacation in Vernon - it has been INCREDIBLE! We have absolutely loved this week, and are already planning to be back here for TWO weeks next summer! The boys had so much fun swimming and splashing, Landon went kayaking with dad one day and learned how fun boogie boards are today. The "weekend of sickness" is a distant memory given all the fun we've had since then - thank goodness!! Next year we will do more exploring through the Okanagan with 2 weeks to play with - we noticed today that the boys would benefit from a break from the beach. But with only a few days to hit the beach I didn't want to lose any of them!! We took a pile of pics, and I can't wait to go through them and post some for everyone to see.

So tomorrow is the trip home. I'm thinking it won't be as peaceful as the trip here when all three boys slept for most of it (2 due to illness, the 3rd exhaustion due to the first 2's illnesses!!). But we'll get up and hit the road as early as is possible for a family of non-morning-people, and we'll survive it.

That's the last post from Vernon...until next time...

Full-fledged stinkerdom

Yup - both boys are fully back! We've had a couple of days at the beach, having a blast. I'll have lots of pictures of wet boys dumping pails of water when I get home and upload them :-)
We've tried to convince Arlan to nap at the beach, but that doesn't pan out. So we spend a few hours and then come back for nap time (which is fine because usually John and I steal a few winks in there too). Then when Arlan gets up we head back to the beach. It's so beautiful, even until past 7 pm. The sun is "setting", sparkling waters, and happy boys make for a nice evening.
Landon's exhausted himself fully - he's still sleeping (at 11 am)! Which is fine with us - it's a long day when you fight any possibility of napping! lol
Today is a bit cloudier (hence my patience with sleeping in Landon ... that and the fact that I slept in until 10 am too :-D), but we will still hit the beach for awhile. In fact, Arlan's been up for 3.5 hours and is getting antsy to get going lol
Speaking of antsy - my only real pet peeve with this place is the ants - YUCK! I HATE ANTS! We placed some traps today, so hopefully that'll clean some of the little buggers up.

That's it for now - just wanted to let everyone know that both kids are just fine now, wouldn't even know they were puking-pooping-monsters last weekend. Until next time ... (I'm off to Davison Orchards today for corn on the cob too YUM!)

THAT's BETTER

Well, the boys are back to talking non-stop, picking on each other, fighting, and general other boy-ish type things (like marveling over bugs, picking their butts, and throwing things). So I guess I'd have to say..."theeeeey're baaaaack!"
I did take Arlan to the dr on Wed, as he was still having trouble keeping stuff down. The doc was good - let us know that Arlan was very well hydrated (we'd done a good job there), and telling us to keep it up, plus give him a Gravol suppository. I think Arlan was at the turn-around point already, or perhaps Gravol really is that incredible, but he only needed one. Since yesterday afternoon he's been on a big improvement. Today we spent most of the day at the beach, and Arlan had a blast. Mostly he enjoyed digging holes and dumping water into them. But he also "swam" and jumped, and played on the dock with mom - looking at ducks and fish (and lots of teen-agers!). So we are VERY happy to have him back!

Landon has been 'recovered' for a couple of days, and is LOVING the beach! He puts his water wings on and has a BLAST! The water is great because he can go for quite a ways and still touch. Plus with his water wings he does very well. He splashes, and pushes John around in the "boat" (one of those floatie thingies, whatever they're called). He even helps Arlan dump water in holes (otherwise known as castles). His favourite thing today was being tossed into the air (I remember Uncle Murray tossing me in the air as a kid - that WAS FUN!).

So we're so thrilled to have the kids back - amazing how little time it takes to start rolling your eyes at the incesant questions in the car, and scolding when they fight. Ahhhh ... normalcy! lol

Until next time...

Vacation?

I've never before done as much laundry while on vacation.

We left Friday afternoon for Invermere, as John's band played there. I was hoping to be able to go out and watch. We arrived in Fairmont (we stayed at the lead singers friends house there on the golf course - GORGOUS!! SO lucky to have spent the night there instead of a hotel) at 8 pm. Approximately 9:15 Arlan puked. yay Now don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for the little dude, but that was Friday and it's now Monday!
So I spent a good part of Friday night catching puke. Oh yeah, and Landon still has remnants of his flu (which started Wed afternoon when he puked on the daycamp girl!), so he was crying every time he was in the bathroom. Finally John got home, so he slept with Arlan (catching puke every hour or so) and I slept with Landon (making multiple crying trips to the bathroom).

Saturday - do we hang out in Fairmont in this beautiful house overlooking the golf course with our pooping/puking children, or hit the road for 5 hours to get to Vernon (and our vacation for this week)? We opt for the road - not wanting to spread the joy any more than necessary to our gracious hosts. That was surprisingly a good decision. Arlan only hurled once, and we stopped for Landon to poop (did you know the weigh scale stations for semi's have public washrooms! Phew!) once and we were good to go. A bit of whining from the back seat, but mostly sleeping so our drive was surprisingly pleasant. The scenery was absolutely INCREDIBLE too! John caught up on some sleep so I enjoyed the amazing views (while keeping the car between the lines) in peace and quiet.

We made it to Vernon shortly after 4 pm (local time), and are so glad we came when we did. Our landlords left Sunday morning, if we hadn't made it Saturday we would've inconvenienced them as well. Plus I doubt our Sunday drive would've been as uneventful as Arlan has moved into the diarrhea stage of this flu bug. Between puking (mostly from over-drinking, poor kid is so thirsty!), and diarrhea-contaminated items, I have washed more clothing and blankets and sheets than ever before in a one day period!

We did manage to get Landon to the beach a couple of times - which he loves! Although he's still pretty worn out from this flu so he slept for 4 hours yesterday afternoon!

So it's Monday; Arlan can mostly keep liquids down now - he'll upchuck if he drinks too much at once. But no solids since Sat night (when he ate a handful of baked macaroni). Yesterday afternoon he looked so rough I was thinking of taking him to the doctor. But he did an over-drinking puke and that seems to have been the turning point. He's napping again right now - most of his time is spent sleeping; his awake time consists of pooping and whining, with some drinking and puking thrown in for good measure.

But I am hopeful we are on the tail-end of this one, and that we'll get to enjoy our vacation more in the days to come. One nice thing: the landlords have offered us the place for additional nights - so we are staying until Monday instead of Saturday! Nice - we can hopefully make up for our 2 days spent indoors on the weekend. Our drive back to Calgary will be considerably more congested, but I think we'll manage -- assuming the pooping and puking has abated by then!

until next time...from beautiful, hot and sunny VERNON....

Arlan's in gotchies...

We'll see what the day brings. Arlan keeps asking to wear underwear, so I put some on him today. The first success was he came and told me as soon as he'd peed (in his underwear). So I put him on the potty for a couple of minutes (of course there was no action), and congratulated him on coming to tell me. Put clean underwear on and we'll see what happens. When I ask if he'd like to sit on the potty now he says no ... so we'll see what happens right after lunch (I'll sit him on there as soon as he's done eating). I was just happy that he knew enough to come and tell me he'd peed - the first step to recognizing what, exactly, that sensation means!!
Now, don't go thinking I'm all full of high hopes. I don't expect Arlan to train until next summer!! So any progress is far beyond my expectations. I just think it's a neat experiment :-)

Weekend photos

GOLF! Oh how I love to golf!
Here's a shot of my incredible form on follow-thru - HA! My score would not reflect that statement. Although I did have my first ever "pitch-in" from about 50 yards out :-D
John and I had to take a picture to commemorate, it's so seldom we get to golf together. In fact, only when Uncle Neville and Aunt Mary come it seems...













When we got back from golfing, we "discovered" Aunt Mary buying treats for Landon and Arlan from the ice cream truck. I guess Landon heard the truck and said "there's the ice cream truck." I don't think he realized you can BUY ice cream from it (until now!), because when Aunt Mary said "Yes! Let's go get you some ice cream!", he looked at her like she was nuts. He did not look at her that way after getting a treat - that's for sure! Lucky kid...
To top it off, Landon was looking ultra stylish in John's shirt and his rubber boots ... nice.

Pics of us together. Uncle Neville and the boys had SO much FUN! Like Arlan's underwear? He asked for undies, so we put them on over his diaper! Silly kid. He also has one of Landon's runners on, and one of his sandals (on the wrong foot). He's quite the character.

On Sunday we had a BBQ as some friends from John's high school were in town (Doug and Melissa on the right). So it was a mini-reunion with them and Brian & Patricia (who live in Calgary and John reconnected with when we moved here, after 15 years or so....). It was a fun house, with 6 kids and 6 adults (the kids were all older than our two, ranging from 10 - 14, so they entertained Landon and Arlan nicely). It was such a fun day - in fact an incredible weekend that will live in my memory for a long time just because it was so great!

Hail Storm moves through

We had hail fall for a minute or two tonight - just moved in and moved out. Left a lot of good sized stones around which the kids proceeded to eat for about an hour :-/

We also were given bubbles from a neighbour while out for a walk. Landon and Camryn loved blowing bubbles and Arlan was the chief bubble chaser!

I love the lighting after a storm moves through - all the colours are so vivid: blue sky, green grass, red shirt, and lots of fun!

PS

Grandma - I've marked their heights on their growth charts :-)

And for good measure (pun intended) - I also measured Landon since I noticed that he was the same height at 4 years as he was at 3 1/2 years ... (40.5"). He's now 41.75" tall - so he has grown over an inch in the last 4 months - so I'll add that in now.

Update on Stats :-)

Arlan's stats from the doc yesterday:

27 pounds
35" tall

From what I read up on quickly, he's a light one (35-40th percentile?), and average height (60th percentile?). He wasn't too friendly with the doctor either - very minimal examination occurred as he had to be held by mommy and the doc couldn't touch him. The good news is that I mentioned a minor concern around his eyes (Aunty Yvonne pointed out that it appeared one was a bit lazy) and the doctor could not see anything to be concerned about. We'll keep watching, but he said the light reflected back from his eyes as it should so no need for worry :-)

Other than that, slow couple of days. Landon's sad because he doesn't have a constant stream of friends over to play with :-/ I'll have to phone a friend for this afternoon I guess.

until next time...

more pics...

A deer wandered by the beach, right next to where Landon was playing. What a nice sight!

we were treated to a glorious full double rainbow! An upside to all the rain showers we had in Invermere :-) It was so vibrant - I just couldn't capture it adequately. We must've spent about 10 minutes just enjoying this view.

Recent pics

Here's Landon and Camryn walking over here today ... they spent the entire afternoon playing together. They were so cute, walking down the path, holding hands, like teen-agers in love or something!

Landon and Arlan crashed on our drive home from Invermere on Sunday. We stopped in Radium on the way home for some swimming, which was really nice! Then a quick lunch (our only restaurant meal all weekend!) and on the road. Poor John had to drive through the rainy day while the rest of us snored! lol