Gettin' Ready...

We are getting ready to head out tomorrow for the long weekend. I just checked the forecast - 20 all weekend. So not super hot, which will likely be a blessing! I'm sure the boys will still have a blast at the beach :-) I'm not looking forward to packing - which will be all that I do tomorrow morning since I haven't even started yet.

We had a great day today though. I met a great gal at Coffee n Scream for a visit while the boys played. Then we met Mike & Kathleen (I used to work with Mike) and their kids at the zoo. It had been much longer than I realized since we were last at the zoo. Arlan was already sleepy when we got there, so he just hung out in the stroller. Landon whined because he was tired from Coffee N Scream and wanted to ride too (and I brought only the umbrella stroller!). But it all worked out, we wandered about, had some lunch, played, and then came home.

On the way home, I managed to catch the 'ground-breaking' for the new Coventry Hills Middle School - slated to open Sept 2012. This will be the school the boys attend for Grades 5 - 8. I hadn't been at one of these ceremonies before, so that was kind of neat.

Then we came home. Arlan had a good nap while Landon and I washed off the driveway and side of the house, and watered the flowers. I hooked up the new sprinkler I bought for the boys, which broke within 3 seconds (cheap Superstore junk!). Then Landon had a fit when Arlan woke up and was sent to his room where he promptly crashed. So he's still awake, of course! His schedule's definitely off-kilter for the past 10 days or so ... won't likely improve while we're gone. Maybe not all summer since he doesn't have to get up for preschool until Sept! Maybe I'll have to break down and be waking him up in the mornings ... he's been sleeping later and later ... he's so much like his mother!

Anyway, that's the news from here. Tomorrow will be rushing around and packing - we'll hopefully be on the road by 2. See you next month :-) Until next time...

Pics from Swifty

My cousin, Mark, and I when I was in Swifty in early May. This is at the Big I, of course!!

Landon, Ryder and Arlan. Amazing that I captured all three of them sitting at the same time. Yup - they're watching tv - the only thing that could slow them down!

We had a visit with Great Grandpa in Swifty as well. This is about as good as I could get these two munchkins to sit with Great Grandpa!! Stinkers...

Invermere - July 13

After John's gig in Panorama, we thought we'd just check out the town of Invermere -- take a quick drive. Well, we found this nice beach, and since it was such a nice day we grabbed a blanket and hung out here for about 3 hours. As you can see the kids were in heaven!! They even got themselves wet, despite the chill of the water! There was a great playground, all the kids were incredibly friendly, and we had such a nice relaxing time. We certainly didn't want to go, but Arlan got to the point where he NEEDED to have a nap so we got back in the car and came home.

BUT - we liked it so much, we've rented a condo and are headed back there for July long. We'll leave Wed, return Sunday. I'm very much looking forward to it. I know it won't be quite as idyllic as this impromptu stop (there will be so many more people this trip!), but I am still very much looking forward to getting out there again.

Panorama - June 11 - 12

John played a gig in Panorama on June 12, so all of us decided to head up there for the weekend. It was Landon's 1st time in the mountains that he even realized the mountains are big! lol Arlan realized it as well. Arlan likes to comment on the terrain we're driving on: "Going up-hill! Going down-hill!". So you can just imagine the entire drive out to Panorama! aiaiai
We arrived Friday night, just hung out. The pic of Landon in the car is him so excited to have arrived in Panorama!!

Then Saturday we "played" mini-golf, walked around, checked out the COLD water, ate lunch while the kids climbed the fence. Then Landon went with John for set-up while Arlan and mommy napped. We went swimming after that, had some supper and then the boys and I hung out while John had to go play. It was quite a nice Saturda - the boys sure enjoyed it and I liked getting away!

Arlan's Birthday

Arlan turned TWO on June 18!! I can hardly believe that my baby is running around, jumping off of everything, speaking in sentences, and generally causing as much mischief as humanly possible! We had a small party for him with Grandma and Grandpa (who made it up here despite the extreme flooding and highway washed out near the SK/AB border!), and our neighbour Trevor with his twins Evan and Dara. It was nice. I had fun decorating his cake, and he enjoyed all of his presents. Lucky kid! He particularly enjoyed the race cars from Dara and Evan, the "fridge phonics" toy from mom & dad, and the chair from grandma and grandpa. All of them have already received a lot of use!!

I finally made his 2-year check-up appointment, it'll be July 8, so I'll have stats then!

Hair Cuts!

The boys (finally) got hair cuts, and they look like such little men again! Landon's is buzzed quite short, and so is Arlan's but he has a bit more length on top. They are so sweet. Arlan looks even more like John, and I'm getting compliments all over the grocery store again because you can really see his eyes once more. They're just so big and blue :-D

I'm so excited as we have booked our summer vacation. Our first one as a family - just the 4 of us! We are off to Kalamalka Lake (Vernon, BC). We've rented a great cabin, just a short walk from the beach but with a fenced and private yard so the kids don't have to spend the entire week in life jackets! lol I am so pumped - I know we will all have a blast, especially the boys. Even John is pretty excited.

in addition to that, we are spending a week in Ontario with Liz & Rob and the kids, which will be incredible as well. Landon is so pumped to see Thomson and Isabel - he absolutely loves them! He was telling John and I tonight about how we have to fly on a plane to Toronto to see Thomson and Isabel. Then he went into some sort of gobbledy-gook that we have to drive a bus, and then a rocket ship, but at least he has the first part of the trip cased! lol

So we are excited to have some summer plans. Hopefully we get back to Sk sometime in there as well ... the summer has filled up incredibly quickly all of a sudden. *sigh*

That is, if summer ever arrives. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be as nice as they're promising (and that's only high teens, maybe 20! *shaking head*

Anyway, here's to nice weather tomorrow for some outside play-time! Until next time...