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

July 2 in Invermere

This pic of Arlan sleeping is actually taken AFTER the hike :-) He was VERY tuckered out from that climb!

Looking out at the top - with dad holding on very tightly!

Landon tuckered out, but carried on (eventually). Our biggest challenge with him was getting him to walk down (John had to carry him a chunk of the way). Partly it was due to fear, not just being tired. He was running like a monkey at the lookout, so I put the fear of falling forever into his head if he didn't quit running. Then he was scared to walk down the path because he might fall forever. aiaiaiaiai


Us at the "jump-off" ramp for hang-gliding. A nice view, when the clouds weren't obscuring it.



At the trail head, before we started up. How did I get these pics completely backwards?

More Canada Day pics

A family shot taken in the condo (self-timer).


We watched Canada Day fireworks on the night of the 1st at Fairmont. Here is Landon, sliding down the grassy hill right by where the fireworks went off. He had so much fun he barely cared about the fireworks at all!

Landon on his hike with dad - Canada Day.

Arlan checking out the water - it was a tad bit cold! I only made 1 complete "dip" all weekend - on Saturday. The forecast for 20 all weekend was not correct ... it was cloudy, highs in the mid-teens, with many rain showers. But we still had a blast (just spent less time on the beach than originally planned).

Canada Day Parade

Cool fire truck - one of the first vehicles to go by. The parade started right outside our condo, so we were able to watch them preparing from about 9 am (parade started at 11 am).
Arlan watched the parade from dad's shoulders - best seat in the house!
Before the parade started, the boys waited very patiently. That is attributed solely to the fact that the police car started the parade, and was parked just up the street from where we were waiting. Landon rarely took his eyes off the police car.

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...