Birthdays, Canada Day, Ice Cream and Hats!

Marc celebrated the entrance into his 34th year this week and definitely did it in style! He started the morning skyping with Fraser, followed it up with a breakfast of cornbread, bacon and strawberries then drove out to Vedder for some biking. Afterwards we made our way to Harrison Lake for some kayaking sans Ty. (How many kayaking pictures can there be on this blog!!)


After some lovely quiet time on the lake we headed to the German restaurant, Black Forest for dinner. Marc ordered bratwurst to start and schnitzel for his main. I thought his eyes were MUCH bigger than his stomach but he definitely persevered.

Starting the bratwurst with an empty stomach!Then came the schnitzel!Enjoying the greasy goodness!I watched in awe as Marc continued to happily down his schnitzel.

His last bite, still happy!Marc even mentioned that he would like to eat ice cream after his bratwurst AND schnitzel, even though he knew that I had chocolate crepes waiting at home! Ty tried them out for daddy.

This week we returned to Harrison for some Canada Day festivities. Even though it was a bit cool, Ty loved the water and fully embraced his Canadian heritage by wearing his red moose shirt. Marc has his Canadian heritage permanently tatooed on himself. He was doubly patriotic!

Yesterday we took Ty for his first ice cream cone. Needless to say, he loved it!!
I leave you with Ty experimenting with the various hats around the house. We are headed to the states this week, I think the 35 degree heat in Idaho will be a shock to our system!! Even though we have had a bit more sun lately both Marc and I feel like we have just entered spring!!

summer

this is our first summer in our new place and we have been enjoying our yard as well as the surrounding area. this is the dyke holding back the roaring fraser river a few kil0meters north of our house.

we had a bbq on the evening of the summer solstice, fully utilizing the deck and the backyard. kylie and i are blessed with pretty awesome friends. there are kids all over the place now!

after kayaking on harrison, and biking and driving along hope river road to our house every day i decided to get a kayak. we have a river (more of a slough in the winter) running along the bottom of the mountain we live on and i wanted to explore it, so i found a good deal on craigslist and drove out to aldergrove to pick up my new boat.
this is the beginning of our street from the water.


the waterways offer a different route through the countryside and i enjoyed exploring tonight. there will be a lot more in the future. i threw the kayak on the roof and drove less than a minute back to our driveway. i wanted to walk down the street with the kayak on my head, but kylie saw my wobbly start as ungainly mr. kayakhead and predicted downhill disaster. perhaps i will fashion some sort of head mount.

harrison retreat

kylie and i just returned from our 27 hour retreat at harrison hot springs. kylie's mom is in town and offered to babysit ty so kylie could have her first baby free night since he was born.
we stayed at the resort in a room facing the lake. it was idyllic. having the afternoon and evening of wednesday, and the morning and afternoon of thursday available to us, we packed two full days of activities into just over a day. it is amazing how much you can do when you don't have to pack a kid and his accoutrements around.
we managed to go for two kayak trips, have a picnic on the (tiny) beach, soak in the mineral springs on four separate occasions, go out for dinner and watch (the first 2 periods of) the stanley cup final, have an amazing buffet breakfast, go out for coffee twice and afternoon tea once, go for a walk on the beach and finally go for a walk in the cheam lake wetlands.


on our excursions we saw a seal (above), a family of crested river ducks, a bunch of rabbits, a deer and two brand new fawns and a legendary sto:lo chief who was turned to stone. can you see him and his torso sticking out of the water in the below picture?
we are blessed to have such an amazing retreat less than 40 min drive from our house. thanks cherri for the babysitting!

Finally some summer weather!!!

Although it is cloudy tonight as I type this, we have been experiencing some lovely weather in the past couple of weeks. We have enjoyed lots of walks in the sun and even found a new one close to our house.

Shareen and Craig passed through Chilliwack last week on their way home from vacationing the states.

Here is Ty showing Auntie Shareen the path on our new walking spot along the dyke:

Ty really like to walk on our walks right now. Imagine that! He is getting better at walking with us rather than stopping to eat rocks and throw dirt. Although we have found that he is much more difficult to do come training with than Niko. ;)

Eating pulled pork sandwiches on the deck

On the second day of Shareen and Craig's visit, we walked up to the cemetery across the street from our house. It was quite hot and Marc got a sunburn on his back while weeding with Shareen. (He remembered to sunscreen his front but totally forgot that he was wearing a tank top since it has been quite a while since it has been nice enough to sport one!) Ty however was sunscreened up and down even in his hair. For some reason this hair style just makes him look brilliant. ;)

Swinging with the boys:
Ty has been to this park quite a bit since it is right across the street from our house and he is now starting to understand the concept of "going home." Every time we start walking down the path to go back home he runs the other way and as soon as he is scooped up he cries most of the way back, either hiking pitifully through his tears or letting Marc carry him home.

This particular evening he was in a delightful mood after dinner on the deck:

We have been enjoying watching (some) of the hockey games, depending on the score. :) This particular night, Vancouver won and we enjoyed the game from our deck with some friends!


"What should Mommy finish this post with? I know, I know!!! Pictures of Niko!!"

Niko has gotten his annual spring shave this week and this is by far the most beautiful he looks!! Before and After:





MUCH better than this:

UGH!!