New Aunties to play with...

My Dad arrived with Carolyn, Mikaela and Jessica on Tuesday of our family fun filled week. The anticipation of Grandpa arriving was big for the boys. I don't know if Carolyn or the these two newAunties knew ahead of time the energy 3 boys and a little girl have, but they were quick to find out. A cannon ball fight started it all. The boys were throwing the pine cones down at them from high in the tree house and then hiding as the girls reloaded the cannon balls back into the tree house. Kyla loved bringing dolls to show and sitting on laps for stories. Jessica was a huge hit with the animated voices reading "Pirates of the Caribbean" story and Micaela is most remembered by Mark as the "bestest" rock jumper into the waterfall. There was play time and story time, Farmer's Market shoping for fruit, beach time relaxing and building sand castles. Jet skiing and hiking, mini golfing, badminton, basket ball, boccie and water balloon fights. Ray also gave motocycle rides to almost all (except kids). We also had a Auntie Alma (my Dad's sister) and Lee come for a day all the way from Texas for a short visit while we were all together. They blessed us all with Jumbo shrip from Mexico - Yummy!!

We had a great time getting to know eachother a bit, and building memories and appreciated hearing all about their family trip to DR that they had taken before coming out here. We celebrated Kyla's birthday and she got Dora books and a Dora movie. Just in time for our own family holiday. The books were a huge hit for both kids all making noise - (thank goodness for mommy and daddy the three different books provided variety to the sounds) and the movie was a hit as well. How do you travel over 1800kms without new movies to watch and new toys to play with!!

Saturday they headed off to continue their trip on Westward as did the rest of us to begin our own separate family holidays. Stay tuned for the next entry of our continued family fun filled summer adventures....

The Harders arrive...

The waiting... The countdowns are finally here...the moment the Harder's pulled into the driveway was the beginning of a fun filled week of cousin Loven'!!! The boys came running to each other and Josh ran over to be the first to hug Kyla. Other than my poor directions they arrived safely. Why would you ask me for direction to begin with who knows. Am I not the one that can't tell which way is North or West to begin with? Why not ask Ray? He grew up here and He can tell you how to get somewhere having only been there once or even not at all (OK - that was because Nana couldn't remember either and it was safer to trust Ray getting out of Regina then Nana at the time!! but that's another story). OK,OK, they arrived and the fun began.

I don't even know where to start on this recap of our week together. We were so excited to show them were we lived.

They played toys, cannon ball fights in the tree fort, read books, exchanged gifts, splash parks, the lake, walks to the river for a cold - freezing dip(and Don pretending he was in a hot tub as his body turned numb from the cold), jumped off the rocks of a waterfall( I didn't jump as I'm afraid of heights but Joel and others did), hiked two mountains (actually Don, Joel, Mark and I hiked the one and we drove to the top of the other one as a family). Anyways, there was so much fun and great family time.

Can't wait till our next visit....

Grandma Visits

Mom came and to start off the visit we enjoyed a Shakespeare play at a Winery to celebrate her birthday. It was an amazing setting - great view of the lake and the actors did a great job.

Went for a wonderful walk down to the waterfront and mom saw the rose garden in Summer bloom. She's been here Fall, Spring and Winter and now has finally seen it in it's full glory. Mark was walking around the garden so carefully I dare say anything, but I did, and his response was "I'm just looking for the perfect one to pick for you mommy!".

Kyla took strange to Grandma at first but warmed up quickly. She really enjoyed stories and tea parties and playing dollies. Grandma got her a trike for her 2nd birthday and Kyla loves it.

During Grandma's stay Auntie Mel and Uncle Don and Joel and Josh arrived. Thus began a week long family fun filled visit with lots to see and explore. Although Grandma didn't stay the whole week, we packed in a lot while she was still there. Such as a visit to a Fruit museum - Cherry festival, water splash parks, lake, beach relaxing, walks to the park, and a ton of visiting time.