The adventure of a house swap was fun and exciting. It all started with me doing respite for a friend while their family was enjoying a family wedding in the tropics of Mexico. Since we would be staying at their house we opened our house our sister-in-law's sister's family to come visit them. What an experience!! I think living in someone else's house for a week allows for a different perspective into their lives. 8 bedrooms is alot of space but it also is a lot more to keep clean. The biggest challenge of a house swap of any kind is finding everything. I'm sure Wendy had fun finding things in my kitchen too! Ray and I both say we're not "dog people" and as you can see from the photo these were not small dogs that came with the house. I think Ray is more of a dog person than he wants to admit. Those dogs were waiting for him everyday to play with him. His "dog person" only comes out in short spurts though, and after a few licks he's done playing fetch. The kids loved the house full of different toys and especially enjoyed the toys outside and the trampoline. There is a kids pool in the front 'yard' that even I enjoyed being able to splash around with them. I say "yard" in brackets as the house is surrounded in concrete with newly lay ed patch of grass. Full time respite was a new experience and that went amazingly well. We both enjoyed it, it in our own house might be a very different feel. We are finally finished all of the interview stages of becoming respite/foster parent approved and wait now as the recommendation goes through. Our plan is to stick to respite for now but the process is the same.
From this adventure we headed straight onto a week of camping...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Myra Canyon
A long awaited trip to the Myra Canyon was just as I had imagined. After living here for 3 years we finally took a trip up the mountain of the famous 16 trestles. The fires of 2003 had destroyed many of the trestles. After years of Restoration they opened up this summer. We took mom who just got back from her 5 mths China excursions. The views were incredible. I loved that we could walk for an hour and see so much - 8 trestles and a tunnel. If we took our bikes next time we would see more but it was great just to see it and take our time walking along the path. Amazing and highly recommended for hikers and bikers.
Our summer outdoors
Our summer has been filled with outside activities. Many hours at all the local parks and playgrounds. It has been my mission this summer to go to as many different parks/ playgrounds as possible. This challenge has forced me to really get to know this city better too. There are so many cool little hidden parks in different neighbourhoods I would not know of otherwise. Our backyard has been Ray's challenge this year. He really prides himself in details of the backyard. The garden has been both of us. I love the planting and weeding and he loves watering and watching it grow. He works on the grass, and killing the weeds (a huge undertaking alone). Kids have loads of fun there with all there toys if we're not at a park. For our anniversary Dad and Carolyn helped us get my dream come true 3 person swing. I love just sitting in the shade while the kids run through the slip and slide. The beach has been not as much as last year for some reason but we are often there at least for evenings and suppers.
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