July 4th - Letters To Eachother

Arnold's email - July 4th:

On Monday we got up around 7:00 Grandpa had already left for the farm. We played Lego and Wii for a while as Grandma went shopping for some food. Then around 11:00 We went up for some lunch then drove to Grandpa's farm. We started in the milking barns back end where Grandpa was getting the floors clean and making the beds. We watched for a bit, then Grandpa told us to wait for a few minutes, and he came back with a tractor. He called Kyler up onto it and then they started filling up the sawdust. As they went Kyler watched and learned all about how the tractor worked. After some more sawdust work and pop scrapping, Grandpa took us to the calf barn and he mixed the calves some milk formula. Then Kyler helped load the bottles into the holsters and I took one new calf and Grandpa another and we hand fed them. Kyler collected all the empties and it was time to feed grain to some calfs, so Kyler pushed the hand cart with the grain and I measured out the grain for the calves and we fed them all their food.

After this, Grandpa had to go help in the back, so Kyler and Grandma and I all went to watch the milking for a while. When Grandpa got back he showed us around the vacuum lines and told us how everything works. Grandpa had to go do some more stuff so we wandered off and watched the farmer making a load of feed for the cows. Then we walked to the straw bales, and Kyler climbed all over them. We looked at the ATV's that were in the shed and just wandered around the farm. Then it was back to the barn and watched some more milking. At this point Grandpa said there was not much more to show, so we decided to go off to Rehoboth Camp and see the changes and see if we knew anyone there.

When we arrived Kyler saw the massive play structure that has been setup and beelined it there, Grandma and I couldn't see anyone around, so we said he could play there till we returned. we walked around the new buildings and the updated yard, it's changed so much.everyone was at swimming except the cook and we looked at the list and didn't see anyone we recognized so we went to find Kyler. He was having a great time on the playground, so we let him play for another 15 minutes or so. After he was done, we went for a drive past Grandpa's old Farm and past their church.

Grandpa beat us home. Grandma finished up the houtspot she had been making and we sat down for supper. Kyler was a little hesitant about the houtspot, but once I showed him to make bowls out of it and pour the butter inside, he had three servings.

In the evening, Kyler played some more video games and I chatted with grandma and grandpa while building Lego and worked on making plans for the next two days. After they had gone to bed, Kyler and I hung out a little longer and turned in too.


Miranda's email - July 4th:

In the morning Q and I were up around 7:30am. I'm pretty sure Q was up earlier but to be honest I don't remember. Jack and Dad left uber early (read 6am) but it's ok. Anyway we got up and had some breakfast and around 9am I had a shower and we headed out. We went to the bike shop. We found a the 8 speed chain you wanted and 2 front tires (in the back). One was HORRIBLY broken, the other one was ok. We brought them both home and stopped at Mom's store. We visited there for a bit and made sure we had everything we needed. Then I called up Joel to make sure. He said 40 minutes to 1 hour and we would meet up... note to self next time find out WHERE! Not just assuming.

I figured that it would be at the school so Q and I went there. We hung out for a while then I called Joel to find out where he was. He was running around town and would be at the HOUSE in 20 minutes so Q and I headed home. We hung out and watched some TV and waited for Joel. He showed up and took the van and Q and I got excited about heading out.

We were ready to go by 12:30pm and I got a text from mom saying that Sally wasn't at Kathryns yet (to babysit the kids) so they were late. Mom arrived home around 1:30pm and we went for our last bathroom break and headed out! I got Q's chair in and buckled him up and we were off! The drive there was about 1 hour or so, maybe a bit longer. Things have really changed since I remember driving out there the last time. When we got there there was a HUGE lineup to get into the park. We found out because we had "pre-registered" we could get in and get into a different line up. so we did.

When we got closer mom said she wanted to make it faster so she got everything figure out and written down, our names, ages (well the fact that Q was 4) and our plate name. Then we went in and got through in a matter of minutes :)

We headed to the site. Come to find out the back of the bus had some poison ivy around it so a rule was made that Q couldn't go to the back of the bus. We got everything leveled out and we were good to go! We put up the top and the fake grass and got some chairs out and had a break. We just sat there and did NOTHING! I love those times. We hung around a bit and then unloaded everything and went for a bike ride.

Mom forgot her helmet so we had to "ride slow". We ended up pushing/pulling Q up more than we did anything. We went up a hill to the bathrooms and then down to where the beach is. We even left our bikes that the bottom and took the little "trail" out to the beach. It wasn't too busy but we went out there and got to see it then went back. Our plan was to get a few more things and go to the beach for a few hours but Q had other ideas. We *really* had to start a fire. We made a deal. A walk around to a different washroom and to see what was around there and a walk and THEN a camp fire. We went around and had fun. We checked out tents. So far our favourites were the Columbia tent and the broadstone tents.

We came back and started up our "log cabin" fire pit. Dad had brought home a few pieces before and used his wood splitter to make great starter wood. We had to open the box of s'mores to get some cardboard but it worked out really really well! We got the fire started and I made myself a hot dog (we forgot everything to go with it) and then I made up 3 foil containers for the pulled pork. We put those on the "grill" part that you can pop overtop. Mom went for a walk and Q was playing with his sand toys right infront/on the edge of the green carpet. We hung around and had marshmallows and such for a while then we went for a walk to the beach.

We got there in time to see the sun to begin to set. Q all the sudden said "I have to poop" so we BOLTED up the stairs, boardwalk thingy and to the bathrooms. I got him there and he goes "nope, I just had to pee" so we went back to the campsite. Mom stayed and watched the sun set. She said it was the first time she had heard anyone clap at the sunset, and one man said "the end!". Too funny. We had our own little thing. On the way back from the bathrooms Q yelled out "Good night Jesus". When I asked why, he told me that it was because Jesus was the light and the light was going to bed so Jesus was going to bed and he wanted to say goodnight. That boy is SMART sometimes.

We eventually got Q a bit more cleaned up and into some pjs and watching a DVD on the little computer there and had the other area all set up into a couch and chairs so that we could get working on some scrapbooking stuff. It took a while but we got it moving. I put a few more things on Nana's ZEN and she worked on some of my photos for me to print off. We got all of Jan done but nothing else. I went through Feb to August and downsized photos. I'm going to have to do that on my own I guess. It should be alright.

It was after midnight when we called it a night. (oh yes and before we actually had Q fall asleep we went outside and did sparklers :) ) We got the bed ready and I went had Q into bed with me and we went to sleep around 1am or so. We slept until 7:45am! Crazy hey?