What did we do before cell phones?

We are camping this week with my parents.  The kids and I have loved every minute of it!  After a week at Nana and Papa's hanging out, then a week for Kyler at FCC with Amber and a week for Q and Lisa to hang out with Nana and Papa it was a good change.

The boys and I are in our "12 man tent" and the girls are with Nana and Papa in the rv.  Its been alot of fun.  We have had craft time, two libraries were built in the RV complete with sign out sheets, we have rainbow loomed, played games, played in the sand and had lots of food and campfires!

FYI Thank you Joanie for introducing my mom to "happy hour"!!

One thing I have noticed is the amount of people walking around with cell phones.  Please don't get me wrong!  I'm one of them!  But I'm surprised how many people don't look up anymore, smile at their neighbours or as how their day is going.  Now a simple run to the bathroom includes checking your phone on the way there and the way back and making sure nothing has changed.

I'm just as bad.  I'm always texting Arnold or checking up on something we feel we need to " Google ".  But I'm sure I had just as much fun, if not more, before cell phones.

Maybe next time, I need to make the time to unplug and enjoy nature. 

As the summer whines down.....

Today is chilly.  Or at least it was at 7am when my husband, God bless his soul, went outside to check on our little campers. 

It reminds me of how summer is coming to a close.... or in my house "whining" down.  Seriously... whining.  The kids the last few days/weeks have started to get this grating tone in their voice.  Halfway between a whine and a cry.  With a bit of a "I'm smarter than you are" feeling to it.

I'm done :)

I'm done with summer.

Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer time.  I feel so accomplished (generally).  It's like a fresh start for me.  A fresh start to get myself in order.  You know.. lose weight (I gained), be more active (my butt print is in the kitchen/living room chairs), go biking (nada), and spend more time with the kids (check!)

But now I'm done.

Completely over it.

I'm ready for school

Who's with me?!?

I saw a facebook post today from a friend of mine that I wanted to share:

There's really nothing as effective as school vacation to make me think that teachers aren't paid enough for what they do. Particularly good ones, which we have been fortunate to have here so far. Thank you, teachers!! (Now, can school start up again before I lose my mind?!)

It's just how I feel.  Completely.  I'm ready to get back to school before I lose my mind.  And to those great teachers who take care of our kids!

As my summer comes to a close (I'm back to "work/volunteering" next week) I want to say that it has gone well.  My kids have done 4 weeks or organized camps, 1 week of "Camp Heslop" and 2 weeks of chilling.  Next week they hang out at home with Uncle Jack for a large portion and help me out at the school!

I'm excited to see how my planning for my program I will be running at school goes this year.  I'm excited for the changes that are happening (Kyler going into grade 4 and Quinton into grade 2).  I'm excited to see how the classroom I volunteer in changes.  We have so much planned and so many cool ideas.

I'm just excited for a new season in our lives.  My family thrives on routine and going back to school is a great one!  It should be amazing!

July 5th - Letters To Eachother

Arnold's email - July 5th:

We got up at around 6:30 and went up to find Grandma, we told her we were going to the mountains, so she started packing up some snacks, and we had some breakfast and off we went. It was another long drive, but K held up well, he got really excited as we moved into the mountains. We stopped a couple times to throw rocks in the lake or walk a little bit.

Eventually we reached Banff and soon thereafter we got to Sulfur Mountain, with it's gondola. Kyler and I wandered around a bit and found a bathroom, Grandma lined up for tickets. Soon we were shooting up the mountain on the wire, K was really interested in how the whole thing worked. When we got to the top, Kyler was a little disappointed that we were at the top already and he didn't get to climb to the top. Then he saw the walkways and stairs to the cosmic ray station, and we were off, Grandma stayed at the chalet, but Kyler wanted to climb the path and stairs to the top of the other peak. I was more then happy to go walk with him, so we headed across. As we went we saw chipmunks and birds and climbed up a rock face or two near the trail. eventually we made it to the top and took a picture that we decided we should 'share with the whole world'. So I posted it on facebook.

After some Looking around, we walked all the way back to grandma, then she showed us the goats she had found, even a baby goat or two. Then we went to the top of the building and looked out from there. Then down again and wandered around the building and into the woods a little. after a while Kyler said he was hungry, we proposed lunch at the bottom, but Kyler asked that we eat up top, so we decided we could. So we had some food, a hot dog, a beef dip and a grilled ham and cheese. After we ate, Grandma and I expected K to be ready to go down, but not so, he decided he wanted to go up the other side again, so off we went. We got about 3/4 of the way and K said he was done and that we should go back, which was fine. We returned to the main building and got grandma and we headed back down the mountain to our car.

We headed onto the road again for the trip home, we stopped at a couple roadside stops, and Kyler wadded through a bit of a lake and generally had a good easy trip for a while, then I took the wheel and drove for grandma and we just cruised for a while. We ran into some bad traffic at a construction zone and had to stop for nearly 30 minutes, which really bothered Kyler. When that cleared Kyler was pretty happy, and we taught him about lines on the highway as I passed some of the cars that had built up in front of us. After a bit more Kyler fell asleep and we drove nearly 2 hours without hearing from him. eventually we got home, and went and got Mcdonalds and brought it home and ate, then a little bit of wii, and it was off to bed already. Going to be another early one tomorrow.


Miranda's email - July 5th:

This morning Q didn't wake up until about 7:45am! I was shocked, completely shocked!! But it was nice. We played in bed for a bit then did a bathroom break and came home. We got out everything for breakfast (fruit, cereal, milk, bowls, spoons, cups, ect) and had a wonderful sugar filled breakfast. For example Q had cornflakes, fruitloops in chocolate milk and a glass of chocolate milk! This boy is crazy.

Once breakfast was over we cleaned up a bit and Q and I went a bit into "piro mode" and made a fire from the last piece of wood! we burned an old macleans mag and some old paper from something else and the cereal boxes from breakfast. Then we got ready for the beach. We packed the sand toys, towels, got into our bathing suits, packed something to drink, some koolaid packs and some goldfish and we were off. Oh and our phones and mom's waterproof camera.

We walked down to the beach with everything we would need (and the big umbrella and our blankets) and found it to be SO super windy. On our way up there Q was complaining his finger hurt. I told him I would look at it as soon as we got there. Sure enough he had a VERY long sliver. Think from the top of your pinky to your first knuckle. It wouldn't move if you pushed the bottom and I couldn't get enough at the top so I opened the umbrella, started a blankets down and Q said he wanted it out so off I went. I went back to the trailer and tried the "spare keys" on top of the overhang where mom had left them in case we lost the other ones at the beach. I tired every key right way and upside down, in every door. Nothing worked and I was sweating SO bad. I went back and got the keys from mom and went back again. Tried all the first aid kids and came up with an exacto knife, 6 band aids, a long piece of metal, tweezers and some alcohol swabs. And down I went again. I also brought along the Zen so Q would have something to watch while he got the sliver out.

I did my best to distract him and it didn't seem to work. I played the movie we talked about things on the movie, talked about things on the band aids (we found some with Dino's on them) and a few other things.It took 3 tries and finally mom got it out. Some serious squirming but it was out! Immediate relief. We moved the umbrella one more time, put some sand around the outside edges and got the blankets "semi" clean from the sand. Q wanted to watch more of his movie so we put it on and he laid back with is head on the life jacket. We had fun! Then he slowly moved to the sand (at the end of the blanket so sort of on it as well) and hung out there. He did go a bit in the water but not too much. Mom got in a few walks and we hung around. We dug a hole to water, sunk Q in it and built a water slide, foot bath and eventually we made a rock garden. We packed up around 12:30pm or so. We got to the trailer and got everything ready for lunch. Had lunch and cleaned up. We were going to do a trip to the bathroom but halfway of getting changed out of his bathing suit into his clothes Q had to pee so buck naked (except 1 shoe) he came outside and peed in the middle of the campsite, haha!

We cleaned everything up, packed up the trailer and everything we needed and we were off. We went to the garbage area first and I tossed our garbage and our recycling and off to the visitors centre. We got to look at a few of the animals and hang out there for a bit. Mom got us both t-shirts and then to the washroom. We we to the bathrooms and then into the bus again. On the way there Q fell but didn't cry! I'm so proud of him!!

We got him in the bus, buckled in and we were off. We weren't 2 roads from the pinery and he was out. We just chilled for the hour ride back. We arrived at home around 3pm or so. Q was still sleeping so mom did a few laps in the pool to get the sand feeling out and I unloaded a few things right at the door of the trailer. Then I went in the pool and mom unloaded a few more things from the trailer and then I joined in. Eventually Q woke up and went inside to watch chuggington on DVD for a bit. WE got everything out and I started a load of laundry and went in the pool for another 5 minutes or so. I eventually headed upstairs while he watched a DVD and had a shower and got into some clean non-stinky clothes.

I came down and went over to grandma and grandpas to visit. Dad called around 5pm and told me he was coming to get me. We sped over to get the car from the place that closes at 5pm! It was 10 after when we got there. Dad gave me his CC and I went to get some gas... 75.75 later!!! I got home and could hear a weird sound. So dad came out to look at it, Q came out to hear it and Mom came out cause she had to go and get Sarah from work. It ended up being the spare tire was a little lose so dad fixed that for us before we left. I went with mom to get Sarah and when I came home I loaded up the van (after having the 5.00 pizza for supper). And you know how most of that went... loss of keys, issues, random things...

We finished loading the car and the bike and now it all sits there waiting. I'm excited to be ready to go. I just have to add in the new clock, my clothes up here and a few in the dryer and the computer and phone and camera and we are set to go. Dad said to bring home the chocolate milk and I might with some diet coke but who knows.

Q watched a bit of rio on the zen then said he was tired and off to bed. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep!

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?

A Camping Day!

Last Sunday (June 5th), my parents were at a campground in Kitchener/Waterloo area. We love that campground! It's one of my personal favourites! We go there every August long weekend for family reunion camping.

My parents went for the weekend, just to get away, and we ended up having everyone over on the Sunday. The boys and I were up around 6:30am or around 7am? And we had them stalled as long as we could. Eventually they ended up cleaning out the car. I finished packing up and we headed out. We picked up Uncle Jack and went to the campsite.

We played around, went for walks, enjoyed each other's company, and had alot of fun. We even had a super yummy lunch prepared by Uncle James and Aunt B.



























Days like this are alot of fun!

Wordless Wednesdays ~ Reigning Camp at Croquet - PAPA!!

Tri Update

I 'friend-ed' the company who is doing the tri on Facebook. Today's status update:

MultiSport Canada Triathlon Series Toronto Island Update - The Triathlon and Duathlon on Sunday August 15 have less than 20 spots in total left. The Give-It-A-Tri has under 75 spots left. If you intend to do one of these races please do not be disappointed and register soon.

OH MY!!! I can't believe it!! There are going to be close to 400people doing the "Give-it-a-Tri". I'm getting nervous. It doesn't help that the pool at the community centre has been closed all week due to 'mechanical malfunction' (in other words they ran out of Chlorine last week and NO ONE has gotten any more). So no pool training.

We head out camping in a few hours (like 3!!) and I'm bringing my bike, helmet, and everything I need to train while I'm there. Hopefully it works out well!

2 weeks from today

We will be getting some more photos like this:













and more!

We are going camping! Tips on what to pack for a weekend?!?!?

1 year ago today

Can you believe what happens in 1 year? Just 365 days. It seems like such a short time. And yet so much has changed. I wanted to share a post from another blog I wrote "Our Summer Adventures 2009"

The day has finally come! We move tomorrow! I'm so surprised how fast things are coming along! I mean we have alot to do in the house but generally things are booking it

Yesterday I was having one of those days. I was so frustrated and I couldn't handle everything. I finally called DH and while whispering into the phone (I lost my voice this week) I asked him to come home. He did about 2 hours later. By then I managed to make him some more lunches, pack up the caned goods and some more randomness! DH came home and emptied our bedroom as well as some buckets of his. It was good to have everything cleaned up and ready to go! I love this feeling, that we are almost ready to move!

Our downside right now is that it says it will rain this weekend while we move. That part sucks ALOT! but what can you do? That and alot of our people who are coming to help us move have now backed out. I'm hoping that we can still get a few of them to come over but we will have to wait and see how it goes. I know our friends who have the truck are helping us move everything (which is good) and we basically need the 'big' stuff moved, after that we are good with just the van.

DH called the campground and found out that we can get in as early as 8am! I think we are going to aim for 9 or 9:30 instead. Then we plan on getting the trailer and tents set up and leave the kids with Mom and Dad for a bit and we will head back home and start cleaning and bringing a few loads of stuff to the storage unit. We have to pack up the beds (I have the plastic covers for them) so hopefully we can get that part done and get them by the door and ready to move. We are going to take out the car seats from the van and put them at the trailer so my parents can take the kids somewhere if needed. We are also going to take out the seats in the van so we can get a few more big things in there. I'm really hoping that most of the 'big' stuff will be done before alot of the people get here.

Next week I plan on being home on Wednesday and Friday so we are going to leave some cleaning supplies and have those ready to go for the last minute problems and such.

Tonight is our last night in this house! Wow, and I can honestly say I"m not going to miss it, that much. I'll miss the 4 hard walls around us but aside from that I"m good

Last night I got the dresser ready in the trailer. I emptied all the 'stuff' from it and packed it full of our clothes. I have a few more clothes from the boys room (I hope to grab those today while they are napping and get them out to the trailer) and then we are generally set! Mind you I got all of DH's clothes (minus his week away which I made him pack for already) in his 1 drawer, then I got most of the boys clothes in their drawers and mine... well what can I say! I'm a girl! I got my clothes in there and in.....2.... garbage bags Thank goodness it all fits somewhat in the trailer. I'm figuring we will have a few boxes under the trailer with things like sweaters and long sleeve shirts and pants and coats. Or in the tent. Who knows.

I know I have been asking alot but please say a prayer for us. We are in the final home stretch and I"m getting a bit scared about things. More so the week I spend without DH. We haven't done it that I was ever alone with the boys before. I mean I spent a month or so with my parents when K was born, and I did do from Feb to June at my parents house but I have always had help. This coming week no help and it's starting to make me worry a bit.

As soon as I get my computer back I'll post photos from before. I did manage to also get the beds made and I got a few cutes photos from the boys pretending to nap in their new beds!

So far the only thing that is the 'same' is the weather. Aside from that we are *not* moving, *not* opening up the trailer, and *not* putting things in a storage unit!

Our plan for today is to chill out at home and maybe get together everything I need to... plant my garden! This was something I really missed last year. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy this garden!

So what about you? take a moment and try to remember, what were you doing 1 year ago today.