Camping in Style

So last year (our first year of camping as a family) we camped in a tent.........in the rain.........with two little kids. I really enjoyed the concept of camping but not the "tent" in the rain with kids part. So, this year I have been searching for a tent trailer. I didn't think I had Greg convinced that this was the best thing to get but I must have. I found one on Craigslist in Mission last Friday and by Saturday we were owners of a 2002 Flagstaff Tent Trailer. Woo hoo! I am SO EXCITED! Mostly excited to not have to sleep on the floor with two kids, have a place to go when it rains, and did I mention there is an inside shower and toilet complete with hot water. Yes! For those of you who don't know I am a clean freak....so this shower thing is gonna be awesome! Who says you HAVE to get dirty when you camp? Anyway, here are some pictures of our new purchase!

Here is a shot from the door looking in. To the left is the table, straight ahead is the shower/toilet combo, to the left of that is the stove and sink, and to the right inside the door is the fridge. The white thing hanging up is an extra storage bag to hold stuff. I'm not sure what you are supposed to put in there but I guess we'll figure it out!

Here is a shot of the queen size bed at one end.

Here is a shot of the double bed at the other. On the left is the table and on the right is the sink and stove.

And here it is all opened up.

I'm really excited to go camping this year (way more than last year)! This weekend I worked and next weekend Greg and I are participating in Motionball (a fundraiser for the Special Olympics) but the weekend after is our inaugural trip.....we are heading to Hicks Lake up in Harrison. Should be fun! We can't wait!

Mothers Day at Cascade Falls

So, for Mothers Day the boys (all 3 of them) and I went to Cascade Falls for the afternoon. Noah and Isaiah loved the hike and loved looking at the waterfalls. Here are some pictures from our trip.
Here's Noah looking for the "Grumpy Old Troll Who Lives Under The Bridge". I don't think he ever found him...and we went over several bridges. Crazy!

Here are me and my little boys standing in front of the giant waterfall.

And after looking at the waterfall the boys decided it was time to make waterfalls of their own. I think it is really funny that they are looking at each other. This is definite wedding material!

We hiked all the way to the Upper Pools. Well, Isaiah got a ride with Greg...his legs were just too little for the climb. Once we got there he was pretty amazed with how fast the water was moving and all the big rocks.

Zay decided he was gonna play "Peet-a-boo" (he says Peet) behind the rocks. It was funny watching his face...so funny I had to take a picture.

My boys!

Here is Greg pretending to jump across to that big rock.

Here are the boys watching Greg. Noah knows he is pretending but Isaiah is yelling "No Daddy! No Daddy!" If you look closely you can see the concern on his little face. It was kind of cute!

Me and Zay cuddling in for a close up!

Finally we are on our way back to the car. It was such a big hike and a fabulous Mothers Day. Thanks boys!

Big Boys

So, the boys are getting big....so big in fact that this weekend we went to Greg's Aunt and Uncles house to pick up a Big Boy Bed for Zay. He's been in a toddler bed since he was 11 months old and now that Greg's Aunt and Uncle are moving it was time to get him a bigger bed. The sets came from Greg's cousins (Dan and Ben). Now both boys have matching sets in their rooms. Thanks Johnstones! Here are some pictures of the boys in their beds......
Okay, so they aren't in their beds in this picture but aren't they cute? Here they are waiting for me to take them to Great Grandpa Pops house for a visit!

Finally, here's Zay in his Big Boy Bed....with Sesame Street decorations of course! What you can't see is how much he LOVES his new bed. It must also be comfy since he has been sleeping until 8:00 ever since we got it! He's got a Sesame Street room complete with a 4 foot Elmo sticker on the wall opposite his headboard....there are other Sesame guys too but they just don't rate! Now I have to make his Sesame blanket bigger to fit his big bed.....what a project!

Here's a close-up.....our baby is growing up...sniff sniff!

Here's a shot from the door. The pillow is there in case he falls out which he is likely to do at some point in time. He looks so little in such a big bed.

Here's a shot of Noah's room....well some of it....well mostly just his bed. Anyway, Noah has a green two-toned Dinosaur room......complete with Dinosaurs all over his walls and shelves and even on his blanket. Well, those are some pictures of the Big Boys in their matching Big Beds. Fun! Thanks again Johnstones.....know that these beds will be well loved by the boys!

Noah at Pre-School

Here are some pictures of Noah at Pre-School. He loves going to pre-school and is learning so much. He is reading, writing, spelling phonetically, adding numbers in his head, and even subtracting numbers in his head. Socially he has also learned a lot from Jump Smart, it's amazing to see the difference in him. He now talks to people instead of hiding from them.
Here is a photo of Noah and Ms. Kim. She is the head of Jump Smart but isn't his everyday teacher.

This is Noah and his teacher Miss. Chantel. She is awesome and he is always talking about her. If I could wish for anything it would be that both my kids have teachers like her in the years to come.

Here are some of the kids in Noah's class. The girl hugging Noah is Kaity. They get along really well. On the other side of Noah is Evan, another one of Noah's buddies in his class.

Here are the the 3 Musketeers, Maggie, Noah, and Evan. Hopefully they will all be in the same Kindergarten class next year as they all will be at the same school. They get along so well and they play together frequently.

Here's Noah working on some puzzles with Kaity and Maggie before the class is about to begin. Well, that's about it. Pre-School ends in 2 months and then it is on to Kindergarten...sniff sniff. I'm not sure I'm ready but I know Noah is.

Zay Turned 2!

So, it's been a while but Zay turned 2 at the beginning of March. Here are a bunch of photos from his parties.....yes, I said parties! The picture order is random (I can't figure out how to move them around to make sense)...sorry!

On Zay's birthday we had a party for him and our good friend Julle who shares his birthday (March 3rd).....Julle picked the birthday meal and Zay picked desert. A yummy kit kat ice cream birthday cake covered in smarties and topped with a Veggietale candle. Interesting choice Zay!

Here's the birthday two-some blowing out the candles on their cake.

For his birthday one of his gifts was Sesame Street Kid K'Nex....they are like lego only bigger and easier for little hands. He got Ernie, Bert, Elmo, and Cookie Monster. I think the adults had more fun playing with these than the kids did.

He also got some Sesame Street cars. Can you tell he is a fan of Sesame Street?? He even has a Sesame Street room.....complete with a 4 foot Elmo wall sticker!

Here he is with some of his presents. Sesame wrapping paper too.....wow!

Then came Isaiah's birthday party with all his friends. He really wanted to have his birthday at McDonalds....so we did. The McDonalds in Mission has a brand new playground so we booked it for a few hours and had his party there. It was really fun....and I didn't have to cook or clean to prepare for it....how wonderful for me!

Blowing out the candles on his Big Bird cake (a special request from Isaiah himself) with Malcolm watching.

Noah and Riley helped out in the gift opening, Noah read Isaiah his cards and Riley helped him unwrap his gifts.

Here are most of the kids sitting at the tables coloring on the sheets they were given and wearing their crowns. They all seemed to have a great time.

The birthday boy playing on the slide. I'm not sure who taught him to go down face first but he did!

Olivia and Sabrina are showing Isaiah his Big Bird cake made by Auntie Cindi. As usual she did an awesome job. I only wish I could be as creative as her! But I am not so I will stick to begging her for cakes! Thanks Auntie Cindi for the cake...it was awesome!

Another Beautiful Day

So, it was another terrible day at our house....not! After a day of snow yesterday we woke up to almost a foot of the fluffy white stuff this morning. To top it all off it was clear and sunny all day which made the snow even more beautiful. Can you tell that I love the snow? Here are some pictures of the snow day!

Noah hanging out in the snow.

Noah and Isaiah tobogganing down the neighbours front yard. Noah and Jacob (the neighbour) were tobogganing down the road and they got going pretty fast. Isaiah was quite upset he couldn't go so Noah took him down the front yard toboggan run instead! What a good brother! Fortunately there weren't too many cars that could navigate our hill.

There was also some icicle sucking and a lot of snow eating. Here are Zay and Noah eating snow and below is Noah and Jacob stuffing their faces!

Isaiah wanted to try some snow hockey....the puck didn't go very far so playing didn't last for very long.

Here are all the kids (Quinn, Jacob, Isaiah, and Noah) hanging out on the snow bank. They had so much fun!

Noah creating the toboggan run down the front yard. Below are some "Nature Shots" of how beautiful it was.

The trees on the hill out front of our house.

Some fancy icicles on our roof that were eventually eaten by some munchkins.

The view from our front deck. How beautiful is that sun! All in all it was a great day. Most of it spent with the kids and the neighbours outside in the sunny snow.

Dinosaurs at Science World

For those of you who don't know, Noah is all about Dinosaurs. He has numerous Dinosaur books, Dinosaur blankets, Dinosaurs, and even a Dinosaur room. Well, for the past few months at Science World they have had a Dinosaur exhibit featuring some real Dinosaur bones as well as a life size skeleton of a T-Rex. We were going to go before Christmas while we were in Vancouver at Childrens Hospital, but it was snowing so we came straight home. Well, the snow finally subsided enough for us to venture in last week and here are some pictures from our trip.

Here's Zay cranking the water to produce electricity to turn the lights on in the BC Hydro exhibit.

Both boys loved the water section where you could build dams to see how water flowed, etc, etc. There was also a cannon where you could shoot balls up into the top of this display to see how they float downriver. That was another favorite...boys and water.

Here's Noah standing on the side of one of the wind powered machines. What a dude!

Finally, some Dinosaur bones. Here's Noah standing in front of a life-sized T-Rex skeleton. Very cool!

Here are the three boys standing beside a life-sized Triceratops skeleton. We wanted to get a better picture but there was a news crew filming in front of it. Oh well.

This picture speaks for itself......what a Goomba!

Here's Noah checking out some fossilts with his magnifying glass and brush. He really liked this section of the display.

Finally, the masterpiece. Here are the boys in front of the life-sized T-Rex skeleton. It was so big, I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture.

Here are the boys playing the piano....just like in the movie Big!

Here they are playing "Bop The Recyclables". Well, it was a great day and the family had fun!