Visiting...WAHOOO!

We have some precious girls visiting our area.

One with the most beautiful brown eyes and oh such a dolly and joy to snuggle!

 The other caught another shared birthday with dear Cam who turned 6!

Love, love them both.  So special to have them around for a couple of days!
Hope to get more pictures up....sometime in the next month!

Kinda Gross

You know you're a big sister when your little sister sneezes at the grad ceremony from your adopted auntie and you take one look, sigh, swipe your finger under her nose and wipe it on the kind of fancy skirt you're wearing.

All without shuddering.

No lie.

I think it's time I invest in a purse that's stocked with Kleenex.

Thanks for taking one for the family, Leah!!

We'll call her "Legs" :)

Leah represented the girls in her class today for the school's high jump event.

 She scissor kicked herself successfully over 115cm.  Which might not sound like too much until you notice...

 that 115cm sits just below the tops of her shoulders!

 Stretch up tall and she could lay her arms on the bar!

the zoo

Sam's trip this year was a day at the zoo.  It was a very wet and cold day but the great part about that is all the animals were out and moving.  We saw a lot of really neat creatures, as well as ugly ones too!  Rhinos... hipos... Burmese boa constrictors.... you get my drift.

 

Sam requested this picture, told me he was a hobo on the tracks.  The problem is, his pants are now so short that he totally looks the part!  I wanted this picture because I thought he was so tickled with his first experience of Gatorade  (or deodorant as Cam kept calling it) that he just couldn't leave it with his lunch.  Truth was he actually didn't like it at all and I have no idea why he hauled it with him.  Hoping to feed the big cats, maybe?

 

 And yes, I also looked the part of the hobo.  I ended up wet - water dripping off the end of my nose wet- and so the towel I had thought to use to sit on the grass with ended up being my extra layer for much of the afternoon.

While Sam took about 265 of the 281 pictures, I did try to get a picture of him with most of the statues.  I don't know why, I just did.

Just a fun day to spend with the boy.  The best part?  While he informed me I could sit at the front of the bus with the moms on the way there, partway through the day he checked with me to see if I would sit by him in the back on the way home.  :)

 

Higher a lot Faster :)

Leah and Sam had their flight day today with Abbotsford's Flying Club; Free Flights for Kids event.  They went with Steve and by all accounts had a pretty fun time of it.  They got about 20 min. of aviation class time, a walk around the plane time and about 15 min. up in the air!

They weren't up on the same plane but thankfully they both had a camera. 

 

A selfie :)

 View out the front!

 Her favorite photo, all the cows below.

Fields, forest, quilt blocks; always a neat view.

 A plane waiting... I don't know if that's the plane Sam is on or just another plane on the way out but it sure gives an idea of the beautiful day they had for this!

 Sam got a picture while in class.  I'm thinking from the series of pictures that they were watching a video and he was quite impressed with this trick plane.

 He was too short to get pictures on the plane.  He couldn't push himself high enough to see out the windows AND take pictures.  Thankfully he took a ton on the tarmac.

 Up, up and away!

 His class trip to the zoo found his mother giving him repeated lessons in shooting between the chain link fence diamonds :)... obviously he was still remembering that lesson and trying and I think it framed that little plane quite nicely!

Leah took these pictures on the way home.  Too bad Steve's truck got washed after this, the dirty windows don't help the pictures out much. :)  This rainbow was so beautiful and so unusual and it lasted in the sky a really long time.  By the time they made it to the farm where we were all hanging out it was still there for us to check out.  Mom googled and found something about Sundog rainbows but that talks about a ring around the sun (from the very little reading I did!) while this was on the northern horizon.

 

I found this little quote from an article written about a similar (looking) rainbow that formed about Paris' sky line back in March.

 

"It's known as a circumhorizontal arc," said meteorologist and Ask SKYE columnist Renny Vandewege. "It's basically a halo that runs parallel to the horizon. It only forms when the sun is very high in the sky. It occurs when the sun hits ice crystals in the clouds."  CIRRUS CLOUDS, Leah, "cirrus looks like a horses tail" :)

Anyone have some expert or non knowledge they would like to pass on?

 

 

Another precious day.  A gigantic thanks to all the wonderful people at the Abbotsford Flying Club.  It was a much enjoyed and appreciated gift!

 

ps.  I was truly sorry that I didn't let others know about this event.  After I had signed up I got an email saying the online part was pre-registration and the formal registration was on Sunday.  I emailed them to ask if we could register another day but by the time I heard that was an option registration was already closed.  It's open to anyone between 7 and maybe 13? who has never flown in a little plane before.  WestJet etc. flights do not count.  This appears to be the 4th year the AFC has put on the event and it is all run by volunteers graciously giving of their time and I would imagine gas budgets.  Check it out next June! 

I hope they forgive me if they get an influx of DUTCH kids next year and their numbers jump to crazy proportions!!

The Chief

I've had a so many special days with the big kids these last few days but today's hike with Leah took the cake.  It was an amazing, gorgeous, fantastic and incredible day!!

Peak 1 - picture taken from Peak 2. 

Leah and I are standing about dead center of the picture above.

 

 If you click on this one and make it bigger you will see two separate groupings of people.  The people on the left are on Peak 1, the people on the right on Peak 2.  I took this picture just before we got to Peak 3.

 

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.  Psalm 90:1&2

 

Thanks to the teachers who arranged this hike for us!!  And maybe an even bigger thank you to my dear sis Leanne who watched the twins for the day and Sam and Cam after school till Steve came to get them all.  Couldn't have gone without that kind of loving help!

surprise special night

We ended up with only the oldest two at home tonight so we ate some supper outside and then heave-ho'ed the canoe to the slough.

We were able to paddle all the way to Menzies before a tree all the way across forced us to turn around.  It was such a beautiful, peaceful night with no bugs.  There were even some excited folks out who were hooting about some deer in their back yard!

I made some folks smile as I sat, on the bottom of the canoe, cushioned by Steve's sweater and my own life jacket as I leaned against the thwart with my feet up on the edge, with Leah and Steve bringing us back home.  Leah called it lazy.  I called it unselfish.  She did want to paddle after all, and giving her the seat to herself was easier than having her paddle from in between my knees like we did all the way there :)

After some cake, coke and Odyssey, they're finally tucked into bed.  Anticipating sleeping in because they get a ride to school tomorrow.

The only disappointment?  Hauling the canoe on my left arm and the camera around my neck all the way to the slough only to find I had left the battery at home when I tried to take the first picture :)

Together

This afternoon we got together with family (and friends that are pretty much family) to celebrate Opa's birthday. 

I love this dear man.

We ate cake and played.  Opa was keeping a careful eye on the volleyball game from a safe distance :)

Nobody's too small.

And lots and lots of high jump practice for the little kids.

And big kids too :)  Gottcha Shelly!!!!!  And you maybe want to pay me to keep the volleyball photos offline :) hahahahhaha

And then a very yummy BBQ.  Oma and I talked about how some people can't imagine having a family group consisting of so many people and the idea that this is only maybe 1/10th... give or take a few....it would blow them away!

So very blessed!
 
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  Psalm 90:10

Happy 78th birthday, Ope!