Back in the saddle

Sorry for my long absence! Let's see...last time I blogged I believe I was getting ready to visit Don's parents, Don and Waneta, in Merritt. We left Thursday morning a little before 9 and drove straight through. We were lucky to have the DVD player, which entertained the girls, and to have Nick take his morning nap! The drive was just a little over two hours and we arrived to some pretty hot temperatures! We unloaded the car with all of Nick's paraphenalia and quickly babyproofed their upstairs.

I did take lots of pictures at Merritt, some of them very cute, but my SD card somehow broke and I am unable to get any of the pictures off of it. I was so disappointed! While we were there, the girls got a ride on Grandpa's quad, we went on lots of walks, Patience got to ride a horse, and we had a lovely visit to the water park in town. We got to visit with Jack and Katie and cook pizza on the barbeque.

We left Saturday around 2 and arrived home at 4. I started getting ready for the arrival of my parents the next day. Fortunately, Don had done the grocery shopping so all I had to do was a little tidying and food prep.

Mom and Lee arrived Sunday afternoon and we've just had a lovely week with them. On Sunday we celebrated Lee's birthday with a filet mignon barbeque (yum) and then took them to Minter Gardens on Monday. We even splurged and got a babysitter so we had to take only Nick with us! The girls had a much better time with Cassie than they would have at Minter Gardens (and we had a much better time without them...no offense). See Mom and Lee's blog for their post on the gardens : )

Other than that one outing, we pretty much stuck close to home, occasionally taking the girls to play in the sandbox at Krause's or going into Langley to run errands. Now that I think about it, it must have been pretty boring for Mom and Lee! But they're troopers and easy keepers : ) This morning they headed off to Whistler. They'll spend the weekend there and then start their mulitple-day trek south to Moss Beach.

It's really strange to not have any of the older kids at home! We've heard from Sean by phone several times, and the last time he called he sounded really homesick. So I sent him a box of chocolate chip cookies. Dylan, on the other hand, appears to be having the time of his life and I don't think he's feeling one iota of homesickness. He says this two weeks has flown by.

On the USCG front, Nathan found out that he's going to be stationed in Cordova, Alaska after his Boatswain's Mate training is done. It's a remote fishing village that's only accessible by ferry or airplane! I told him this is the perfect time in his life to have such an adventure...eventually he'll have a wife and kids to consider and might not want to be at such a remote location. But for now, he'll be working on a buoy tender...out at sea for two weeks, and then back in port for two weeks. He's really looking forward to finally start real coast guard work!

I am watching my friend's little boy this week while she works, so my workload will be slightly increased. And then on the weekend I'll be packing and getting ready for my roadtrip to California August 3 to 15.

So, you really haven't missed much during my hiatus : )

Cheers!