Family Reunion

My family had a reunion over July 4th near Wolf Mountain. My entire family was there exept one. (my sister's husband) I was impressed we got as many as we did. We stayed at a huge house-- every family got there own room. The house was really nice and it was so nice to have everyone together.

Canada in a day

We stayed at Butchart Gardens until they kicked everybody out at 10pm. We were staying at a condo with Eric's parent up north near Nanaimo. It took a couple hours to drive there so we didn't get in and settled until very late. The kids woke up and went on a really cool walk with Eric and Grandpa. There is an inlet from the ocean that was empty because of low tide and I guess it was like one big tide pool...I have to use my imagination because I stayed home and watched Meg and Elijah, and there is no documentation of the "most awesome/you really missed out on a great time" walk. A few highlights I heard about...mud...Huge purple star fish...spotting a bald eagle...mud...finding a whole sand dollar...lots of seashells...mud. They had a great time.

We then headed out for lunch by the time we got there poor Elijah was already beat...

We ate at a really great place on the shore. Someone said they had great Halibut Burgers. I was a bigger fan of the clam chowder. Good food and great view.
Our next stop was Milner Gardens...not quite Butchart Gardens but it was very pretty.
Milner Gardens was a lot less manicured then Butchart. It is a woodland by the ocean. Near the end of the trail is a beautiful cottage looking house that has the most amazing view and lawn area. Well worth checking out.

Eric's parents enjoying the view...

So the picture above is the house...gorgeous! the picture below is facing a way from the house. The setting was spectacular. Huge forest, a big yard, gorgeous house, ocean front property, what more could you ask for?


After our visit to Milner Gardens we went back to the condo, ate dinner, got the kids all cleaned up, and then walked around to enjoy the sunset.

This whole area behind Grandpa and the kids is really shallow and empties out when the tide goes out.


This is Meg in her "happy place". My friend made this sling for me. I have never used one before but I LOVE it!!! It has been a life saver, especially with all the trips we've taken.

After enjoying the sunset Grandpa took the older kids to see the fireworks, I guess July 1st is Canada Day. It was another late night. We got up early to catch a noon ferry back to the USA.

We headed straight to the Seattle airport to catch our flight to Utah for my family's reunion. I told one of our friends that we decided to go to Canada on our way to Utah and was informed that Canada was not really on the way. We still had a great time!

Butchart Gardens

Eric was in heaven.

After crossing on the ferry and driving around Victoria very briefly we headed up to Butchart Gardens...we were very impressed. It was beautiful and the roses were in full bloom!!
We met a portrait photographer as were taking photos of Emma he suggested we leave her hair messy and let the sun shine in. Well since her hair wasn't done on this particular day the "messy hair" part was easy.
The background looks fake here, this is looking over the "Sunken Garden"...it used to be a quarry but when the mine dried up someone decided to turn it into a garden. It was beautiful.


We met up with the portrait photographer again and he took this shot for us...it turned out Okay, I just wish I had done my hair and make-up.

The rose garden was the highlight for Eric. He hopes one day to have a formal garden similar to this.

Japanese Garden....


We got Gelato at the end. It was yummy and I am told a lot better for you than ice cream.

Oh Canada!!!

We went back and forth about whether to go to Canada with Eric's parents. But we finally ended up going kind of last minute. We packed up after church on Sunday and started heading north that evening. We stayed the night in Port Angeles and then caught the ferry the next day to get to Vancouver Island. This is looking toward the USA as we leave the port.
Here is our attempt to get a normal picture of our boys on the ferry. Come on guys work with me here!!


We arrived in Victoria and took the scenic road up to Butchart Gardens. We stopped along the way so I could feed Meg. Eric took the older kids on a walk along the coast while Meg ate and Elijah slept in the car. I really liked this picture of my kids.
We took a ton of pictures of Butchart Gardens and I thought it was worthy of it very own post...stay tuned...

Little Meg

Here is Meg at a week and a half. I thought she might be a thumbsucker, but she is a total binky-baby!

Meg is just over three weeks old here...she got that baby rash worse than my other kids but she still looks cute!
Here is Meg at 6 1/2 weeks. This is when she became really colicky..(is that a word) I felt pretty fortunate to get this picture of her looking halfway pleasant. She actually flashed her first smile while we were at Emerald Isle, but I have yet to capture it on film. I thought this was pretty cute of both of my babies.

Here is my second attempt at documenting her smile. I promise she was smiling right before I pulled out the camera.

We discovered that Gabe really has the touch, she screams and screams unless someone is rocking her and Gabe did a great job!!

Father's Day 2008

Hey good lookin'...Happy (or otherwise) Father's Day!!

This year Father's Day was a bust...It will go down in history as one of the longest days of our lives. That it happen to fall on Fathers day just makes it that much worse.

I would like to point out that it was not me who made the decision to travel home from Emerald Isle on this particlar day, but that doesn't make the day any better.



We got up in the morning and left at 7am east coast time and arrived at our home at 11pm west coast time, making 19 hours of travel.

Eric and the boys raced each other on the DS to pass the time during our layover at the airport. Emma was watching them play or holding Meg. Elijah loved walking around the airport instead of being strapped in his carseat or otherwise unable to roam.



















Eric was the one stuck with Elijah for both plane rides. We were the last to board for the first Southwest flight which was completely full. So Eric was seated by Emma with Elijah on his lap (the entire time) at the very back of the plane. I sat by Isaac and held Meg near the front of the plane and Gabe was a couple of rows behind me.









On the second flight we flew over McCall ID...Eric's family goes there every summer so it was kind of cool to see it out the airplane window.

Eric spotted it and barely got the camera in time to take a picture.

We also flew by these beautiful Mountain peaks telling us that we were almost home...the closest Mountain is Mt. Rainier, the one in the middle is Mt. St. Helens, the one on the left is Mt. Adams. There is a peak in the distance that you can barely see to the right of Mt. Adams, that is Mt. Hood.







We finally got to the Seattle airport!! There is a stream of fish that zig zags through the terminal and then starts spiraling at the end. The kids (particularly Isaac) love to follow the stream of fish. Isaac tried to step on each one. We had to keep reminding him to look out for other people.

After we got our car we finished the last leg of our trip...driving from Seattle to our home. We finally made it!! What a day...the worst Father's Day ever!!!

Emerald Isle

When Eric and I were out in Philly for school, we spent time down in Myrtle beach both summers. We loved it both times. The ocean is shallow, gentle waves and warm. A kids paradise. We missed last summer because of the move and all so we were bound and determined to get out there this summer...not even a five week old or a recent surgery could stop us!! Instead of going clear down to Myrtle beach though, we decided to try out the outer banks of North Carolina. A lot of Eric's side of the family came and we had a nice house right on the beach. Sterling, Jess, Rachel, Josh, Lydia, Amy, Mom, Dad, Parker Jr., and Bentley all came.

We had a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work with 2 babies. I think the next time we attempt a cross country trip we will wait until our youngest is 3-4ish or leave the babies with someone.