A near death experience!

The week before last I went on a little adventure with my staff. Our boss took us for a staff bonding trip...and boy, was it ever bonding!! Unfortunately the weather was not great. It was cool, windy and rainy:( I don't have any pictures of our little trip.

We went White Water Rafting near Lytton. It was my boss and his 2 friends and the rest of our staff is 9 ladies. All the ladies were a little hesitant to go(except one). We left the office at 8:30am and our boss provided us with starbucks coffee, muffins, danishes, etc. The drive was about 2.5 hours long. As we were getting close to our destination we saw some of the rapids from the highway and we got even a little more nervous. The river was so HIGH and RAGING fast!!

We got to the resort and had lunch and got all suited up in our wetsuits, lifejackets, rain gear, and helmuts. It was still very cool and started to pour rain. We drove the bus to the spot where you get into the boats and we were all freezing and wet. Not a great start:(

We got into the boat. All 10 of us could fit in one boat. Oh and I forgot to mention it was the raft boat that you paddle, not the motorized boat. We got instructions on how to paddle and safety and then we were one our way.

That's when everything went wrong...we were 3 minutes into our trip on the boat and we hit our first HUGE rapid and the boat flipped over and we were instantly all in the cold raging river!!! It all happened so fast that I didn't even realize what was happening. It was hard to breath because the water was so cold and the river was carrying us away. I popped out of the water to catch my breath and then I would get sucked back down. I finally got a hold of the rope that was around the boat(good thing I was listening to the safety instructions!). Our rafting guide and one guy flipped the boat and we were able to get back in. Oh, and it was cold, pouring rain with 50/km hour winds! We all survived, but it was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life. We paddled to the side of the river and 3 girls went back to the resort and 3 of us went on the motorized boat and 4 people stayed in the paddle raft.



It was meant to be a fun staff trip, but I think our boss felt so bad about what happened. Of course, it was not his fault and we definitely bonded as a group!! I'm sure we will talk about it for many years.

We drove back to Merritt to have dinner and then headed back home. We made it back to the office around 8:30am. So that was my big adventure!!

On to other news...we moved Marty to a big boy bed last week. It was strange taking the crib down, since we have had it up since before Megan was born. It's definitely the end of an era for us. It's a little sad to see my babies growing up:(

The first night was great, he didn't get out of his bed and he was SO happy to be in the big boy bed! The rest of the week was TERRIBLE. He gets out of bed and opens the door or turns on his lights at least 20 times and we have to go and put him back into his bed. It is exhausting!! I don't remember having this kind of trouble with the girls when we moved them to a regular bed. I am seriously tempted to put the crib back up or put him in a playpen...but I know he needs to learn to sleep in a bed. So we will keep going and hopefully he learns to stay in his bed soon!!



We've had beautiful weather here lately and we've enjoyed evenings at my parents pool, playing in the backyard and BBQ's with friends!! Finally it feels like we have had a bit of summer:)


The lice around here are gone and I'm SO thankful for that! I'm still a little paranoid and have not let the kids play with some of their stuffy toys. And I'm still doing laundry a lot with hot water...just to make sure.



And that's all for now...

Kind of a yucky week:(

We've had a pretty yucky week around here:( It started when I found lice on Megan's head!!!! Seriously, it freaked me right out. I tried really hard to be calm and not panic, so that Megan wouldn't panic. She was at a birthday party last Sunday with all the kids from her class at school and she told me later that they had played dress up at the party...so I'm guessing that is where she picked it up. But, let me tell you...it is a NIGHTMARE!!! Welcome to the joys of elementary age children:)


Megan had some live lice and tons of nits(eggs) and Gabby had a couple and I had a couple:( Both Jeff and Marty have been fine. But, we treated everyone with special medicated shampoo, just to be safe. I had spent hours and hours going through Megan's hair and pulling out the nits. Today alone I pulled nits from before 1pm to after 3:30pm...I am one tired mommy!! I have not seen a live lice on Megan since Thursday now. So, now I'll check the kids heads every day and then I may re-treat with the shampoo in 7-10 days, just to prevent a re-infestation.

So, we have been home for 3 days straight and everyone around here is going a little stir crazy!! But, I'm hoping and praying the worst is over!! We had several playdates earlier this week too, so I had to make lots of phone calls to let everyone else know what had happened and to check their own kids...I felt horrible about that:(


Jeff has been working crazy long days and weeks lately to get a job finished. He has been working 10 hour days and then working on the weekends. So, I'm just ready to get back to normal again...hopefully soon!!

Megan's last day of kindergarten...

Just to compare, here she is on her first day of kindergarten...

It's been awhile since I blogged, so I will try to remember some things we have been up to. On the July long weekend, both of Jeff's brothers and their wives came up for a visit. It was so great to be together as a family again!! I think I have the best in-law family ever!!!

One night, our dear friend came over to babysit our kids and all us adults drove to Penticton to see Cirque de Soleil Drallion. It was a great show. It was my 3rd Cirque show and I still really enjoyed it. In my opinion it was better than Mystere that we saw in Vegas last year.

Another night, we went to our friends house for a BBQ and our kids had a sleep over at Grandma & Grandpa's house(thank you so much mom & dad!!) It was so strange waking up in the morning and having no kids. Jeff went to work that day and I headed over to his parents place and then we all went to the beach for the morning. It was actually a nice warm summer day!!! We are now waiting for more summer like weather to arrive here:)

Eric & Traci are expecting their first baby at the beginning of December and we couldn't be more excited for them. The kids keep talking about their new cousin...it's so sweet! They had an ultrasound last week and found out they are having a BOY!! We are absolutely thrilled that Marty will have a little boy to play with, and I get to pass down all my boy stuff to them:) Traci is already showing and she has the cutest little baby bump.

Last weekend, two of my girlfriends and I drove down to Ikea/Old Navy for the day! We left at 6:30am and got home around 9pm. It was such a fun day!! We spent several hours at Ikea and then headed to Old Navy for a bit. We had planned to go to the Olive Garden for an early dinner, but none of us were very hungry. But, we did spot a little outlet mall and headed in their for a bit. The day before we left, Jeff said "I should put some music on the IPod for you guys for the drive" and I said "I don't think we will need it, we'll probably just talk the whole time". And sure enough we talked for 8 straight hours of driving and talked while we shopped, so there was no need for music:) You know you have good friends when you can talk all day and not run out of things to talk about!!

I bought a bunch of stuff at Ikea and have been doing some decor changes in our house. I bought 2 new white bookshelves at Ikea. I have decided to with white stuff in our living room because the dark furniture gets dusty so fast...and I don't love to dust! It's still a work in progress...next I want to get rid of the rose colored lazy boy chair and maybe replace it with something else!

I moved the dark wood bookshelf that was upstairs to downstairs and turned it on its side to make it a cubie for shoes/hats, etc. I think it looks great downstairs and gets things a little more organized. And we will need that especially when all the kids are in school and have backpacks and things. I bought the baskets at Ikea so they fit perfectly into the cubies.
This past week I took Gabby to the speech therapist again since it had been 6 months since the initial consult. The therapist said she can definitely notice an improvement in her speech from 6 months ago!! She still has some trouble with words starting in "tr", "dr", "str". So she is going to be in a program in the fall, where her and I got one morning a week to the health unit and she will get help with her specific trouble. The therapist used a tongue dispenser to get Gabby to put her tongue in the proper spot to say those sounds and then she would say them perfectly, so I think we just need to teach her to re-position her tongue for some words. The therapist figured she would only need the one 6 weeks session and then she would good!! I'm happy to help her now before she starts school next year.

Oh and remember I planted some raspberries bushes several months ago and I was told you they won't produce fruit on the first year, but...

We have a busy week ahead of us with playdates, meetings, work and I'm going whitewater rafting with my work! I'm excited for it, but also a little nervous. I don't want to fall into the raging rapids. I'm thankful that I like the people I work with, so I know we'll have a great time:)