Lovin' Summer

I've finally found a few minutes to sit down and write another post! _______________________________________ Here are some of the pictures of Megan at her first time going to bible camp...

Megs and her counsellors!

We have been spending so much time outside these days since the weather has been so beautiful!! It feels like it's has just been a summer of sunshine, which I love:) The kids love making up games and playing together...

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On my last post, I forgot to mention that we had a big family celebration over the July long weekend for Jeff's parents 40th wedding anniversary!!

It was such a fun weekend with family. On the Saturday night, us kids surprised his parents by having all of us picked up in a limo. But, they still didn't know where we were going. We drove to a fancy french restuarant downtown. We had a delicious dinner together and then the limo came back to pick us up. We finished off the evening with dessert at our place! The next day, us kids put on a big party in the afternoon with all mom and dad's friends and family! I think there were about 40 people. We had lots of yummy snacks and desserts:) It was a great weekend! ____________________________________ My mom has wanted to take the kids on a city bus ride for awhile now. Summer holidays seemed to be the perfect time! We got to the mall early one morning and got on the double decker bus. It wasn't busy yet, so we got seats right up front on the top!! The kids were pretty excited. We took the all around town and up to the university. And it worked out great because Jeff was working up there! We walked around up there and got to have coffee break with Jeff. Fun Times!!

Jeff also did another mid-summer running 8km race! He hadn't ran in over a month, because of training for the GranFondo, but he ran it in just under 30 minutes!! Impressive!! He came in 8th overall in the race. We always have fun going to his races and cheering him on:)

We had some wonderful guests come to visit us over the August long weekend! We always love having Kirsten and Malcolm come stay with us. I can't believe that next time they come up, they will have a new little baby...I'm so excited for them!!

We had beautiful weather the whole weekend, so we spend most of our time outside. The first day we hit the beach. We packed a picnic and spent the afternoon there!

The next day, we went to church and then went to my parents pool in the afternoon and for a bbq dinner:) Megan is getting so brave in the water and was jumping off Malcolm's shoulders into the water...

Our kids(and us)absolutely adore them! The kids love to climb all over Malcolm like a jungle gym...

Thank you so much for coming!! We loved having you...can't wait for the next time:) . The kids love swimming so much, that we bought a little bit of a bigger pool for them. We have been enjoying it too:) It has been so hot, that it's nice to just sit in the floaty and cool off a bit. The kids are in the pool everyday and are usually exhausted by bedtime from all the activity! Oh and because you know I enjoy a great deal. We bought the pool on sale for $119 and went back to the same store just 5 days later and it was marked down again to $89. Since it was less than 14 days, we took the receipt and got the $40 back!! I was so happy:)

Last week, the girls went to vacation bible school for the week. They had such a great time. It was an awesome program and Megan's favorite thing was the music and Gabby loved the crafts! I loved hearing each day what they learned and to hear them talk and sing about Jesus...warms my heart:) __________________________________________________ In just 2 short week the girls will be in school...I seriously can't believe we are going to have both girls in school full days. They are growing up too fast:( Gabby keeps asking how many more sleeps until school. She is so excited! I'm slowly preparing for school. I bought Gabs a backpack and a lunch kit. Now, I just need to figure out if the girls need new shoes! ___________________________________________________ I think that's probably a long enough post for today...hopefully there are still some readers out there:)

It's been forever...

Ok, ok, I know I am SO behind on this blog and I'm not even sure where to start! I think I need to look back at my pictures and see what we've been up to:) You might want to sit down...this is going to be a long one!! We had a fun mother's day dinner at Jeff's parents place back in May!! All the men contributed to the meal and we got to sit back and enjoy it. We had a little photoshoot with the mom's and the kiddos!

Over the long weekend in May, our family took a little road trip down to Portland to visit Eric, Traci and sweet baby cousin Arthur! It was a long 10 hour drive, but the kids did pretty well(considering the DVD player only worked for about 2 of the 10 hours of driving!) We had a great visit with them! We were there for almost a week and it was so good to spend time with baby Arthur...he is getting so big! The kids absolutely adore him.

We went to the Oregon Museum of Science on the Saturday and the kids loved it! We also got to see an IMAX show about monkeys. We did lots of shopping...shopping in the states is the best!! We even went out to an outlet mall and Jeff was in heaven when he found a cycling shop there:)

A little family photo...I loved the brick wall!

June brought about Megan's 7th birthday!! I still can't believe she is 7 years old and going into grade 2...crazy!! She is growing up to be such a beautiful young girl. She is so kind and caring and helpful. I am loving having her home for the summer. She did awesome on her last grade 1 report card. She got 3 exceeding expectations marks for grade 1...we couldn't be more proud of her:) Her teacher told me that if she could clone Megan she would!

Beautiful sisters...

She had a "tea" party for her birthday theme this year. She had invited all the girls in her class and a few others. I think we had about 14 seven year old girls over that day. It was a beautiful warm day and we spent the whole party in the backyard and on the deck. The girls were all so good! They drank "tea" and had scones and then made necklaces. Then it was play time and finished off with lunch and cake!! The table set for a tea party...

All the party guests..

Birthday girl...

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Later that day, Megan and I went on a little mommy-daughter date! I took Megan to get her ears pierced. That was her gift from us for her birthday. She was so excited! She was such a trooper and didn't cry or anything when they pierced her ears. She chose little pink studs for her first earrings. .

The following weekend I did my very first 5km race! It was an all women's run and it especially designed for beginner runners. I hadn't run for the week and a half before the race because I had had a cold:( I was hoping to do it in a half hour and I did it in 30:59...so I was happy with that. I have realized that I don't enjoy running. I prefer to do a sport and I think I will stick with soccer, which I love:)

At the finish line...

After the women's race, there was a kids race. We hadn't planned on the kids doing it so they didn't even have runners on. But, at the last minute, Gabby wanted to do it. She ran in her shoes without socks and a dress and she came in 3rd place in a 1km race!! She is definitely a runner...just like her daddy:) The age group was under 7 years old and she is only 5. She did so well!! Jeff ran along side of her, it was so sweet to watch them. She won a water bottle for coming in 3rd place and she was beyond excited about that:):) !

At the finish line..

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And this past Sunday, Jeff rode in the GranFondo cycling race in Penticton. It's a 160km bike ride from Penticton to Summerland and down to Oliver and back to Penticton. Jeff only started cycling about a year and a half ago, so this was a huge accomplishment for him!! We are so proud of him!! It took him 5 hours and 19 minutes. Oh, and I forgot to mention it was 38 degrees out that day. Jeff's parents and the kids and I went down to Penticton to watch them coming through the finish line. It was such an exciting event and so fun to be a part of! We hung out at the park afterwards for a few hours. Jeff is already talking about doing another...maybe in a few years! It was quite a big time commitment with training. All ready for the race...bright and early!

Some of the first riders coming through the finish line...

Jeff (in black) at the finish line... !!

With the kiddos... .

Jeff and Vik...

The last day of school was June 28th and Megan went to Gardom Lake Bible Camp for a 24 hour camp. She had never been away by herself before, but she did great! She absolutely loved camp and can't wait to go back next year. She told me she wants to go for a week...I'm not sure I can handle that yet. I went to that very same camp when I was Megan's age, so it brought back so many great memories for me! And now we are enjoying this amazing beautiful warm summer weather!! We are loving it. We have been swimming at my parents pool quite a bit. The girls are like fish in the water this year. Although, Gabby has an ear infection, so we are trying to keep her from going under the water(that is no easy task!). I hope you made it this far. Thanks for reading!!