I've finally found a few minutes to sit down and write another post!
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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!
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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:)
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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:)
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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!
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I think that's probably a long enough post for today...hopefully there are still some readers out there:)
Megan started Grade 2 in September. Megan thrives in school and continues to amaze us with her reading skills. She is quite quite and shy in the classroom, but she is slowly coming out of her shell. She has some great friends and is always asking for playdates:) I think we probably have 1 or 2 playdates per week in our house! Megan started piano lessons last fall and she is doing awesome. She loves playing and I love listening to her:)
I have really been enjoying this past year with just having Marty at home! He is so much fun and he loves the one-on-one time. He is so easy just to take anywhere. We still do lots of playdates with friends during the days and he loves that! He had a few rounds of swimming lessons in the fall, but he didn't love it. I think we will try T-ball or kick 'n run soccer for something different.
Jeff is keeping busy with work. He had been training very hard for his marathon since January. He was usually running 4-5 days a week. I was very dedicated to his training and I was really proud of him for his amazing accomplishment. I must admit, I was getting a little tired of his training towards the end because I sometimes felt like a single parent. He would usually go out for a run right after he got home from work and he would sometimes miss dinner with the family. And he would also do a long run every Saturday. I'm feeling like our life is a little more balanced now:)
He ran the marathon on May 5th in Vancouver. We drove down on the Saturday morning and spent the day with Malcolm & Kirsten & Eliana!! I loved finally seeing their place. Kirsten made us a delicious dinner and we had a fun day riding the skytrain and walking around. Such a beautiful area and a beautiful day we had.
I am so incredibly proud of Jeff for such an amazing first marathon!! His goal was to run it in under 3 hours, but he came in at 3 hours 8 minutes. Pretty impressive if you ask me:)
More marathon photos...
Now that Jeff is done his marathon, he's back to riding his bike most of the time now. He does plan to do a couple of shorter running races this summer, but the training will be no big deal compared to the marathon training!
Since September, I have been working 2 days a week. I really enjoy it and love working with the patients. My boss is so great, he lets me work the hours I want. I am able to drop the girls off at school and then drop Marty off with the grandparents and then I leave work at 2pm, so I can still pick the girls up from school. It really is the best situation for us! And we have 4 incredible grandparents that look after Marty for us every week. I can not tell you how much we appreciate them and all the help and support they are to us!!
I started playing soccer again this Spring. It runs throught the whole summer and I'm playing on a different team this year. I really love it and the ladies I play with are great!! It's great exercise and I also love the social aspect of it too.
We had a great Christmas this year, although it was quiet. None of our siblings came home this year:( We still had a great time with our parents and our kids though!! The girls were in their school Christmas concert and also the concert at church. So much fun!!
One of our major highlights of this past year was, Jeff and I going to Maui in January with his parents and brother and sister-in-law!! We had never been to Hawaii before and I have always wanted to go!! We had an absolute blast there. It was so much fun and so beautiful there. It was really nice to go in January and escape our winter for a little while:) Jeff's parents had rented a great condo for the week and it was really close to the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beaches and going for walks.
Jeff had another major accomplishment in Maui. He rented a bike and road from the bottom to the very top of Haleakala the volcano. It was a 10,000 feet climb. We met Jeff in the rental car around the 8,000 feet mark. He was doing ok, but getting fatigued. He made it to the top in 4.5 hours. So amazing!!!!!
I can't seem to upload any more photos right now:(
Thats all for now...hopefully you made it this far with such a long post!! Enjoy your summer:)
