just popped out

We're going camping now, we're on our way....

We're going to climb up the mountain, and run and jump and play..."

We just got back from four nights away at a nearby campsite. We went with my sister n' law, her four kids, and my brother joined us later in the week. Greg nabbed us a great site and we thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors. We had one full day of rain so were happy that we had brought our lego tent again. We had three groups of friends/family visit us and stay for a meal. We hiked up to the top part of Margaret falls, which we have never done, and played in a small river/waterfall up there. Poor Greg had to carry Shea the whole way up and down. We did cherry spitting relays, did crazy hairdos', roasted marshmallows, set up a crazy tarp roof in the dark, enjoyed pina coladas and watermelon, and sun sun sun.
Now we are home and knee deep in dirty laundry. We are sun-kissed and tired out. Looking forward to sleeping in a clean dry bed tonight.





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Our weekend at Horse Lake

For those of you who have no idea where Horse Lake is, it is very close to 100 mile house. My SIL's sister lives there with her new hubby, and his family owns property on the lake which we were able to enjoy. There were 26 of us, and we had lots of room to spread out and enjoy the amazing outdoors.





(many more pictures on Facebook)

Summer buzz

Oh man! The summer is flying by at a rapid rate. The boys are involved in their second daycamp which runs all morning. It is so awesome. They loved the soccer camp last week, and are loving this one as well. This one is run at our church, and I'm usually involved with it but am not this year (other than one day, tomorrow). The name is Power Lab, which is a science theme that the boys love! My boys are so lucky, and in the meantime, Shea and I have been busy getting other things done that don't happen when all three are around (ie. cleaning/groceries/visiting).
Our roof is getting redone tomorrow. The old cedar shakes are coming off and new shingles will be put up all in one day. Which is also the day that I'm terribly busy, not only at the church, but we are hoping to leave for a camping trip in the early afternoon! Thankfully I just got back from a late evening grocery trip for all the camping food so I don't have that to worry about in the afternoon. Oh, and the lawn needs to be mowed yet again. Yes, it's a buzz around here.
Today was fun as we did our normal morning routine of taking the boys to camp, then running errands. Then I brought them home for lunch, fed them, ran to the chiro while G was on lunch, came back, got supper ready, Anna dropped her kids off for me to watch, took the 5 of them to pick berries and the park, home again to finish making dinner. Anna picked them up, we ate supper, then we drove off to Tappen coop for ice cream, and then a quick lake dip at Sunnybrae, home for bedtime, out for groceries, and now I should be packing.
Here's hoping we get ourselves out of here in time tomorrow so we're not setting up in the dark, and that we don't get eaten alive by mosquitoes while we're out in the wilderness!
TTYL

Cousin gang

Here are the Engel cousins together with my parents. We were at the waterslides for Claire's 9th birthday party! So fun!

Walking on sunshine.

This week has been one of those that really is full of the joys of summer. It is hot like the farm finally, and we are enjoying every minute of it!
The older two boys have soccer camp every morning until noon, so Shea and I have been bombing around. My sister is in town, so we've hung out with her and went to the beach and the movies. My parents have their new house, so we've been helping strip wallpaper. We've been biking, walking, slip and sliding, out in the pool, picking berries, at a concert at the wharf, visiting friends and drinking ice tea.
We're ending the week at the waterslides on both Saturday and Sunday.
Now if only I could get my kids to get along, it'd be perfect!

Sealed with a kiss

I was asked to take some "snapshots" for a wedding today. I was really the only photographer for this short and sweet wedding, and I think it went fairly well for my first time.
(A few more can be seen on my flickr site, but I'll leave the rest for the bride!)

run for the nearest exit

I seem to have lost my audience. And that's okay. I don't like to try to trap people into listening, and especially when I don't have a heck of a lot to say. But just saying that brings up a story from today...
We were at the Childrens' Festival downtown for Canada Day. There was a performer from Vancouver, who was visiting and telling stories. The funny part was that he was there with this huge patchwork whale that blew up with air. He went by the name of "Dancing Bear". His catch was that you had to line up to come into this air-filled whale while he literally trapped you in there to do his show. You had to run in and then they zipped it shut so the thing would stay inflated with you inside. There must have been about 15 of us moms and 25 kids in there. The guy was really strange and bossy. He told you exactly where to sit and what to do, and you were sitting there trapped in his whale! The kids actually seemed to enjoy it, except for a few toddlers at the back who were wondering where the door went. I was worried that Shea would lose it and we would have to rip our way out of there. The story he told was similar to a Robert Munch kind of tale, but made much less sense and his animated storytelling was slightly creepy. The mothers in there kept looking at eachother with slight horror, all wondering, "How in the he%% did we get in here, and when can we get out?" When the story finally ended, we mothers scrambled to get out of there and ran for the nearest exit.
So ya. Don't want to be like that. I am happy to say that you can feel free to leave without commenting and I won't even hold it against you!