Heather is married off!

Ella is almost 5 months!

I haven't taken pictures of Ella for quite awhile. While her family was here for supper tonight, we whipped outside to take some photos of her at one day short of her 5th month!


Can you say adorable??

Proof

Sometimes it's hard to even imagine them as babies...
I did some digging...

(Riley at about 4-5 months)


(Liam at about 7-8 months)


(Shea at 8-9 months)

A photo, perhaps?

As you may have noticed...I've been taking a "vacation" from my camera. Partially due to the fact that in the summer we are usually completely covered in either sand or water which don't go well with a camera. Also sometimes you just want to be part of the action instead of the one on the sidelines with the heavy camera strapped around her neck doing all the clicking! But all the same, I feel like these boys are growing fast and I need to be doing a bit more memory catching.

We spent the last five days in the forest.

(That sounded better than saying we were camping!)
We had thought ahead, booked a site in Herald Park and went out on Monday morning. We somehow timed it perfectly again with high 30 degree weather, yet our spot was in the trees. It was PERFECT. We had never camped in the tree section of that park before, so it was a new experience for us and was such a good change from sweating to death in the field.
As we were setting up camp, I couldn't believe that Elizabeth and her family and friends were setting up right next door! What a fluke! We were quite excited. I had only met her once in "real life" though we've been blog friends for a few years. Greg hadn't met them yet, and we had many good laughs around the fire. (Yay! the fire ban was called off while we were there.)
I took a "holiday" from my camera and didn't even bring it, but here are some pictures that Elizabeth took of us...




They have two kids, and one on the way...her friends have three, and with our three, we took over most of the camp! Our lego tent was a big hit, and the kids all became one happy family. Though it wasn't on purpose, we thank you for letting us crash your annual campout with friends!
Now on to finish this deck!

Getting ready for the ball

Getting three kids outfitted for a wedding is a big job! Heather (my sister-in-law) wants all her 5 nieces and nephews in her wedding! They are all going to look smashing! I didn't even have to sew (other than cutting, serging and hemming Riley's pants). I found three good dress shirts for them, had two good pairs of black pants, and just bought the third tonight. But then we didn't have three pairs of black shoes for them all, so we just got the final pair tonight. Then Heather sewed their vests, mom bought their ties...I did some washing, some pressing, and they tried it all on for me today. I should have used a timer to see how long it took me to get them all dressed. It is going to be a mad panic on the BIG DAY!
Here is a sneak peak...


Now to make sure that they all have clean black socks!

Exciting!!! Almost wedding time, Heather and Christian!

Borrowing etiquette??

When we had gone camping, Greg's grandma had offered to send along some muffins with us. They came in her old rubbermaid container and we enjoyed them, had washed the container and I had set it on the stove to dry. I was out that evening, and Greg had turned on the stove...you know what happens, the lid of the borrowed rubbermaid gets melted. Big hole in the middle of it.
I knew we couldn't just return her container with a giant hole in it. I also knew that I'd never be able to exactly replace this 20 year old piece of plastic either. I did my best to find one in the store of a similar shape. Along with a hand-made thank you card, I returned her melted container along with the new one. She wasn't home at the time, so I left it on her doorstep. She called me later to assure me she could patch the hole that was made and certainly didn't need a new rubbermaid. I was thinking in my head that she probably didn't need one either, but STILL...you don't give someone back something that you had broken.
But how far do you take this rule....
For example...one time we had borrowed a portable dvd player for a roadtrip. It decided to fritz on us while we were on the road though we definitely hadn't done anything to harm it. I returned it to my friend who assured me that she probably could return it as it was fairly new. It ended up being a big hassle for her and the store took ages and tried replacing it with one that was missing parts and I don't even know how that story ended. I feel bad about it. But do I think I owed her a whole new dvd player when it didn't work right from the moment we borrowed it? Not really. But??
We borrowed a tent last summer from my sister, and it had some snags from the zipper which got worse as we used it. I ended up sewing up the snags (and some that were already there) as best I could and told her what had happened. I thought that was fair...wasn't it?
My husband is VERY reluctant to borrow things. I do see his point in a lot of ways, because if you DO end up completely destroying something, you end up having to buy a whole new one that you don't get to keep! Even if the one that you had borrowed was old and ugly (like the rubbermaid!) But sometimes you just need something right away, or only once and it seems a shame to spend your money when someone has one you can use. Do you think that there are some expectations on you as the "lender"? For instance, if you are willing to lend something out, you should be willing that there will be some wear and tear on your thing? You can always say no, right? For example, because I have three boys, I am usually quite reluctant to lend out my favorites of their clothes because I know I want them to be returned and in good shape for my next son. I will lend out the clothes or toys that I am not as attached to. If I lent out a snowsuit and it came back to me with a patch in the knee, I shouldn't be completely upset, as things DO wear and tear.
Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this and if you have any "borrowing-horror-stories".

Get outta' town

The other morning, we realized that Greg's first week of holidays was going by at a speedy rate, and so we needed to get going or doing something before it was over. There is always so much to do in Salmon Arm in the summer. We have many projects half-way completed, we have lawns to tend, friends to visit, beaches to swim at, and three kids to entertain. Time goes SO fast!
On Wednesday we ran out of town to visit The Enchanted Forest again. It is so nice there. The kids loved it. Shea only sleeps for about 10 minutes in the van, so he wasn't fully rested and cried every time we made him move from one little house to the next, but otherwise it was so fun. The older boys remember it from last year and love all the places they can explore.

We came home and slept in our own beds. Then the next morning we spontaneously fled to Langley to stay at a hotel with a wonderful waterslide. We let the kids wear out their bathing suits to their hearts content, and filled the rest of our two days with back-to-school shopping! Oh how I miss Old Navy! And we hit IKEA where our two older boys could play for the hour while we shopped. Sweet!



So we had our "city" holiday, and our next week of holidays will be spent back camping by the lake.

Making it count

It is sure hard to remember that this life is but a tiny spec on the timeline of ETERNITY. I think we get little reminders of that fact when we lose a loved one. My aunt was not rich, but she left behind a treasure of memories and made her mark on the hearts of all who knew her. She was a nurturing soul who took care of many people (not just her own family). I think we're all dealing with our grief a little differently. One of the things I truly appreciate is that family seems to come together in times of sorrow. We don't feel better by buying ourselves some new toys...we feel better just being a family and sharing time together. We don't necessarily have the same values and beliefs, but we are bonded by our love of family. It is good to be reminded that we have such a short time to make our "mark" on those around us.