Labour Day

So… not quite a month late, here are the pictures of our hiking trip on Labour Day.  Martin had been thinking of taking the day to go hiking, but I wasn’t so sure I was up for a big one – not with a 4 month old.  Rianne – who didn’t know Martin was thinking of it, but had guessed as much – asked if we wanted to hike that day… and so we figured we might as well give it a shot.  Worst case scenario… we turn around and go home.  Not an easy option, but still an option . 

Martin got to pick where we went – and he chose Palmer’s Pond, near Tulameen.   The drive is a story in itself – well not so much the drive, but how we managed to fit ourselves, carseats and all, into Martin’s extended cab truck.  I’m fairly certain that even though there is a seatbelt in the middle of the front bench, that seat is not meant to be sat in for longer than 5 minutes.  Trying to find a good spot for my legs beside the gearshift was a bit tough

The hike was perfect – not to hard, not too long.  Okay, maybe 10 minutes too long .  Rianne and I were pretty sure we didn’t want to keep going anymore, but then we got to the the little pond/lake at the top.

Sadie and Justin were troopers.  Both happy all day, both sleeping in their carriers by the end of the hike.  I packed pretty light… a little too light for Sadie – she pooped through her clothes twice – and I handn’t banked on that.  Oh well, a little creativity with some blankets and we managed with the little shorts I had packed as an extra (shorts for a baby in the mountains?  I was obviously not thinking clearly when I packed those).  Oh well – like I said, we just got creative with the blankets, and it was all good. 

Anyways, the pictures:

Always happiest outside – just like his Daddy:

Our attempt at a self-portrait with everyone.  It took three tries before we got one where everyone made it into the picture

The trail was a bit soggy in places, so we made a few of our own trails to try keep our feet dry:

This picture doesn’t show it well, but this whole area was covered in little blue, yellow and white flowers.  Beautiful!!

As I mentioned earlier, both kids fell asleep.  Justin was so out when we got to the truck that we just left him in his pack and propped him up against a tree stump to finish his nap. 

We kept both of them sleeping there along the side of the road while Martin took care of this:

Yes, we came back to find a flat tire .  Oh well – it didn’t wreck our day – we were too excited that we managed a full hike with two little ones!

Camping

A few weeks ago we went camping up at Hicks Lake.  It was a very fun and relaxing trip for us.  Considering the kind of camping that we’ve done in the past, this was definitely the luxurious kind of camping in our books.  Yes, we still tented it, but we could bring pretty much anything we wanted!  Didn’t have to worry about how it might add extra weight to our packs .  That’s not to say we don’t like the back country stuff – we do, and some day, we hope to do that kind of camping with our kids too. 

The day we left it rained.  And I mean rained.  We thankfully got our tent and tarp set up before the really heavy rains hit, so it wasn’t so bad.  Justin didn’t mind the rain at all.  He LOVED the puddles he could jump in.  At one point, he found a row of 3 puddles, and happily hopped into the first one.  But as he stepped out, he tripped, and landed face-first in the next one.  Our little outdoorsman (not sure if that’s a word) was completely unphased by it, and just carried on running and splashing . 

I’m not sure if I would have lasted the whole time with that kind of rain.  Justin would have definitely run out of clothes – and it would definitely have added a bit of challenge to the week.  But God gave us absolutely beautiful weather the rest of the week – and we enjoyed a lot of time sitting at the beach, reading books, walking around the lake, etc., etc.  The week was definitely a highlight for us this summer!

A few pictures to share:

 

Happy camper

 

Sadie spent a lot of time in the stroller. She was a happy little camper too!

 

Fell asleep on our walk around the lake. She looks like she should be uncomfortable - but she really seemed to like this spot

 

This pack was a gift from the people I work with when Justin came home. He still loves riding in there!

 

 

Picture update

I tried posting these pictures a couple weeks ago – but my pictures and captions kept on getting mixed up, so I deleted it and opted to try again.

I had high hopes of posting more often over the next while… mostly because I promised my sister, who is touring as an “Auntie” with the African Children’s Choir (www.africanchildrenschoir.com) for the next year that I would keep her updated with pics of her nephew and niece. 

So Stef – these are for you   Hopefully I get better at this

He's figured out the camera... says "cheeeeese" and then wants to see his picture

 

Reading the paper with Daddy

Oh so cute little feet

Decided to hang out on the steps while talking on the phone to Nana

Showing Sadie the best part of Ruffy - his ear He always puts his thumb in his mouth and holds Ruffy's ear when settling to sleep.

Somebody has been VERY busy growing... compare this picture to the one I posted in May!

Peek-a-boo

Big helper cleaning up after having supper outside

And he still loves music…

Remember the last video in this post? 

Well, our boy still loves his music.  He gets super excited every time Martin pulls out his guitar.  Check out this new video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q30BaTTaX8o

*note the extended drumroll at the end

Justin loves his sister…

he really does…  he loves to help her burp, and gently pats or rubs her back.  He also thinks its pretty special to hold her…

He’s also very ready for her to play with him!

The other day he was having so much fun shoveling the little rocks – and he thought she might like to join in too!  She didn’t hop out and join him, but she didn’t seem to mind being included in the fun .

Special Photos

Sadie had a photo shoot a couple weeks ago… I couldn’t resist sharing some of the beautiful pictures taken by Andrea: 

And, being the sentimental kind of person I am, looking at her pictures sent me looking to the pictures Mel took of Justin when he joined our family.  Then I realized that I never shared those – and I can’t have that .  So here are a few of those too:

We count it a special privilege to have these pictures… thanks so much to both of you!!

 

May

What a special month it was.  Wonderfully special.  We’ve all adjusted pretty well to our newest little member of our family – we are blessed.  Here are a few pictures.

So happy to see Daddy after 5 days away

I didn't set her up for this pose - just couldn't resist taking a picture when she did this

Justin got some special presents too

Justin meets Sadie

I’ve been trying to upload a video – but I’m having trouble with that since I want just a little clip of it.  If I ever get that figured out, I’ll get it on here.  It was pretty cute to see Justin with her the first time – and I’m so glad that we captured it on video.  For now this picture will have to do

Justin has adapted to having a sister very well.  He loves to play “pound it” with her (sort of like a high-five, but with a fist) – and he actually thinks she’s playing with him when her fingers are curled even just slightly into a fist.  It’s pretty cute.

Introducing…

Sadie Nellique!!

God has blessed us with our second child, a precious little girl.  She was born May 1, 2011 at 6:11pm, weighing 6lb 1oz, measuring 45cm long. 

My “Better After”

Well, almost   It’s not quite done yet.  It needs some mesh in the doors and the knobs need to be added.  But several people have asked to see it, so here it is.

I quite love the site Better After – and like just snooping on there to see what people have done with old stuff.

When we made the change over with Justin’s bed, we also moved his toys from his room.  I wanted to have some kind of nice place to put them.  Something practical, but something that looked good.  And then I saw what a few people did with some old china cabinets.  And I loved it!

So I checked Craig’s list ’til I found this one.

And with a little sanding and crackling and painting – this is my new toy cabinet/baker’s rack.  I still am working on how I’m going to arrange things on the top part – and what things exactly I’ll put in it.  (I had to promise Martin I’d keep it practical – though I told him it still had to have a certain “look”.)  But the bottom definitely does the job it’s intended for – storing the baskets of toys we have.  It doesn’t fit the big things, but we have another space for those, so it’s okay