Bryan's Birthday

For Bryan's birthday this year, we headed up to Canada to discover a couple parks, get away from home for the day and spend some quality time as a family.  The first park I wanted to check out was completely closed for some big event so we drove around until we found a different one. 

Burnaby Lake Park

This park was more of a preserve and so big it was easy to forget we were still in the middle of the city.  It was mostly marshes and whatnot, not really up Bryan's alley, but the boys enjoyed exploring for a little while.

Seeing how crazy they could make the walk way rock.

After that we headed up to what turned out to be our favorite park of the day.

Burnaby Mountain Park

We want to go back there some day soon and do more exploring.  We ran out of time and it hit the uppers 80's so my northwest family was not enjoying the heat so much.  While we were there we saw no less then six wedding parties either getting married or on the mountain to take their wedding pictures.  The park is gorgeous with a rose garden, beautiful views of the inlet, forested areas and some totem poles.  Brandon liked the rope pyramid the best.

That's it for today, folks.  Time to shut down Photoshop Elements for the evening.

Blessings on your week.

Uncle Bryan's Visit

Uncle Bryan came for a visit a couple weeks ago.  He is always full of jokes and cutting up and encouragement.  Micah is still pointing to his picture and talking about "ian".

Playing "Ticket to Ride" Saturday night.  We were all making tracks and Bryan just collected cards.  He went on to win...go figure!

Sunday afternoon we went for a walk to the park.  Micah has been wanting to learn to ride his trike so he "rode" it to the park too.

Monday was supposed to be a beautifully sunny day.  It wasn't, it spit rain on and off, Mom fell and got a minor but painful compression fracture in her back, and Micah fell on his head and got a big ole bump but other than that, it was a fun day at Washington Park.

And here's where she lost her grip and fell.

He can still do them!

This was sure fun to watch!

On our drive up to the top we saw this deer--he was so used to people being there, he barely twitched when I got out to take pictures.

Hiking down to the water from the top view point.  Dad carried Micah down and back!

Of course they played most of the way too!  :)  What are grandpa's for anyway!?

Brandon found a piece of grass and made it into a fishing pole.  It was quite creative.

Uncle Bryan left early July 3rd to go home.  It was a delightful time!!
Blessings on your Wednesday.

Back to Base

May parents came for four days at the end of May.  We had Emma for three weeks and the Monday after that three weeks, my parents were back to base (here) for ten days. 

Here's just smattering of pictures from the first couple of days here.

Within minutes of getting up the morning after they got here, Brandon had Grandma racing--IMAGINE THAT!

As we often do these days, we went for a walk to see the progress of Gigi and Gramps new house.  The boys love discovering what's been built in between visits.

One day we headed up to Canada, first to go swimming in the Abbotsford Recreational Center.  It took Micah a while to get comfortable in the water, but not Brandon!  Thanks to all the swimming time he got last summer at Uncle Andrew and Aunty Cheryl's house, he was game for anything, including the slide by himself.

After swimming we went to Mill Lake Park for Lunch and some play time.

But swimming had pretty much worn the kids out so they weren't real interested in playing so we didn't stay too long.

Grandpa and Grandma played games with the boys.

Micah takes his job of delivering cards to Grandpa very seriously!

Grandpa helped the boys put a pully system together they thought was pretty cool.

And finally, my favorite picture of Micah...

Blessings on your Wednesday.
Up next, Uncle Bryan came for a weekend visit and Micah especially is still talking about it.

Catch Up

This is going to be a quick catch up blog post with a picture dump...

P52 has been happening, just haven't taken the time to post my pictures.  We've been rather busy and blogging/pictures have taken a back burner.  I'm hoping to get completely caught up today, though.

May 25 "Favorites"  This is my favorite picture of the boys kite flying.  I love pictures of little boys helping their daddys.

June 1 "Play Time"  Grandpa and Grandma got some good play time in with the boys the week they were here--indoors and out.

June 8 "Water"  This was a great theme for that week since it rained and rained and rained and rained.  However, it rained too hard for me to feel comfortable going outside and getting the pictures I really wanted.  One day it stopped for a couple hours, though it stayed pretty cloudy, so we quick biked to the park for a while and I played with shutter speeds with the creek.  I got to thinking about that log, though, with the chain on it.  Ever wonder what stories something could tell that's been there for a long time?  I kept wondering what stories that chain would tell. 

One night the moon was beautiful and the sky clear.  I loved the way it made my flowers really stand out.

It's June, so when it's not raining we are heading to a park.

Look who is strong enough to swing on a "big people's" swing!

Yesterday was wonderfully sunny so after grocery shopping we went to Elizabeth Park for a picnic and some play time.  That little boy behind Brandon also is Brandon.  It was pretty fun to watch them come to the realization that there were other people in the world with the same name.  They became good friends in a very short time.

Blessings on your Tuesday.