Folks come to visit!

Here is Elliot awaiting the arrival of Nona and Grand-dad!

Dad and i had a "kidless" morning together ~ so i took him to some of my favorite places.  First we hit Starbucks, making sure we started the day off right!  And then it was off to Bright Angel Park for a walk across the suspension bridge......

Token "self shot" to prove i was there!

Braved the mountain climb to get to this serene railway. 

But he DID scare the crap out of me!....A stupid tree stump caught his pants and made him shake the tree below so it sounded like something HUGE was coming up at us---nope, it was just dad......

Yes...he thought that was quite funny...as you can see above.

And no 'Sharon-lead' morning is complete without an introduction to Dynamite Rolls!

The afternoon held a beautiful walk along the floating walkway.

Trying to pose for a quick group shot with squirmy boys...

That evening was Isaacs first Spring Concert....he was fantastic!  We even had a little 'pocket volcano' for him after it was all over!  Petite Poisson, Petite Poisson, Nager, nager, nager.....

And....dad had apparently picked up these mangos 2 weeks ago and has been waiting for them to ripen.  They are ALMOST ripe, and he swore he would NOT leave them, especially after all the time he has invested......hmmm....this picture was taken just a few hours ago....AFTER they left! ;-)  Mwahhhaha! mmm...Mango!

3 friends......

Isaac, his bro and 2 best buddies watching the NEW full length Lego Movie....i don't get it, but they haven't moved!

 

Each armed with their own DS during a spontaneous playdate after school today.

Test Drive.....

Looks like everyone was doing a test drive today....including little Elliot!

Chris and i were test driving a Dodge Journey (pretty sweet ride....ack! We may have to commit!)

Doing anything to stay up later.....

Quiet time before bed....

Going.....going.....gone!!

Fun Filled Day with friends.....

Can you believe this weather?? Today was a pretty packed day - starting with an adventurous run with miss elizabeth. We ran with Caleb down to the beach and decided to run down the beach and hope to find a trail head back up to the road somehow.....we didn't find it! We bushwacked, skidded down a mountain side (almost on our backside), stepped lightly through a muddy marsh and over a river via strategically placed log, through 2 farmers fields and finally found our way back to the road. It was awesome!!

This afternoon marks the day that Isaac has his 2 best buddies over to play: meet Evan and Rocco.

This is Evans mom Kelly--i had to include the picture, because its totally untouched and gorgeous, yes?

This beautiful girl is Jorja, Rocco's little sister, and though Aja tries to stay on top of things....she still likes to eat rocks.

Roast beef in the crockpot for dinner, good thing too because 6 kids under 6 and 2 moms to play with all afternoon...i am exhausted tonight--but what a fabulous day!

Girls (with great fashion and sans enfants) Big Night Out.....

As promised Elizabeth....here is the proof that you have a great sense of fashion! hahaha.....

Our first night out together with no babies, no running and no yoga pants!

Yes, this is Elizabeth, my running partner....she is the one who pushes me up all the cobble hill "hills".  Yesterday marked the second 10K run we completed and we joked the last time we did it that we deserved a big piece of chocolate cake to celebrate! 

We had a great 10K run in the sun yesturday morning though there was a moment of fear as we had to pass a big cow that was hanging out on the side of the road where we were running (??!!) -- i teased her that i only had to run faster than her....which is supposed to be funny since she is faster than i am!

But to celebrate the 10K success and her ability to be spontaneous--we had Dynamite Rolls at Nha Trangs, saw 'Valentines Day' (the duncan theatre experience was complete with 3 loud girls sitting behind us with their smokers cackle and conversations through the WHOLE movie)....and then, we 2 crazies, closed down WhiteSpot over the Chocolate passion cake and they asked us to leave since the cleaners were wanting to come in!  Party animals eh?  Maybe not, but don't we look good in our matching long sweaters, jeans and boots?

Valentines Day~~Part Deux.....

Do you see these heart shaped cookies baking?  The boys and i made the dough this afternoon (insert gasp here!--definatly isn't the norman rockwell we would all like it to be....but they enjoyed it!..but me? i needed to sit down after to deep breath...)

But what i really wanted to note was that the kids are in bed.....Chris got them into bed (check ONE).....he tidied the kitchen while i did that last blog (check TWO)....The lovely boy gave me a card and my favorite Toffifee! (check THREE!) and though i wasn't going to write again, i just HAVE to be sure i remember this:  On the First Valentines night before our little boy has his first kindergarten party, Chris cut out all the cookies!!

Here is part of the card:

When we fell in love,

it was just us,

full of hopes and dreams

and a world of possibilities.

(It goes on for a few pages like this...but i love the ending..)

I'm still excited

about the journey

I'm taking with you.

I still know

that as long as I'm with you,

I'm someplace wonderful.

I love that i still can feel this way after so many years and that watching my husband cut out our little boys cookies is such a thing of beauty. 

What a man.

Happy Valentines Day!!

It was a pretty sweet valentines day....very low key, as we like it.  But the flip is done, so today also marks the first Sunday in almost exactly a year, where we were able to spend time together without the pressure of work needing to be done!

Happy boys!  One with his own toddler-size lobster tail...the other with his sparkling apple juice and eggs!

Isaac and Elliot made Chris his valentines card, but going above and beyond, Isaac made Elliot a card too.  Please note, the train!!  Elliot LOVED this, and hasn't let it go since it was given to him.....

Dinner was completed with ice cream and sprinkles and a big group hug from all the boys....After dinner, after respective cards were given out, Isaac looks around and says 'i was the only one who didn't get a valentine' (insert: awwww).  As i was brushing his teeth, Chris came in and gave him a special paper airplane in the shape of a heart. 

Happy Valentines Day....i hope your day was filled with as much sweetness as mine.

Progression in Pictures of Mommy Moir's Birthday DAY!!!!

I flew into Kelowna for the day for a very special woman to help dad and carrie celebrate her birthday!! 

Butter Chicken for Everyone!! Moms favorite Indian restaurant.....

Here we are walking and hunting for a geocache that we never found...luckily, i don't think we really cared!

Before you think we had tons of carefree fun all afternoon based on the laughing shots on camera, this picture needs to be thrown in to show that one member of our party was not on the bandwagon to having that carefree afternoon.  Little Jack wasn't feeling well....so we all took turns trying to sooth him.  Well....we took turns AFTER we ate our butter chicken - i think Carrie's meal got a little colder than the rest of ours.... ;-)

Here is mom and i at the Art Centre for her 2pm gift.....lucky woman got a gift every hour while i was there.

The boys looking on at the crazy women spinning on the Art sculpture....

Angel Birthday Cake - because its dads favorite!  i mean, its moms favorite!!

The whole reason i came....look at her face....beautiful and happy...isn't it? 

i won't disclose on the blog what happened just after this picture was taken, but we both know....don't we?!;-)  Seriously...you are so funny.

Happy Birthday Mom!  You are the most wonderful woman!!

Our little troupers....

So its a tall order for a 3 and 5 year old, but their job at the flip is to entertain themselves for sometimes long stretches of time....like today--we arrived around 9am, stopped for lunch for an hour or so to head to the nursery for flowers and then back to the flip til around 6.  They did well, for the most part......but they do find some pretty crazy fun adventures together...here they are playing with a salamander....look how impish elliot looks hey?

I like to think this is building their relationship...and i didn't get it on camera, but chris and i picked up a little plastic trike that was WAY too small for Isaac...yet, he insisted on tearing down the backlane on in and then having elliot push him back to the start!  Don't worry...Elliot got a turn too....so the oldest doesn't always have to be the bossy one (right carrie??)

Do you see how wonky Blogger is these days??  I need to find a new server ASAP.....i will never be writing here anymore based on the headaches it is to upload the pictures.....

Landscaping Crazies......

 

It was a super long day at the flip....chris and i are really wanting this baby done and put to bed!!!  I am hating blogger and their new format for laying out pictures, so here is the best i can do with the before and after shots.....the after shot isn't done, we still need to attack the local river and grab a truckload of river rock to fill in the rock river....but you get the idea....

It's exciting to lay barkmulch!!

Can't you just imagine yourself sitting here looking at the apple tree with a glass of iced tea in your hands?

It was a good day......

Isaacs drop off at school this morning went as per usual....Elliot, however, was a different story.  He is fine getting out of the car, grabbing his lunch box, even saying 'see ya!' to Isaac....but approaching the door, he seemed to do a bit of a freakout.  Arg!  I wasn't late yet, but this definatly wasn't in the morning plans.  I shut the door and left for the van, leaving Elliot crying on the other side of the door....normally i would leave, knowing he would be fine.  But I noticed that Myrna had to leave her 5 kids in the circle to deal with Elliot who was crawling on his tummy toward the door......sigh.....i went back and got him...but mommy wasn't happy.  We ended up having a calm talk in the car and he agreed to give it another chance....he hops out, marches straight into school and doesn't look back. (insert: wha?????)  Sheesh, chris says its just a stage, MIL says life is a stage....so there we are.

Jazzercise this morning with Michelle.  I love jazzercise, it makes me happy happy.

Picking up isaac from school, we ran into a mom who i want to be friends with....we talked, it was good....

Tried to be good mom and took the boys skating...though i detest the cold....isaac has been practicing for over a week to be ready for his class field trip tommorow to the skating rink.  He is a great skater.....he was practicing skating backwards today....it was rad. He was happy last week when his old friend Alex was there......sigh...made him so happy.

I let the boys help me make dinner tonight--Yam and Ginger soup.....had a ton of carrots in it, mixed it with some plain yogurt--it rocked.

After Chris got home from work, we all piled into the van and the camp truck and headed to the local river to collect a truckload of river rock for the rock path at the flip.  We had an hour of daylight left, chris and i collected big rocks while the boys played in the river bed.......

Right now, i am listening to Isaac and Elliot playing hide and seek together......