Token trip to In and Out!

We ran a few errands this morning including getting Elliot some shoes!  Here is Isaac teaching Elliot to tie his new shoes in the back of the Mercedes.

We got home and all went to our seperate corners.  The kids came out and joined me in the hammock for abit. 

Then Kevin and I went and grabbed In n Out and had picnic with the boys out on the front yard grass. It got colder so we moved inside. 

Kevin's gone back upstairs and we hung out in the backyard in the sun with the pups. 

Bentley (Charlies dog)

Rosco (Stephanies dog)

And Elliot ..... ;-)

Arrived!!

Super early morning but these travel warriors wear it well!!  

Smooth sailing taking a shuttle into Studio City from LAX!  We arrived safe and sound. 

Soaked in as much sun as possible!!

Jackie is working during the day, so we just have been chilling with Kevin!!

Went out for a walk and this kid only brought his winter boots!! So we snagged carries flip flops at the hotel last night ! Lol. He ended up walking barefoot for much of it, or getting piggy backed!

Here is Jackie mauling them, I mean tucking them in to bed!!  Elliot asks for it ! He is just so opposed to attention that it just makes you want to maul him ! So she's rubbing a cozy blanket on him asking if he's comfortable? Can I get you anything else? And he just wants her to get out. I laughed .... And left.  Let her have her fun I say!

Hung out and chatted and watched them  watch basketball all night .... I don't get the attraction but it's fun to try and figure it out!  

Missions Fest!!

Look what my uber talented husband built for missions fest this year!!!  So much intricate work involved .... Incredibly proud of him!!

Night before a big trip ...

Grey day!! LA sunshine soon to come!!

Piano lessons .... Waiting for the other to finish!

After lessons, we picked up Mohamed and took him swimming. 

Isaac stuck to him like glue, making sure he was ok. The boy had no fear and though he can't swim, found the life jacket annoying and keep asking me to take it off!

Chance would have it that Oscar was having his 7th birthday here too. 

We sang happy birthday to him, dropped Mohamed off and went for Pho. 

Takes a village to take a trip!!

Best mom in law picked up the boys at school and brought them to me in nanaimo as I had to work!!  We hopped the ferry and saw Kristen and Dave (Mason and Maryn are beautiful and getting bigger).....and we also saw Kevin, my favorite past co-worker.  While Kristen  chased Maryn, I spent most of the trip talking to Kev while Isaac made a long stick out of straws and pillaged over 5$ in change under the vending machine!

Lovely sis was waiting for us when we got out...decided to grab a roasted chicken and snacks and hit her hotel for the evening so we would miss all the traffic.  She had a bath, we carved chicken into paper bowls, turned on her electric blanket and buried down for the evening. 

Boys zoned out. 

We laughed at stupid stuff and just didn't really leave the bed til it was time to go to our own hotel. Best time spent. 

Work Selfies

My sis and I, as we organize tommorows plans, send each other work selfies!

This weekend ....

Elliot went bowling at Jaxons bowling party yesturday.  Bunch of boys!! I think rach was there on her own with like 9 boys!!  Here Marty was siddling up to Elliot. I thought it was a sweet picture that rach sent as the party was happening:

Trish and Bens two girls ... Girls who were so hard to get here!  Girls who we all prayed for alongside Trish as it was such a rough and hard road. Such a gift to see them both develop into these hilarious people! Pretty sure we have a pic of Isaac and Elliot like this too;

One of our favorite families came out today!  They are top notch because they are fun, they bring food, they don't bat an eye when asked to help wrap up a bigger yard project that was supposed to be done before they arrived!! Chris trimmed up trees in the yard in the hopes of letting more light in!! Tons of branches needed to get to the burn pile!  We finally headed to our chosen hiking trail over near Gordon Bay. We will definatly head over there again to do more exploring when we have more daylight!

Isaac can't help his bunny ears ... Totally gets it from his grand dad.....

This is how we encourage hiking from the little ones ... Tic tacs go a long way. 

We had the best dinner.... They brought a roast and some carrots and we did peas, roasted potatoes and Nic made a homemade French baguette that was amazing!! (Carboliciois!!). Love them and their girls ... Nice weekend. 

Getting steps in!!

I joined the group when asked, but once I saw how many were in the group, I exited!! I quickly got 2 texts from Mel and Nic telling me to get my butt back in the group. I just have stuck to my initial reaction!!  Look at what an underachiever  I was!!!  I mean, who are these machines??

New Beautiful booth all done!!

A beautiful creation done by the hands of my talented, visionary husband!!  Please note the white and green sign on top!! All hand done!! Amazing. They are going to be rockstar a in Vancouver at missions fest next weekend!!!

Who knew the island had quicksand??

These two came to visit today. 

Elliot, always the photo bomber. 

This shot took a ton of threats to keep hands down, tongues in, eyes uncrossed!!

Lots of trees down. 

On the way to the car, guess who found the quicksand?  And guess who found great joy in it? One minute I was walking on hard ground and the next, I was buried in cold quicksand!!

Deep enough to plant a tree!!

Elliot left for a bowling party for jax's month-late birthday party. So I made Isaac and I strawberry milkshakes and we're watching 'Freaky Friday'. 

Elliot wore the right shirt for glow and bowl! 

Friday Adventures with Court....

Monday Date Night - Internet Safety!

Took my hubby to an Internet safety presentation.

Isaac was bussed out to the lake cowichan high school on Monday to hear the more 'kid-friendly' version of staying safe on the Internet.  He talked about it all the way home that afternoon!  The presentation was open to parents that night, and based on Isaac's reaction and how we have kids who love electronics (not necessarily the Internet yet, but as the presenter said 'our kids are citizens of this technological world and we are merely immigrants'.... We need to try to stay ahead or at least in touch with what threats are out there)

The presenter was great.

So informative! Really stressing that our kids are mostly doing very cool and interesting and creative things with technology ... He also showed us how predators can get to our innocent kids.  

He told us about computer ID's and webcam connections from hackers who can hack into your (or your kids) webcam without anyone knowing.  How every picture you take has a longitude and latitude and certain software can dig out where that picture is taken. So a girl taking a selfie in her bathroom and uploading it can lead a hacker straight to her physical address. He told of a story how in 15 minutes he went onto a girls Facebook, took a few pieces of information from her site and within 15 minutes was shaking her hand in the place where she worked (that was a crazy story! And totally do-able given what he had to work with) How too much information on social media (first and last name, birthdate) can allow hackers to open online credit cards with your kids ID and wreck their future credit by using and not paying off small amount credit cards. Also showed us how how kids are hiding pictures and 'sexts' by apps that aren't really what they look like!  Like a "calculator" app, but to an untrained parents eye, it looks like one.) The screen shot below shows how to see what apps our kid has downloaded, deleted or has on their phone. 

The presenter works for the Victoria city police and is their tech investigator. He learned from the hackers and teaches what he has learned to the public.  There has been cases where this predator guy in Langford took his class, tweeted at how informative it was, and actually was arrested a few weeks later for child luring. Ugh .... Mostly amazing people out there but there are some yucky ones. The presentation flew by and one of my favorite parts was the accessibility that he gave to the kids he spoke that day.  They had his business card to contact him in regards to questions about their Facebook security, privacy settings. If there were any of their friends ever in trouble, to contact him. Due to cyberbullying, many kids try to commit suicide.  (!!! In the past, bullying happened in th school yard and now it comes right into the home !!!) He and his wife and his 22 year old techie son run this side business and have helped to 'save' 110 kids from killing themselves. He told a few stories that were scary but kids often have nowhere to turn.  Anyways ... Lots learned, time well spent. 

Chris finished his project !

Excited to put up the final shot with camp pictures and final setup at missions fest at the Pan Pacific in vancouver at the end of January !  But here it is ! My hubby's creative booth he built!! The green is for imadene main site and the black is for Auxano!!!!  

All done!! The green is going to have a big screen mounted as well with a video playing ...  It's going to be gorgeous!!

So much love.

Bed time mauling of their mother. 

Very good very good day!!

The picture collage says it all!!