Elliot goes to camp and cousins come over

He left for camp ... just packed his own stuff and walked out the door ....

Isaac and Oscar ....

Nona and Granddad take the kids!!!

It’s time.  Aviation camp seemed so far away but mom and dad arrived Friday and it was time for final preps to take the grand boys to Texada Island for aviation camp!  

Mom and I took advantage of a free Saturday to spend some mother daughter time.  We hit up the farmers market, had a beautiful lunch at Meridale Cider, and hit up thrift on the way home.  

Tried 5 (or 6?) ciders and only liked one (maybe 2)

These boys are master packers .... half side for clothes, the other side for entertainment!!

Dad and I pillaged Wild Side for proper sticks for slingshots!  We found 3 good ones .... 

Mom put in so much planning into this trip - their food menu alone is amazing.  They are lucky boys!!!  I hope they know how special this is .... and that they have a great time!!  I miss them so much already .....

Thursday - last official day of school!

This kid loves his boxes .... and the Office .....(he's always loved boxes ;-) see below:

Here is my sweet love ... doing his thing!

Foam pit for camp 2018

Chris ...at 10pm .... still going strong with all his inventions and ideas for fun!  This evenings toy was a new foam pit setup!!!

Schools over!!! Grade 6 and 8! Check l!

Elliot seems to have developed his fathers touch in woodworking.  This is one of his first projects (being in a high school but not yet high school she has its perks as they get to try some of the older classes like shop!). Chris was impressed by the curves and correct measurements of a first project (the other was a backpack hook!)

Here is a shot from JL when she was visiting and she sent me some shots of the boys. Elliot’s project was what bubble gum blows the biggest bubbles (smart kid since he got all the left overs! - turns out Big Chew was the winner if you wanted to know)



Which acids will eat away at an apple the quickest.  I don’t know the answer ... but he seemed happy. 

We haven’t looked back - sending the boys to the local school has been great on so many levels. They are both pretty excited for summer to start now.  

Max sends me texts .....

Of Isaac sneaking food in his math class. Lol.  Chips and 7 layer dip.....

Happy 14th Birthday Isaac !

Birthday morning started out with a song from the cousins!!

And here is proof that he received a mini drone for his birthday that he promptly flew too high into the sky ... and lost it .....


Science Fair with his 2 buddies  -- Isaiah on his right and Noah on his left ....







I picked Noah up from school in town after work to surprise Isaac at his Science Fair ....


Family came over for Waffles (and soup, because I can't in good conscious give everyone waffles for dinner) ....

Isaac doing magic tricks for the staff ...


He has refused any offer to make another toque ....




The sparklers literally set off the fire alarm!!


Such a good kid and very loved .... Happy 14th Birthday Isaac ....

Leanne has a baby!!!

The little girl who begged me for one more ride on the tube when she was 13 years old at camp qwanoes, and I was still dating Chris, had a beautiful baby this afternoon!!!!!

I had a crazy feeling and just sent her a quick note that I was thinking about her and a few hours later she sends me this beauty of a picture!!!!!

Birthday Eve!!

Wrote Isaac his birthday letter this morning .... had it ready to go into his baby book....

While I was putting it into his book, I found the 1st birthday envelop with birthday cards and well wishes as well as this little gem of an old school Imadene newsletter ....


In true form, he enjoyed very much, going through his baby box ...


Here he is reading me the email I had sent my parents when he was super little about the time he was trying to pack up his stuff and bike to Kelowna to see Nona and Granddad....he even let me read him our old favorite story about Katy the Caboose in "The Caboose that got loose" ... such a great story .... the book we have (we had 2), is Chris's old book from when he was a child ....


He's grown a little ..... he gets measured every year on his birthday and we couldn't believe the growth in the past year!  Officially taller than his mom! And probably the last year he will be shorter than his dad!

Lomas Lake was a bust ... but it was still a fun weekend!

Saturday morning we all headed out to seek out some treasures!!  The goal was also to pick up a 'cake and present' for Mittens since Elliot deemed 'June 2nd' her birthday!!  It was pretty sweet, I mean, how many more years will we have a boy who decides to celebrate his cats birthday?  (We have no idea when her birthday is by the way...)


Isaac picked up this medical dictionary up for 50 cents ... he enlightened us all on the way home about epilepsy and how the brain functions with it.

We must have run into Amanda 4 times while garage saling (it is one of her favorite things) -- and it wasn't until we ran into her for the 4th time and told her that we were looking for a gift for Mittens because it was her birthday, that she said "We have matching birthdays!!" ... I thought she was kidding ... lol but the lovely woman turned 47 that day!  So, that night I invited myself over to her house and brought her favorite wine.  She hired Gene for a few hours to keep that fire stoked ... it was fun.  Love spending time with these 2 .... I brought Elliot too, so he and Dylan played video games together and finally around 10:45, Elliot comes out asking when we are leaving ....


Don't be fooled ... she just sniffed her 'cake' ... and walked away .... such a bag ... she's lucky we love her.  This morning she walks into our bedroom and meows and Chris hops up and turns the bathtub on for her .... sigh.


Sunday we had goals to take the kids to Lomas Lake ..... we had to quad the first 15km, and then hike the last 5km (roughly)


Such a beautiful day for an adventure in the forest ....




Unfortunately Timberwest locked the gate, so we couldn't get very far!


So the boys happily had a snack and we just did a few trails together on the quad ....




Elliot would just always rather be home these days ... he is a good sport for the most part, but you can see he is just 'coping'....lol


My favorite part of riding with this kid are his arms and little hands around my waist....






Below is a facebook memory of our last quad/caving trip with the boys!  It was 4 years ago!  And as a side note, it was also the day that Chris left the quads on the flatbed overnight in front of the shop because he was too tired to unload them that night.  Well, someone else unloaded his quad that night and pushed it through the fence and took it home.  They left mine!  But we had to buy a new quad.  But it was still a fun day .....