Happenings this week.....Chiro, new adventures, friends, boulder walls and new doors!

Pulled Isaac out of school on thursday morning to head to the chiro as he has been complaining of neck pain.  Tanya took a look at him and put her hands on his neck and could feel how tight his neck is, thus everything else compensates = pain.  So, she gave us some exercises to do together to strengthen the muscles in his back to help build more support to keep his bones in place.  I love Tanya.....she has been working on me since Isaac was in my belly and even years before....so i love that I have someone in my life who I trust completely to work on my boy.  Isaac loves the neck crack...since he tries to do it on his own all the time to loosen himself up...he's kinda like his dad that way...NOT his mom.

 Ashley and I were enjoying iced coffees on the grass outside the boys school yesturday, waiting for them to get out of class.  When they came out, they asked to get slurpees......so here they are on their first 'solo' trip to 7-11 down the street together.....

 Kim joined us a little while later......

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch....Chris has been hard at it building a climbing bouldering wall for kids to climb all over!  It's going to be great because you don't go high, you go around the wall....so there is no need for belayers.....just kids, climbing.

 For mothers day, Chris bought me hardware for the front door that I have loathed for many years.....so after  the work weekend when I prepped it for painting, my lovely husband helped to finish it!!  What a difference.

 Sigh......keypad lock...no more hiding a key in the waterfountain!!

 Cheery, and much improved.

Now, its friday night...its been a long week of keeping up around here and working everyday.  Today i worked from home, which was awesome....but i sat down at my screen around 9 and didn't really look up until 3 - that is how fast the time went by.  But the kids came home, tore the home apart, i kicked them outside, they came back inside, refused what I made for dinner, ripped their sheets off both of their beds claiming they smell, kept poking at the birds who hiss at them as a warning to get away from them (i could totally relate!!)---cleaning up, picking up, finally, I see elliot taking another poke at the birds, I firmly put my hand on his back and propel him towards his bedroom as a warning, he dramtically flounces on the floor as though I gave him a flying lesson (though I did in my mind, not in real life!)...he starts to cry, blah blah....he gets onto his bed, still crying...I huck a pair of pj's at him and say "put these on"...he stops crying and looks at me, and says "But i have some on already!"....I say, "oh look at that, you do"....he proceeds to laugh and talk to his brother......as though nothing has happened....and i suppose, nothing has.

The Fairy that almost didn't come......

Excited boy, who was still unsure if there was a tooth fairy, or if its just me putting money under his pillow, put his extracted tooth in a rubbermaid container to keep it safe under his pillow.

Imagine my distress as I bolt upright in bed this morning at 7:30am, remembering that the 'tooth fairy' never did visit the poor kid!  It's the time he is normally up and running around already.....so I stumble out of bed, clamour for my wallet and seeing there is only some loose coins or a ten dollar bill.  I consider the bill, only because I feel bad, but then remember my parenting mantra of 'start as you mean to go on'....and i would never continue giving this kid bills, especially at the beginning of his tooth losing career.....and you remember how he lost this tooth???  "Hey mom, can you yank it out??"  Can you imagine if he ever wanted to get money for something?  He would have me yank out teeth just for the cash!!

Anyways....I was only able to scrape up like 85 cents from my wallet, and about 45 cents from his little wallet (don't tell!!!).....but mission accomplished.

Tooth Fairies......

This boy is such a riddle to me.  He walks into the bedroom this morning with a tissue in his hand.  

Hands the tissue to me and says "Can you pull out my tooth?"

Just out of his bath, I guess he was sick of this wiggly tooth.  

I grabbed hold of that little tooth and comitted......YOINK!!

Just moments after its extraction, he looks at me with bright eyes and says "Do you think I will get $20??"

After discussing above question, he fires another one: "Do you think its parents who give money for teeth, or a tooth fairy?".......I will tell you my answer to this one "Well Elliot, if you believe that parents give money for teeth, you won't get any money....."....he thinks for a minute and says, as he walks away with his tooth in hand "I guess I believe in the toothfairy then....."

 Its been a long day....we just got back from dinner out at Steve and Nics....I didn't finish chiro until 8:30....we are all wiped.....here is my lovely husband reading "Epic" to the boys before bed, as you can see, Elliot didn't last very long......

May Long Work Weekend.....

It was a pretty nice weekend around these parts.  Friday I was given permission by my fantastic boss to work at home since the boys had a pro-D day.  So, I set up my office at the kitchen table while the boys played and watched a movie in the morning.  From noon til 2, they enjoyed Dylans 6th birthday party.

Friday night there were many campers who arrived to work for the weekend here at camp.  The Burdge boys and the Zalinko boys are now old enough to form quite the independent little gang.  They seem, for the most part, to look out for eachother and stick around with eachother.....so as Rachel and I went about our own work, the gang would play around camp together.

Yesturday, Isaac did climb the mountain with a team that headed up there for a hike and to pray for the camp for the summer coming up.

While Isaac was up the mountain, Elliot played in the gym while Chris and I nailed frames together for his bouldering wall.

When Isaac got down from the mountain, he spend the rest of the afternoon on the BMX track while Chris and I loaded the frames on our trailer to bring over to the place he was building the wall..... Here they are hitching a ride back to the house after the unload!!

My husband is amazing...even after the long work day yesturday...he still went back down after the kids went down and stayed out working til after 11.....and up again at 7:30 this morning...not sure where he gets all his energy.....but you should see the wall he is building!!  Will take some shots soon of its progress!!

How Isaac spent his Sunday afternoon....

I love this piano song...

Currently working on this song on my piano....

I love that we have a beautiful piano to play on. 

 Isaac inspires me to keep playing and practising....

Dear Boys...let me tell you a little bit about your dad.

I just got back from a 'volunteer appreciation night' down at camp.  The food was amazing, the kids were occupied in another part of the camp, fed and entertained until the adult portion of the evening was over.  It was lovely.

Until, it came time to say thank you for those who have supported the camp all these years.  Now boys, don't think that your dad and I work for the appreciation of man....people who surround us in this life know how hard your dad works at this camp, and he doesn't look for any type of recognition.  But as your dads partner, its been over a decade of watching this man pour his heart and soul into this place and continue to fight against a few people who are not team players, people who want to bring him down, stop him in his tracks, talk behind his back without giving him the chance to defend himself.  And this whole time, he has continued to run the race with grace and perseverance because he believes in this place.  This place, where when people step onto the property, can feel love immediately.......and they know God is here.

In a world so full of distractions and pain for kids growing up...this place may be the only time in a childhood where a kid can unplug, tune in, be loved, be listened to, and be shown their worth.....and your dad believes so deeply in that, that it makes him launch out of bed early every morning, and often doesn't put him to bed until midnight...tirelessly.

But for over a decade, there have been a small handful of men who have fought chris at every step.  And tonight was a night where a few of them were celebrated for the 'tireless service' to this place.  It went on for a long time and was really hard to listen to.  Mainly all I kept thinking was "stop talking about them with such glory, its going to fuel their fire and their belief that they are the most amazing thing to happen to this place".

I am feeling thankful tonight that I am married to a man who doesn't work for man, but for God.  It didn't make tonight any less uncomfortable, he is actually still down there with everyone....I am home with the boys in our happy place.  But boys, you have an amazing dad.....a guy who is so kind and loving and has such vision for this place....and you both are so lucky to walk along side us here at this place.

Mothers Day and Chris turns 39!!

Nice day.....went back to bed this morning with Chris til after lunch .... woke up and we all went out for lunch ... returned the ipad mini we got him for his birthday .. cleaned the chiro ... Burdges for a nice dinner ...

and now Chris and I are relaxing on the couch listening to the boys sing together in their bed ... best end of the day ever ... nothing sweeter than hearing your kids sing together ... so random hence awesome.

Paddle Boards.....

After months of communications, negotations and a few restless nights over the unknowingness of importing something from China....it has all paid off!!!  We are going to have some fun this summer....my legs are already

WOA 2013

It was a weekend that is tough to put into words, and even harder to convey in pictures since I am quite sure we have up to 1000 pictures to sort through.  But what a weekend it was!!

 There was a really cool guy named David, who came up a few months ago with a rental group and he brought his firebrick oven.  He makes these for the rich and famous and lives up in Parksville area.  Well, this lovely gentleman, and his newfie buddy Peter came and cooked for the ladies!!  They made amazing amazing food (yes, i said that twice!!)....and in the end, after 3 hours of working in the sweltering heat, ended up donating all their time and supplies to the weekend.  They were wonderful!  And since he is a foodie, but also makes these fire brick ovens, he was able to answer all types of questions about the oven itself.  It was a really informative morning.....

 This is our old friend Dave, back from Qwanoes days...it was so great to have him and his wife Tamaki up for the weekend...they helped the women make such lovely and creative jewellery!  Already booked for next year!!

A few examples:

My man runs the show....not only did he take over 20 women rapelling down the mountain....he also led the caving adventure too!!!  So proud of this guy....he never runs out of energy....... 

Here is my girl!!! 

 

This is Pat....she is the wonderful reason why we are here.  Missions Fest, 1999...she takes Chris aside and says to him "Camp Imadene is looking for a maintenance manager, and I think you should apply"  

Caving!!!  Here is Leanne and Rachel.....Leanne is one of camper girls from qwanoes days.   I love that we are still friends after all these years..... {thats Linda behind them, you remember Linda from work?  Yup, got a collegue to crawl through some pretty tight spaces!}

 Conquering the mountain either by climbing up, or rapelling down...was pretty big for some of these girls!

Water Color Class.....final result....beautiful hey?

Susan and the hawk.... 

 Leanne and the gun......

Polar Bear Swim!!!!  I just love this picture with Amelia and her completly happy face....most of us wore that face all weekend...if I am being completly honest.....we were all just so happy to be here, together, with no stresses of cooking, cleaning, kids....a real break.....

This girl was a highlight......

Funniest quote of the evening as Carrie beat all the ladies into the dessert buffet, grabs the biggest long john cream puff, has it almost to her mouth before she looks around and realizes she is the only one holding anything, and says "Oh.  Are we not doing this now??"   My response to my sweet sister "Yes, we are....go ahead!".....love her!  She didn't stay much longer after the long john, so she didn't make it into the photobooth which kinda was sad.....but she was happy.

 Some of my favorite PhotoBooth Shots with some of my people.....

Summer/Camp Staff/my weekend team.

 Susan! and a headlock.....

 she had fun friends come for the weekend...one came all the way from Cali......

 Dave and Tamaki.....one of my fav's.....he is too cool....I think she is good for him...just a hunch....

 My right hand woman......meet Kirsten, my new friend who reminds me much of Yanin.   By the last day, she and I did an impromptu dance for the campers....THAT is how much fun we had together......and the women loved her.....nothing was off the table to talk about.

 ...back to photobooth.

Saturday, Dave and Tamaki didn't have copper jewellery, so they made me a sign for the weekend! 

 Isn't it awesome!!!??  I was excited if you couldn't tell....

What a weekend......