touching the sky

The kid's adventure zone at Whistler had some neat activities.

Sophie was keen to try out the bungee/trampoline thingy.

She's a brave little thing :)

Baby Eats

We loved Baby Eats.

The concept is simple, but you can tell the woman who developed it took a lot of work to design/set up this space. I spoke to her a little bit....she's from England and wanted a place where parents could relax and kids could play (my idea of HEAVEN).

Parents can enjoy a coffee or a latte while the kids play with Waldorf type toys.

The space has soothing background music and the noise is buffered by styrofoam shields.

They also serve organic food/snacks.

Fynn and Sophie seemed to really enjoyed it. Definately something I'd recommend.

The Pacific National Exhibition

We were here today. All day -- about 6 hours worth of PNE.

Lots to see and do. Superdogs, the rides, touring the armed forces vehicles and meeting the Bernstain Bears were highlights.

Too tired to type much more tonight. On to Whistler tomorrow, but first a stop at Baby Eats, as recommended by Joanne :)

Sophie's Cosmic Cafe

We had breakfast at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe on west 4th today.

Great food, fun atmosphere. And the name didn't hurt, either.

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We met up with our friend Jim, and after awhile, Sophie and I went for a stroll down west 4th. We found a cute shop that sold rubber boots. They had a good sale at 50%, so somebody now has a pair of mary jane style rubber boots. I also liked the fact that we got great service (I think she was the owner from Australia) and that she knew where the boots came from (ie. were they made in China, etc?)

Naturally, all Sophie cared about was jumping in puddles.

moving day

The movers arrived promptly at 7:15am this morning.

They were still moving stuff out at 2:00pm this afternoon (we know because they phoned Vic while we were enroute to Vancouver asking if some old stuff in the basement needed to be moved).

It was good to get out of the house and out of their way. Fynn was into everything (he liked the dolly) and Sophie, frankly, needed to get out of the house.

Both Vic and my nerves were pretty much shot.

We had a good trip down and let off some steam at Ikea. It's a fun store to walk around, lots of neat things there for Sophie to look at/touch, plus dinner is super cheap. $14 for all of us. Can't beat that for Vancouver. Plus, we picked up some cute stuff for their new bedrooms.

I'm now looking out over the harbour at the lights from our room , and the 9:00 gun just went off.

69 boxes later...

At 7:20am this morning, the 3 ladies who make up the packing team of Mur's Moving (led by Mur's wife, Marie), began packing what we still hadn't.

Between the stuff my mom and sister helped me pack, and then a few more boxes I packed last night, there was still a big bunch of things still to go.

They worked until 2:30pm. They stopped briefly for a lunch break. A few times they asked me questions about what I wanted packed, but mostly they worked without interruption.

Fynn and I ran errands instead: off to the bottle depot to take back the last of our empties, off to the Salvation Army for one final load, off to the lawyer's office to sign the property transfer documents and off to take Sophie to the doctor (I suspected she may have a bladder infection, but so far the test she took today was negative), and I dropped off our plants at Vic's office for one of the women to water. Oh, and off to the chiropractor again for me -- more neck work.

While the packing ladies were doing their bit, the pool table mover guys came and took apart the pool table and loaded it on their truck. They will also store it for us. I also met with the painter who is going to touch up our picture holes for the new owners.

We made a couple of last minute drop offs tonight: one more RubberMaid tub and the high chair at the house sitting place; our large flower planters off to the new house; our fridge condiments off to Ray and Doris's for refrigeration, as well as the Exersaucer (we didn't want to impose our housesitter's anymore with our stuff).

Tomorrow the movers arrive at 7:15am to load all the boxes into a storage unit for about 4 weeks while our house finishes up.

Fynn crashed early and Sophie is a little out of sorts since her selection of toys has been really downsized, as so much is in storage. She's hugging her mermaid Barbie tightly.

Off to bed.....

Moving is hell or purgatory, and then you die.

We are getting down to the crunch day of moving.

The packers are coming in this Tuesday to pack up whatever we didn't do ourselves.
We've elected to pack the craft room, kids knick/knacky toys, books and most of our clothes. The rest is for them to pack up.

We basically have to pack for 3 locations:
1. our 6-7 day vacation (?) down to Vancouver/Whistler. That means suitcases.
2. our 3-4 week stay at the Hill's house. That comprises 2 large RubberMaid tubs.
3. all the rest of the stuff that will stay in a big old storage container awaiting our house to be finished.

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On a less dreary note, Fynn officially joined the big boys and took a bath in the big tub tonight. He's really not quite ready for it yet, but he and Sophie had a few giggles.

pizza, pizza

My mom, dad, sister and nephew visited from Oliver today.
It was nice to have them here -- dad helped Vic with the yard and mom and Sue helped me back a few boxes for the move.

I feel much less stressed knowing some of the packing is taken care of.

We celebrated with a nice dinner out at Boston Pizza. It helped that Vic had a $50 gift card that a client had given him. Good all around.

one fine day

I will have an effortless, lazy day. But not today.

8:00 am - feed Fynn, Sophie, eat breakfast. We are meeting Paula, our builder, to go over a glitch with our hardwood flooring choice. Turns out the wood we selected has been having problems in other people's home. Need to find an alternative.

9:00 am - get dressed, etc, etc. Definately need a cup of Tim's today. By now it is almost 10 and we are supposed to meet Paula at 10.

10:00 am - meet Paula and Vic at the flooring store. Several samples have been laid out for us to look at. Fynn crawls around the store while Sophie finds a corner to colour in. Paula and I dig through more samples. I'm no longer so keen on "hand-scrapped", but definately would like the wider plank look. Tough to find.
Our sales guy tells us about a house out in White Lake (20 min north of Salmon Arm) where a home owner has installed one of our possibilities. Paula and I decide it's worth the trip

11:00 am - we make it out to White Lake. Takes longer than 20 minutes. Find the house -- by now Fynn is asleep in the car and Sophie doesn't want to come in because of the big dogs at the house (don't blame her). The flooring is nice, but I'm still not 100% sure. With hardwood, you need to love it (it's a big investment).

12:30 pm - drive back to Salmon Arm. Drop Paula off. Head over to A and W for lunch with Sophie and Fynn. I have a hair appointment at 1:30pm. Realize that I need some cash as my hair guy doesn't have debit. Off to grab some money from Vic.

1:30 - 2:00 pm - get hair cut. Totally not relaxing as Fynn is everywhere. Sophie does her best to reel him in.

2:00 - 3:00 pm - head up to JungleMania (indoor kids play place) for an hour of fun and to burn off some energy (the kids).

3:00 pm - head back downtown to the chiropractor since my neck has been bothering me. Stress perhaps???

4:00 pm - head back home. Answer and return phone message from cleaning lady who had gotten the day she is supposed to clean our house mixed up after we move out next week. She thought it was today....oiy. Speak to Paula on the phone and decide that we need to go back to Kelowna (2nd time this week) to look at more hardwood. The selection in Salmon Arm is limited. Off we go to Kelowna tomorrow. Re-arrange another appointment I had to make this work.

4:30 pm - provide the usual late afternoon popsicle to Sophie while she watches cartoons. Fynn is content (for now).

5:00 pm - Vic is home with food for dinner (thank you!) and I head out to my fitness class.

6:30 pm - eat dinner, give Fynn a bath, clean up.

7:30 pm - Then we all head over to the place we will be house sitting at for a week or two while our house is still being finished. The house we will be staying at is very nice and just 2 doors down from our new house.

8:00 pm - home...Fynn to bed, Sophie in bath.

loving his peaches

We discovered that we had one of these little mesh gadgets in a box of clothes that our dear sister in law Debra had sent us from her little guy Cairo.

Since we've been using it, Fynn has been sucking away on peaches, grapes and whatever else we can fit in this little thing.

It is fun to watch his suck every last bit out of a grape and leave just the skins behind.

And that is Sophie, aiming to be the next Annie Lebowitz.

Wine with friends

One of the things we will miss the most about our house is the great view and deck we have. It often gets pretty hot during the day to sit out there, but at night it can be quite nice.

We had our friends Patti and Bryan over tonight to drink some wine, eat some cheese and grapes and look at vacation photos.

Nice all the way around.

our trash is someone's treasure?

Apparently, some of it was today.

In preparation for moving in a couple of weeks, we had a garage sale today.

We profited $61.50.

When you do it by selling items priced at .50 - 1.00, I guess that isn't too bad. It is a lot of work.

The stuff we sold included:
- quite a bit of little girl clothes
- a little bit of baby boy things
- a couple of hard cover books
- wind chimes
- 2 lawn chairs (10+ years old)
- a few knick/knacks
- a stuffed animal
- an electric frying pan
- the few remaining pieces of my toy tea set I had as a kid. Sophie has broken most of them, so I bought her a new one at Ikea this Spring. She wanted to "sell" the old set. Her little .50 sale!

The rest of the stuff that didn't sell is going to the Salvation Army.
Glad we did it, but very glad it is over with!!!

eating is serious business

Fynn is becoming more interested in solid food these days.
Perhaps intense is a better word.

Here he ponders some cheese.

this n' that

:: Wherever we go, Sophie must touch/ride/become "one" with inanimate objects.

Here she gets on a giant turtle at Minter Gardens on our holidays.

:: I got my exam marks back on my World at Work course and managed to score 96%. Very happy and glad that is over with.

:: I'm trying out Bare Essentials Mineral Veil. I ordered a small travel size from Sephora. Gotta jump on the mineral makeup bandwagon.

:: Paula and I are pricing items for our garage sale this week. This is our first real garage sale. Should be interesting!

:: I'm visiting the dentist next month to inquire about teeth whitening. It's my treat to myself before I go back to work. All the coffee I've drank to keep myself awake during this mat leave have left some yellowish stains. Vic had it done a couple of years back and it worked like a charm.

House Update, somebody is 10 months old, puzzles

The house is really starting to look sharp.
Here are some photos
- our interior doors (thank you Ken for switching them for me)
- our kitchen ceiling
- our shower surround
- the deep end of the ocean (oops, I mean pool)

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Fynn is 10 months old today on the 10th. Darn camera didn't catch him in focus on hardly any photos. I'm kind of feeling something weird is going on with it since it came back from the shop. Maybe it's just me. We will keep playing.

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Sophie and I did a cute puzzle she got from her second cousins (the triplets). It was 100 hundred pieces -- probably a little too much for her, but she managed to get in a few pieces on her own.

What do you want to do with the rest of the summer?

It's Saturday night and we are back from vacation.

We are determined to squeeze what's left out of the remaining weeks of summer (before the snow hits!!):

- go to Atlantis waterpark one more time (Vernon, BC)
- PNE (Vancouver)
- pick some tomatoes
- take the kids for a bike ride

I can't believe the Sears Wishbook is already here!!

If you want your kids to have memories, you have to take them on vacation....

And that means you do laundry, patch up owies, put up with a crummy bathroom, sweep sand from the cabin, and do dishes. And pack and unpack. And definately no sleeping in.

Vic convinced me that we should go to Kye Bay this summer, a place that he went to as a child and had wonderful summer childhood memories. It is the kind of place where you can collect shells, dig in the sand, and get the smell of salt in your nostrils. It's a perfect "beachy" place. But it is RUSTIC (yes, I've said that before). I told him I'm still undecided about next year.

But, then I think about Sophie and Fynn and having memories of the seashore each summer....

mid-vacation

We are half-way through 2 weeks of our summer vacation.

Here are some pics of Kye Bay near Comox. The Kye Bay Guest Cottages that we
stayed in are the same ones that Vic and his family stayed at in the 1970s.
The cottages date back to the '30s. They are cute and definately have a seaside
cottage feel, but they are RUSTIC inside (they do, however, have plumbing and electrical). We aren't sure if we would stay at them again -- the jury is still out. The area is really pretty, but sand and a newly mobile baby don't make for such a great combination. Next year will be a whole different phase, I guess.

We are in Victoria now for a couple of days. Love it here!