Have a lovely weekend

Here's the list for Friday:

- Sophie has embraced piano.  Yep, major corner turned.  With a bit of prompting from me, she is up to 30 minutes of practice a day.  Her teacher commented that she has noticed a difference. 
- I was interviewed for our local newspaper about the current math curriculum that is being taught at the elementary school level (more on that in a later post).  I have some very strong opinions on math. 
- Fynn scored 5/5 on his dictee today so he got to pick this movie to rent. He loved it.
- I had received my 15 year employee award last night.  I was allowed to select something from a local store.  I decided on a floor lamp for our living room.  It's pretty! (pics later)
- My camera should be out of the shop soon.  I miss it so.

- We are going to see this tomorrow night with our friends.  Can't wait!


Have a great weekend!

The Weekend Lens

Vic and I were fortunate to be able to head down to Vancouver for a couple of days this past weekend to visit his mom, our friend Jim and to take in a few sites.

It had been years since we have been out to the Museum of Anthropology out a UBC.  It is a great museum for learning more about First Nations culture.  I think the kids would have gotten a kick out of the super sized totem poles.  We also took in the Odd Couple performance at the Stanley Theatre.  Great show!

The Weekend Lens

We took the kids and Sophie's friend Hunter up to Three Valley Gap today for a little drive (about 40 minutes from where we live). Interesting Ghost Town in that it had some very old buildings from the turn of the century that helped paint a picture of life in the Revelstoke/Shuswap area. However, you can really see how a historic type place benefits from serious government funding, which includes trained archivists and curators. Because this is privately held and is obviously the result of someone loving to collect old buildings and objects it is a bit of a hodge podge. It needs a strong unifying theme for the time period (e.g. a Barkerville or Fort Steele).

Anyways, the kids had fun running around checking out the buildings and it was beautiful and sunny.

The Weekend Lens

On Saturday we did a few chores around the house, including yardwork. Vic rented a roto-tiller and did our vegetable bed and a few other areas that he hopes to do some planting in this year.

Sophie's friend Hunter spent Friday night at our house and then we took it easy for the rest of the day as Sophie had a sore throat -- which hopefully is not strep but I had her throat swabbed at the clinic just to be sure.

On Sunday our adventure was a day trip to Kamloops. We went to the Kamloops Aquatic Centre which was really a nice surprise. It is a big facility with a full indoor track, several gyms, a gymnastics area and a full regulation size pool. It also had a water slide, a smaller Pelican slide that Fynn enjoyed and a small lazy river. The pool was nice and warm so I was quite alright to stay in the water awhile.

After that we drove around and looked at some of the older neighbourhoods for fun -- Vic and I both love looking at well kept older buildings. The Old Courthouse in Kamloops is a gem. We also accidentally discovered the Chinese Cemetary which was in use until the 1970s. It is small but well maintained and tells an interesting story about the Chinese workers who died helping establish the railway.

Kamloops is only a little over an hour away from us, and while we don't get there too often, when we do, we are always surprised at discovering interesting things to see/do.

The Weekend Lens

Spring has sprung. Nice to see daylight savings time once again. We loaded up the kids' bikes and took a drive down to Vernon. Polson Park is still pretty quiet this time of year, so Sophie and Fynn had lots of room to ride their bikes. We then headed over to the Bean Scene Coffee House. It is housed in an old historical building with lots of interesting character -- my favourite kind of place.

When we got home, Vic and I went for a 25 minute run. We are gradually giving Sophie a little more responsibility and she has proven to use that she and Fynn can be alone for short periods of time provided it is daytime. All went well and it was nice to have that little bit of freedom.

The Weekend Lens

Sophie had a birthday party this afternoon (her friend Mikayla), so Vic and I took Fynn out for a bike ride. It was a little cool - about 7 degrees C, but with a bit of wind if felt like 4 degrees.

Nice to see the snow melting and a few crocuses sprouting up through the soil.

The Weekend Lens

On Saturday, Sophie had her Christmas dance program. She performed in the Bats number which was a selection taken from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. The dance program this year was based on the movie.

Sophie did great and is still wearing her ballet bun today :)

We had some fresh snowfall so we hit the local sledding hill. Lots of fun, which resulted in

some tired kids.

Ready for the final week of work and school before the holidays.

Leavenworth - The Weekend Lens

We headed down to Leavenworth, Washington on Saturday morning to check out the Christmas Lighting Festivities. We met up with our friends Bryan and Patti.

Leavenworth is a pretty little town and seeing it at Christmas time has been on my "list" for quite a while. It was a long drive and the crowds were huge! They estimated about 15,000 people were there this past weekend. It felt like it!

After we watched the light up we went back to our hotel and headed out this morning for the drive back home.

Weekend Lens

We had some mild weather this weekend, so Vic got our Christmas lights up. Yah! They look really nice. Sophie was big on helping this year. Fynn's job was to rake up leaves and he managed quite well considering the rake was twice his size.

For our date night, Vic and I went to the new James Bond movie, SkyFall. Two thumbs up!

The Weekend Lens

This past weekend, we went down to Vancouver for Vic's cousin's little new baby's baptism. Little Mathilda is extremely cute, especially in her christening gown.

Vancouver was a bit quieter than the usual busyness of the summer months, so it was nice to not have to contend with lineups. We took the kids to HR McMillian Planetarium, which was good and really educational. Fynn also made friends with a little bulldog that was outside of Scoozi's where we had breakfast before the baptism service.

In other news, Fynn took a spill as he was running through the lobby of the Westin Bayshore this morning and knock his front tooth. It is loose, however, when we got home we took him to the dentist who thinks it may tighten up on its own. If it doesn't do so by Friday, she is going to put a bit of bonding on it to hold it in place as a bit of a brace.

Never a dull moment.

Sophie had her first class of her fall swimming lesson session (Level 5) and her piano lesson tonight.

The Weekend Lens

We had a nice late summer weekend.

On Saturday we went to the Salmon Arm Fall Fair parade - very small town parade but fun anyways. We then had a last dip in the pool for the year. Vic will be having it closed down later this week.

We headed out to the midway later that day and Sophie's friend Maggie came along with us. Lots of fun for the kids going on the rides.

Today we did drove down to Lake Country and went to the ArtWalk. Really well done and it gave you a real idea of the talented local artists in the Interior.

We wrapped up the night with the kids watching this, and Vic and I watching the last episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey!

The Weekend Lens

This weekend, the kids stayed with my parents and Vic and I took a weekend trip to Vancouver with our friends, Bryan and Patti.

On Friday night (after we settled into our hotel and had dinner at Cardero's) we headed down to Chinatown and visited the Night Market. It was not as big as I thought it might be, but it was very authentic feeling and a really neat experience.

The next morning we walked up to the Vancouver Art Gallery and took in the Matisse Exhibit. It was fascinating to learn more about the Cone Sisters and their great exhibit.

Later that afternoon we went over to the Van Dusen Gardens which are beautiful. That evening we had dinner at Darby's Pub in Kitsilano. Great roof top deck and yummy nachos. After dinner we went and saw The Taming of the Shrew at Bard on the Beach. The artistic director gave a short 20 minute talk before the performance to give you some background on the play which was very helpful since my Shakespeare is very rusty.

A great weekend all the way around.

The Weekend Lens

We are really trying to be intentional with our weekends, and not let them "just happen" to us. A little planning ahead is something we are working on.

This BC Day long weekend, we travelled down to Langley where we did the following:

Stayed at the Sandman Signature Hotel. Highly recommend if you want an inexpensive hotel experience. It is a good 45 minutes or so from downtown Vancouver so not someplace we would stay at if our activities were in the city, but good for stuff in the outskirts. The hotel is new and their pool isn't ready yet so they gave us free passes over to the Walnut Grove Community Centre Pool which was great.

On Saturday we went to Metrotown and hit the Children's Place and Sportchek. We picked up two pairs of pants (leggings and jeggings) for Sophie and 3 tops. Fynn got 1 pair of pants and 2 tops. We headed over to Sportchek where they each got a new pair of "outdoor" shoes for school. After that we headed down to New Westminister to check out a bike shop for Vic and then walked along the New West Quay. We also saw the World's Tallest Tin Soldier, which was fun.

Around 5pm we picked up Vic's mom and we went to the Olive Garden in Langley. It is the only Olive Garden in BC and it was busy! After dinner we went over to Vic's brother's house for a short visit.

On Sunday we explored the Burnaby Heritage Museum/Park for a good 3 hours. Lots to see and do there. The Burnaby area has some great history and the park is really well done. The kids loved the vintage carousel. It was a warm and humid day, so we needed a break from the heat. We drove over to Brentwood Mall. It is definitely the cheaper cousin to Metrotown. Fortunately they had a Payless Shoes and we got the kids their "indoor" shoes there for school. To top of the evening and weekend, we took the kids to this movie that was playing near our hotel. In spite of the heavy traffic on a busy long weekend, we have some good memories to share.

The Weekend Lens

We took the kids to Fort Langley on Saturday. It is a National Historic Site of Canada.

The weather was a little cooler which seemed to keep the crowds away. We spent 2 hours or so there and the kids got some sense of what the Fort would have been like in the 1800s when it was a trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company. The guides were knowledgeable and were in period clothing with a number of interactive displays. Sophie especially like playing the extremely old piano in the Big House.

Later we took a walk down the town of Fort Langley. It is very quaint and has some neat little shops but Fynn was at his wits end so we had a quick lunch and headed out for a car ride and the for a browse around Ikea. We picked up a Picasso print for the kids' bathroom and some magazine holders for Sophie's room.

Then it was back to the hotel for a little rest. We stayed at the Sandman Signature which I highly recommend. It was close to Vic's brother's house so it made visiting easy. Sandman has really taken their hotels up a notch from their older ones. This one had a very clean, modern lobby and the service was professional. Plus the rate was really reasonable.

We headed over to the BBQ dinner and birthday party for Joy's 85th birthday. Nice time with family members we don't normally get to see very often.

Today we headed back home. It was a long drive - or certainly feels that way with Fynn. He is at a tough age to travel too far by car. The one thing that seems to save us is Vic's iPod. We have created a few playlists that the kids like, which keeps them entertained for a bit. Fynn has a very stubborn personality that makes it very difficult to do certain things with. We are doing Disney again in October and it will be a true test of whether he is able to handle going on a longer flight. We would not consider travelling with him internationally until he settles down. He did some heart-warming things at Fort Langley when he happily responded to the guide's question about "where did the pioneers go to the bathroom when they didn't have indoor plumbing?" The way he responds really makes us proud but 20 minutes later he will do something that makes us want to put him into a time out for the remainder of the day. I don't think we are at the golden age of kid travel yet. I am thinking closer to him being 6.