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Spring days at the park.

Leah loved the carnival rides at the fun night at the school she goes to in September.

Setting up the tent in the backyard as a trial run before camping on July long weekend.

Crazy hair day at preschool, with clothing to match.

Goop!

Graduation from preschool

Leah painting my nails on the deck.

Leah building Coit tower in excitement for San Fran out of dish scrubbers.

Very neat looking lake that we found on the way down to San Fran.

We went to White Rock beach.

Cousins.

Leah has a new found love for the baby swing.

We took the trolley down to a festival at the beach.

Joel loves all types of vehicles so I blew up some pictures to put on his room.

Going to visit the ducks and picking blackberries for them. I enjoyed the simple times spent with the kids this summer.

Leah went to a birthday party and got to ride a pony for the first time. She was so thrilled.

By the camp fire.

Joel (and Leah too) was fascinated by the glow sticks Auntie Yesca brought.

We arrived before the cousins and Leah made a great friend with the girl in the camp site next to us. She was a year or two older but was super sweet. Leah and her new buddy would hangout at our campsite for a bit and then go over to hers.

As a mom I was trying to figure out how much freedom do I give Leah with people I’ve never met before. This question was repeated when she was asked to go on playdates with friends from kindergarten who I didn’t know at all.

During the day the three girls (Leah’s cousin, her new buddy and herself) would bike and play and at night, they set up their own little camp between our campsites. It was neat to see how Leah is growing up and off on her own.

The weather was quite cool. We had rain on the first night during dinner so we rushed the kids to the van to finish eating. We had the back hatch up and tried to make the best of it.

Not much swimming took place except for the kids. Here’s Morgan checking out the lake.

Our beautiful children. I’m so glad I took the camera out for a little bit.

In Oroville –

These are the only pictures I took in Oroville but we had a blast. I learned how to really slalom ski and get comfortable though I still need two skis to get up. Leah learned how to handle her bike really well at the campground as she wanted to keep up with the older girls and got lots of practice riding back and forth to the washrooms. Joel is doing really well on his strider, learning to balance and picking up some speed.

This trip we also learned Joel is allergic to wasps. He swelled up a lot on his hand so we will have to be super viligant next summer.

On the way home from San Fran, we stopped to check out some big trees.

My sweet, little boy. Leah was thrilled that we ate out so much.

On the ‘shuttle’ at the aviation museum.

In air plane seats.

Lots of cool planes.

A bumpy spot to drive cars on. (Thankfully the museum wasn’t busy.)

Even planes to drive.

We checked out the famous Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. Morgan and Leah rode the carousel and ate some ice cream.

We took a hop-on, hop-off tour bus one day and explored a little more. We saw Golden Gate bridge, the bay bridge, Alcatraz in the distance and enjoyed lunch at Sausalito. While we waited for our bus, we checked out a small, maritime museum.

Trying to fit in Joel’s naps were hard. He was done about mid day so we bought an umbrella stroller so he could nap while we kept checking things out.

A family picture!

We saw some amazing architecture and learned lots about the city and its history.

The next day we went into San Jose. Morgan went to a tech museum while I took the kids to the children’s museum. I got the camera for the day. They had a real fire truck for the kids to climb on. Joel was especially enthralled.

Building and playing.

Leah built a boat in a craft section for older kids. They had a table full of floatable objects and let kids put them together however they wanted.

Joel found another vehicle to sit in and enjoy.

Beach time.

This past summer felt relaxing and busy at the same time. Leah went to kid’s camp at church for the first time this year. I left Joel with a friend for most of the week while I was volunteering. I had fun hanging out with the elementary aged kids leading a craft station.

I tried to leave lots of time in between trips and activities for the kids to play at home and with our friends. I wanted the kids to have time to play in the backyard and have fun enjoying the simple pleasures of summer.

We decided to go to San Francisco this year because Morgan has gone on a lot of work trips there and wanted to show us around the city. Leah was ecstatic as she had heard about all the fun things to do and see.

The first thing we checked out was Coit Tower. It has amazing views of the city and a cool story behind it.

Leah adores her daddy. Next stop was Lomard Street, the crookedest street in the world. Joel and his little legs walked all the stairs up.

After all our walking, we bought some pizza and tried to find a park or playground in the city. That certainly was a challenge. We found this park which was a very skinny lot with a cement pathway down the middle surrounded by some garden. Certainly what I am not used to calling a park in my community but it worked for us.

Another thing about San Francisco that surprised me was how cool it was. I only packed one pair of pants per person and that was quite sufficient the whole way down as we wore shorts most of the time. San Fran is quite a bit cooler and we utilized the pants and hoodies we brought.

We drove all the way down to San Fran and our kids were awesome travellers (partially due to a friend lending me her road trip bag of tricks to keep kids happy). Once we were in the city, we took public transit and rode these super old, restored street cars.

We checked out a little museum about the old street cars.

We saw waterfall art (Morgan and the kids are in the middle).

One of the reasons Morgan wanted to go to San Fran was to go to his company party. It was at the Exploratorium so we got to explore lots of things.

There was this map that lit up and showed how the fog rolls into San Fran and Joel was delighted in using it as a car mat.

We also got to meet the company’s mascot,Sassy (which is an acronym for something related to computer software). We only recently learned his real name so we called him Mr. No Software and the kids got a little plush toy of him when we visited the office.

On the July long weekend, we went off to Birch Bay State Campground and set up camp for the weekend. Grandma and Granddad were staying nearby and brought over the ingredients for smores while we supplied the fire.

We brought along Leah’s bike and Joel’s favourite ride on toy, ‘Gumby’. They served us well when we went to visit Grandma and Granddad to swim in their pool or have dinner with them.

Grandma and Granddad.

Enjoying the smores.

Morgan was determined to cook on the fire and show Leah ‘real’ camping. So he used his army cup and made some hot chocolate to share with Leah.

In front of our tent.

This was our first camping trip with the kids and it turned out pretty well.

A few tips I kept in mind for when we go camping again
– Bring a playpen. We let Joel sleep without a playpen but that meant he didn’t nap and both kids didn’t fall asleep till around 9 each night even though they ran hard outside all day. It was very bright in the tent from the sun and Joel loved playing with his cars and lining them up on the lines on the blankets
-Don’t try potty train your child right before going camping. We brought the potty along and had success, it is just inconvenient and pull-ups were a necessity as no laundering facilities close by.

Last June, Leah graduated from preschool. They had a little graduation celebration for the kids after their drama presentation and processional.

Leah played the part of momma bear in the story of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She really enjoys performing and singing her heart out. Grandma and Granddad came as well as Grandma and Grandpa to see her play.