Galpin.ca

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.

Leah’s preschool had a Mother’s Day Tea for us moms. It was really sweet to see Leah belt out the songs and perform all the actions. After the presentation, we played a game and then the kids served us cake.

For the long weekend, we went up to Oroville with my parents and my sister and her family. We had a lot of run relaxing, spending time with family and boating. Leah and Morgan fell off the tube for the first time. The tube went under the water and thankfully Morgan had prepared Leah for the possibility and she wasn’t too scared.

We invited all the girls from Leah’s preschool as there was only seven of them along with the neighbour girls. We had a small turn out but had lots of fun. Just the girls stayed for the first part while we made necklaces, had snack and played outside. We invited the families to come back for cake. I convinced Leah instead of presents to ask for donations to the food bank. Leah thought this was a good idea as her preschool had recently talked about kids in Africa without clean water and food.

My mom came and helped with the party. She took this family picture for us.

Even if everyone isn’t looking or particularly happy, I still treasure our family pictures.

Way back in April when Leah was still in preschool, they had pirate day. I went through our closets to see what I could dig it and I was pretty proud of what we came up with. I had no clue what to do about the hat but her daycare friend that also goes to preschool brought some black poster board to make these hats with.

Joel and Leah with their summer hats.

Leah had a pirate day field trip at the beach. I took the afternoon off and took Leah. I was so glad I got to be able to go (usually my mom or Morgan’s mom takes her) and spend that time together. We searched for pirate gold coins in the sand, had a snack, played with a parachute and had lots of fun.

Leah learned how to ride a bike! We borrowed a friend’s strider for a week so she could get the hang of balancing after awhile of training wheels. She learned at Grandma and Grandpa’s house which is on a nice, quiet stretch of road. She can start and stop on her own but still needs practice staying on the sidewalk.

Joel is so different than Leah. He refuses to touch cake so I made him a veggie dump truck.

Playing outside.

From blobs to crazy curls.

Joel has started having cold cereal and milk for breakfast. Leah is very motherly to Joel and likes to teach and show him new things.

The kids helping Daddy make breakfast. Joel loves to jump into my laundry pile while I’m folding. Though I normally do this on the floor, Joel still found a way to jump with the laundry on the table.

Joel’s birthday cakes for his family birthday party.

Everyone else had cake while Joel ate some strawberries, though he wouldn’t touch the strawberries that had whipped cream on them.

Leah and her beloved Rupert (named after her buddy’s bear). Leah made Rupert an air pack so he could go into space and tied it on him real tight.

Leah’s airplane and painting outside. When the first really warm days of Spring hit, we try to spend all the time we can outside, including art time.

Playing.

Playdough! It is great to find an activity that engages the kids from 1-almost 5 at all of their levels.

Joel’s 2 year old (plus a month) milestones

-lots of words such as dump truck, toothbrush, pants, eyebrows
-says please without prompting sometimes
-feeds himself very well
-put on a hoodie, jacket and pants by himself
-can sometimes put on his velcro shoes without help
-insists on climbing into his car seat and booster (for eating) on his own
-can climb onto our small climber and go down the slide
-loves ride on toys
-fascinated with trucks, diggers, trains (anything with wheels)
-can jump on his own
-can put his dishes away
-likes to pick out his cereal in the morning and put it on the counter
-pulls up a chair to the counter if something he wants is out of reach
-learning to share and wait patiently
-can paint, do stickers, can glue with help
-sleeps from about 7:30-7 with nap from 1-3
-lots of endurance for walking, doesn’t like to hold hands
-loves to help set the table, will place a fork at each place setting and say ‘mommy’s fork’ and so on

Leah’s quotes and questions
Does the hospital stay open all night? (Yes, because people might get hurt and need help at night too.) The workers there must get very tired.
Did Grandma and Grandpa look like Grandma and Grandpa when they were your mom and dad?
(What do grandmas and grandpas look like?) You know.

Leah just started swimming and soccer in April and is enjoying them both.