Spring is here!!

Well, I was out in the sunshine this morning, playing around with some pictures of
my apricot tree and flowers in our yard, along with the assorted bumblebees.

I was surprised at some of my shots, so I thought I would share some on the blog!

Still have TONS to learn, but I am having fun with it so far!

Hope you enjoy!

These I tried playing with some adjustments... not too sure about it...

Mexico!

We have been working on putting together a posting for our trip to Mexico over Spring Break. Please check back! We will have more posted soon!

Brice's 10th Birthday!

We spent a great deal of time planning Brice's party, and preparing all the games, prizes, goodies, movies... the boys had a very good night! We, on the other hand, had a fairly sleepless night dealing with noisy, sugar-filled monsters!! But, the important thing is that they had fun!

They all came over at 5 pm on Saturday, the 1st of April. They headed out on the trampoline while we got dinner - pizza, of course!!
After pizza, they returned to the trampoline, and jumped until it got dark. Then the fun began!
They were told it was time for a hot tub, at which point they came rushing in, stripped down in the kitchen, and headed out immediately.We gave them 5 minutes to adjust and get comfy, then the games began!!

First, we had little bubbles with activities such as 'who is best at hand squirting their neighbour' and 'who has the best armpit farts'. Prizes were awarded to the winners. We tried the limbo, but they just went underwater!! Then we did Chinese Whispers, where one person has to whisper a phrase to the next to see how similar they can get it by the last man in the circle. We had some pretty funny renditions of 'Chester cheetah chews cheddar cheese', 'He threw three free throws' and Pooped purple pelicans'. Since everyone laughed at whatever the last guy said, we gave him the prizes!

Next was the moment Mom and Dad had been waiting for!! Who can get dressed in the hot tub fastest? Only, we threw in a twist... skirts, girls' tank tops and frilly socks for everyone! They loved it! It really was hilarious! Who won? Everyone was laughing so hard that it really didn't matter, although, I think Bryce did...

Then we came in, got dressed and had a DQ Chocolate Extreme Blizzard Cake - Brice's request. Boy was it nummy!! Full of sugar too!! At least by then, it was time to watch movies!
They watched King Kong, Transporter 2 and a Wes Craven thriller called They.I think they were too busy drawing on each others faces and playing with their prizes to watch much!! They eventually seemed to drift off at about 1:30 - 2:00 am.
Up at 8:30 (factoring in the time change) to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, and toast - Brice's request again! We cleaned up, and most went home at some point in the morning. They almost all live right in our neighbourhood, so they are always here jumping on the trampoline, building miscellaneous stuff in the back field, or building jumps for their bikes in the front yard.
I wish I were 10 again, especially living the priviledged life Brice leads!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

New Year's 2006

For New Year's eve, we had a nice quiet gathering of soome very good friends -

Joe and Diana, Curt and Karine, and ourselves.

After spending the early evening chatting, we found our way out to the hot tub to see in 2006.

Afterwards, we came in to play poker and Curt did some very memorable dancing!

What a way to start the New Year!

Thank you all for making it such a great night!

Christmas 2005


We spent Christmas in Nanaimo with Bre's Mom and Dad. It was a wonderful week of lots of laughs, too much food, and relaxation!

The stockings were too heavy to be hung, and Santa must have known that Mom's dog, Gaby, would have happily munched everything that might be food if he left them under the tree!

Stocking Time!!

We had a great Christams!! Thank you to everyone for cards, gifts and your thoughts!

The Pet Post

Well, it seems about time we share our pets... they seem to keep accumulating!!

Firstly, I suppose we should start with the most recent addition... Hershey, the Guinea Pig. He arrived as company for Skitz, the ferret. I fell in love with him at the pet store, and home he came! :) He is still adjusting to us, and his new home, but he is still very young and has a

wonderful life ahead of him!

Hershey and his pet penguin.

Then, there is Hersheys' buddy, Skitz. They enjoy each other and like hanging out together, following each other around the kitchen. She is getting to be a real pain, deciding that she isnt happy in the kitchen and figures she should be able to roam the whole house. We have to get her a baby gate to keep her in!! The current piece of foam board moves too easily; she has figured out how to slide it up the door way to sneak underneath!

Then, we have the birdies... Cleo and Captain Beaky, who prefers to be called Beaky Boy. Beaky Boy flew up this summer and chose to live with us. After he had gotten settled, we got Cleo who keeps him company!

Cleo is green and yellow, and Beaky Boy is white and blue. They love flying around the house, killing my ivy, watching the goings on, and of course, leaving dropping EVERYWHERE!! Sigh... I guess that is their input to the household!

Then, there is Gizmo, the Bearded Dragon. He is our fattest, laziest, most laid back family member. He does nothing but lay on his branches, stopping occasionally to eat his lettuce, and when he has the energy, chase crickets.

There is Bryn, our most loving, faithful, waggy family member! She loves car rides and chasing the birds away from the bird feeder, along with watching hours of 'doggy TV', sat outside Skitz and Hersheys' cage. She spends 24 hours a day at Bre's side pretending to be a guard pooch to earn her kibble, but in all reality, she stinks as a guard pooch!! She is usually sound asleep, and wakes up wagging at whoever walks in!

She makes up for it by loving us dearly!

She gets along well with Skitz, Hershey, and the birdies - an amazing feat as they should be dinner!! But then again, she isn't exactly normal, or the sharpest tool in the shed... just doesn't know any better!

And, last but not least, the fishies.

What can you say about fishes? Hmmmm....

They live in the fish tank, don't listen very well, and they don't get out much!

I am sure there will be even more additions... god help us! The menagerie keeps growing!

Hallowe'en has FINALLY come and gone!!
Brice had been looking forward to this day for weeks, maybe months! He chose his costume several months ago, and has been collecting bits and pieces from here and there to get the 'perfect' costume. King Arthur roamed the streets tonight in search of goblins and ghouls, other small smelly friends, and of course, CANDY!!

He spent the evening with his best buddy Ryan causing all sorts of disturbances. They went Trick or Treating in our neighbourhood with Ryan's mom (sniff... sniff... I wasn't needed... he's growing up :) ) then down to the fireworks and haunted house put on by the local fire department.







Bryn, the family 'guard' pooch, was very enthusiastic about greeting all of the stange looking small people at the door, woofing like she was actually a GOOD attack pooch. However, she was not as entusiastic about the costume that was picked out especially for her... she made a horrible angel! We felt very sorry for her, so it only lasted a few minutes! Poor Bryn,,, the people who are supposed to love her most were laughing hysterically at her... she never takes that very well!

We all look forward to next Hallowe'en!!

Camping Trip!

The First Annual Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip!

We got an invitation to go and see John Marchi – Annie’s dad for the Labor Day long weekend. It started out as a simple Stuart family weekend away – but rapidly mushroomed into a full expedition to Rock Creek! Joe and Diana, and their daughter Courtney joined us along with Kevin and Beverly and their dog Penny.

We managed to leave by lunchtime on Saturday morning and arrived in Rock Creek early on Saturday afternoon.  John and Betty-Anne we staying at the campsite free in exchange for as far as we could see eating ice-cream and driving round in a golf cart occasionally, accompanied by Freddy – their hairy son (dog).

Brice and Courtney quickly figured out that they could talk John into letting them drive the golf  cart.  We managed to almost loose them for the weekend!

Saturday was spent getting setup, we were in the “Presidential Suite” (the camper), Joe and Diana had a pickup bed tent, Brice and Courtney had a tent set up, and Bev and Kev had their Van. We then managed to relapse quickly into long weekend mode – eating lots – snoozing, and chatting.   Kev and Joe rapidly managed to find out that they had a lot in common! Brice and Courtney went tubing down the river.

On Sunday it started off a bit cool and everyone had had a bit of a cool night.  The campground had a Yurt for rent so it was decided that they would like to move into that for the next night.  We upped sticks and all moved over.  The big advantage was that it was closer to where we could have a fire and a bit farther from the road. Joe, Dianna, Kev and Bev shared the Yurt, and we were in the “suite”

We stayed up late drinking and talking, and managed to arise this morning for a massive breakfast again, and got slowly going to pack up and return to Vernon.  More  to follow and pictures!

Flower Power Update

The First Guys Night Out

James and Brice took the camper out for the night. We decided to check out the Starlight Drive In. We went to see Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, a movie James had gone to see when he was almost the same age as Brice. The movie back then stared Gene Wilder and was much more lower tech. Both movies had singing Ompaloompas though! We parked the truck and Camper at the back of the drive in, tuned in the radio to hear the sound track and sat in the truck eating popcorn and drinking beer. Brice had alcohol free of course! You can check out the drive in at: http://www.starlightdrivein.ca/





The second movie was the Dukes of Hazard – not one that James could recommend – but Brice thought it was pretty cool!


We then went boondocking ( we found a field to pull up in and went to sleep for the night!

Bre stayed at home and had a couple of friends over for a girls night. She can add details if she wants!