Reading has taken off this school year! After bath time instead of playing Lego like most other nights these two wanted to sit and read through their books. Awesome.
Maybe all our reading to them since they were first born has paid off…
Jimmy got an award!
Jimmy was nominated by his Camosun college professors for the Andrea Van Rheenan award:
To honour graduates who show dedication and leadership in supporting people who have significant challenges, and through his/her actions, inspires others to see the “person within.” The successful recipients will demonstrate creativity, compassion and a sense of humour with people with significant challenges. If possible, these recipients will have the ability to ‘sign’ (sign language).
Jimmy suspects that it is the sense of humor part that tipped the scales as he was the consummate class clown in addition to spearheading lively conversations in class,
We attended the awards ceremony in October and it was a very special day. We are super proud of Jimmy & all his accomplishments!
Thanksgiving
Jimmy’s sister Wendy & I typically split up the holidays and decide which ones we host. This year I hosted Thanksgiving and Wendy hosted Christmas.
When we were in South Africa away from all our friends and family we all missed these holiday events. Claire & Rhys particularly missed their extended family. When we traveled through Australia on our way back home from South Africa they LOVED spending so much time with their great Aunt Christine & Uncle Mike in Perth. Family means a lot to us and we cherish all the time we spend together.
I love Thanksgiving and having family come together for some shared laughs and good food. It was a nice sunny day this year and we had a great gathering.
Grade 2!
Claire & Rhys are now in grade 2… time flies by when you are having so much fun 🙂
.
Props to Jimmy for making this awesome sign moments before departing to school 🙂
.
Our latest move…
We moved within Victoria on September 1st.
Moving is SO much work and one of my least favorite activities. The owners of our rental house were moving back from Japan so we had to find a new home during the busiest time of year for house rentals… students moving back into town. We also had a crazy house sale boom so many rental homes were being sold so owners could profit which meant there was not a very big rental supply.
A long story short…we found a nice place to move to (huge yard, heat!, a pond with goldfish, fruit trees, a view!, loads of wildlife coming and going in our yard) and with a lot of effort our move was successful.
Jimmy’s clever key organization
old house
new house
Mama’s solo Medicine Hat visit!
I traveled home to Medicine Hat in August to spend time with my family and to help my parents sort out their retirement plans. I miss being the kid and having my parents all to myself. A pretty rare occurrence since we live in different provinces. I cherish all the time I have with my parents and with my sister and nieces and nephews. I do not see them as often as I would like.
My niece, Michaela, had her birthday when I was visiting so I hosted a BBQ party at my parents house and was able to get all my family together to celebrate. I was able to spend time with my older niece and nephew, Caithlin & Ethan. So great to hang out with them. I was also invited to a very nice night out with my godparents, Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman. They took us out for a delicious dinner and we had great conversation at their home before & after dinner. … pretty much an all-niter. My parents and godparents are good friends from long ago when they lived in Maple Creek Sask. Their party stories and the shenanigans they got up to as young parents living in a small town are so great. I loved growing up hearing the same stories. Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman have been such a good influence in my life and I so enjoyed spending time with them.
I had a great time & I was able to help my parents as well 🙂
Leaving YVR:
Arriving to Medicine Hat:
My nephew Ethan and niece Caithlin:
Dinner out with my parents & Godparents:
My Dad (aka Vern):
Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman:
Hayden (Michaela’s significant other), Mango the cat, Mom, and my sister Sarah:
My niece (Michaela’s daughter) Aubree:
L to R: Michaela (my niece), Dad, Hayden, Mango the cat, Mom and Sarah:
My nieces: Sophie and Aubree:
Sarah & Michaela:
Happy Birthday Michaela:
Face time with my family:
Dad & his Mercedes:
Vancouver summer trip
Last summer we traveled to Vancouver for a mini vacation. We wanted to spend time checking out all the fun tourist things and to visit old friends. We stayed downtown for two nights so we could catch the sky-train and walk around the city. We visited the Aquarium, did some shopping, visited Science World and had a blast.
After our stay downtown we drove over to North Vancouver to stay with our good friends Faye & Niels. I have known Faye since my first year at University. She was my roommate in residence! The University placed us together randomly and have been friends since. We had a great two nights spending time with Faye and her family. We also visited with our friends and the kids surrogate grandmother, Evelyn, who was our neighbor in our old condo building when we lived in North Vancouver. We spent some time with her and her boyfriend Barney. They were so sweet and it was nice to catch up on all the condo gossip 😉 We also had some time to have a picnic with our South African friends Kim, Ryan and their two sons Kye and Fin. We spent a lot of time together when Claire & Rhys were babies as Kim and I worked together and had an overlap with our maternity leaves. We used to swap child minding which I miss so much! A bonus of staying with Faye & Niels is we tagged along to another friends big BBQ so we were able to see lots of old friends and they have the best backyard that Claire & Rhys made the most of.
We had a great trip and we are excited to make it an annual summer adventure.
….
Science World:
Aquarium:
Lions Gate Bridge to West & North Vancouver:
Faye & Niels home:Faye & Nield
Evelyn & Barney:
Kim & Ryan clan:Kim & Ryan
Lisa & Sean’s BBQ…best backyard for kids:
And of course….Jimmy found a pool to skate 😉
Sooke summer visit
Every summer we like to get out to Sooke and have an overnight camping adventure at Wendy & Chris’ home. This summer Claire & Rhys had their very first sleep over without us! Exciting times. We went out on a date night in Sooke and had dinner at the most amazing restaurant right near the ocean- Wild Mountain. After walking around the harbour we headed back to the house long after Claire & Rhys went to sleep. They did not know we were coming back that night and they did great. A success.
We also had a special time on Chris’ boat… we went crabbing! We found out Rhys gets seasick and Claire enjoys boating.
Good times!
.
.