I started working with a new company in June of this year. We had a company BBQ at the CEO’s house in West Vancouver (ritzy area of the city) a few weeks ago. The house was amazing and the patios overlooked Howe Sound. It was a really good night with delicious food and Jimmy was able to meet all my new colleagues.

This was the first night we left the kids with a baby-sitter who did the bedtime routine with them. The only other time we left this task to someone was in Pemberton with my sister-in-law Debbie . We enjoyed our time away from home and are slowly getting comfortable with using a babysitter.  Luckily we have a wonderful baby-sitter, Emma, who is Irish and very sweet. She nannies for two families we know from the twins club.

The pretty views:

Wendy, Chris and Senna stopped in at our place for a two day visit before leaving on their summer road adventure. It was a really great visit and it had been awhile since we last spent some good quality time together. Claire & Rhys love their cousin Senna and it sure seemed like Senna enjoyed them as well.

Some highlights:

– Casual evenings watching movies and having a few drinks

– Walking to the park and having some fun in the sun

– Attending Connors 3rd birthday party in Lynn Valley! Yummy cake and having a little boy follow Claire around & asking his Dad where ‘Claire-bear’ was after hearing Jimmy call Claire – ‘Claire-bear’. Claire is such a dainty little girl and she gets a lot of attention from boys. It is very sweet 🙂 Rhys is adventurous and meandered with one of us trailing behind. It is fun letting them pick their own path and see what captures their attention.

– Heading to the water park on a very hot day and having a little boy soak Chris with the water gun! Jimmy got soaked as well while fetching Rhys from the high powered water fountain.

Thanks for visiting us you guys and we hope to see you again soon!

Yay! We have arrived back home from our summer trip to Alberta and Saskatchewan! More on that later……

Before we left for our trip we took the kids into a hair salon that is especially for kids called ‘Sparky’z Kutz for Kidz‘. This place is expensive for quick kid haircuts ($20 each) but it did make for some fun photos. The lady worked so quickly and the haircuts turned out pretty cute.

Rhys was relaxed for his haircut and enjoyed steering the little vehicle & watching cartoons on a mini tv. Claire hated having her hair cut and cried the whole time. She is such a  sensitive little girl quite like her mama was growing up.

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The finished product…

I have been so excited ever since Claire & Rhys were born to take them to the aquarium. I love this place!

We had a little bit of time to sign up for an annual membership and check-out a few fish tanks that were in the main lobby area prior to visiting some friends and their daughter.

** …thanks for having us over Albertine & Ben! We were so happy to have met little Jack- she is so sweet 🙂 and it was great to see Kepman again after all these years.

The aquarium was so great and it is such a good deal to get a membership. Claire & Rhys loved the fishes so much. They were transfixed on the swimming fish that were just on the other side of the glass….Claire did get scared at one point when she tumbled a little bit into the glass and had a moment where she must have thought she was going to fall in. She quickly overcame her fear and watched the tropical fish swim by. It was great and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there! We have turtles to visit, butterflies to see, sea otters to ‘ohh and ahh’ over….it is going to be so much fun 🙂

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I think we may have to get Jimmy a fancy SLR camera for his birthday this year. He is really talented at taking photos- in my opinion 😉

Lately, he has been taking a lot of black and white photographs which have turned out really nice with the filtered light through the curtains or early morning on the deck.

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This summer has been really awful in terms of weather.We have had Fall-like weather for the past few months: lots of rain and cloudy days.

The past week or so things have turned around and we may just get a few months of nice sunshine – Yay!

The rainy weather doesn’t stop us from getting out and about with the kids. Rather, it changes what we do with the kids….library visits, meeting up with friends, hiking in the woods, hanging out in the recreation room in our building etc.

Jimmy was out running a few errands with the kids when he was caught in a torrential downpour. Luckily there are a lot of awnings in our neighborhood so they waited it out before making their way back home….

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This video was captured during a downpour later in the evening which is why it is so grainy. Intense rain though!

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We were given two hand-me-down hiking backpacks – one from Wendy & family and the other from a family in our building.

These backpacks are great. Claire & Rhys can sit comfortably inside them and have a nice view as we hike through some beautiful areas. We recently have ventured from the trails around our home to the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. There are great trails through this area with really pretty views. Claire & Rhys absolutely love walking so we let them free of the packs to walk the trails until they get too tired or get too naughty by running away from us 😉

The last hike we went on we packed a picnic lunch and sat in the back of the van to eat it. Claire & Rhys sat down so nicely and calmly to eat their lunch which was a real treat. We plan to do lots of hiking as a family.

 

We were asked to submit a family photo for Anna & Ben’s guest book that her sister was creating prior to the wedding. It was a good opportunity to get some family photos done. It was fun selecting outfits for the kids and trying to make them sit still for the shoot 🙂

Jimmy selected the location (nearby kids park) and performed some of his photo wizardry to capture some nice images.

Here are two of the photos he captured that day. I think they turned out great 🙂