Home (& a new friend)

This was us leaving my parents' farm early Wednesday morning:

Micah looks like he's already anticipating the way he'll feel after 25+ hours in the van...

After stopping in Saskatchewan to visit relatives, we had a quick 2 night-stay in Edmonton so we could enjoy the mall. A few rides in Galaxy Land, some time in the waterpark, a little shopping and then we were off again, and looking forward to being back in beautiful British Columbia.

I didn't take many pictures on the trip home - other than these few while we stopped at Mount Robson. Erik took a quick catnap in the van while the kids played...

Pyjamas make great traveling clothes.

The last stretch from Hope to Abbotsford is always the worst.

Correction - I think the last stretch of any drive is the worst. And inevitably, for our family, there is always at least one child who has a meltdown during that entire hour.

After almost 15 hours straight of driving? We expected it.

We waited for it.

But... it never came.

The kids - especially Silas - amazed us.

I think we're raising some hard-core road-trippers.

We pulled into Toews headquarters on Saturday evening, happy to be "home" - even though we'll be living out of suitcases and boxes for a couple more weeks until the big move into our new place.

And once we were home, it was time to fulfill a promise we made to the kids....

Meet Moses.

The kitten belongs to everyone, but we knew that Keziah would pretty much take over all pet-sitting responsibilities, including deciding when he shall eat, sleep, play and poop. I call her my "smother mother".

Poor Moses is being a really good sport.

He let her tuck him in this afternoon and stayed there for a long catnap.

And I knew the kitten was a keeper when I watched him sit still while Keziah brushed his fur with a barbie comb.

Welcome to the family little Moses.

Me Amo Mexico

A few days from now, I'm going to lather on some sunscreen, grab a novel and an armful of snacks and park myself right here...

That's right folks.

On Saturday Erik and I get to leave the kids with Granny & Grandpa and fly to Cancun :)

It turned out to be a partially paid-for trip, in fact, since Erik won free accommodations back in April. I let him go on a Men's Frisbee Golf weekend on Pender Island. Erik wanted to go simply for the love of the game and he didn't realize until they were about to play the final round that the grand prize was actually a week in a time-share in Cancun. He silently prayed for the Lord to give him favour in his frisbee throws (grin) and he won!

The great part is that this comes just in time to celebrate our 10-year anniversary (which is actually on July 15th). We weren't expecting to do anything "special" this year since we knew we'd be buying a house, but God provided us with a great opportunity that we just couldn't pass up.

So... Mexico, aqui vamos!

We've Arrived

The three full days of driving are a bit of a blur, but here's what I do remember:

~ Driving through tunnels. These are always a big highlight for the kids and even warrant the pausing of any DVDs that might be playing.

~ Animal sightings. The most exciting was a black bear and her 2 cubs (which makes 3 years in a row of spotting a bear! ... For anyone who cares.)

~ Tallying up the money spent on gas. (I believe the grand total was close to $500... yikes.)

~ Most frequent phrases from the backseat. "I'm hungry" (most commonly heard about 5 minutes after the last snack was eaten). "Make a bottle... Home!" (heard by the young Mr. Siley-Bear who is sorely in need of intervention for his bottle addiction) and "When are we gonna be there?" (Most commonly answered by "In a little while!!")

But all in all, I can't really complain about the drive. In fact, I read an entire novel on the trip - which seems to indicate that I wasn't doling out snacks, switching DVDs and pacifying Silas the entire time.

We made our customary stop in Revelstoke where we feasted on McDonald's and released some pent-up energy at the park.

It was also the scene of our very first injury. Nothing a band-aid wouldn't fix though.

(I'm really praying that we don't come home with any broken bones or head lacerations this year.)

After a stop in Alberta with some old friends and a stop in Saskatchewan to see Erik's grandparents, we arrived at the farm, ready to settle in for another Manitoba summer.

Sunday morning pancakes - in lieu of Saturday morning pancakes.

(This classic Corelle pattern totally brings me back to my childhood... Anyone else??)

Erik is slightly concerned about Silas' shoe and purse fetish.

I happen to think it's pretty cute.

For now.

Yesterday (Sunday), Erik figured it was as good a time as any to finally take Micah's training wheels off.

Micah caught on quite quickly, There were a few scrapes and a few tears but we're trying to keep him positive and excited about this new-found skill.

On The Road Again

It's that time of year again. The van and trailer are loaded up and we will be setting the alarm for somewhere in the 5 o'clok hour for tomorrow morning. In less than 24 hours we hope to be settling in with our friends in High River, AB and then the following night with Erik's grandparents in Saskatchewan. If all goes well, we should be in Boissevain by Saturday evening!

This past week brought last days of school for the kids, including a Vancouver Aquarium field trip for Micah. Unfortunately, he'll miss the last 3 weeks of Kindergarten, and Keziah will miss her preschool graduation next week. She'll also miss her spring ballet recital, but thankfully Erik and I were able to watch her dress rehearsal this past week and snag a video of another adorable little routine - which, of course, I couldn't resist sharing :)

(Unfortunately one or two of the other girls were having a tough time during the performance :P)

Time to hit the hay...

Manitoba - here we come!

Road Trip 2010

After scrambling like crazy to get everything done that we needed to (and I do mean scrambling!) we were able to leave on schedule last Wednesday from Abbotsford. The van and trailer were loaded up and we started off!

I spent quite a bit of the trip sitting in the back between the boys - it was surprisingly comfortable and SO handy when Silas was fussy/hungry/thirsty.

Playing at the park in Revelstoke - a road trip tradition.

(Click here to see a similar shot from last year.)

Silas' meeting with an oreo cookie...

Our first day of driving was the longest and we pulled in quite late to our friends house in Cochrane, AB. We spent the night and the next morning with Craig & Janelle's family of 5 that is pretty much a mirror image of ours (boy, girl, boy - all around the same age as ours).

Micah & Nathan:

Keziah & India:

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture of Silas and his little friend, Jax :(

Our 2nd day of travel was C-O-L-D. Last year southern Alberta was the hot spot on our trip. This time it was as cool as 6 degrees and windy and rainy all day. Erik and I agreed that, with the wind, it felt colder than winter in BC. Brrr. So, because of the nasty weather, our stops that day were very brief. We were almost to the 7 hour point of our day when I realized that we hadn't taken Silas out of his car seat once! And he was so content - I figured we'd better just let him be :)

Apparently we passed through the AB/SK border just hours before the rain washed out that section of the Trans-Canada. Crazy! And we made it to Herbert in time for a late supper at Erik's grandparents' house.

We stayed 2 nights in Herbert and spent part of our "day off" exploring Erik's grandparents' old farmyard near Hodgeville, SK.

The farm house.

Old siding (I thought it looked kinda neat :)

Micah took this one:

Erik was feeling nostalgic:

Water pump in the barn:

One of our "finds". We considered taking it with us but, in the end, decided to leave it.

As we climbed into the van the last morning in Herbert, we got our first taste of the prairie mosquitos. A few of them managed to find their way into our van as we left - causing a panic attack by the older 2 kids. At this point we figured we'd better prepare them for the bugs that would be waiting for us in Manitoba...

All in all, travel went amazingly well! Now that we've got some experience with driving across the country we've come up with a good list of helpful hints for road-tripping with kids:

- be sure to pack lots of snacks, lots of movies, and lots of wet-wipes (having several packages of wet-wipes strategically placed around the van is even better!)

- make the kids try to go to the bathroom EVERY time you stop (even if they say they don't have to)

- if there is a baby/toddler who needs entertaining/feeding along the way, and you have an extra seat in the back... use it!

- and if you have to stay up in the front seat, put kids snacks into little zip-loc bags that can be tossed back to them (I promise, your aim will improve with time and practice!)

Stay tuned for the "Summer in Manitoba" edition of my blog. I hope to blog a little bit more frequently now that we're settled in :)

Summer Plans

Life continues to move at a startling pace. Is it really June already?

Maybe it just hasn't felt like June because it's been raining here for about a month. I'm ready for some summer!

And speaking of summer, it has come to my attention that I neglected to mention the fact that we are spending the entire summer in Manitoba with my family. I was SO sure that I had mentioned it in this post, but apparently I didn't! So, yes - for those of you who don't know - we're leaving next week to spend the rest of June and all of July & August on my parents' farm. Erik is going to be doing some renovations on my parents' cabin as well as some other random jobs (we've been assured that there will not be any lack of work for him!). And the kids and I will enjoy the wide open space of a HUGE yard and a wide open schedule to connect with family and friends.

After last year's trip, we knew we wanted to make another road-trip through the prairies this summer. At Christmas, my parents started talking about us coming for an extended time so Erik could do some work there. And eventually it has evolved into us spending our entire summer there. We thought originally that we might sell our house before the summer so we could avoid mortgage payments on a house that we're not using! But selling just isn't feasible right now (a couple of mortgage payments are way cheaper than those realtor fees!) so we found ourselves wishing we would've planned ahead to find some renters.

But, apparently God can work with last-minute time frames :)

We made a connection last week with a fantastic missionary family who needs a place to rent until sometime in August when they leave on their next term. Um, could it have worked out any more perfectly??

So, now we're trying to tie up all sorts of loose ends here. Plus, we have to make our house "live-able" for another family, which means packing some things away and creating a bit of space in closets and cabinets for their things. It feels good, though, to know that our house won't be sitting empty.

Anyway, besides that, I have pictures to post! It's been much too long...

The days that the sun has happened to peek through those persistent clouds, we have maximized it! Keziah was enjoying her lunch outdoors the other day:

Silas is a professional crawler and I don't believe he aspires to do anything else at this point (i.e. standing up on 2 feet and walking). I've never had a crawler in the summer before and I'm being introduced to the dirty hands and calloused knees that come with this combination.

I'm not sure what elicited this look from Micah, but it is definitely consistent with his personality :)

Fun times with Daddy!

I dressed the boys in matching shirts for the first time a couple of weeks ago :)

We hung a swing in the garage last week for Silas to enjoy (for lack of a better place to hang it!). Swings are his absolute favourite thing these days and he will squeal and screech even if we just drive past the park! It's been great to have a place to stick him when the kids are riding their bikes outside or Erik is working. As you can see, it's also handy for getting baby boys to sleep when nothing else seems to be working...

This is Silas's special blankie. It was a baby gift for Micah several years ago and I brought it out of storage for Silas. It has quickly become his favourite. I bought him a different one in hopes that we could make a transition (since the current one is already thread-bare and see-through!), but I'm afraid the old, thin blanket still holds the key to his heart :)