Christmas dinner at Frances and Chris' homeChristmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.Calvin Coolidge
Crabapples, cherry tomatoes, a few strawberries and an oak barrel full of carrots were a few of the things we produced in our yard this year. We also had some nice cucumbers, herbs and lettuce! Hoping to add some raspberries for next year!!
Flowers are still beautiful, despite the shorter days and cooler nights!! I'm sure the beautiful sunny weather has something to do with it!! Looking forward to a lovely fall and hopefully a late frost!!
We rescued a friend in the backyard today, a good sized salamander!! We found him stuck down in the backyard stairwell and cleaned him up and gave him some water. Maren and Joel observed it for a bit and then we put it in the garden!
Ethan is back at soccer for a few more times this fall! Brrrrr, the spectating is getting chilly!!
Papa Jim came to visit us at the end of August. We had some great weather and got in an evening trip to West Lake. Mitchell had some fun on his new 4 wheeler, aided of course, by his big brother and sister! 
Here come the collages!! Mind you, I picked only 84 out of 282 pictures, I think that's good when there's so much fun to share!
On our way getting sugared up with timbits!
Ethan and Maren just had to jump in on the first evening!
Our first day, at the beach all day! It was a little smoky but warm!
Mitchell loved walking on the road, stretching his legs! Soon he'll be big enough for a bike!!
The girl cousins, clothes and hair to match!
We took a break from our evening bike ride to skip some rocks, or just sink them!
Which one do you think best represents real life?
Family fun center activities: getting soaked in bumper boats and Maren with her amazing 2 hole in ones at mini golf!!
Fun at the park until...
Maren's face got a good whack on the teeter totter, notice the blue bruise on her cheek (it has darkened since!). What a good mother, getting a shot of her child being injured, don't know how I managed that!
Go-karting was the highlight for the men in the group!
What would camping be without food? Ice cream, yummy dinners, smores, campBBQ pies, and much more!
Fun times: Ethan's logging gear, blowing bubbles, playing slap.
Beach faces.
The best time, relaxing and playing at the beach! And yes Mike, we did do a sand castle war until we thought the risk of injury was too great! We called it a tie!
Bye bye Shuswap and #197! Hope to see you next year!
It was a hot, hot day for Mitchell's very first birthday, just like the day he was born! He's enjoying pushing his walker and playing in the pool. He can stand on his own and we're sure he'll be running soon! We celebrated with our family, Nikki, and Brian dropped by too. Mitchell loved the blue icing and thoroughly enjoyed his carrot cupcake, so thrilled to have a whole sweet to himself! So glad God gave us this sweet little guy!
So you asked for it, now you've got it!! The past 3 months are here in a nutshell! After our harddrive crashed, I didn't have access to pictures I wanted, so it just got left for a while. Now we'll get back on track, just in time for summer! Above are our 3 lovely children enjoying a book together in peace and quiet before going to church!
Ethan went to Vancouver with Jim and stayed with the Breedvelds all by himself! Jim was at a course in Sumas. I guess he really loved it there because he definitely did not want to come home, was still crying 2 hours later in Hope! He also informed me that he wants to live with Auntie Carolyne for a whole year and not go to school! Are you up for that Carolyne, trips to the zoo, aquarium, science center every week!!
On Canada Day we went out to 10 Mile Lake to enjoy the sun and water at the Novak's cabin. It was great, and the firework display by Mike and Matt topped it all off! And thankfully, Everest was found after his escape!
Crazy kids in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!! Those are some dirty backyard feet!! I don't think Noah was enjoying himself that moment!!
Sports day at Cedars! Maren ran against 3 other preschool girls and won first place, what do you mean "size advantage"? Mitchell hung out with his possible future kindergarten buddy, Jackson and Ethan ran against the other boys in his class!
Maren's preschool graduation
Maren had an amazing race birthday party with her friends. They pulled game clues out of a mailbox and played games and enjoyed an earth cake!
This was Maren's 5th Birthday party with the family! Daddy made a special peanut butter, chocolate, smartie ice cream cake for Maren and we all enjoyed it on this warm day!
Frances and I completed our half marathon, and did it in 2 hours, 2 1/2 minutes. The kids also took part in healthy kids day!
Jim built a play area for the kids in our backyard using the treehouse that we brought from our old house. The kids love it, now it just needs paint and some pea gravel underneath.
We enjoyed a muddy but fun hike at Forests for the World.
Nothing like a weiner roast and playing in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!
Mother's Day with my 3 sweeties!
