Camping

The last week of my holidays went by so fast!! Monday we did some shopping in Lethbridge then drove to Raymond and met up with my friend Jana. She and her family moved from Pincher pretty much right after she had her baby in July, so it was nice to catch up with her and see her adorable baby girl!! Our visit however, was cut tragically short by a pool pooper. Yup, everyone out of the pool :( The best news that came out of this was that the pooper didn't belong to either of us, Yay!! However, it did mean we left earlier than we wanted to. The pool in Raymond was awesome though and we will definetly be making the trip out there again.

I worked Tuesday and Thursday, and just spent the day with the kids on Wednesday, and we got ready for camping!! We had booked a site at Surveryors Campground, we love it there. It's a nice campsite that it family oriented, with a nice beach, a lake warm enough you can actually swim in it, and painted turtles everywhere. We left Friday morning and drove out to this site, set up camp and set off for another adventure! Last year Dave and I spent a weekend in Radium Hot Springs and loved it. on our way home we stopped at Fairmont and decided at some point that we would take the kids there. Fairmont is more family friendly, and Friday was a little on the cooler side so a perfect day to go!! It is also only an hour from where we were camping. It was so nice to sit in the pools and relax...well, as much as you can with Jeshie around lol. The kids had a blast though and it is really something sitting there in the middle of the mountains. We loved it.

We left around dinner time, grabbing some Slush Puppies for the drive, and headed back to camp. Matthias is now our resident fire maker so he got our fire going, we roasted hot dogs on the fire and then pretty much hit the hay. It was a good thing we brought lots of blankets though as it was pretty chilly.

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, and headed out for a hike around the lake. It was nice and peaceful and we got to see lots of turtles. Asher was so pleased he finally got to see some since the last time we went earlier this summer they were all hiding. After a snackish lunch, we headed down to the beach, rented a paddle boat, and spent some time taking turns paddling around the lake seeing the turtles from a new view. Jeshie fell asleep on the ride lol. The kids spent the afternoon splashing and playing in the water. After dinner the kids headed over to the amphitheatre where the park ranger had some fun activities planned. (like games to see how it feels to be a nocturnal animal)

The only down side to our visit was our inconsiderate camper neighbours who apparently can't tell time. The later it got the louder they got and they had kids too! Grrrr.

Sunday we packed up and headed home. We all unloaded and de-stinkyfied ourselves and headed over to our friends Andy and Kim's for dinner. We had an awesome evening with good food, wine, and chitchat while the kids played. It was really a super nice way to end my vacation time. Yup, I went back to work Monday.

Here's a few camping pics:

 

See you soon!

Mama Mia

Dave came home with flowers yestereday...smart man! A dozen red roses, they are beautiful. I do love having fresh flowers on my dining room table. After the sanding fiasco this weekend...it was really in his best interest lol!

On to other things...I haven't had time to post about last Monday!! It was an awesome day. Dave and I took off to the city for the day. His sister came over and watched our kids for us and took them to their swimming lessons. We went to a new restaurant in town for lunch, it looked nice and we'd been wanting to try it for awhile. We placed our order and the food coming out of the kitchen looked great...Ours finally came, and there was a giant long hair baked into my soup!~EW~ They made me a new one which was all good and fine but we did notice when the bill came there was no attempt to compensate for the fact that there was someone else's hair cooked into my food...or that I then had to sit foodless while they made me a second order. While their bruschetta was amazing, we probably won't be heading back to eat at State and Main any time soon.

After some rigorous shopping. It was time for dinner, Yay! We went to Ricks, my favourite restaurant. It's in an old water tower and was where Dave and I went for our very first date all those years ago. We love going there, but don't often because it is quite pricey. It was nice to enjoy some adult time enjoying our food and conversation. Then it was show time! Mama Mia!! Dave has been working security at events for a few months now and enjoying it very much. This was my first time going with him. I was one of those people checking tickets at the entrance, it was lots of fun! Even better was that as long as there are no problems....which there weren't, when the lights go down you get to watch whatever show it is! I got to watch all of Mama Mia, singing along to the songs, sitting there with a stupid grin on my face the whole time. I loved it! Even better was this arena has no air conditioning, being on the floor it wasn't so bad, but seeing everyone up higher in the stands, watching all the programs being used for fans, and you know those poor people had to be dying of the heat :( Like my friend Kara said..."It's hotter than a baptist church in here!" Lol.

This Monday, as in today, was much different than last week. It was me and the kids day. We headed into Lethbridge, did some back to school shopping in the morning. Had a quick lunch at Costco. (so cost friendly!) Then drove out to Raymond to meet up with a friend of mine. We'd heard that the pool there was very family friendly and we weren't disappointed. It was so nice to see Jana and let the kids play. Unfortunately someone's kid pooped in the pool, and it got shut down. SO glad it wasn't one of my kids!! It was going to be closed for awhile so we just ended out leaving, it was pretty hot out anyway under that sun with no shade or water to play in. So we grabbed some slurpees and headed back into town for one last quick shop of perishable items before heading home. I got a nice surprise too, Dave had primed the wall that was sprayed yesterday so we are that much closer to being done painting this living room once and for all!!

I can't believe how fast summer is going by, it's almost done! This is my last week of holidays, the kids are done (and passed their levels) swimming lessons, and its the last week of Boys and Girls Club that they've been enjoying so much this summer, plus we're getting ready for our last camping trip of the summer this upcoming weekend. It's been so busy for us this year, it seem like they just got out of school and we're getting them ready to go back! It's bittersweet honestly....

See you soon!!

Clean up day

Friday
Today was clean up day at our house. This may make me a bad person...but I HATE having to clean up with my kids. I really do.

This summer has been so busy for us that some of the deeper cleaning has been put aside and some things were really starting to look run down. Today was THE day to get it cleaned up. Stuff like gettting those extra non essential loads of laundry done, sweeping and mopping under the furniture, cleaning the crayon off the wall where Jeshie has been colouring recently....re-organizing the towels in the bathroom closet on top of the normal bathroom cleaning stuff.

The day did not start off well...mostly because it seemed like yesterday had barely ended. Jeshie was up a lot last night wanting to climb into bed with us. We recently took away his bubba. I wanted to do it sooner but knowing how stubborn he is and the sleepless nights I would encounter, I decided to wait until my vacation time to do it. I won't lie, there have been a few sleepless nights. He had been improving, but last night was rough. Then this morning my beloved coffee pot of 3 yrs died on me. It's been on the fritz for the last little bit, but now it is dead, it brewed horribly cold coffee this morning, but only a quater of what it's supposed to :(

Not a great start to the day.

Off to Timmies I go and grocery shopping. Once home,  it's time to get busy cleaning up. The kitchen needs some tlc, the bathroom its usual stuff etc...We get going doing what we need to, while this is happening I am starting to get dinner ready for some company that is coming for dinner. Finally, after a very long while, I decide its time to check on Jaelle who is taking a really really long time cleaning the bathroom. In over an hour, nearly nothing is done! How can one person be so slow??! She's in this constant dream world that there is no getting out of apparently...A prime example of why I hate doing chores with the kids. It would  be one thing if they weren't very smart and were actually having a hard time with it...but they are Very smart! They know exactly what needs to be done, its just a matter of choosing to do it. Needless to say, everything did get done, but it took all day to do it
>( What a waste of time! I can't wait for the day to come where they realize that playing AND doing chores don't mix....and simply doing the latter quickly they can get to the playing part way faster.

So how do I reward all of our hard work you ask???

Saturday
I sanded and painted the living room. Nope, not joking. There is drywall dust everywhere. Not only that, but Dave used this special 'dustless' drywall mud, which is just code for 'way harder to clean.' The floors have been washed 10 times and are still dirty from that stuff....which if he uses in any other part of the house I'll refuse to help him in any way. The kids escape to the pool for the afternoon while I painted....the air was already blue because Dave forgot to mention that I needed a coarser sanding sponge for this stuff as well...so I had to work twice as hard and long to get the s#$@#$ thing sanded in the first place! I started sanding at 10:30am, and didn't finish painting until 12:30 am. Dave was gone for the day/night dj'ing and I won't lie...got some less than pleasant texts about his choice of drywall mud and forgetting to tell me about the different sponge type. My kids were left to fend for themselves for dinner...there were lots of leftovers in the fridge which was probably the one thing that was planned out well, then got to enjoy a movie together before heading to bed

Sunday
 After spending the morning cleaning up...again, my poor kids were happy to escape to their Nana's for the afternoon. I did some touch ups on the paint and am now sitting here admiring how much dust there still is despite my efforts to get rid of it. Oh ya, and Seraiah accidentally broke my mop this morning...so here I sit, knowing there are so many other things I should be doing and just not caring at this particular moment. Right now Jeshie is napping, so it's just me, Ashman, and Mike's Hard Limeade. Yum, and well earned!!

Some pics:

See you soon!

Too long

Well lots has happened since my last post, in fact I wrote a huge long post only to delete it by accident. That was frustrating!!!

Where do I start?? Well, I guess starting by saying my wayward son is now ungrounded and alive and healthy. Also much more punctual since his little 'incident'. All the kids have been super busy actually. Right now we have the older three enrolled in Boys and Girls Club twice a week. We also have the older four kids in swimming lessons three nights a week...Remember my tired post?? Yup, still tired. Swimming doesn't end until 9pm Mon-Weds, so by the time we get home and kids in bed its pretty late. Then Thursday nights of course are my late night at work. Add to this that I have also just worked 12 days straight and have been working a (very) part time job on top of my full time job to help finance some of the kids extra activities...I don't anticipate feeling rested any time soon lol.

Of course at least one night in there may have been a self inflicted girls night in/out, with much too much wine, some awesome karaoke, and too many shooters. I am too old for shooters, the super awesome hangover after the night of puking proved that to me once and for all...Reminded me why I avoid doing that, ever. I'm sure my husband thought I was super sexy as my violent wretching actually woke him up. Stellar. Will this keep me in?? Nope, I'll probably go out for the next one, but I'll be much better behaved guaranteed.

Speaking of swimming lessons. Asher was pretty funny, he's really enjoying his lessons. I hear lots of 'Mom look at me, I'm swimming!' from the bleachers. So naturally, after he had completed three lessons, he gets home and finds his dad, and then announces 'I don't need a teacher anymore, I know how to swim now!' .... lol. Of course he CAN swim with a lifejacket, but acording to him, he's good and has learned it all now...
Dave has also been incredibly busy, on top of doing the security for the CCR concert, he immediately after started doing security for Cirque de Soleil. He was pretty much gone for the better part of a week. Don't worry, I did phone him, he didn't secretly move out, its all good lol. Better yet he got us tickets to see the show!! My sister watched Jeshie for the night seeing as it wouldn't have been fun for him, having to sit for such a long time. I raced home from work the friday night, scooped the kids, and drove to Lethbridge. What an AMAZING show! It was awesome and we had such good seats, not floor seats but pretty close, looking straight on to center stage. The whole show is put together so well, and what amazingly talented people!! This was my first (of hopefully many) too. But it was so much fun hearing the kids laugh at the mime - who was hilarious, and seeing them be so amazed at what these people can do. Dave and I couldn't help but laugh as we listened  to them discuss some of the costume choices...'they look naked, that's Diguuuuusting' lol. I don't think all my strength would equal what these people have in their pinky finger! One act was with ribbons hanging from the ceiling and this woman doing tricks all under her own strength, no harness! (of course none of them used harnesses) One part, she essentially rolled herself up, then dropped like a rock towards the floor catching herself before she hit!! Can you say Amazing?! Of course because it was all so rushed, we didn't have time for dinner, so hot dogs, popcorn, and ice cream it was, of course washing it all down with some sugar filled pop, not the highlight of my night but the kids thought it was pretty great. Of course we didn't get home until 1am and I had to get up at 5:30 for work...did I mention I was tired lol?? I was so thankful to be able to take the kids to something so original and memory making. Next up is a night out for just Dave and I, going to see Mama Mia, I LOVE ABBA!! I can't wait.

Now I am on vacation. What is that?? It's a staycation really. This is my first job where I got two weeks holidays, I'm pretty thrilled about it actually. Paid to stay home?? OK! Of course what I really mean by staying home, is tiling my kids closet, the area by the back door, and painting my living room. Oh ya, and shopping for back to school, working a few days at my 'other job' and doing stuff with the kids. Somewhere in there, we'll camp for a few days...

See you soon!!