Last Lazy Days of Summer

Our time in Penticton is almost over! It has been a great trip, but tommorow we start a long day of packing, driving, unpacking, and laundry. Here are a few pictures from our last few days.

Naomi watching college football with daddy on Saturday morning.

We went for a walk every morning and usually found a good place to take some pictures. These are a few of our favorites.


On Friday afternoon we were joined by two more families. The older girls took on the role of babysitters, while Naomi and Parker were carried around from place to place whether they liked it or not. The girls were a great help and sure made my days a lot easier! Here is a shot of some of the girls playing with the babies.
And another one with all the girls with Naomi.

I really need to get some sleep so I have to cut this post short. I'll finish off with a great group shot of all of us together. We have had great time together with our new friends and old friends!

Swinging in the Summertime

I was going to post a quick video of Naomi enjoying her first experience in the big swing, but it does not seem to be working. I'll try again later. So here are a few pictures instead.


We took her to the park near our hotel this morning. She really enjoyed the swing, although she got scared when the swing went to high. I can't get enough of her cute laugh!

Penticton

Greetings from sunny Penticton! We arrived safely yesterday afternoon after a long drive. The trip that should usually take about 3 1/2 hours took us over 5. I guess that's what happens when you travel with a little baby. We left Abbotsford around 9:15, stopped in Manning and Princeton, and arrived in Penticton at 2:30. Naomi did good on the drive and slept most of the way. After we settled in, Ron headed out to get some groceries, while I unpacked and got our room prepared for our stay.
We had chicken and rice for dinner. Thanks Xian and Vic! After dinner we walked along the water and went to the outdoor "night fair" at the park. It was great fun. The vendors were selling everything! Including hot sauce, carpets, carvings, baked goods, and even pasta in cool shapes. One vendor was selling beautiful jewelry from Fiji. There was one necklace that I really liked. It was a flower carved from mother of pearl. We kept walking through the stalls and seeing was else was for sale. Just as we were preparing to walk home, Ron handed me a small box. Inside was the necklace that I had admired. He went back and bought it for me. I love it!
This vendor offer to let us taste his hottest hot sauce. Ron volunteered to taste it, and claims that it was not that hot but his face said otherwise.

Today has been a good day so far. Naomi was up 3 times at night to eat so we slept in until 10:30. After a leisurely morning, which included a bath for Naomi, we got ourselves ready and headed for the pool. Naomi really enjoyed the water. She likes to splash and watch the other kids in the pool.
We bought this life jacket for her at Walmart and we finally had a chance to try it out. Naomi liked floating on her back the best.

After about an hour we went back to the hotel room and put Naomi down for a nap. Our room gets wireless Internet so I took the chance to blog about our trip so far. I will try to post again soon, but for now I am off to have more fun :)

Update

It has been far too long since I last blogged. Sorry to all those who check this blog regularly. By the way... who are you? Please leave a comment so that I know that someone is reading my rambling thoughts.
We have had a wonderful summer. It has been strange being at home when I am used to working hard all summer to pay for my next year at school. I must say that I am very happy not be getting reading for school this September. It is a strange feeling to be out of the school scene. I don't miss the homework, but I must admit that I sometimes long for the adult conversation while I am at home alone with Naomi.

For the long weekend we headed out to Hope with my parents and went camping. We had a great time. I was a little nervous about how she would sleep since she was not in her own crib, but thankfully she slept great. It must be all that fresh air. Here are a few pictures, I will try to get more from my dad soon.

Naomi is her new car seat with all of the camping stuff for the long weekend. We put Naomi in her new car seat for the trip so that we would have more room for all the camping gear. After we got home we decided to leave the car seat in the car for good. The portable travel system seat was getting WAY to heavy to carry. She weights over 18 lbs already and it was getting to hard to carry her and the seat.

Naomi hanging out in Oma and Opas trailer. It was such a treat to spend time in my parents trailer while we were camping. It gave Naomi a chance to lay down and stretch. While we were camping she started grabbing her feet, and now that is all she wants to do when I try to change her diaper.

Ontario Pictures

Here are a sample of some of the pictures that we took in Ontario! We had a wonderful time. I was so amazed at how well Naomi did on the plane. What a great little traveller!

Spontaneous Penticton Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend in Penticton with our friends M+M Friesen and their kids. They mentioned that they were planning to go and invited us to join them. Ron and I were not sure if we should go because we had not travelled with Naomi before and it was so last minute. On Friday afternoon when Ron came home from work we talked about it and decided to be spontaneous! We are sure glad that we did! We quickly packed up and made reservations at the hotel. The next morning, after Naomi's first feeding, we piled into the car and started the trip. Naomi did great! She slept all the way the Princton, ate again, and then slept almost the rest of the way to Penticton. We had a wonderful time with our friends, and it was great to get away from the regular and mundane routine of life. Thanks for inviting us M+M! Here are some pictures of our trip.





We spent time at the hotel pool and at the beach just relaxing and enjoying the wonderful sunshine. It was a little tricky keeping Naomi out of the sun to avoid burning, but still warm enough in the shade without bundling her up like an eskimo since the shade was quite cold when the wind was blowing. We left on Sunday afternoon just as the rain started. Naomi did really well again on the way home. We stopped in Princeton again for nursing and then drove the rest of the way without stopping, while Naomi slept in her car seat. I am so pleased with how well the trip went and it gave me hope the our upcomming trip to Ontario will go just as well.

Holiday... and Celebrate

It's Christmas Time!!!!!!!!
The house is begining to look great filled with holiday decorations and cheer. We had a wonderful time last Saturday decorating the tree.

We got this wonderful tree from our friends Christian and Victoria when they moved this fall. Thanks guys! I love decorating the Christmas tree each year. I especially enjoy looking at all the ornaments before finding the prefect place for them on the tree. Many of our ornaments bring back special memmories of people or things that we love. One of the ornaments that we put up each year is the one that my mom gave us the fist year that we were married. It has a picture on it of us on our wedding day.
This is the other great addition to our Christmas decorations this year. I love these Willow Tree figurines. I have always wanted to have this set to display during Christmas time. My wish came true! Last Thursday Ron came home with this special gift for me...

You may ask why a gift when it is so close to Christmas.
The reason is.........
It is time to celebrate.................
I AM DONE!!!!
That's right I am offically finished my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology! Today was my last exam and I handed in my last take home final. It feels strange to be completely done a four year degree. It seems like I am only on a short break before I have to get back to doing papers and projects..... but no!
I won't have much time to rest because tommorow I start a new part time job. I was prepared to spend some time resting at home before our baby comes in March however I could not resist the oppertunity to make some extra money during the few months I have left to work. A partner at Assante Financial was looking for an administrative assistant to fill in some paper work as they are going through an upgrade in the next few months. It will be mostly filling in forms and scanning documents. It seems pretty easy but I won't mind the change from the stress that I have been used to. I will let you all know how it went soon.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

It is hard to believe what I am seeing outside my window right now! "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow". When the weather chanel said that it was going to snow, I immediatley thought of the small sprinking of wet snow that we get a few times in the winter. It is nice for about 1 hour and then it turns into a slushy, muddy, mess, and is gone by the next morning. I could not have been more wrong! It started snowing last night and has not stopped since. I am begining to wonder if Ron will make it to work tommorow, or if I will brave the roads to get to school! Only time and the rising snow will tell!

Ron braved the weather and went out to get some groceries for us... Thank goodness he went when he did... from the looks of things we may be stuck in the house for a while. At least we will not starve!
We are all warm here in our house enjoying the rare oppertunity to stay home, drink tea, do homework, and of course watch football! I must say that I much prefer the view inside to the one outside right now (wink, wink).