HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDIO!

It is my dear Father's birthday today. He is a really neat guy. Neat meaning: adventurous (he has hiked every mountain in the world!! well, okay, not really, but sometimes it seems that way!! haha) , faithful, steadfast in his Faith (my mom and dad have been praying together on their couch before bedtime for as long as the world has been turning), loving, kind, sincere, gentle, humorous (in that silly, British way!), thoughtful (like the time he bought me oil painting books and an easel for my birthday as a huge surprise!!), slow to get angry, always thinks before he speaks (which is why he rarely has his foot in his mouth.... i need to learn more of this skill!!), and very very very very very patient.

There are a lot of other traits my dad has, but these are some of the ones that stick out the most to me. He is a great daddio, and i love him VERY VERY VERY much!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDIO!!

please answer...

this post is for a question i have - PLEASE ANSWER!!

WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY COOK WHILE CAMPING?

camping season : the second trip of 2010

Dear Reader,

summer has come fast upon us, the thermostat in my home has been calculating numbers over 80 for the past week, school is out (for Julia), swim lessons are over, lack of regular routine is fresh, new and exciting. (i always beg for routine by the time August is ending, i love regular activities and schedules. But for now, it is lovely to be free of demands. love it. so much.)

Summer: ah. water, sweat, heat exhaustion, ice cubes, cold treats, splash-pool, sleepovers at Oma's house (yippeee!!), late nights around a camp fire, *ah, sigh* i do love summer.

Our camping trip from last weekend is the theme of my photos (above). We had a lovely trip up on sunday, i love setting up camp and eating fire-cooked steak. YUM. We pack up a lot of gear (i discovered, since it is normal to me, i never thought much of it, but our friends taught me otherwise. We went up with S and D, and they packed SO LIGHT, it made me look like i had packed for a month or two instead of three days!! haha)

But anyway, yes, we pack a lot of gear. I like to camp in luxury (haha, sort of!). Two tents: one for dave, mercy, adn I. One for Julia and Sam. A big air mattress for dave and I, tarps for those nasty summer storms, jackets (just in case), extra shoes (in case the kids jump in a puddle/etc), frisbee, bikes, helmets, books, sketching materials, two kitchen bins with every possible kitchen thingy, food, food, food (we like to eat well out of doors - J and P taught us the joy of good food mixed with beautiful nature!! ), oh, and don't forget the bike trailer, --and the camera -- and some pillows and blankets and sleeping bags and teddy bears and the beach bag (towels, sunscreen, bathing suits and water shoes in one convenient location! ta da!)....... you are getting the picture right? does anyone else have a van that looks like this before a THREE DAY camping trip?? yikes!! however scary it may seem, i wouldn't want it any other way. i love our camping trips, i love our out of doors luxury. i love it all.

However, i do not love the bugs.

The mosquito problem of JUNE did not bother me personally, it was more due to the excessive bites on my youngest children that these pests made my trip a bit tiresome. Sam and MErcy had so many bites, and were so uncomfortable, that i did not get a lot of sleep the second night we were camping. it was a painful 10pm-8am. ik. i think we have ruled out june camping for the rest of our lives (as long as we are in Mosquito land).

If we forget the long night, and the weary last day (which meant grumpy fussy hot itchy children) - it was a great trip! (haha) We had a splendid time exploring the fossils all over the rocky point, we spent hours at the beach, we walked and played. Next time i have a "game plan" to spend much more time sitting and reading, while the kids play. This trip was a "busy" three days, and i like to chill a bit more than i planned for this vacation. But that is all that was lacking, a plan. i always need a plan. :)

Enjoy the Photos!!

A lovely lovely lovely day

Today i had a lovely day. (if you didn't gather that from the title of the post) Ah. *sigh* i love having Dave home, it feels like forever has passed by since we had a family day, and the kids did not have to ask, "where is daddy?" this morning. Only to respond with, "but i wanted to see him today.", once they learn he is at work.

We went to the market on our way to swimming lessons, and enjoyed the family swim time after wards. ah, i love the pool. This evening dave's folks came for dinner. IT is the last week of school and mama has a lot on her plate gearing up for Graduation among other tasks. Our normal routine would be for me to sit back and let her bring me dinner (I know you are thinking- "wow! Spoiled!!". and it is true.)... that is our regular wednesday, but today i told her to come without food. we made feta burgers ( you should now be thinking , "wow" again, because that is what they were- "wow so good".) and greek salad and iced tea. yum. Then we went for a beautiful evening stroll, on which i made it my mission to get "good pictures" of mom and dad with the kids. (i have a lot of those "just took a bite of dinner" pictures of dad with the kids, and well, they don't look as nice as the ones you are about to see!! hahaha) So, thank you to all the willing subjects. i love my few pics from this evening. :)

Art Walk 2010 & Wawanosh (Again) :)

Here are the unedited photos of the last three days (art walk was saturday.the tea pot is from a vendor there. She had some amazing pieces of pottery.) (wawanosh was monday, i decided to make it a "mini" class trip, with a few of J's friends from school, but only two wonderful girls could make it. so we had a very "mini" class trip!! haha. it was super fun. perfect weather. good picnic. nice landscapes. pesty mosquitoes though. next time : remember the Skin so soft!!)

Other Stuff

Dave was asked to speak at Julia's School this past week. They do a weekly chapel, and he was giving the gospel message through some good ol' Cable analogies. :) He came in full uniform (as you can see) and fixed the TV for the principal. All the while telling the kids about Jesus and His sacrifice that makes it possible for us to be forgiven, and replace our sinful heart (the "bad connector" on the TV) with a new heart (new connector) that Jesus' love can properly flow through to others. :) it was cool.



After a couple weeks of beautiful, sunny, clear, hot and humid weather, we had a rainy-fog day. Unfortunately that fog day coincided with a visit from the Snowbirds to our little town. We made the trek to the airport, along with all of sarnia it seemed. The cars were everywhere... i felt like we had been transported in a dream to the Pixar movie "Cars". (which wouldn't have been far fetched, since we have been seeing that daily for rest time this past week)

The fog was thick, and continued to roll in once we arrived. by the time Julia and i walked to the nearest bathroom, caught a frog, picked some flowers, and turned back to our van- the show had been canceled and the line up to leave had begun. WOW. cars cars cars.

Instead of sitting in van-in line up. We chose to walk around the airport, see what we could see, and perhaps glean some sort of adventure from our field of grounded planes. 45 minutes passed: we walked, talked to friends we met along the way, meandered as close to the fence as we could to see the planes, and then went back to our van. Once there, a vehicle pulled up and dropped off two of the pilots! We asked for a picture, and they talked with us for a while: apologizing for the lack of a show, and informing us of their 11 am send off the next day. Julia was excited to meet them, sam looked confused, and Mercy had no clue what was going on. But dave and I were very excited to have found our adventure, and meet Marko and Tweetie. (the pilots)

I think the comical point in our story comes now... dave and i were chuckling about this all night. We had been wandering for 45 minutes, and friends' of ours had decided to wait in the line-in their van. Well, we just finished saying goodbye to the pilots, got in our van and turned to get in line when our friends' came into view. We asked to get in line, and they let us in - right in front of their own van of course... so we left the airport before them! (cheaters... we didn't have to wait in line!) We thanked them, and i yelled out the window: "you must be some fine Christian folk to let us in line after that long!!!" heehee. anyway. it was funny.