Our Adventures

We're on the last weekend of our summer break before school starts up again. Chris is excited but I wouldn't mind summer extending itself. I've been applying to some part-time contracts but hiring is always left to the very last minute before school starts so it's a little bit stressful. Who knows where I'll be on the first day of school. But I'm not going to think about that right now because technically it's still summer right?

At the end of July and early August we had a few weeks at home instead of galavanting all over the place. We went for an evening of ice cream and mini golf with Ryan and Cheryl. I have proof that I won, even if I did keep score. We also had time to work on our deck and rip off the part that was rotting. We're happy with the cleaner look and just transplanted our plants today so they are spread out evenly along the deck. More planting will happen in spring to make it look even better. On July 22 our friends Eric and Carmen had their twins, Alyssa Mae and Luke David. We were able to see them and help out at their house within their first week home. We got to snuggle lots with the babies, played with Danica and let Eric and Carmen have some much needed rest. Chris went with a few guys on a more intense backpacking trip up some peaks near where we live. They went for one night and were able to cover three of the peaks in the Cheam Range. He had a great time exploring and there were some pretty amazing views from up there.  The last day of July we headed into Vancouver to watch the Celebration of Lights which is a big fireworks competition between countries. The night we went was Canada's night so we got there nice and early, had some food from a food truck and watched the amazing sunset before the show. Our prime spot soon filled up with people but we still had a great view of the fireworks. The show went by quick but it was pretty good. The first week of August we headed down to the States for a night. On our way down we went for a hike called the Skyline Divide which gave us great close up views of Mt. Baker and views of other ranges in the distance. It was a great little hike with tonnes to look at. After making our way back down we headed to the outlet malls and got a few things there. Then we got some supper and went to our hotel for the night. The next day we drove into Seattle to see the Bluejays play the Mariners. We got there early to watch batting practice but they didn't have one. We had great seats, the first row on the upper deck, but it was blazing hot out so sometimes we'd have to leave our sets to get some shade in the covered areas. Once the shade came then it was much more enjoyable to watch. It was a good game with lots of hits but the bluejays lost so Chris switched his hat to his Mariners one as we left the stadium.

Some Summer Fun
August 9th we drove out to the farm. We were planning on stopping in Calgary for a night but nobody we knew was home at that time. Our drive was pretty uneventful and we made it there safe and sound that night. It was so cold when we got there and the next morning but after that the weather started getting nice so we got lucky since it had been quite cool all summer there. Our first day Chris went for a run to check on the cows and we rode around on the tractor cutting the grass. We watched a meteor shower that night and I got some shots of the stars spinning. There were some pretty amazing shooting stars. Ryan and Randi came home the next day and we got caught up on all their African adventures. Kevin, Alysha and Cole came out for a day where we flew the kite, the boys made up a game mixed with baseball/cricket/football and ended up destroying our football by the end of it. We had fun with Cole and him singing to us as he stood on top of the fire ring cover. And of course we had to pick some raspberries and strawberries since that's his favourite thing to do. After supper we all took a walk down the trail and Cole got some fast rides in the wagon from uncle Ryan. The next day we went down to the lake and hung out with Ryan and Randi and her family. We got out on the boat and the boys mastered standing up on the tube. We explored some dirt caves and Molly went for a swim a couple times. The first time was okay but the second time she fell in after tipping the tube sideways when she stepped on it. Good thing she had Randi's dad there to rescue her. She wasn't so sure though so she kept paddling her feet in the air in case she would land in the water again. That night we went to see Mark and Erynn. Erynn got called into work as we were driving there so we hung out with Mark most the night. We enjoyed a fire in their backyard and had some good chats. We ended up waiting for Erynn to get home and talked a little more with her before heading home and seeing some faint northern lights in the distance. It was great to see them again, we always seem to miss each other when we visit. The next day the boys went golfing so I got to hang out with Cole in the morning. We played with Molly, picked berries, went for a quad ride, built blocks, read books and had a nap. When the boys came home Chris relaxed in the baby pool while Cole stuck his toes in. Then Cole sang us more songs on the fire ring cover before heading home. The next day we had a campfire and hotdog roast with the grandparents. We had a good talk around the fire that night with the 'rents and Ryan and Randi and I also got some good prairie sky photos. We went to the lake the next day where we saw a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins and the boys got to try out the new wakeboard. Our last day on the farm was the first day of harvest so Chris got his fill in the morning seeing them all get started and even got to haul a load in with the truck. Randi and I went with Chris in the evening and we took a ride in the combine with dad while Randi went in the grain cart with Ryan. It was a beautiful night and I was even trusted to drive the combine for a few passes. We had a great time!

We drove the north way home so we could stop at Denis and Andrea's in Camrose. We hadn't seen them since they moved there last summer. It was great to catch up and play some games with them again. The evening we got there we all had supper outside on their deck and once the kids were in bed we played the Bean game and caught up with each other. The next day was a bit cloudy and cool but we still went for a walk around the town to see what Camrose is like. When the older kids got back from VBS the sun came out and we enjoyed playing and hanging out in the backyard with each other. The kids chased Molly around until she was pooped out and Denis and Chris tried to teach Judah how to do backflips while Andrea and I took pictures of it all. We had another delicious supper that night, played a bit with the kids and had some good chats and games again that night. It was great to see how good they are doing ever since they made this move. Their family and marriage are stronger than ever and it was definitely the right choice to go there. Not that we don't miss them though!

After two nights at Denis and Andrea's we drove to Jasper. Once we got into the park we took a little hike up Mt. Wilcox and got some great views of the Athabasca Glacier. We also got pretty close to some big horned sheep and experienced snow in August while we were up there. After exploring for a bit we drove to Wabasso campground and got a site there and set up our tent. We then went to look at Angel and Edith Cavell Glacier. Supposedly a chunk of the glacier fell off a few years ago and caused some flash flooding in the lake below so it was closed to go right down to the lake. We were a little rebellious and climbed the rocks for a more direct view of the glacier. It was a pretty cool glacier to seeing just hanging way up high on this rock. We heard a few cracks but didn't see any big pieces fall and we avoided getting caught in a flood. By the time we got to the town we were pretty hungry but we still had to wait quite a bit at the Jasper Brewery where we went to eat. The food was really good once we got it though which was at about 9pm. On our way out of town we grabbed an ice cream cone and walked Molly around. As we crossed a street we were startled by a group of elk just standing in the dark corner of the road. These guys just hang out all over the place in Jasper. The night was quite chilly and our tent was frozen in the morning. It was a quick trip in there, one day we'll stay longer and check things out more. We stopped by Mt.Robson too on our way out and decided we would one day hike behind it and see it's glacier.

When we got home we went to see another set of twins that our friends Paul and Jamie had on August 14th while we were gone. They had only been home a few days but wanted us to come see Elijah and Finn so we couldn't resist. They were quite hard to tell apart and we kept joking how their names had probably been switched a few times already. Also since being back my mom had her 70th birthday. She didn't want anything fancy so we ordered Chinese, the typical birthday celebration meal in my family. She did have a big party with her Danish friends a few days later so that was good since she didn't let us throw her a party. Last night we had a little Bowron Lakes reunion with our friends that we went on the trip with. It was fun to see everyone again and reminisce about our trip and see everyone's pictures. Hopefully we'll do that kind of thing again one day soon.

Trip out to the Farm

Lots of great stuff has been going on in our lives these last couple of weeks. We've been having some non-stop fun. After school ended we had the weekend to get all our gear and food ready for our 8 day trip around the Bowron Lakes Circuit.

Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit
We drove up 8 hours on July 2 to Wells and met up with everyone to have supper that night and stayed at the Hubs Motel. We went on the trip with Chris' co-workers Wendy and Jason and their kids Jasper and Amelie, his other co-worker Steve and his son Michael, another co-worker Dave and his wife Mary and their kids Kieran and Thea and Jason's brother, Gerad and his wife Katrina and their boys Evan and Ryan. July 3rd, Day 1, we enjoyed breakfast together and then headed to the park for our orientation at 9am. The trip started off with us packing up our canoes and portaging 2.5 km to our first lake. We had pretty small lakes to paddle this day and two of our longest portages but we got through it. The sun was shining and everyone was excited to be out on the lakes. We rafted up for lunch on our first lake and then finished off one more portage before heading to Indian Point Lake where our first site was. Our site was up on a little cliff, the boys enjoyed some fishing and the little girls had a rock throwing competition. The bugs started biting and Amelie's face started swelling, so I gave her the nickname Marshmallow face which stuck with her the whole trip. Day 2 had us finishing up Indian Point Lake and portaging to Isaac Lake, the biggest lake in the chain of lakes. We paddled to the upper corner of the lake and set up camp trying to avoid the mosquitoes. We played some beat the parents, the boys discovered the ax and started whittling lots of sticks. Day 3 we started off with partly cloudy skies but as we paddled down Isaac Lake the clouds built and we got lots of wind after we crossed the lake and approached our next site. This site was a really nice site with a great beach, too bad we didn't have much sun at this one. After getting tents set up, cooking/rain shelters were built and we huddled into tents and under the tarps when the rain hit. We were rewarded after with a full rainbow just across the lake from us. The cool weather didn't stop the kids from enjoying the beach and making many sandcastles. One of the mom's, Mary, who is a biology teacher spent about an hour with Gerad and Katrina's youngest Ryan draw anatomically correct bugs in the dirt at our site. This site also had a neat outhouse way up on top of a hill, it had a great view from up there. Day 4 we finished off Isaac Lake in the cloudy weather. We pulled out before the Chute which is a rapids section for more experienced paddlers. After setting up our site and checking out the Chute a couple of us decided to take our canoes down it. Chris went with Gerad and his boys while I went with Jason and his son Jasper. It was a lot of fun going down the rapids, no one flipped so that was a bonus. This was our first site with a cooking shelter so we enjoyed drying out and eating at tables that night. I brought the game Jungle Speed and got all the boys hooked on it for the rest of the trip. In between playing the game we went to watch one of the best sunsets of our trip on Isaac Lake. This night the sky started to clear and we started looking forward to warmer weather. Day 5 we portaged our stuff and the other boats to the end of the Chute and Roller coaster and then all of us portaged past the falls before entering McLeary Lake. Here we saw old Freddie Becker's cabin from 1935 and a bald eagle resting on a stump by the lake. The sun was shining this day as we headed down the currents of the Caribou River and enjoyed the views of the Caribou mountain range. Our site was on Lanezi Lake, across from the highest peak in the park, Mt. Ishpa. It was great that we had clear weather on this day to see all the amazing views. It was quite buggy here but if we walked across the creek from our site there was a cooking shelter so we spent most of our evening in there cooking and relaxing. Jason was quite out of it this night because he was allergic to all the cotton flying. Let's just say he might have taken a few too many antihistamines, it was entertaining for the rest of us at least. Day 6 we continued paddling Lanezi Lake in the sunshine but it started getting quite windy so we pulled out at a beach that some other paddlers were at. We spent our lunch there and waited for the the wind to calm down a bit before moving on. Wendy became an avatar woman here when she put on sunscreen that made her look purple. As we paddled down a channel it started raining for a bit as we saw our first moose sighting. We named them Bernice and Bruno, it was pretty neat to see. The rain only lasted about 5 minutes and then the sun came back. We paddled into Rum Lake, our own little lake for the night and set up our tents. A few of us went for a dip in the lake before supper and before seeing that there were leeches swimming around. The boys also got to practice paddling around by themselves a little by our beach. For a trip where you are trying to carry as little as possible it was quite funny when Wendy returned with the little girls from the outhouse and said that she had dropped a roll of toilet paper down the toilet. Good thing it wasn't ours because we only brought one. After supper we spotted Bernice and Bruno across our lake so Chris and I paddled across and got about 15 feet away while I snapped some photos of them eating, definitely a highlight. We enjoyed a campfire that night since there were piles of wood to choose from. As we went to sleep we heard some interesting animal noises, an owl and some other animal we couldn't quite figure out but it was definitely close to our tents. Day 7 we had some smaller lakes and portages to go through before a longer paddle to our site. In one of these tiny lakes we saw a bull moose, who we named Bruce the Moose and got up quite close to him for some photos. On our second portage of this day we were hit by our biggest downpour of the trip and had to take cover for a while at a campsite before moving on. The lakes this day were very shallow and at a few points some of us would run aground and have to get out and push our canoes. I think someone got a good photo of Chris and I looking like we were walking on water that day. A little over halfway to our site we pulled out at a cooking shelter and hunkered down for a few hours to dry out gear, have a snack and wait for the wind to settle down. The kids entertained themselves on the beach while us adults dried out and warmed up in the shelter. The wind got a little better as we headed to our site but it was still blowing quite a bit. Once we got to our site there was a Swiss family that had taken part of our site because they didn't know the rules that group sites were only for groups. It was a little disappointing to share but it all worked out. Since this was our last night, everyone cooked up the food they had left and had bites of everyone else's meals. Mary attempted to make vanilla pudding which ended up being vanilla soup but that didn't stop all the kids and some of the men from digging in. This night we went to sleep with the sounds of hundreds of mosquitoes swarming our tent. Day 8 we woke up bright and early, ate and packed up quickly then took a group photo before paddling down the Bowron River. After a few potty breaks in the bush and letting Jason and Wendy's boat attempt to pull ours and the other Shea's boat we made it back to our starting point by 11am, just as the wind and rain were starting up again. We got all our gear packed up, took another group photo and headed back into Wells. Although we didn't see any bears while we paddled, we did happen to see one in the ditch on the way back to Wells. After a little confusion as to where we could have a celebration lunch we found a place to eat before driving back home and saying goodbye to the rest of the crew that were staying one more night up there. It was an unforgettable trip, lots of memories and something we will definitely do again one day.

Bowron Trip

Kevin, Alysha and Cole Visit
We had a day to unpack, do laundry and get groceries before Kevin, Alysha and Cole came to visit for a few days. They arrived Friday afternoon and we got reacquainted with Cole pretty quickly. It didn't take him too long to get attached to Molly and to singing and talking away with us. On Saturday we headed down to the States and picked up Chris' early 30th birthday present at the border, his new snowboard and bindings. Our first destination was the Seattle Zoo, we got there around lunch time so we ate and then started exploring. It was a really good zoo with lots to see, I think our favourites were the monkeys, brown bears and baby jaguars. Then we headed down to Pike's Place in Seattle and walked around there for a bit taking in the classic Seattle sights like throwing fish at the market and the gum wall. We enjoyed a delicious meal at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed to our hotel in Everett. Before eating our cheesecake that we got to go we went for a swim in our hotel pool although Cole preferred the hot tub. Then we filled up on cheesecake and relaxed for a bit before bed. I entertained Cole by looking at our upgraded jacuzzi tub in the room and answering all his questions about why it was so big. We also had a little dance party in the mirror just for fun. The next morning we had some breakfast, Cole and I snuggled in bed a bit and watched some cartoons and then we headed to the Outlet Malls. We all found some good deals, some of us more than others, so I'd say it was a successful shopping trip. On the way home and many times throughout the visit we were entertained by Cole's singing of the B-I-B-L-E. Pretty cute. We got home in time for supper and a walk around the school. We also watched Cole entertain himself with his "skateboard" and "hat" that he made out of these random toys we had in the basement.  The next day we relaxed at home after having waffles for brunch and visiting with my mom. Then we headed to get some ice cream at Cone Head's and went to do some sliding at the Cultus Lake Water slides. Cole's favourite part was stepping on the water squirting out of the ground and I'd say our favourite part was the speed way racers. I had a good lead on the boys after two races but my strategy failed on our last two races. I tried going down a slide with Cole but he got water dumped on him right before and when we came down the slide he got a face full of water so he wasn't too much of a fan of that. The hot tub made it all better though. He did enjoy a really big slide that all 5 of us could slide down beside each other on though. I guess they'll just have to come back in a few years and see if he likes the slides then. We got home and had supper, went for a walk and came back home to watch the first episode of Canada's Amazing Race. It was a great visit with great weather and we look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks when we head out to the farm.

Kevin, Cole & Alysha Visit

Heather Trail Hike
The day after Kevin, Alysha and Cole left we packed up our bags again and went on a two night hike with Chris' co-worker Jason and 13 of their outdoor ed kids to Manning Park. This was a hike they planned on doing as their year end hike but it still had snow at that time of year and there were thunderstorms in the forecast so they postponed it for summer. Our first day hiking there was some thunder in the distance but it never came over us. We enjoyed walking through the flowered meadows and looking at the panoramic views of the mountains all around us. Our first site was in an alpine area where we couldn't build fires so we hung out in a little dirt area and named it our living room. It was quite a relaxed time at the site, we played frisbee...trying to avoid trampling the wild flowers, relaxed at Chris and Jason's tent site, cooked up supper and went for a walk trying to find the sun for the sunset with no success. The bugs were quite bad at this site, good thing for bug spray. The next morning we didn't have to rush so we had a leisurely breakfast, got packed up and continued our hike. I liked this part of the hike the best. Tonnes of great views all around, flowers in the meadows, creeks running through the alpine. We stopped for lunch at a narrow ridge with a great view and the boys entertained themselves throwing rocks down into an avalanche area. Before heading down to the lake we took a group shot at the top of the ridge. We thought the lake our site was at was going to be full of bugs but when we got there we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. Once we got to the lake and set up our tents everyone went for a dip in the lake to cool off and get refreshed. Us adults found a perfect log with another log foot rest in the water to sit at and relax. Everyone's tents had a lakeside view, it was a great spot to camp. We eventually got to making supper and then went for a walk to the other side of the lake. One of the boys built a spear to catch fish with and actually caught one. So when we came back from our walk he was roasting it over the fire. That night we could have a fire so I got some games going with the group that we had a lot of fun with. The stars were amazing that night so Jason and I tried setting up some star shots. We didn't have much success because the camera got bumped so instead of a 30 minute shot that we left and came back to, it was only a 30 second shot. Next time I guess. Our last day we had to get up early and pack out quickly to get to the bus by 1:30. We had 20 km of downhill and by the end of it our legs were definitely feeling it. I wish I could go on more of these trips, it was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a great time.

Heather Trail

Year End Baseball Tournament
The evening we got back from our hike we had our first baseball game for our end of the year tournament. We were feeling pretty tired and stiff but we pulled off a win. The next day we had 2 games bright and early. We lost the first by a few runs because of some bad hitting but won our second game by 1 run. On Sunday we were ranked 2nd in the A division so we got an afternoon game to play for the final. We won that game and then played the final later in the afternoon. We started off the final letting the other team get 8 runs on us. We slowly chipped away at their lead and were down by 3 with our last bats. We got two in and Chris was up to bat as our last batter with a runner on second base. He hit a nice ball in the outfield which him and this other guy could usually out run their fielder's throwing it in but the runner in front of Chris got out by about a foot at home. So we came very close to tying it up at the end but ended up losing by one run. It was a fun game and very intense to watch at the end. Next year we'll get them. After showering we all headed to a park and had a BBQ together and got our baseball "awards", mine being the defensive player of the year for my golden glove at first base and Chris got MVP because he's a hitting and catching machine.

Year End Baseball

Now we have finally hit a slower part of our summer. We have caught up on sleep, laundry and cleaning. Chris has started to rip apart part of our deck and will be cleaning out our hedge stumps from one end of our yard. We're wrapping up our home study in these next couple weeks for adoption so we have some reading to get done. After next week our social worker will write up our report and by the end of summer we will be put in the pool for moms to consider for their babies. We've had some exciting baby news too with Eric and Carmen having their twins yesterday, little Alyssa Mae and Luke David. Can't wait to go see them when they're adjusted to life as a family of 5. Now my other friend Jamie just has to pop out her twins and we'll have lots of babies around to snuggle for the time being.

I think the best way to tackle this blog since it's been so long is to recap each month. It has been a very busy couple of months but it was the last day of school today so now the fun can begin!

March
We enjoyed a weekend up at Whistler with Eric, Carmen, Ryan and Cheryl. We rented a place with three bedrooms and enjoyed a day snowshoeing and the next day cross-country skiing. It was a beautiful weekend with perfect blue skies and sunny weather. The week after that was our spring break. We didn't do too much. Went down to Seattle for a day, shopped at the outlets, had supper at the Cheesecake Factory downtown. At the very end of our spring break we went flying with our friend Steve who is collecting his hours to become a pilot. We flew around the Fraser Valley, went right up to the Cheam mountain range and then made our way over to Whistler and toured around the mountains over there. On the way back we flew over Vancouver. It was really cool to see some the mountains so close up and be above them, would definitely do that again. We went back to school for 4 days and then it was Easter long weekend. The weather was great this weekend so we got some yard work done, I made paska buns, we went for a canoe at Cultus Lake and enjoyed supper on the deck of Original Joe's sunday night.

April
This was a busy month for school. I had the book fair in the middle of April so a lot of prep and organization for that was happening. Chris and I also took a canoeing course with Wendy and Jason to prepare for the Bowron Lakes (which we're doing in 4 days!). Part of the canoeing course was to do a t-rescue so we had to flip the canoe and rescue someone doing a t-rescue. Let's just say it was pretty cold. Although, I think Chris was colder than I was after we got out of the lake. Another event we participated in was my friend Jen's run for adoption. She put together a fundraiser for this organization called ABBA Canada which gives grants to people adopting. It ended up being a little bit rainy but lots of people showed up and she raised over $6000! At the  end of April we went to a info session about adoption. We had taken a break from all things baby for a couple of months and decided to check out this option. We got some great information and it started being confirmed that this is the direction we should take.

Adventures March - June
May
Chris was very busy this month because they were doing canoeing for outdoor ed. That meant packing up, unloading and loading canoes every other day. We had some extremely great days of weather this month and so we took advantage of one of those days and scouted out a hike in the Fraser Canyon that Chris would be doing with his kids. It was my first big hike of the season so I was pretty exhausted by the end. Ice cream at Dairy Queen helped though. We set up a phone session with the adoption agency in Kelowna, just to compare with Vancouver and after talking to them decided that we would be going with them for adoption. At the end of this month we had a lot a fun events. The first was a Mumford and Sons outdoor concert in Surrey. We staked out a good spot to stand and watched as the crowds starting flowing in. The concert was amazing, it was a perfect summer feeling night and the music was great. I could have stood there all night listening to them. The day after the concert we drove out to Kelowna to meet up with Chris' parents and Ryan and Randi before their cousin's wedding on Sunday. We met up with the extended family at a winery and joined in on the end of their wine tour. Then we hung out at the hotel for a bit before going up to Chris' aunt's and uncle's place for supper. The day of the wedding was one of those days where it looked like it could rain at any moment. We enjoyed some brunch by the lake before getting all dressed up (I wore a dress, history in the making) and ready to go. The ceremony was on the beach in Rachel's parent's backyard. It was a beautiful setting. Other than a few raindrops here and there the rain held off the rest of the day. Between the ceremony and reception we enjoyed some Starbucks and hung out at the hotel with the rest of the extended family. The reception was up at a fancy golf course which had another amazing view. After eating delicious burgers, listening to speeches and taking pictures in the photo booth for their guestbook we left with Ryan and Randi for our place. Ryan and Randi stayed with us until Tuesday when we took them to the Vancouver airport so they could fly to Mozambique to do training with a organization called Iris. Before the left though we went out Monday night in the rain and canoed around Cultus. We had the lake to ourselves and went really fast with 4 paddlers. At the end of that week Chris' mom and aunt came out to have a sister weekend and that takes us into June.

June
The night Chris' mom and aunt came we drove to pick up his other aunt and then headed up to Whistler. We walked around the village for a bit and headed to bed early. The next day Chris ran the Whistler half marathon in 1 hour and 42 minutes and 27 seconds. He came 83rd out of 790 people and 9th in his age group. Pretty good I'd say. After checking out the race results and Chris showering all of us packed into the car and headed back home. Chris' mom and aunts spent the next couple of days doing their own thing and having sister time. The day we dropped them off at the airport was our 7th anniversary. So after a quick Costco run we went up to the Cactus Club and enjoyed a delicious supper on a beautiful night on the deck with a view of Mt. Baker. The following weekend we had our mid-season baseball tournament. We played our regular schedule games on Friday and Saturday and had a mini-tournament on Sunday against some of the best teams in our league. We thought we would lose the first game and be done for the day but we didn't. Then we thought we would lose our second and we didn't. We ended up winning every game, making us officially in the A division. We seem to think we are worse than we actually are I guess. This month we started our adoption home study process. We meet with a social worker in Abbotsford at her house where she asks us about ourselves, our backgrounds, family upbringings, hobbies/interests, personalities, etc which she will use to make a portfolio about us for moms to look at in the end. So far we have met with her once together and each with her on our own. It has been good, lots of things you would never really think about if you were just having your own kid but good things to consider. She will meet at our house next and then we have a few more meetings before she will write her final report. So we will be "active" for moms to consider definitely by the end of summer. Then depending on which mom wants us it could be a very short wait before we have a baby! This month has been a very busy but good one. I have been madly doing inventory in the library which I got finished today with only a few minor delays during the process. Things are up in the air if I will be going back to that position in fall. The person I am covering for will definitely not be coming back until after December (if she does come back at all) so I'm hoping that the emails my principal and I sent to the person who deals with contracts will help influence that decision. In the meantime I'm not going to worry too much about it and just enjoy our summer. Chris has also been busy wrapping up outdoor ed and getting ready for next year. They had to cancel their big final campout because of thunderstorm warnings in the area so looks like I will be going on an extra adventure this summer because they're inviting whoever can to come with them in the middle of July to do that same trip. Now we have a few days to pack up gear and food for our big 7 day canoeing trip with a bunch of Chris' co-workers and their kids up to the Bowron Lakes. We're supposed to be getting some great weather so it should be a fun trip. We're really looking forward to it, hopefully we don't flip our canoe!