Today we all slept in a bit and then Steve made an amazing breakfast of eggs,hash browns, bacon and toast. It was delicious! The boys went in the Hot tub for a couple of hours while Amelia and I tried to visit in between taking care of the girls. We then packed up and hiked up to the cross again! It was a beautiful day out! 

My girls are pretty much pro hikers! 

Special girl! 

Such a nice weekend with these 3!

The boys and their boys! 

Thursday

I have been waiting for a few months to get a ole removed on my nose and Thursday was the day. Kind of bad timing... But I guess it is never fun to have even minor surgery. I had to go to a plastic surgeon as my doctor wouldn't do it, because of scarring. 

It was quite painful, well the freezing needle was. Steve was home working and Adessa was left in charge of Amara. I loaded a plate full of snacks and left them with a movie telling Adessa not to bug Steve unless of an emergency. I got home just as the movie ended, and apparently Adessa did awesome with Amara except the one time Steve was on the door I guess Adessa came running screaming, "she's trying to bite me!!!!'" 

After school I dropped Adessa off with her kindergarten teacher. I guess her and another little friend have been asking miss. Hackett for a play date all school year. So she invited them both over to watch a movie. Adessa was so excited, she baked cookies for her teacher and made her a beautiful card. She came home and I told her I missed her so much, her response.... "I didn't miss you at all! I was having wayyyy too much fun!!!"

Saturday

Steve had to run into Nanaimo to pick up some fishing supplies he was getting serviced so we all tagged along. 

We ended up grabbing coffees at mcdonalds and the kids played in the playplace for a bit and then we headed to the park. It was chilly but we had lots of fun! 

My picture perfect family?!? Haha.. Steve was thrilled I was taking their pictures and I couldn't decide which one I liked the best! 

Meeko is such a good dog! He lets Amara walk him and he is so slow and calm. She sure loves her Meeko! 

Friday

I had to run to the store to pick up a prescription and a few groceries. I was not in a rush as I had some time to kill before meeting my girlfriend crystal for a hike. So Amara led the way with her shopping cart... 

She was all business... 

We parked at the bottom of the mountain and hiked to the very top of it... It looked really far away! 

But we did it! I had Amara on my back and felt like I could die about half way up... But we powered through and made it, and it was gorgeous out! 

I was feeling quite shaky as it was a sheer drop off the backside

Gorgeous views 

The girls only had a half day so we had our friends the dollman girls for a play date. It was gorgeous out so they had a picnic on the trampoline and played outside the entire day. Then their parents brought us pizza for dinner and we had a nice visit before I took the older girls to Awana in the evening. 

Family Literacy Day

Adessa went as fancy nancy for their school literacy day 

And Danika went as Anne of green gables. We had too much fun putting their costumes together! 

The girls had a fun day at school and Danika got to go to Adessas class to read her a story. In the afternoon I took Amara for story time in the gym and the principal was dressed as a book character named David... 

I have never seen Amara so terrified. We have one of the David stories that she loves, but she was shaking, kept saying David over and over again and would not let me take my hand off of her face! And since then, she has been waking from her naps and in the morning saying, "David... Scary!" We have had lots of talks about it... But it really did a number on my little girl! I thought it was an awesome costume! 

Mt Tzouhalem Cross

We have attempted to find the cross on Mt Tzouhalem a few times and each time we get lost. Today was no different! We got pointed in the right direction, but got on the wrong path two different times. There is no marking of where it is and there are trails everywhere! The cross got blown over in the crazy windstorm we had when Linsey and her kids came to visit. But they just put a brand new one up a couple of weeks ago. So today it took us a couple of hours but we finally found it!

We went with the Nagtegaal family. Our girls did phenomenal... We were so proud of them!  Adessa didn't complain once and was such a happy little girl. Danika always does amazing and had a pocketful of treats for the girls once they made it to the top. Amara was such a trooper and hiked about half the time. I also brought out ergo carrier and she fell asleep for about 10 minutes and then was up and ready to walk/ run again! We were out on the mountain for a total of 3 hours! 

He's home!!!

We were very excited to go pick up Steve! I went and grabbed the girls early from school and 

Headed to Nanaimo. We got inside just in time to see the plane pulling up and Amara was screaming "daddy! Daddy!" Everyone was chuckling, it was pretty cute. The girls watched Steve coming off the plane and I wish I could have got a picture of them attacking him as he walked in the door. All three girls hugging him so tightly it was so precious! 

Soooo good to have him home. He was pretty exhausted as it took 24 hours from the time he left the Dominican to the time he got home. Layover in Toronto and then a night in Calgary, which worked out nicely so he could spend the night at his families and see his sisters. Unfortunately his mom was in Edmonton taking a course, but he had a nice visit with Leah and Sarah. 

We had a nice evening, with a special dinner and he showed us all his photos. He had a good time, lots of hard work, and he said it was so hard to leave the kids. They were able to put up a church from foundation up and got a lot done! 

Saturday morning Steve ended up spending his morning taking Amara to the walk in clinic as last night he was giving her a piggy back and when he pulled on her arm she started crying in excruciating pain. She wouldn't move her arm all night so we thought her shoulder was dislocated or something. So we gave her Advil and she slept through the night. But in the morning she still couldn't move it, it just hung at her side. So Steve took her to the clinic and they sent her up to the hospital to have x-rays done. Steve had to hold her down and said she was so scared, crying and screaming scary. My poor baby! The X-Ray came back with nothing wrong, so the dr grabbed her arm, twisted her hand back and forth and apparently it did the trick. He said it was a tendon out of place on her elbow. My poor baby sure had a traumatic experience though, but was apparently awarded with a Popsicle that made it all better! 

When Steve got home I had been baking like crazy so there were buns with cheese and ham, homemade bread, cookies and dinner in the crockpot. And the girls and I made some fun kinetic sand we saw on Pinterest, made out of flour and baby oil. It kept the girls busy for hours today and their hands were so soft! 

We then had a few homes we wanted to check out, but thought we better drive by and see what the properties were like before we went into them. So we drove by them all and all of them were disappointing. A couple beautiful homes, but the property's wouldn't work with Steve's trailers and boat. 

One day we will find the one. But for now we are very happy and comfortable where we are... Just always looking! 

After looking Steve dropped me and Meeko off and I ran home. Running with Meeko is not fun! He was dragging his butt at the end and ran into my legs a few times... But I think I need to get him in shape with me! I was also able to squeeze my workout in after I got home as Amara was napping. 

It feels so good to run and workout... But I struggle with consistency and finding the time!! 

So good to have Steve home! He was able to relax this afternoon and catch up on some rest before his busy week ahead of him!