Tent and Ruckle Island

I love how our little boat has opened us up to so many new adventures right out in our front yard! Leah and Zac came and visited us last weekend and on Saturday we took the boat out to tent island. It is a protected island basically right across from us. We parked the boat in the sandy, protected cove, had a picnic and explored most of the island. It was gorgeous! There was a family there that goes to Danika's school and they boat over and try to do lots of camping there, as they pretty much have the island to themselves. It was such a gorgeous day and we had such a great time with Leah and Zac! 

Uncle Zac checking out the hundreds of starfish with the girls

Danika and Lize in our boat

Sunday after church we launched out of Ladysmith and 'raced' Mark and Caroline to Ruckle island where Mark's family has a cabin. It was another gorgeous day and so neat to check out the cabin. The island is unserviced so everything was powered by solar panels. The cabin is at the top of these cliffs and overlooks endless ocean view. We explored the island and checked out some other cabins. I like the idea of the cabin, and it was so gorgeous, but you have to boat EVERYTHING in and out! 

BEST BUDS!!!

Adessa and Kailey found a little cave in a rock on our adventure  walk ... they were very brave to climb inside!

The boys and their matching trucks and boats (Mark is bigger... and so is his truck and boat... haha!) 

Cowichan Valley Exhibition and The Circus!

When the exhibition was in town we went with the Nagtegaal family to check out all the animals. They also had rides and Lize went on her first roller coaster ride... Danika felt like she was pro because she went on one already this summer! They were pretty cute! 

Adessa and Kailey were having so much fun!

Sisters on their last ride!

Caroline with all the girls.... eagerly waiting for the circus to start! 

Little Bird

We have been keeping our eyes open for a good deal on a boat, just for fun. But then this little boat came up on used nanaimo and when we checked it out, it was just too good of a deal to pass up, so we happily purchased this little boat... and it has been such a great little investment for our family. It is a little 14 foot Double Eagle... hence the nickname we gave it "Little Bird." I grew up on the lake with a boat and have so many good memories with it, and I want my kids to have that too.

The weather has been so amazing and so every weekend we have been taking it out exploring. The first night we took it out on the ocean in front of our house (10 minutes to be on the water!) and explored down to Maple Bay and then back to the Tent Islands. It was a beautiful evening and the water was like glass. I am so excited for all the memories to be made!

The girls LOVED the boat!

Fishing with Daddy 

I love where I live!!! 

Life for REAL

Middle of July I found out I was pregnant... it was quite the shock. Steve and I had 'decided' not to have any more children as we felt stretched with 2, without having any family around to help. But we hadn't done anything 'permanent' about it, so of course the chance was always there. And so it happened. It has been quite the journey over the summer trying to keep it a secret and not knowing how far along I am,                                                                                                        since my body had been messed up for awhile this year due to trying different forms of birth control.
I got in with the midwives and they scheduled me for an ultrasound on August 30th. When we went in we were expecting to see a little peanut, and be only 6 weeks, max 8 weeks. But apparently we were quite off! Yesterday I FINALLY heard back the results as the ultrasound techs are not allowed to say anything. And on August 30th I was already 14 weeks... WHAT?!? So that puts me at 16 weeks... almost half over and never really knew for that first month and a half!
We are excited... now, but in ALL honesty it took us quite by surprise and the last couple of weeks I have been having some anxiety attacks over it. Danika started school last week and was put in a K-1 split, and the first day she came home crying saying all her friends in the grade 1 class were running away from her and she doesn't get to do computers or any of the 'big kid' things. She feels like she is stuck with the 'little kids.' And my heart hurts for her. But we prayed about it and talked about seeking out the kids who don't seem to have any friends and help them out... since she knew what it felt like. That seemed to be a good solution and yesterday went 100% better.
Since Danika started school, Adessa has been overwhelming me. She has had her big sister as a distraction all summer, but since Danika is gone she is at me side ALL day, asking questions, wanting to help and all I want to do is get things done! I know I need to be more patient, but I feel like my patience is run dry and in the afternoon all I want to do is curl up on the couch and sleep... but of course that isn't possible with Adessa! I am tempted to look into preschool for her, but part of me feels guilty as I didn't put Danika in until she was 4.5 years. old. SIGH!!!
This week has really been tough- The past 2 days Adessa has had a bladder infection, needing to go on the potty every 10 minutes and crying and screaming when she does... its awful. So I got her into the Dr's yesterday and got her on antibiotics and she seems to be doing SO much better today. However when I was doing her hair I found a few little bugs clinging to her scalp... ICK! I picked out 4 or 5 in total and saved them in a little jar for Steve to see, and then did the lice treatment on her. But I hit my breaking point this morning and had a good ol' cry session, which I haven't had in ages... there was  A LOT of pent up tears in there and cried them all dry. Adessa was so concerned and kept asking what was wrong, but I told her moms need to cry sometimes too... just like little girls do.
I am just overwhelmed, usually I am such a clean freak, washing bathrooms frequently, vacuuming, dusting, washing windows, doing laundry and always trying to have a sparkling house. But I have been SO behind that I haven't touched my cleaning supplies in 2 weeks!!! And all my fruit trees outside are BURSTING with fruit ready to be picked and canned, or passed a long to friends, but I have had nothing in me and it feels like  no time.
When the LONG list of 'to-dos' ran through my head I just wanted to curl up in the corner and lay there all day, but then I saw my bible on the counter and the daily bread for today. I read it and spoke straight to my heart. The passage was all of Psalm 16, but the verse that leapt off the page was

v. 8- "I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me."

That verse washed over my whole body and set such a peace in my heart, and even though I haven't accomplished many checks on my list today, I love that God met me where I was at. And for that I am thankful.    

Never Forget

Saturday morning we headed out to a good friends bake sale at an antique farm sale. The girls were off playing and we were browsing and visiting when we realized we no longer saw Adessa, we asked the girls where she was, and they didn't know. Steve and I calmly started walking around calling her name and asking friends if they had seen her. After about 5 minutes the panic settled in and my calm pace turned into frantic running and yelling her name. We circled the farm a few times to no avail, checked inside, behind, in front. I was in hysterics. I started bolting up the driveway and saw Steve holding Adessa and I just broke down and grabbed her and sobbed... along with a few good friends. That was the scariest 15 minutes of my entire life and I will NEVER forget that feeling. 

Apparently Adessa had decided to walk to the van (parked on the side of a busy country road) to get Meeko out to come play with the other animals. Thank goodness that the husband of the house was at the end of the road charging admission to get in... which at first we thought was a bit unfortunate, but after that I was SO grateful! 

Every single bad thought had raced through both Steve's and my mind and we couldn't shake the feeling the rest of the day. But God is good and kept her safe and I will never forget that and pray it never, ever happens again! 

Oh August... so many memories!

 I have probably one thousand photos on my computer from the month of August alone, but I decided not to do that and instead try to sum up the summer by collaging a few photos (I saw this on a friends blog!). 

Amy, Chris and Emilie came out for a week at the beginning of August to go camping. We went to Parksville beach for a day, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, Goats on the Roof in Coombs and we took a walk on ferry to Newcastle Island in which we hiked to Kanaka beach and spent the day there. We are so blessed by such wonderful family!!

In between our company Steve's Cousin from Newfoundland- Caitlyn stopped by for a night on her adventure traveling up the whole west coast by herself. The kids had such a great time with her. 

Steve has been itching all summer to get out and fish, and he finally got too with a good buddy... it was the perfect evening and he caught a spiny dogfish (a shark!) and a few crab that we cooked up and ate. 

I got a last minute call from mom and dad asking if they could come out for a week... we were pretty tired out from our busy summer, but how could we turn them away?! So of course they came and we made some pretty epic memories! My favorite day being scooter-ing on Salt Spring Island! We rented scooters for 4 hours and toured the entire island. We went to the Saturday morning market, Saltspring cheese company- for some AMAZING cheese, and to Saltspring Vineyards for some wine tasting. As well as stopping at some beaches. Such a great day!

Mom really wanted to head out to Tofino, because she LOVES the rugged ocean, but I decided to take them out to Port Renfrew as we had never been yet. Unfortunately Steve had to work, but we found an awesome Groupon to stay in Sooke for a couple of nights, so we couldn't resist!
We went and checked out the beginning of the West Coast Trail hike and were inspired by a family of four who had just completed the hike and had done no training for it. So one day that hike will be crossed off the bucket list (that I have not created yet!)
We then drove out to Botanical beach and were amazed by the beauty of it. It was a 2.5 km hike with a few beach stops on the way, each being so unique and my Adessa Mattie did SO amazing, I was so proud of her! She hiked the ENTIRE way all by herself without complaining! We ended the hike with a beautiful picnic. Then drove out to Sooke to stay in a beautiful resort hotel.
The next day we went and checked out French Beach and China Beach, but it was quite windy and cold and Adessa wasn't in as good of mood as the day before. So we got our exercise in and then headed back to the hotel for swimming! And Danika jumped into the deep end and swam to the shallow end WITHOUT her life jacket! Another milestone hit... SO proud of her! Both the girls are gaining so much confidence in the water. 

Next morning the girls and I got up early and went to the lobby for breakfast and then I took them swimming for a good hour in which we had the pool to ourselves. It was very fun. We then headed to Victoria to my dads favorite place- The fisherman's wharf. We ate fish and chips, ice cream and mini donuts and walked around. Then on the way home we watched 'Brave' ... which I would NOT recommend, my little girls were pretty terrified!

My parents helped us around the house, moved my room around, cleaned up the yard (my mom always has to trim things... and I don't complain!) and helped so much with the girls.
Thanks mom and dad once again for an amazing visit... we love you and appreciate your generosity and love SO much, and we love being tourists and seeing the whole island with you!!!

Summer

Summer is half over and I have not posted anything at all. And it is not for lack of things to write about, but quite the opposite. This summer has been an absolute whirlwind of activity and I have hundreds of pictures to prove it. However I don't think I will get around to posting them... maybe a few of my favorites, but we'll see. The summer started out with the big trek back to Alberta for a couple of weeks. The main event being Steve's sister, Leah getting married. We took a couple of days to get out there and then I was supposed to leave for Vegas on a little trip with the girls, but realized I had forgotten my passport. I put out a facebook plea seeing if anyone could meet us during our 3 hour layover in Vancouver. My friend Lana was my hero and drove across to Vancouver to meet us... what a good friend! Vegas was fun, we shopped, walked the strip, took in an amazing Cirque De Soleil show and soaked up the +40 sun. Our flight home was delayed and so we made it home a day before the wedding... cutting it a little close!

My amazing in-laws and best hubby in the world watched the girls and we had quite the scare with my Danika. She had been violently ill with what we thought was the flu on the way out to Calgary and which lasted 4 days, with no appetite, until Steve took her to emergency and they told us she had a terrible bladder infection. She went on antibiotics and was scheduled for an ultrasound the next day. Steve took her to that and they called in the Dr. right away as it looked like she had appendicitis and Steve was told to take her to the children's hospital. But once the surgeon saw the ultrasound he said to wait a few days on the antibiotics and if they didn't work to take her into emerg. This all happened while I was in Vegas, it was pretty terrifying and I prayed so much for my little angel. Thankfully the antibiotics worked and she started feeling better as soon as I got home. But my poor husband and in-laws, I felt so terrible. But so thankful that it didn't turn into anything more serious.

Leah's and Zach's wedding was beautiful, and Leah looked amazing. Danika, Adessa and their cousin Emilie were the flower girls and they did such a great job. I was a bridesmaid and we had so much fun taking pictures in beautiful Canmore. My talented husband MC'ed the evening and did a fantastic job. I am looking forward to seeing all the pictures from that beautiful day!

  The next day we had a chance to visit family and my mother-in-laws sister from Newfoundland was out, so it was great to catch up. On Monday we headed to my families for a little family reunion on my dad's side. It was probably the only cold day while we were there, which was a bit of a bummer as we spent the day at the lake. But it was so great to see my cousins, and their children- which got along very well with mine and my sisters. The week at my families was very busy, filled with lots of lake days, and a trip to Calaway park. Since half of Danika's kindergarten class had been to Disneyland, we have been hounded about when the girls got to go, so I told them Calaway  park was just like Disneyland, except without the princesses...  But to them it made no difference, they LOVED every moment, and the best part is that the lines were short and the rides were amazing to them, enough to fit into one day, and with room to even fit in a magician show! My dad was a champ and took the girls on most of the rides as I have officially become old and get too dizzy on rides now... so sad!

My sister threw a big birthday party for Adessa, with lots of presents and cake, and made it very special for my little girl, as family wouldn't be around to celebrate on her actual birthday. Nancy our interpreter from El Salvador was also at the party, and it was so great to see her.
Our trip was wonderful, we enjoyed every minute, and it was so nice to be back in Calgary during the summer as we haven't been back in the summer for 3 years. We felt like we got in lots of time with family, even though it was busy and were so thankful for that opportunity.

 The next trip back to Calgary is already planned for November 3rd as my little brother is getting married!!! I can't even believe it!!! :)