Kenton's 10th Birthday!

On May 24th, Kenton turned the big 1-0.
He is now officially in the double digits.

We are so proud of the little man you are becoming...you're respectful, kind and work hard to achieve your goals.

Happy Birthday Kenton!

A Day at the Beach

A couple of weekends ago, my mom and I went down to their place at Birch Bay. We had a really good mother/daughter time...shopping, eating and sitting by the pool. Dad joined us a litte later on too. The next day, Chris and the boys caught up with us and my grandparents decided to make a surprise visit. We all had a really nice BBQ together.

(Sorry for the twisted pic, but I didn't feel like redoing everything!)

Track and Field

A few weeks ago, Kenton participated in the track and field meet at Rotary Stadium. The weather was perfect and Kenton was in all but one event. His favourite events are the track events. He won blue ribbons for most of his runs.

Here, you can see the big smile on his face as he is the first boy to cross the finish line.

First again in hurdles....

Unfortunately, Kenton's foot caught the pole in the high jump....

Long jump........

What a great day for Kenton to celebrate his 10th birthday!

Field Trip to Playland

On Wednesday, Kenton's class went to Playland to learn all about forces and gravity. (Yeah, right)
Unfortunately, it poured the entire day, but we had fun anyways.

Here's the class getting ready to go...

This is my group on the Music Express, one of my faves!

Kenton and one of his classmates on the Scrambler.

Standing in line....

Killer Popsicle

So, for an hour or two today, the sun came out, and with it...the ice cream man.
Kenton ran and got his money and chased the truck down the road.
Two minutes later, I hear Kenton calling me frantically...
"Mom! My popsicle got stuck to my lips and they're bleeding!"
Being the great mom that I am...I ran to get my camera.
We were both laughing like crazy!

Note...the red on Kenton's entire mouth and arm is blood!

Vancouver Sun Run

Today, I accomplished a goal I never thought was possible for me. I completed the Vancouver Sun Run, and I'm proud to say that I RAN the entire 10k! I've never considered myself athletic, but in the last few months I've really enjoyed taking up running. Running is great exercise, but I also really enjoy it because it's time for myself and I can spend time reflecting on life and talking to God with no distractions.

I'm not sure yet of my times and standing, but I guess I'll find out in the Vancouver Sun tomorrow!

Book Club Night

I know there are a bunch of you out there who are avid readers. A few months ago, I joined a book club with my neighbour lady. I thought it would be interesting to meet new people and read books that I wouldn't ordinarily read. I thought I would share our selections with you each month and perhaps we could get some online discussions happening.

We just finished reading "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". I read this one while on vacation. I really enjoyed it. Here is a synopsis....

In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, "The Memory Keeper''s Daughter" is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.



Our new selection for this month is "Tsotsi". It looks very interesting and is being made in to a feature film. I have included the synopsis for this book as well.



Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective, Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader.When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for "hoodlum") who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.



Hopefully, I've inspired some of you to pick up a book you may not have found on your own and maybe even enjoy it! Keep me posted...

Dinner at the Guys

Last night, we had dinner at friends'...the Guys. Just before dinner, the sun came out and we caught this rainbow.

We knew today would be a beautiful day because of the sunset.

Rob and Tamara recently shared 1/2 a cow with some friends, and this is the steak they made for us...two steaks took up half the BBQ and fed 4 adults and 4 teenagers! Delish!

Trip to Ikea

It's a rainy Saturday morning...what to do? We decided to go to Ikea. We had a few furniture items we had been wanting to get, specifically for Kenton's room. My favourite part is looking at the gadgets, but the husband's interest in that...not so much. We did walk away with a few things "for me" though.

Shopping is definitely not Kenton's thing...like father, like son.

This dresser matches Kenton's mate's bed almost perfectly.

Of course, you've got to have the matching desk.

And this is for me...a nice faux leather computer chair.

My Favourites

This will be my last vacation post, so I thought, before I put away all my memories until the next trip, I would share some of my favourite things. I would say the best part was the beauty of God's creation...walking down to the stretch of quiet beach near our hotel and just resting and relaxing on the beach.

The small tree you see in the background was "our tree". We sat here several times during the week.

Another great thing about the trip is that we spent it in such great company!

A Day at the Beach!

This was one of my favourite days in the Dominican. In the morning, we went down to a part of the beach where there were no hotels, and not as many people. We had brought our own snorkeling gear and thought this looked like the perfect spot. We were not disappointed! We saw many starfish and conch shells, schools of pretty fish and even a sting ray type creature.
These pics were taken with the water camera.


In the afternoon, the four of us decided to rent a hobie cat, which is a small catamaran. It was pretty apparent within seconds that we had never been on one, so after the dominicans had a good laugh at us on the shore, one took pity on us and gave us a quick lesson. It was smooth sailing after that!



One of the biggest stories we had to tell was of our kayaking accident at the reef. You'll notice in this picture that Sonya is the only one who decided to wear a life jacket. Smart girl. The guys decided it would be really fun to take the kayaks out to the reef and find a big wave to ride back. Well, we found it, but unfortunately Chris and I took a tumble. I lost my sunglasses and Chris lost the water camera, while the waves smashed us into the reef. At the end of the day, it was a great story to tell!

Men on Vacation

This post is dedicated to the men we shared our vacation with. They were a constant source of entertainment for us gals, so I thought they deserved the spotlight for once.

On this particular day, the guys decided to windsurf. How hard could it be? You just stand on the board, pick up the sail and let the wind do the rest, right? A lesson? Lesson-schmesson!! After all, Gary did it once when he was about 19. ;) I must say, though, the guys were doing great by the end of the week.

Now, what man doesn't love a plate full of meat at the steakhouse? As Sonya and Gary learned on this trip, Chris is a major meat eater...beef, pork, seafood...he loves it all, (although all of it doesn't love him). ;)

I must admit...this was a great restaurant, especially the pina colodas and the pecan pie for dessert.

Where are we?

After dinner at the Steakhouse, we decided to check out one of the neighbouring hotels, the Casino. We discovered our free vouchers were pretty much a rip off, so we left and decided to have a little night cap. Sonya and I grabbed a seat on a couple of wicker couches while the guys went up to order drinks. Now the real show was about to begin!
They decided to grab a seat while waiting and were abruptly asked to move over by two middle-aged women. The gals started chatting with the guys....the usual "where are you from" fare...and then the guys' drinks came. They stood up and walked over to where we were waiting. As soon as they sat down with us, the two gals got up and left. Sonya and I started laughing hysterically, as we realized that our guys had just been hit on by two cougars! And the funniest part was watching their faces as they realized what had just happened.
Ahhh....what a guys!

Our First Day

On our first day, Sonya and I pretty much relaxed on the beach, while the guys took the kayaks out.





We also checked out our hotel a bit more today. This is the view from our hotel room.




I really loved how we were so close to everything. One path took you to the buffet and pool and the other one took you down to the beach. Our beach was great...it was nice and clean and had lots of beautiful trees for shade.

In the evening we went to the Tropicalissimo show, but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos. :( Before the show started, Chris and I had stopped for a cappuccino. We sat under a beautiful grass hut, while the rain poured down around us. How romantic! It rained quite a few of the nights there, always later in the evening and just shortly. We all found it quite refreshing actually and it never put a damper on our fun.