August Wrap-up

Tomorrow is September! How did that happen?! August just kind of flew right by, didn’t it? We kept things pretty busy around here during the month, so I’ll just do a quick recap of what we got up to:

Hot Nite

The second Saturday in August calls for the annual Hot Nite in the City Show & Shine, and the girls and I headed downtown with my mom & stepdad to check out all the classic cars. It was a lovely break from the smoke we had been having, and it was just warm enough to not be uncomfortable.

We stopped and got some gourmet poutine before heading home, and Norah was clearly a fan:

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Road Trip #1

The girls and I went over to visit my dad for a couple of nights in Vernon. We were worried that it might get too smoky to do anything fun, but thankfully the smoke stayed away and we were able to enjoy the sunny weather! We hit the beach a couple of times and the girls had the best time ever, and we made a trip to the kangaroo farm which was obviously a hit! Our first night was a bit rough because of giant ice cream cones way too close to bedtime, but the girls had so much fun so I guess it was worth it.

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Road Trip #2

The next weekend Kyle and I dropped the girls off at my mom’s and Campbell off at doggy daycare and flew solo on a trip to the Fraser Valley to watch Joe Rogan do a stand-up comedy show! It was seriously THE BEST and my face hurt from laughing so hard. I’ll admit that his style of comedy most definitely isn’t for anyone, but man, he makes some good points in the most hilariously offensive way possible. If you enjoy his podcasts you’d definitely enjoy his show.

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After the show we drove into Langley to stay with friends for a couple nights. I managed to sneak in a quick trip to Ikea and bought ALL THE THINGS (not really – I resisted on a lot of cute knick-knacks) and was satisfied with my purchases. We had an awesome dinner and stayed up way too late just talking about life. The morning we had to leave we went to this great little place called Beatniks where I had the most amazing Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. If you’re ever passing through, it’s definitely worth the quick detour!

Our drive home was rainy but BC definitely needs it, so we didn’t complain too much.

Oh yes, and we brought home a whole bunch of snails for the girls to keep as pets! They just hang out on the sidewalk when it rains, so Kyle collected about 14 of them to bring home to show the girls. He ended up making a pretty awesome habitat for them, and they’re actually pretty neat to watch!

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Other bits

We filled in the random gaps of the month with various things: Kyle worked on the support beams and posts for our deck to protect them from the elements, we both tackled painting the deck stairs, I took the girls to the indoor jungle gym to burn off some of their energy, and generally just savoured the last bit of summer break! It’s hard to believe that school starts on Tuesday and we’ll be crashing into a busy schedule once again; Isla and Norah will both have swimming lessons twice a week, while Isla will be in dance once again (focusing solely on ballet now) and Norah is signed up for 10 weeks of ninja school! (You know that show America Ninja Warrior? That’s what she’ll be learning!) Oh, and I’ll be starting my schoolwork again after taking the summer off. Whew!

 

Weekend Wrap-up, Holidays Edition

We are heading back to reality today as Kyle’s back to work after an amazing two weeks of holiday time! In the past we’ve often failed to take full advantage of his time off from work, so this year we made a huge effort to do as much as we could and I think we were successful. Here’s a recap of everything we got up to:

Kamloops Marathon/Running
We kicked our time together off with the Kamloops Marathon. You can read the whole recap here, but in short it was a great experience and a fun (yet exhausting) way to spend time together! After the race we went over to Kyle’s mom’s for a pool day and barbecue with the family, and the girls were thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day.

I signed a friend and I up for a Dirty Feet trail race in September, so about a week after the Kamloops Marathon I started training for that. News flash: I’ve never actually trained outdoors so I took advantage of the warmer weather and Kyle being home to get up early and log some hill running in. It’s so much different than plodding along on the treadmill, but the views on my route are amazing!

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Movie Nights
The day after the race Kyle went to Penticton overnight to visit a friend, so the girls and I hung out around the house and rented Pitch Perfect 3. (It was just okay and not nearly as good as the first or second movies.) We ordered pizza for dinner and after they went to bed I watched Jurassic World and way too many old episodes of Grey’s on Netflix before heading to bed.

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Kyle and I also watched a couple older movies on Netflix, and rented the new Death Wish movie with Bruce Willis, which I would not recommend!

Camping
Isla got to go on a solo camping trip with my mom and stepdad for 6 whole days! She looks forward to camping with them every year and had an amazing time. While it was weird not having her at home, I think Norah really enjoyed the undivided attention she got while her sister was away, haha.

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Photos courtesy of my mom

Green Lake
While Isla was away camping we did get away to the lake ourselves and went back to Green Lake to visit/stay with my aunt and uncle at their cabin on Green Lake! The weather was absolutely amazing and we had an awesome time. We were even able to have a campfire both nights since there was no campfire ban in place (yet), so it was nice to sit around the fire before turning in for the evening.

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Norah, as always, had the most fun ever and didn’t stop the whole time we were there! She got a lot of swimming in and went for a boat “tour” and basically just lived her best life.

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Oh, and we also learned that although he hates the water, Campbell CAN swim if push comes to shove. (In the most literal way possible, too.)

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Waterslides
A couple days after Isla returned from her camping trip we headed all headed out with some friends to the Salmon Arm Waterslides. They’re just over an hour away and the weather was just beautiful! We were there for about four hours and Isla rode the slides pretty much non-stop; I had to stop her and remind her to eat at one point. Norah was a little apprehensive about going down them at first, but after a couple gos and some cheering/encouragement from Kyle she was hooked as well!

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The Salmon Arm Waterslides isn’t the biggest facility around, but it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s pretty family-friendly and I was able to double with Norah down all the slides except one, although there was one other slide that I found too fast to safely take her down on as well. I found the lineups to move fairly fast, and everything was in good, clean shape. My only complaint was that you had to pay for the showers. Overall, it was an awesome day and the kids loved it, so that was all that mattered.

Other Things
We managed to fill in the gaps between the “big things” with various little adventures and chores. The girls both started showing more interest in riding their bikes, so we got a few laps around the block in so they could practice. Kyle got a round of golf in with his uncle, grandpa, and stepdad. We tackled the mess that is our garage and got it a bit more organized. I played my last slo-pitch game of the season and tailgated with the team afterwards. Norah and I went for frozen yogurt to curb her mind off of feeling left out when Isla went camping. We took in a few more pools days at Kyle’s mom’s.

It was really a wonderful two weeks and I’m sad that Kyle’s back to work but alas, all good things must come to an end. We have a fairly busy August ahead of us as well, and before we know it school will be back in session. July went by SO fast, is what I’m saying!

What at you been up to lately?!

 

 

 

Weekend Wrap-up

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope all my Canadian readers had a wonderful long weekend, and to my American followers, I hope you have a great Fourth of July tomorrow!

We had a weekend jam-packed with adventure, so I’ll just jump right into it!

{Friday}
We packed up early and headed out to the lake for the night! My aunt and uncle had bought a place right on the water and invited us out to stay, so we couldn’t say no to that! A good chunk of my family was also going up, so it was a fun little trip!

While the weather was all over the place, the girls had an absolute blast! There was a lot of running in the rain and swatting mosquitos, but by the end of the night the rain subsided and we had some beautiful rainbows and sunsets, and celebrated with an awesome campfire!

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And yes, that’s a fox! He (she?) was just hanging out on the side of the road and didn’t give a flying fox (HAAAA) about me being 10ft away from him. The next morning when I was taking Campbell for a walk, there was three of them just hanging out on the road. Nature is crazy, yo.

{Saturday}
We had a bit of a slow morning but we eventually got loaded up and headed home around lunchtime. We made a quick stop to visit Kyle’s dad and stretch our legs, but managed to make good time and made it home with plenty of time to prep dinner and throw some laundry on.

The girls were EXHAUSTED and didn’t argue at all when we went them to bed early, haha.

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{Sunday/a.k.a. Canada Day!}
We were back in the truck and travelling east to the Little Shuswap for our annual visit with Kyle’s best friend from high school. While it was rainy (again) the kids scrambled to the playground during every break from the showers and we had a nice visit with everyone. There was even a little Canada Day celebration in the park that we wandered over to, and the girls got their faces painted.

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{Monday}
Today was a lazy day for the most part, although I did get up early and get in a 4 mile run on the treadmill before everyone else woke up. After showering and feeding the tigers kids I went off to the store to get our groceries for the week.

I gave Campbell a much needed bath as well! After being at the lake he was pretty grimy and stinky, plus he was eaten alive by mosquitos, so it was long overdue.

After lunch Kyle went out for his long run and the girls and I just had a quiet afternoon or fingernail painting, block building, and laundry doing.

That’s about it! How was your holiday?