Trip to Canada

We went to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada on Thursday and Friday. Kyle's Mom, Dee Ann, came with us and it was the first time for everyone, but me and Kyle, to go to Canada. We had a fun time there visiting the sites, but keep reading to see how fun our trip back into the good ol' USA was.

Beautiful flowers made into Canada flag at border crossing getting into Canada. The Peace Arch Park there had the most immaculate garden, grass, shrubs and flowers. Very pretty.

Our first stop was Kitsilano Beach and this picture shows downtown Vancouver. We had beautiful weather while there and the views were amazing. There are huge green mountains surrounding Vancouver.

Kyle and Kate playing on the Beach. Kate loves digging in the sand.

The water was not too cold so it was fine to play in.

Poor Preston tried to take a nap while we were on the beach. He was sick (threw up in the car on the way up and down and once in a park and another in the hotel room. Fun times for us and him.)

I LOVE these lamp posts and hanging baskets. They were up and down the street, very quaint.

After the Beach, we checked into our hotel room and let Preston take a quick nap. We did Priceline and got a 4 star hotel room for the price we would have paid for a cheaper hotel downtown. It was a pretty nice room. Then we strolled the streets into the old downtown of Vancouver- Gastown. It was fun to look at the old buildings, see the waterfront and walk the cobblestone streets. We ate at Spaghetti Factory, which doesn't have the same menu items as the restaruants in the US- interesting.

Our family in front of the steam clock. It's a landmark there and chimes and makes noises every so often. It runs off steam and has since the late 1800's.

Kate watching Cars on the IPOD in the hotel room. Cute.

The next morning, we went to Stanley Park first thing and went to Vancouver Aquarium.

Beluga Whales, the little one is a baby and was just born in early June.

The dolphin show. We barely made it in time to watch this show and I'm glad we did because this was the highlight.

The miniature train ride in Stanley Park. Kate loved riding on it and it took us through cute forests and scenery. It was nice to sit for a bit. This Stanley Park is HUGE and we walked a lot.

The farmyard animals in Stanley Park. Kate liked petting the goats, but she was scared of them too. The farm stunk and we weren't all that impressed with it.

Stanley Park has lots to do and we stayed in the park most of the day. Before going home we drove around the park and saw totem poles, lighthouses and then went to a swimming pool right on the beachfront. We left around 5 pm to go home and it's a good thing we did because we had to wait 2 1/2 hours to cross the border!!! We were all so irritated. Preston was crying so Dee Ann walked outside in the Peach Arch Park while we inched slowly to the front and Kate ran around the park. It was ridiculous waiting that long. They only had 3 lanes open and the back-up of cars was very long. We went 1/2 mile in 2 1/2 hours! The Canadian side had like 5 lanes open and their back-up was minimal. It doesn't even take 2 1/2 hrs to get up to Vancouver! So needless to say, we were pretty tired when we finally got home around 10 pm.

Oh, What do you do in the Summertime?

Summer has flown by and we have stayed busy visiting family in Moses Lake and having Grandma Dee Ann stay with us this last week. I've worked one day at work and I had to go in another day for training because our dental office switched over to digital x-rays so we had to get trained on the software. Some of my friends have asked where I've been in the blogging world and I guess I took a summer vacation! I didn't feel like blogging so beware this is a long post with lots of pictures to catch up.

Repainting our deck- the white railing and brown deck. This picture is actually of our neighbor's deck, but ours almost looked like this just not as bad. :)

The deck finished- yeah! It looks a 100 times better now.

A friend, Erin, LOVES eating double stuffed Oreos dipped in Peanut butter and when I said I had never ever heard of such a thing she insisted I try it. She brought some to playgroup so here we are chowing down. It was pretty good too! It was like Nutter Butter meets Oreo.

Preston eating his first Oreo (what a mess?!)

Going to Mukilteo Beach for family night, eating at Ivars and enjoying the sun. Kate playing in the water.

Kate and her Daddy playing.

Preston loving blueberries and making a royal mess.

Picnic lunch with Grandma Dee Ann in the backyard. Kate LOVES eating on a blanket outside. Thank goodness for a Grandma who is willing to do it for her.

Meet Fancy Nancy! Grandma Dee Ann spoiled her with this dress and purse and Kate has been non stop twirling in it. Fancy Nancy is a character from some kid books.

Preston swinging- he's been sick this last week (throwing up and fun stuff like that).

Kid Week

This week has been pretty busy with random things.
Monday: I ran errands in the morning after Preston's morning nap and then cleaned the house, did laundry and paid bills in the afternoon. Our neighbors invited us over for dinner and then our kids played for a bit. I took off to the gym after I put Preston down for bed.

Tuesday: A girl in our ward has a ruptured disc so she has been needing people to watch her kids in the morning while her husband is at work. She has a 2 1/2 yr old and 5 month old. I signed up to watch them this morning at my house, but I forgot! So I woke up at 7:30 to them calling to say they were here. :) The kids were easy and the baby was super easy. I need a baby like that who sucks his thumb and falls asleep wherever he is put!!! After lunch, their Dad picked them up and I put my kids down for afternoon naps. Then, at 3:30 my neighbor and friend, Darbi, dropped her 3 kids off because it was her birthday and her and her husband went out for dinner and some shopping. So the kids all played and got every toy out imaginable, which was totally fine, so when Kyle got home from work he said it looked like a tornado went off in our house! Having a playroom in our future house will be fabulous for this reason! After dinner, we sent all the kids outside to play for a bit and not too long after that Darbi came home. The kids played outside for a bit longer before it was bedtime and I went off to the gym again. I try to go about 3 times a week after the kids are in bed which is at 8 pm. It's kind of late, but then I don't have to pay for their kids club which gets expensive.

Wednesday: It was nice not having to go anywhere today. I like days like this when all the other days in the week are crazy there is one day of down time. We just chilled around the house and I played with Kate in her bedroom while Preston ate all her necklaces. Kate likes to pretend she's making cake with her necklaces so we pretended to make cake and then eat it. She's also in the pretending stage where she wants to switch roles so she'll tell me that I'm Kate and she is Mommy. Then she'll say, "Kate, I'm going to do this..." and I'll say "Okay, Mommy." It's pretty funny that she is already playing pretend like this. That night I watched my friend's 2 kids while her and her husband went to a park to watch a Romeo and Juliet play. It's been a week of kiddos for me! Funny how it happened to fall within the same week.

Thursday: We had playgroup at a beach where we could have entered a sand castle building contest, but we didn't. It was fun though, once we were all bundled up (the weather has been gross lately). The kids played on the playground and then on the beach in the sand. In the afternoon, I filled 100 water balloons to prepare for the Primary Activity Day for tonight. Well... it never happened. It started to downpour rain this afternoon and the forecast said rain for the rest of the night. Our activity was supposed to be at a park with water games and it was a "fun in the sun" theme. So we figured with no sun, we might as well reschedule it for next week when we might have a higher chance for some warmer weather! It was a bummer, but now I have 100 water balloons. The neighbor kids will love me when I let them have a water balloon fight. :)

Tomorrow night, I am going out to dinner and to go shopping with some friends of mine. It will be fun to have a girl's night out. Lucky husbands. Ha!

Pioneer Picnic

Our Stake had our Pioneer Day celebration on Saturday at a local park. It was a lot of fun. After dinner- BBQ pork sandwiches, salads, desserts and homemade rootbeer- there was face painting, taffy pulling, ice cream in a bag, gunny sac races, pole pull game, water balloon toss, square dancing and probably other games I didn't see. Kate took her scooter in the kiddie parade and we even attempted to decorate it. But next year we'll be taking her bike for sure. I let her choose whether she wanted to take her bike or scooter and she chose the scooter. Well, let's just say she fell down, started crying, didn't want to ride the scooter, got passed by everyone behind her and was the caboose of the parade. She actually had a melt down because she wanted to be with Alyssa (her friend) and Alyssa was on a bike and way ahead of her. She couldn't keep up on her scooter. During the parade she even passed the little water park area and wanted to stop and get in the water. Talk about attention span! :)

Alyssa and Kate in their pioneer outfits

The kiddie parade
Kate square dancing with Anna (a young women in our ward who has babysat Kate). Kate LOVED it since it was dancing.

Preston Eye Check-Up

Preston went to the eye doctor at Children's yesterday and he got a really good report. After waiting 2 hours to see the doctor (yes, I waited that long!) and Preston throwing up in the doctor's office after his exam......his left eye (with the displaced pupil) sees as well as the normal right eye! That is great news. The doctor kept saying how surprised he was that Preston is seeing so well out of it and that it is perfect vision. Basically, so far his displaced pupil is a cosmetic thing and he wouldn't recommend surgery because "why mess with his eye when it's perfect" (it may be an issue later if Preston gets teased a lot). We still have to go back in 6 months for another check-up and probably every 6 months until he is 6 years old or so (I hope the next wait isn't as long!). They want to keep monitoring his vision in case he needs any intervention. We are so glad he is still seeing so well and hope he continues to be fine. Below is a picture of Preston up close so you can see what his displaced pupil looks like in his left eye. Interesting, huh? I have never heard of such a thing.

Here is a video from a couple weeks ago of Preston jumping in his crib. It's pretty cute to see him play in his crib. I sometimes peek through his door enough to watch him, but not enough so that he sees me and he does some funny things like jump holding onto the railing then plop down and giggle, then pull himself back up and smile away. Funny boy.

Catch Up

We were at my parent's house last weekend for a family reunion for my Dad's side. He has two sisters, one from N. Carolina and one from Virginia, that come out every summer to visit. My Dad put together a slip 'n slide where like 4 people could go down at a time so it was fun. We even lathered up with Dawn soap. Then, several of the adults and older teenager cousins went up to the HS gym to play basketball. I was on the winning team so that was fun. :) But man, I was VERY sore the next day. It's been a while since I have played basketball. I run and lift weights, but shooting and rebounding used muscles I forgot about, I guess.

My Mom made a Jeapordy game using information from the Sabin family history. It was very clever and fun.

Then we made a trip up to Moses Lake to visit Melanie and her family. We got to go to the aquatic park there and Kate loved it. Melanie's kids are so good with her and watched her the whole time which was very nice. :) After the park, Melanie cut my hair and Kyle's hair. Thanks Melanie!

The kiddos being goofy!

Kate fixing Kathryn's hair. :) Kathryn was a good sport. Melanie's kids do anything for "Miss" Kate.

Kyle and I went to see Iron Man on Friday night with another couple. It was fun to go to the movie (we don't do it much nowadays) and we liked the movie. Then, on Saturday we ran some errands and went to a church BBQ at a fun park. It was fun to visit with everyone and we even got to play a volleyball game.