Summer fun!

We have been having a great summer so far! Lynsey and I went to a movie in the park (Jumanji) which was fun, and for my birthday I went to a concert at the Chateau St. Michelle winery with some friends and had a great time! The weather has been wonderful. This past weekend, we went camping with our friends the Neibauers to Penrose Point State Park. Beautiful location, lovely weather, everyone had a great time! Camping is so much work. Why is it so much work? You want to go for long enough to make all the work worthwhile, but at the same time, you don't want to go too many nights sleeping in a tent because you need to get back to your bed to get a decent rest. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with camping! At least the kids only have a "love" relationship with it, makes it worthwhile:-D.

This morning, the kids started their Equestrian camp. We had gone to the farm last Thursday so Adam could meet a horse and become familiar with the surroundings. It was a promising meeting, he petted the horse and seemed mildly interested. However, this morning did not have a great start. He got quite upset about the thought of petting a horse and definitely was not going to let me leave. I stayed with him until he calmed down, and we walked over to the arena where Lynsey was riding. He seemed happy enough to be around other kids riding but if you ever asked him if he wanted to you were met with a vehement "no". About 2 hours into the morning he started insisting he wanted to go home, but he wasn't really super stressed out - so we decided to see if we could leverage his desire to go home. I told him I would take him home, but first I wanted him to put his "hat" on and go sit on the horse. He definitely protested but he wasn't really escalated, so we kept moving him physically closer to where the horse was. After several minutes of talking about it, I carefully placed the helmet on his head - and he let me! He walked over to that horse like he owned it, stepped up the stairs to get in the saddle, and rode the horse around for several minutes! He wasn't smiling, but he was very relaxed, did not seem anxious or scared. It was so exciting! I thought it was a breakthrough, but he still insisted after getting off that he wanted to go home and didn't want to come back tomorrow. So I took him home so he would have a chance to process what he just did and hopefully gain some fond memories of it. He is still saying he doesn't want to ride again, but I THINK we have now convinced him to at least go back to the camp tomorrow (I have to stay, though). Tomorrow the strategy is going to be to get him on the horse first thing and see if he'll walk over to the arena with the other campers. We will have to play it by ear! All in all, a surprisingly encouraging end to what seemed like a failure of a morning. You just never know what he will decide to do! The other two kids also had a blast, as I fully expected!

Brian left for New York this morning so I'm single parenting again this week. We are getting a bit better at this so I'm sure we'll manage okay! It's going to be hot all week, so we'll probably chill out in the air conditioning in the afternoon after the morning horse camps. I am still pretty tired from camping and didn't sleep all that well last night - pretty excited after booking a week in Cancun for Spring Break! We are going to the Hyatt Ziva all inclusive resort for a week, and I'm so excited! Our room is overlooking the dolphin pool which hopefully the kids will find pretty cool:-D. April is a long ways away and I know there are lots of cool things to look forward to before that, but there's always a little adrenaline rush after booking a fun vacation;-).

Fifth Grade Graduation, Summer Trip to Alberta!

I knew I should have done a post before we left for Alberta, but I had a lot to do and I guess blogging got pushed down the list! The school year ended, and not a minute too soon for Adam (he has never seemed so ready for a break from school!). Lynsey had her fifth grade graduation which was a lot of fun for her. I know she feels a bit sad about leaving Elementary school, but thankfully she is also excited for what lies ahead in middle school! The kids enjoyed their week at home after school got out, there was a lot of fort building going on! Lynsey had a sleepover with Alice and Maggie in our tent in the backyard the Friday after school got out, and Nathan convinced me to sleep in there with all the kids on Saturday night as well (Adam was totally in when it was suggested!). I had a lot of stuff to get ready for our big trip so the next week was a busy week. Thankfully I felt like I was pretty well prepared!

Thursday (the 28th) in the morning, we were off to Revelstoke for our first stop! The trip was good, although we learned a few hours after we left that Nathan's passport would be expiring while we were in Alberta - oops! Thankfully, my neighbor (and friend) Cindy had a house key and she found Nathan's birth certificate and had it FedExed to Brian's parents house so we could go get him a new passport. Good thing to let slide, wow! I guess when there are a lot of balls in the air, one of them is bound to drop! Thankfully this one was not catastrophic!

Friday morning we left Revelstoke and were off to the family campout near Alix, Alberta. We even got to encounter a good old fashioned southern Alberta hailstorm! We had to stop briefly, it was so loud! Thankfully it didn't last too long and we were able to keep going, no vehicle damage. We had a great weekend with my family! The weather was a pretty good, had a bit of rain on Saturday but only after the outdoor activities were done. Adam even tried the zipline this year! I wasn't sure he would, but he loved it! Lynsey was all about the rock climbing, too! Sunday morning we had a bit of a nasty awakening to Adam having some stomach issues, Brian ended up dropping me and the other two kids off in Three Hills and taking Adam back to Calgary to recover at his parents place. I took the other kids to Jana's wedding and had a great time! The kids even danced up a storm at the dance, so cute! We did some swimming at the hotel and slept quite well after a long day. Monday morning we went to Liz and Dave's for lunch (Adam was feeling better so Brian drove back up with him) and then we took off to Drumheller to meet up with Bobbi and Jer at the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur museum. It was a good afternoon, after Adam got over his temper tantrum about having to go to the museum. It had been a long time since we had seen him freak out like that! Brian had to wait in the parking lot with him until he was ready to get out and then they joined us (just as we got to the front of the line, it was really busy that day!). We went out for dinner in Drumheller with Bobbi and Jer, had a great time with them before heading off to Calgary to begin that portion of our trip!

Tuesday morning I had to make a trip downtown to apply for Nathan's passport, I quite enjoyed my downtown excursion (helped that I took the train and didn't have to drive and find parking!). Brian and I had a bank appointment in the afternoon as well which took quite a while, so many little things to do when we go back home. Wednesday, Mike and Annie came over to hang out for the day and we took it easy. Mike, Brian, Lynsey and Nathan went to a climbing wall in the evening which the kids really enjoyed. Thursday I got my hair done, and then we all got in the van to head to the Nexus office at the airport to update our Nexus cards. There was a little hitch with Lynsey's and her and Brian had to go back on Friday morning, things can never be completely smooth I guess! After lunch I met up with my friend Katie (and Lynsey's friend Alyssa). Friday morning I had to take Nathan downtown with me to pick up his passport - it also happened to be Stampede Parade day! It actually didn't hinder our travels since we took the train, but I wanted to stop and watch the parade and Nathan wanted nothing to do with it. I guess we haven't instilled any interest in parades, but I thought all kids liked them?? Oh well! We went to Bobbi and Jer's after lunch and hung out until bedtime, always good times with the Sampsons! Saturday morning we packed up and hung out with Mike and Annie some more, headed out in the afternoon - destination Revelstoke (again). We stayed in a different hotel this time, found one with a waterslide and the kids had a blast! It was also really exciting to get upgraded to a suite with a separate bedroom with a King bed, and two Queen beds in the main room - all because the guy at the desk was busy and didn't want to get a cot ordered to the regular room we paid for:-D. I'm sure he was also a nice guy and just providing some good customer service, which I will remember! Driving home yesterday wasn't so much a blast but it really is getting so much easier as the kids get older. There might be some complaining and sibling rivalry, but all in all it's not so bad. Good thing because we've got another road trip coming up in a month!

Today it was back to routine! Nathan and Lynsey are both doing camps in the morning and I brought Adam to the gym and then the grocery store. He's just so quiet (when he's not stressed) that taking him on errands can be such a nice experience! I think he's just thrilled that it's a Monday and he didn't have to go back to school lol!

Let the summer fun continue!