Camping adventures in the rain!

Well we did something pretty brave the weekend before last - we went tent camping on the rainy coast, while there was a fire ban going on! We didn't know there was going to be a fire ban when we booked obviously, and we didn't know it was going to rain although we knew the chances were a bit higher than they would have been inland, but we still had fun:). We went with our friends the Davys and the Vanees and it all went pretty well all things considered! We were only a mile from Ocean Shores, but we only went into town once on Friday evening to get dinner (just the girls, everyone else stayed at the campsite). The kids had a lot of fun playing on the beach even though it was very windy. The kids slept GREAT in the tent, couldn't have asked for better really. All in all a fun weekend!

We are in full swing move-mode. I have been packing and organizing and purging whatever I can. It's hard to pack too far ahead of time, but I've been able to go through some things that haven't been organized in a very long time (we didn't really organize for our last move because we had packers that just packed everything). It's quite a good feeling purging things that aren't useful to us anymore and I've been able to give stuff to my community through Facebook groups. I am so looking forward to moving to the next house, I am counting down! Things that we have lived with for the last two years are suddenly driving me nuts now that I know we're so close to being out of here - like sorting the laundry on my bed because our room is so small. I have done that a hundred times, and now I only have to do it ONE MORE TIME!!

I feel like I've been so busy talking about what we are doing that I have not talked about the kids much. Nathan is growing up really fast. His sentences are complete and his personality is really coming through! We were watching "The Incredibles" on TV the other day, and there was a scene where one of the characters was beating up a bad guy. Nathan gets all excited, "Yes! Punch him! Punch him in the face!" Did I mention that we have a BOY on our hands?? Such a boy! We were talking with him about the fact that him and Adam are going to share a room in the new house, and that he was going to sleep on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. He told me he wanted to sleep on the top but I told him he was too little, it was safer for Adam to sleep on the top. He thinks for a second and then he says, "But there's a railing there so I won't fall off!" Yes, there is indeed a railing, and he makes a good point! Still not sure I want that monkey on the top bunk, but I thought it was impressive that he thought it through and gave me a reasoned argument:).

Adam seems to have picked up some kind of OCD about the cabinet door under the sink. Every time I open it to put garbage in the garbage bin, he starts ranting about it and has to come open and close it himself before he can be calm again. I don't know what that's all about!

Lynsey is kind of driving me crazy with her constant play date requests. I can't imagine that I could have asked my mom every day of the summer to go to a friends house at this age, but apparently that is where we are at! Oh how I wish she was more independent in her play! She can be when she decides, and her and Nathan have had some very nice play times together, but she is always looking to play with other friends. She plays with the neighbor girls a lot which has been a total godsend, but lately they have been "hurting her feelings" a bit so I'm not sure it's such a great idea for her to go there so often:-/. I'm hoping she will make new friends at the house as well and find things to do all day. Her and Nathan have discovered a new love of Lego which has been nice, we are going to make them a nice Lego play space in the new house.

What else is new . . . Lynsey and Nathan are doing swimming lessons this week and next, today Nathan refused to get in the pool for the first 15 minutes which was very frustrating. He did get in eventually so hopefully tomorrow will be better! I took Lynsey and Nathan to the zoo by myself last Friday and it went really well! Apparently I can manage two kids just fine - it's the third that's deal breaker for me on outings!

I almost forgot to mention that Brian and I get a little getaway to Vegas the second weekend in August! Brian's parents are coming down and they are watching the kids for two nights so we can get away. I am so excited! It's nice to have something to look forward to to get me through the stress of moving. It will also be a nice motivation to get everything unpacked and organized for when they come:-S.

Time for a big trip back home!

Wow it's time for an update! Busy last several weeks! To pick up where I left off, we did not get the house we were trying to buy:(. Apparently someone came along and offered more money and no conditions on the sale, so we were pushed out. I was pretty disappointed, even though I had tried to prepare myself for that possibility. We kept our eyes open for any new listings popping up, but there is just so little for sale that we want in the area we want! We looked at some rentals as well, and in the end, found a rental that we liked and have signed the lease for move-in August 1st! It's not perfect (I don't even know why I say that anymore, you can assume that anything in our price range is NOT perfect!) but it's in a fantastic location in a beautiful neighborhood, and I like the feeling I get from the landlord. She takes care of the house (even includes all yardwork in the rent so we don't have to do any!) and seems to be a genuinely nice person. She's been renting out this house a long time so she has a lot of experience, which I think is a good thing (although it did make her a bit paranoid about some things we wanted to do because of past experiences with not-so-great renters!). I am excited to move and get settled in to a much nicer house!

 What else happened before we left on our trip . . . not a whole lot! Pretty uneventful Father's Day, Lynsey brought Brian breakfast in bed (it's what people do on Mother's Day, why not Father's Day, right?:)). We left on our trip Wednesday the 24th and drove to Cranbrook. We stayed in a small Super 8 that had a really nice pool and waterslide - even got Adam going down the slide all by himself! It took some convincing and a lot of time after we got there, but he did it! We went swimming again in the morning before leaving for Calgary, since the drive was only going to be about 4 hours. We had a great night in Calgary visiting with our Kroeker family there, and I snuck away to see my friend Larissa for a bit as well. The next morning I met up with some of my mom friends and then off we went to Three Hills for the afternoon to hang out with Mary! Yes, it was go-go-go!

We got to Edmonton Friday night and got to just hang out there for the weekend. Mike and Annie came up as well, Brian's parents had bought a bigger kiddie pool and the kids had a lot of fun! Monday morning we began our trek to La Crete! Luckily we were able to take the 88 because unbeknownst to us, there were a lot of forest fires in the area. It was a smoky welcome to La Crete:-/. We had such a great time there! I got to hang out with my childhood friends Melanie, Pam and Patti which was such a treat! We took in the Canada Day parade (Adam wasn't as thrilled about it unfortunately) and got to go on Tina and Danny's boat to their little sandbar on the river! Our kids really loved the mud as you can see in the pictures:). Thursday we visited Becky and Gordie and hung out in their new pool, so fun! The kids got a ride in an ATV at George and Karen's in the evening which was a real treat, especially for Nathan (who kept talking afterwards about the grasshopper jumping into the cab!). Friday we were back on the road to Edmonton, and had to take the long way because the 88 was closed (couldn't the fires have held off for one more day?? Really!!). Went to Tara and Wayne's Saturday morning for more family visiting and on Sunday morning, we set off for Kamloops. By this time, everyone was pretty sick of traveling and there were some rough spots. We had a nice room in Kamloops and the kids enjoyed more swimming time. Monday we finally made it home! Wow, 12 days is a long time to be gone! And 4400 km is a long way to travel with 3 kids. All worth it though! Everyone had a great time:).

 Now it's back to real life! Adam went back to preschool yesterday and Brian went back to work and I went back to the gym (that was pretty painful I must say!). Now I am focusing on our camping trip to Ocean Shores this weekend, and then after that, I will be focusing on moving. Yes, this is a busy summer for the Kroekers! I am just hoping we can manage everything, some days I feel like we are just scraping by with our sanity. We're hiring movers so moving day should be reasonably painless, but it's all the organizing and sifting through of our stuff while packing that will require the most energy. Our packers packed everything last time so we didn't go through it all, and it's now time to do some purging. I'm hoping Lynsey will be agreeable to letting some things go because we have toys that haven't been played with in a very long time that need a new home. We'll see how it goes!