Words but no pictures

Grandma Lady is here to visit and has brought her computer! Hooray!! That means 3 days of computer access and a chance to give you some live family updates. Auntie V will need to resume her duties on Thursday when Grandma Lady heads back up the valley to visit Auntie E and the gang. Unfortunately the blog will only have words, so if Auntie V has any more exciting archived photos...feel free to add them in.

We had a fantastic weekend. Much smoother than the previous weekend's camping attempt. We spent lots of time visiting with lots of different people. Papa and I had a date night on Friday night. A trip down to the local pub for wings and pizza. A date that is always successful in making me feel like I'm 20-something again. Saturday was a super busy day. Bean was up at 5am and by 6:30am had Papa and Schmoo up with him. Papa decided to take them both for a big walk and took them down past the waterfall and up to Auntie V's favourite patio for a coffee and muffin stop. I found them wandering back home as I was heading out to the gym for the Saturday morning class. I returned home to find them all out in the garden doing their own things.

We left Papa at home to cut the lawn and I packed the kids for a quick trip to the beach to meet up with C & H and their parents. It was a scorching hot day so the kids had a great time splashing around in the ice cold water. Our planned one hour journey turned into two hours. We returned home for some quiet time before our evening plans started. Grandma Lady stopped in to drop off some raspberries on her way out to Auntie E's house. She left as the two families that we had invited over for dinner began to arrive. It was a great summer evening of watching the kids run around the garden while the parents visited on the back deck. They all headed home around 8:30pm and we tucked our very tired kids into bed.

Sunday evolved into a busy party day as well. The kids slept in until 7am at least and we had a lazy morning at home, making plans with Auntie E and Uncle R for later in the day. We headed up to their place for 2pm so the boys could go golfing and the girls could take the kids to the beach. They ended up being a group of five to play golf - Papa, Uncle R, Grandpa W, and two friends of Uncle R. We didn't get to the beach until after 4pm, but with the hot temperatures it ended up being a perfect time. Bean had a big snooze in the car and then scoured the shoreline with Grandma Lady looking for rocks and sticks to take home. Schmoo had a great time being the big kid, splashing around with Cousin I and her friend I. The big achievement of the day was Baby R sitting up all by himself!

We packed everyone up and headed back to Auntie E's for 7pm and a very late dinner. The boys rolled in just as dinner was being served. The evening was closed up with the pull up party. As promised, we threw a party for Bean to celebrate the fact that he no longers wears pullups. We all wore left over pullups on our heads and ate cupcakes. We even sang "happy no more pullups" to the tune of happy birthday to Bean. He loved it. We packed up two very tired kids into the van and got home around 10pm.

Today has been a great summer day. Off to the gym for my class and the kids' swimming lessons this morning. We returned home to find Grandma Lady back at our house. After lunch and some quiet time (Schmoo slept, Bean did not) we headed down to the big park for a late afternoon play and pizza supper. Schmoo hung out at the playground with Grandma Lady while Bean and I took a ride on the tram. It was the last ride of the day, so we even got to ride it right into the shed for the night. Papa came and joined us and we enjoyed a glorious warm early evening down by the playground. We came home for Bean's regular bedtime and Schmoo played downstairs with Grandma Lady while I caught up with L from Boston on the phone. Papa went out to meet his friend L for the evening and has returned home to a quiet house.

Thanks again to Auntie V for carrying the torch while the computer is on sick leave. Current return date is estimated at next Wednesday the 23rd.