Jenn's Favorite Parts of Canada

I just finished reading this article about Chris Hadfields favorite parts of Canada.  It inspired me to make my own list of favorite places in Canada as well.  I have been to almost every province (Not Newfoundland or no territories) And while I certainly have never been to all places here are some of my favorite.


1. Okanagan: Of course this ranks as one of my tops places.  You have beautiful lakes and mountains.  You have delicious food and wine.  I'm lucky that I get to go here every year and enjoy all that it has to offer. 

2. Rocky Mountains: I love living so close to the mountains.  They provide us with so much entertain and activity.  They are huge and beautiful and the air is clean and the you are humbled to be in their presense.

3. Toronto: I have lots of good memories as a kid of the fun things to do in Toronto.  While it is a big city and I don't know that I'd want to live there I do love to visit.  I'm hoping to go back next summer and take the kids to the CN Tower and Skydome to see a Jays game.  Also to Ontario place and some of the cool museums there. 

4. Quebec City:  I was here a couple of years ago and really enjoyed old town.  It was as close to Europe as I have been in Canada.  Plus I love french food and french people. 

5. St. John New Brunswick: When my sister and I were about 12 and 15 my mom and grandmother took us on a road trip to the East Coast.  While we had some.... crazy adventures and met alot of my grandmothers interesting relatives, it was a great trip to see parts of Canada I never had before.  We saw Gaspe, New Brunswick and PEI.  I think my most of my favorite memories were whale watching and staying in a nice hotel in New Brunswick. 

Of course I also have a list of the places I still would like to go to as well

1. Montreal: I have been there before on a school trip, but would like to go back and take my french boys with me. 

2. Tofino BC: See the tide pools, kayak on the pacific ocean

3. Halifax: Heard many great things about it and love and ocean and water.

4. St. John's Newfoundland:  People from Newfoundland are some of the nicest people I know.  Plus there music I love.  I would love to go there. 

What about you what's your favorite place (s) in Canada?

Jenn

Book 6: The promise of Stardust

While in California I finished up the book I was reading and needed a new one for the plane ride home.  Remember that story....

At the time Canada didn't have Target, so we headed to Target to get the boys some "Shaun White" brand clothing and check out the book section.  I found this book and it was signed by the author so I went for it. 

The premise of the book is that Elle falls and has a brain injury, she is married to Matt and there is nothing they can do for her.  They are about to take her off life support when they find out she is pregnant.  Matt and Elle always wanted a baby.  Then there is a court case about keeping Elle alive to save the baby.  The story is medical which I enjoy and ethical which I also enjoy.  But most importantly it doesn't bore you with medical, legal and ethical issues.  It is mostly a story about two people and how they feel in love and their lives together.  It does make you think about what you would do in Matt's situation. 

It was a good read and Lesley loved it too!

Keeping up well with the new years resolution.  Book 6 in 6 months.

Jenn

May Round Up

May is a wonderful month, it's the month of my wedding anniversary and it's the month you can start gardening again.  The sun shines a lot (although the rain has come down alot too.) and we are all outside before dinner after dinner and sometimes even during dinner.  =) All of the kids come outside and there are lots of friends for the kids to play with, which is usually a good thing.  Although Nathan had to have a time out for trying to kid another kid, and he hasn't had a timeout in years. 

You can also see I've added my twitter timeline to the side.  Sometimes I posted pictures or other things on there that I don't post on facebook, so for those of you who don't tweet I thought you might enjoy having access to it.  

Here are some picture highlights from May

Darryl and I went to Teatro for our dinner.  It was good and very well presented.  I don't know it was so good that I'll be running back, but it was good to go once. 

 Darryl took a day off to go with Lucas to the zoo on his field trip.  When Darryl and I first got married, I was the one who really wanted kids.  Darryl said he would be fine either way.  But now when I see him as a dad I can't imagine him not fufilling that role in his life.  He is such an incredible dad.  Plus he has two boys who love to do the same things he does.  Video games, they are all about it.  Rollerblading and doing sports, let them all play along.  It's great how they are coming into the age that they are little built in friends.  People who we love to do stuff with.

 Here was some blurry pictures of Lucas spring concert.  Like his mom he is a singer.  So is happy to be in choir (and run club, also like his mom).  The concert was quite good all about the ocean and a shark who wants to be friends with fish.

 At Nathan's preschool they had a mothers day tea, where all the mom's came an the kids brought them a drink and cookies.  They also sang us funny songs.  Preschool has been great for Nathan.  He's at the age where you can see how much he learns there week to week.  He knows upper and lowercase letters.  He also knows the sounds of all the letters and is learning how to spell. 

 On Mothers day I had a lovely breakfast in bed and then got to do some shopping.  For dinner Darryl made us all steak dinner.  For mothers day it was my turn to pick the activity so I got a badminton set and we all played badminton together.  It was alot of fun. 

 Here is master smore maker Darryl!

 Here is the back privacy garden with lots of tulips.  The tulips have almost all died back now but the rest of the garden has exploded. 

 Darryl and I also got to go to the Mumford and Sons concert, which was incredible.  Those guys are all incredibly talented. 

 Lucas has been going karate since the start of the year and really enjoys it.  Now that Nathan is 5 he can be in the same class till Lucas turns 8, so for the next couple of months they get to enjoy each others company and be each others partners.  Which of course makes my heart shine.  Nice when they are each other best friends. 

Last weekend it was Nathan's week to pick the family activity.  I sent out this picture with the classic tag line "Guess where we are in its not Spokane".  This tagline started almost a year ago when Tammy and I were in Spokane and Mom and Dad were in Hawaii.  Tammy and I sent our picture "guess where we are"  The next day dad sent one titled "guess where we are and it's not Spokane".  Who knows why, but it stuck.  Now all picture emails in different places you want people to guess are titled the same  "Guess where we are and it's not Spokane"  So yeah, we went bowling.  It's one of Nathan's favorite activities. 

How was your May?  Included lots of gardening?

Jenn

Mumford and Sons

I love going to concerts.  I really really love going to concerts. 

There is no other time I have that feeling of excitement and antipation in my chest right before the band comes out.  When you know they are coming, the lights dim, everyone starts to scream and get excited.   There is no other feeling like it in the world. 

I also love being part of something big like a concert.  When everyone is singing along and you can hear them all. You can still hear the lead singer, but in the background you can also hear 15000 people singing along.  It's great to be part of that big collective. 

Last night Darryl and I went to Mumford and Sons.  It was a fantastic concert.  They are great musicians, playing multiple instruments and singing in harmony.  They sing loud songs and quiet songs, songs with trumpets and violins, songs that build and songs that have lots of "ahhh ahhh" that are easy to sing along to.  =)

Till Next Time

Jenn

Book 5: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

My friend Tammy gave me this book a couple of weeks ago and I was through it really quick.  Granted it shorter, but it's also a really easy and enjoyable read.  The story is about Charlie a 15 year old teenager and all of the "adventures/harships" he goes through being a teenager.  The book is written in letters that Charlie is writing to his anonymous friend, which again makes it kind of enjoyable.  It is amazing all the things this book covers; suicide, depression, death, rape, drugs, smoking and homosexuality.  I recommend it, it was quite a good book!

Jenn

Mothers Day

This weekend we celebrated a lovely mothers day.  Nathan made me a card which said my favorite thing to do was "cleaning" and my favorite food was tea.  Lucas gave me coupons for 5 hours of no playing video games and 15 hugs.  =)  They are great sweet and wonderful gifts.  For me that's what mothers day is about, special homeade things. 

I wrote a nice post on facebook about how I have so many wonderful moms around me.  First off is my mom.  She was been a great influence.  I know I have gained my confidence and my thinking "I can do anything" from her.   I also have influential moms around me like Tammy and Lesley.  Lesley is like a second mom to both of my kids.  She is a fantastic mother.  Always doing what is best for her kids.  Tammy too, she really loves being with her kids.  Also because both of those ladies have kids that are a couple of years older then mine I'm able to learn alot about them too. 

There's also my mother in law Lynda and Darryl's sister Lori.  Lynda is a great mom as she raised Darryl who is a great dad.  Lori is also a good one to learn from as she has a teenage girl, which I think it most difficult time of life.

So lots of great mothers around me.  I've very fortunate to have so many good role models.

Jenn 

April Round Up

The highlight of April was Nathan's turning 5(!!!), but other then that it was pretty standard, working, playing, sleeping, karate, volunteering in the kids classes, playing outside, making new foods, snuggling, playing video games, big family dinners, small family dinners, watching movies, shopping all the great fun things in life...

 Last weekend we collected together the whole posse and played a fun game of baseball.  The wind was blowing A LOT so I thought we would be done in 10 minutes, but we stayed out for two and a half hours because everyone was having such a great time. 

There was also snuggling.  I think it's one of those realizations that as the kids are growing up that those times will not last forever.   When they are young it's so much work to put them to bed, so once they are there it's great to have some time to yourself, but now it's easy so it's nice to enjoy more time with them.

Here are the boys both learning from Darryl.  They love there Dad so much.  They both really love spending time with him and doing a lot of the activities that he enjoys.  This week they have been using his old tools to take apart our old vacuum cleaner. 

Spring cleaning was in full swing this week.  I went through Nathan's clothes and took a lot to Value Village.  And I also cleaned out the pantry and gave food to the food bank. One thing I found that I think we moved into this house was a big box of cannelloni.  We enjoy pasta here so I thought I would make it.  Man, I quickly learned again why that box has been sitting there for years, it's a lot of work to make it.  Filling all those tubes and in the end it tasted like lasagna, which is much easier to make. 

Hope everyone else had a fun month too, whether it was filled with adventures or the joys of daily life. 

Till Next Time

Jenn

My favorite sound

This weekend was very low key.  On Sunday I made a roast beef dinner and Nathan asked when everyone was coming.  We host a lot of meals at our house.  Mostly because it's the biggest, but also because Darryl is an excellent cook.   I love having people over and noise in my house.  I like to feel like everyone is having a good time and that I've done something to contribute to that.  Sometimes it's a big conversation with 8 people taking part and sometimes it's 10 little conversations with two people each.  I live an awesome life with great people in it. 

Jenn

Emma Update

Many of you who have been following along for a while (which I know is like 2) know what a crazy dog we have in Emma.  She has been through many, many adventures.  There was also a summer two years ago where she went three shades of crazy and we have had to change our habits with her since then.

 For the last year we have been taking her to my angel/Auntie Karen's house.  Auntie Karen works from home so on the days I work, Emma happily sits in the basement with her while she works.  Auntie Karen takes her for walks on her lunch break and they both get a little fresh air and exercise.  I think it has worked out to be a really good solution.



The only time it becomes a bit of a issue that Emma can't be home alone is when Auntie Karen goes on vacation. In those instances we do one of two things with her.  The first is to take her to doggy daycare and the second is to keep her with me.  As long as the weather is good she is quite content to hang out in the backseat of the van and this week it was.  Luckily over my lunch break I'm also able to take her (and I) for a nice long walk.  This week I was working with students at the Childrens hospital and it has a lovely view. If you look closely in the background you'll see COP.  Of course you can also see the chinook in the clouds, which means the mountains didn't show up that well.  But it really was a lovely view on a lunchtime walk with my dog and partner in crime.

Jenn

Book 4 Casual Vacancy

 When we got home from California (where I had been reading another book... review to come in a week of two) and this book was waiting for me at the library.  For those of you who read and don't go to the library I HIGHLY recommend it.  Free books... free entertainment.  There's nothing better!  I took the book out and started reading it right away.  The only problem was after the first 10 pages I was having trouble sticking with it.  There are so many characters.  Who's Miles?  Who's Howard?  How are they related?  The book is based in a small town in England.  In the first chapter Barry Fairbrother dies and he holds a seat on town council.  Once the seat is not filled they call that a casual vacancy, hence the title.  The book goes through who is going to fill it.  One of the interesting things about it is the 'socialist" part of the book.  There is a "bad" side of town that the council is trying to take out of there jursidication.  JK Rowling presents many of the pros of helping society to giving everyone opportunity.

Not the best book I've ever read, but definitely a good one. 

Jenn