Mexico 2012

We just got back from a relaxing and warm and fun trip to Mexico.  We took the kids to Puerta Vallarta and had a great time.  We stayed at a really nice resort, the Melia Puerta Vallarta and were lucky that no one got sick, it only rained for about an hour the whole time and we got to do some really awesome things. 

The flights were not ideal for the kids traveling, both of the flying very very late at night, but as usual they both did fantastic.  Even Lucas on our flight home was so excited that at 3am when we took off, he watched about an hour of Harry Potter, just because he was excited to be on a plane and have his own TV. 

The resort we stayed at was very nice.  They had a good big pool that wasn't too deep for the kids, but deep enough they could jump in and out.  The food was pretty good (although I always get sick of eating the same foods all week). And they had a smaller buffet table for the kids, which Lucas and Nathan really enjoyed being able to pick their own food.  They also had cereal on the the kids buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which the kids thought was great.  The resort also had lots of other things to do too, Lucas started to learn to pool and fuze-ball.



The shows that they had at the resort were spectacular, so we were sure to catch them all in the evenings.  Plus before the show they had a mini disco, which the kids really enjoyed. 


We did do a couple of little excursions, one day we went right into town, which I loved.  It's always nice to see how other people live.  In Mexico it often open your eyes to how lucky we are here (although they don't get snow....) 

We also went on a trip to Las Caletas.  We watched the whales on the boat ride over and then the boys had a really fun time at the kids adventure park there.  They both went zip lining, which I wasn't sure if they would like it or decide not to do it, but they were both very brave and did it.    We also got a chance to relase baby sea turtles into the ocean.




It was a really great vacation.  We all came back with a little sun in our skin and more relaxed and enjoyed some quality family time together. 




Until next time. Jenn

January Round Up

Well January had lots of ups and downs.  The downs were mostly with work and luckily I only work 3 days a week, so the good times still out weighed the bad times, although the bad work times, did often creep into my days off and the good times with the kids.  But we did do lots of REALLY fun things this month.

The one sad thing that happened that I can write about and want to write about because it's never happened in the 8 years as a teacher and I hope it never happens again is that we had a student die.  This is the saddest thing I've ever had happen to me as a teacher.  And his funeral was packed full of people.  He was young and going to be a great x-ray technologist.  It is such a waste that someone who was so vibrant died.



Okay on to happier things.  First was taking Lucas skiing.  It was his first time and it was really important to us that he liked it.  We didn't want to pressure him because we want him to love it as much as we do.  We didn't want it to be a bad first experience and him not want to do it again.  So we started off on the bunny hill.  Pop came with us and gave Lucas some great tips to start with.  Pizza and french fries and how to lean on each leg to turn.   After about two runs, he said he legs hurt and wanted to go in.  We made a deal that after 3 more runs we would go in and have a break.  Well of course on the next run he started to get use to the skiis and started to "get it" a bit.  So we didn't go in and skiied and skiied.  At lunch time he said he wanted to try the big hill.  So off we went onto the gold chair and went up the mountain.   The chair was pretty fast, so I was worried he may be scared or didn't like it, but he thought it was great.   Luckily Pop can ski backward so he helped Lucas down the first time.    Really that kid was hooked!  It was me who at the end of the day, said my legs were sore (as I hadn't been skiing in 7 years either) and wanted to be done for the day.    I forgot how much I loved skiing.  Being in the mountains, surronded by nature and friends brings a sense of peace and being humble.


It was also Mom and Dad's 30th wedding anniversary!!  Can you believe it, 30 years is a long time.   It was a great celebration at the Banff Springs hotel for brunch.   Delicious food, delicious company in a beautiful setting. 

 We also celebrated Dad's birthday!  Which was a fun evening of good food and friends.  Darryl also helped Dad work on finishing their basement.


Things continue to be good with Lucas and Nathan. Lucas is now excelling at school. He's going through the reading levels for french books really fast. He was "etoile de la semaine" and he presented in front of his whole class. He's answering questions in class and doesn't get upset if he makes a mistake. Mom noticed a big difference taking him to school. We got Nathan signed up for preschool for next year and he is very excited about it. We've been working hard at getting him learn recognize all his letters and know what they mean. Although I think lots of his brain is taking up with big boy stuff from hanging around with his brother. But they do get along really well so that great!



We are so lucky to have such great support and people around us to spend our time with.  We live a sweet life and are so lucky to have great people to spend time with.  We are also healthy and happy and lucky.  So even though work has been incredibly challenging this month, I get to come home to fun boys to play dodgeball and UNO with.  And spend my weekends with great family and friends.   

Till Next Time

Jenn

Best of 2011 Video

2011 has been a good year.  We got to go on lots of fun vacations,  Europe with Alexis, San Francisco with Darryl and Vancouver with Lori and Mackenzie.   The boys are at a really good ages, they can do most things for themselves and so are not totally dependent on us, but still love to spend time with us.  Lucas is at an age where he is learning new things and that is very fun to watch.  Although it can also be very hard to watch too.  But in all instances it has taken time but he figures it out.  I guess that is the joy of kids, they are resilient and always bounce back.    Here is some of the best pictures of the year.

Christmas 2011

Well as quick as it comes up, it is gone again. It was fun and uneventful and filled with all the luck and love that is in my life. I really am a lucky person to have such a great family. And when my house is filled with noise and happiness and laughter that is the best present I could ask for. Here are some of the picture highlights of Christmas day:

This picutre is Lucas and Nathan playing Nathan's new leapster.  Although I think Lucas has played it more then Nathan, Nathan usually watches so hopefully he is learning by watching and will play with it more as the year goes on. 

Of course one of the big stories this year was Steve Jobs passing. Darryl got the book for Christmas but I think everyone in the room wants to read it. 

 We got lots of Lego for Christmas, as it is Darryl and the boys favorite thing.  Here is the boys and Pop doing some building on Christmas morning.

Alexis has moved back to town and we are all so happy to have her around again.  Although no one quite as happy as mom, to have her best friend close to her.

One of my favorite presents was my new ukelele.  It's purple!  Here Lucas is playing it. 

Here's a picture of the adult table at Christmas dinner and below is the kids table.  With there plastic wine glasses and fake wine.

There was some video conferencing with Uncle Arnie and Aunt Lucille. 

And Matt hanging out with his favorite teaser

And myself, Darryl and Tammy cleaning up after dinner.

And Alexis's turn to build some lego

And the boys turn to build some Lego. 

I hope you all had a fun Christmas filled with love and laughter and good food.

Till Next Time

Jenn

November Round Up

By god, two posts in two days!  While posting about Torin today it reminded me I hadn't done my November roundup. 

That being said, maybe there's a reason.  As I went through the pictures of November I saw there was very few.  November is my least favorite of all the months.  Blah, it's dark here will 8am and then it gets dark again at 4:30.  But here is the a quick update on things we did do:

We have been attending swimming lessons which is going well for both boys.  Lucas was put in a more advanced class, so even though he's not the best in the class, he's being pushed more, which is a good thing for him.  He is working on both his front crawl and back crawl, plus diving in. 



We did go to some birthday parties and Christmas parties.  Which was lots of fun.  Nice for the boys to get out and have some fun and exercise.

I did go for a job interview which was a good experience as I haven't done that in a while. Although the idea of the job did consume my thoughts for 4 days straight. 

The boys are both doing well, Lucas has got more use to school which is good.  Nathan continues to be his funny self.   They continue to love Phineus and Ferb and oatmeal and chicken and guns and their imaginations and their Dad (especially Lucas, who wants to spend every evening playing videogames with Darryl.)

Till Next Time

Jenn

Torin

On Friday we had to put Torin down.  About a week before he stopped eating and when we took him into the vet we had blood work done and saw that his kidney's had stopped functioning.  As most of you know, you can't function without kidneys so we knew his days were numbered.  He continued to go downhill to the point where he was barely responding to us.  We knew he was suffering with not eating and so we talked to talked to the vet and decided it was best to send him off to kitty heaven.

Torin was a great cat.   He was the super friendly one.  He loved to be outside and would make friends with anyone outside (or inside if they came in).  He was the one who played with the kids and the one you could

 He was also very photogenic.

 And him and Emma were quite good friends.  They would play together all the time.  At first I use to worry about it as Emma is a dog, and bigger, but Torin had the claws and had no problem using them if he needed them.  I think Emma will miss Torin as much as the rest of us.  Just having that presence in the house. 

 Torin also had no problem sleeping right on us.  Or sleeping right in my face. 

Just over a year ago we said goodbye to Tigger.  She was a great cat and it was really hard to make that decision and the decision with Torin was just as hard.   The house feels empty without him here.  When Tigger died we still had a cat around and there was the cat presence.  Now there is no cat and I can really feel it. 

Till Next Time

Jenn

October Round Up

I just read over September Roundup to see how this month went and I see October was so much better then September.  My balance of work/home life was better, Lucas got better in school and the weather still stayed beautiful.

Things for Lucas have really improved over the month as well.  He was struggling with getting his work done in class.  We met with the teacher and we both suspected it was more of a confidence issue then a focus issue, as he's never had issues with being distracted before.  We worked at home with him trying to get him to write french words and Nathan and I would distract him or we would put the TV on and he'd still have to write a certain number of words in a certain amount of time.  I would make the time quite long to be sure he was always done in the time frame, again to boost his confidence.   Things at school have been steadily improving for him as well.  We have gotten a couple of notes home from the teacher when he has a really good day or writes quickly.  Even last week he put his hand up and answered questions in french.  Darryl had volunteered in the class the week before and commented on how Lucas didn't really participate.  But it's good to see that is improving as well.  We have also been working on speaking lots of french at home and he is reading to us in french.  He has learned so much and I am so so so so proud of him.  He has done a hard thing and came through it with really positive results. 

We did have Thanksgiving this year, but it was kind of a weird weekend.  I usually LOVE Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday.  It has the good food like Christmas but not the commercialism.  And it reminds you to be thankful for all the wonderful things in life.  Well this year there was no turkey and most people went away.   It was fun to have a weekend alone with my sister and Auntie Karen came to have dinner with us too, but it just wasn't the same as having a house full of people and Darryl making turkey.   Although like I said I do treasure the weekends when my sister is down and I get her all to myself, so that was fun. 

We have been enjoying some fun family time too.  The boys are in a good age that we don't need naps anymore so we can go out and do something for most of the day.  Sometimes it's hiking or swimming.  One weekend this month it was Heritage Park.   Where I got some fun pictures of the boys.  We ate from the bakery.  Rode the train, fed the animals, played with the leaves, ran in the field and went on the rides.  It was fun. 

 Last night was Halloween and that was (as usual) really fun too.  The boys both dressed up as ninja's and I was a lion.  With my hair that's pretty easy to pull off.  The boys got lots of candy and there were quite a few kids here too.

 




Hope everyone else is enjoying fall too. 

Till next time

Jenn

Nathan... lately

3 years old has been very fun.  We did go through a couple of weeks of the terrible 3's about a month ago.  Nathan wasn't listening and being a pain and whiny and crying.  But that lasted all of about 4 days and now he is back to his happy self.  That's one of the consisent things about Nathan is that he has always been a really happy kid.

One of the funny things in the last couple of weeks has been his imagination.  We play beach day and Lucas pretends he is Nathan's puppy.   I'm loving this stage where he is still my baby but he is so fun and sweet.

Another funny thing he is doing is that every game we play or anything he shows me is something he learned from a birthday party.    Really he's only been to maybe 3 birthday parties in his whole life.  So it's funny that every food was something he "tried at a birthday party".  Or every game he's played is one "he learned at a birthday party."   Those must be some pretty eventful birthday parties.

Here is a cute video of him from last weekend.  He's got the moves down to be a guitar player now he just needs the technical skills.



Till Next Time Jenn

RIP Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died today. And although I never knew him, I'm sad. It's sad that someone who was such a visionary won't be able to give us any more of his ideas. And they were such grand ideas.

My mom and dad were early adopters of Apple Computers. We have had one in my house since I can remember. We had computers before anyone else I knew. My dad loved them. They were his hobby. Darryl sent out this picture a couple of months ago and this was my Dad's response.

Well I was a little older than that when I saw the first Macintosh 
If this truly is the earliest model I believe it was 128 K 
It was a rare expensive $3500 computer that you just could not purchase 
My first "mac" was 512K It brought us years of enjoyment 
And tought us that there was greater good beyond the realm of bill gates and the pc 
And note that I did not capitalize the letters on purpose 
My favorite game was dark castle 
And the evil one was the black knight who was a bear drinking swine that threw bear steins at everyone 
I learned excel on that mac 
Sniff sniff

After about the age of 13 we had more computers in our house then people. And they were all Macs.

One of the first purschase I made when I moved away from home was my beloved purple iMac. That computer was beautiful. And it was fast and it did all the things I wanted it too. That is one of the greatest parts about Apple is all you really need to do is take it out of the box, plug it is, start it up and it works. Whether it's an iphone or a MacBook Pro

Now I spent most nights with my latest best buddy, my 13 inch macbook. This is my second one. The first one died after 4 years, lots of sticky fingers and a cup of grapefruit water split all over it. Macs are great, I've been convinced of that since I was 2. Thanks for everything Steve Jobs, you were a genius and you have helped to make my life more fulfilled and fun.

Till Next Time

Jenn