Vancouver in June

In June Will had some training for his job that led him to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I got to tag along and my mom came out to utah to take care of the girls. We had so much fun!

Our first restaurant meal. We heard Canada had smaller portions but they were plenty big. 

Capilano suspension bridge park. This pretty area in the mountains had an old suspension bridge really high above a river gorge. it was really wobbly to walk across but fun!

The tv show "smallville" was filmed in the Vancouver area and we found a few of the areas where they filmed. ( we loved that show) Here is the "talon" it was a coffee shop/ movie theatre in the town of smallville. In real life it is a small movie theatre.

Eating popcorn from the " talon" 

Canada place. This is a big cruise ship port/ convention center  in downtown Vancouver. 

This is a restaurant inside the building where they filmed the "daily planet" 

Here I am pointing to another building that was used for filming. In the show it was called " watchtower" 

I met Will for lunch every day while he was on break from his training. Here I am just looking at some tourist info about the city. 

I had lots of time to explore on my own. Here is an old victorian house that was restored and giving tours.  I love victorians!

This is the old steam clock in gastown. This was an old historic section of town.  Also its a little rainy. it was like this most of the week. 

on the edge of the city is a large park called Stanley park. This is us on a horse carriage tour of part of the park. 

Totem poles in stanley park. 

Walking by the beach. One of the afternoons that it wasn't raining!

On the ferry to Victoria Island. It was sunny but chilly that day from the wind. 

really cool old castle in Victoria called craigderroch Castle. It was beautifully restored inside. 

We rented a scooter to putt around the Island. We named him Pepe. He didn't go very fast. 

another view of the castle. We loved being able to tour the inside. 

pretty view from the road on the Island

Studly!

Pepe!

This is a beautiful old hotel in Victoria. I am a sucker for old stuff!

Pretty gardens in China town. It was pouring rain that whole day and we got pretty wet from all the walking we did. 

By the end of the week my feet hurt really bad and I had a horrible kink in my neck. it was hard to move.  But a really fun trip!

Our nice hotel room. 

Miss social butterfly

Rachel "graduated" from preschool in May and I forgot to share it. Here are a few pictures. We are excited for Kindergarten in a month!

All the kids sang lots of cute songs for the parents. 

Rachel's teacher gave all the kids awards and Rachel got the miss social butterfly award. She was very friendly and always trying to set up play dates after school.

Family night is so fun!

Here are pictures from two different family home evenings. The first few pictures are of Rachel and Will playing catch outside. This was Rachel's first time and she picked it up really fast. Other pictures are from the day we got our garden seeds started. 

Rachel likes her new ball and glove!

Bailey watching from the sidelines

Rachel caught it!

Bailey is a good helper

Rachel is excited for plants to grow

daddy is silly as usual

Bailey is a year old already!

May 26th was Bailey's first birthday! Its amazing how fast the time goes. 

Bailey enjoyed her cupcake. she had no problem digging in and making a mess

The happy parents!

We have a 5 year old!

Rachel turned 5 in March! She decided on a princess party this year and I decided on the park instead of our house. 

Bailey is a princess too!

My dad and sister

The girls made necklaces and tiaras

The princesses all got to play kiss the frog. 

Some real princesses came to visit our party and play games

blessing in disguise!

So when we came home on Jan. 1st, after spending 3 weeks in California, we noticed a river of water coming out of our garage. We went inside to find out that some pipes burst in the wall of the hall bath upstairs. After finding the water main and shutting it off, we called a disaster crew and the next day clean up began. What they found out upon inspection of damages was that sometime while we were gone, our heater broke so the house got too cold and pipes froze and burst. They estimated the water was running for 2-3 days. Not exactly what we were planning to come home to at midnight! We spent a week at my cousins house then a week at some other friends' house before moving back home. The repairs were slow going but I am happy to say its finally all done and better than before! We got the main floor and the upstairs repainted and changed the color slightly, new drywall in the garage, new breaker box, shower tile, carpet in the hall upstairs, garage doors, wood floor, cupboard doors, water heater, and we got reimbursed for all our damaged personal items. so we got cash to buy new stuff. Gotta love insurance! see, blessing in disguise!

New tile in the hall bath

new garage doors

new and bigger water heater 

new cupboard doors and we upgraded to glass in 3 of them. 

New hardwood floor instead of carpet in the dining room . Will installed this himself to save money. 

how to be a better mom or dad

http://becomeabetterfather.com/family/you-just-broke-your-child-congratulations-by-dan-pearce-2/
This article is directed towards dads but I think it applies to moms as well. Its a good reminder of how careful we need to be in the way we treat our children. I know I could be better!

Christmas 2011

We went to Monterey for a night and stayed in a Victorian bed and breakfast. this is our little room.

My dad and my cousin Brandon with Will and Rachel waiting to ride the carousel

My brother Jeff helping pick out the perfect tree.

We got to visit my family for 3 weeks in California. Luckily Will can work while we are there so we are able to be there for so long. Sadly though, we came home to a flood in our house. It took a couple months but its all fixed now and our house looks better than before.

Hold tight to your memories

Its been one year now since Will's grandma passed away. We miss her but look forward to seeing her again someday.

hey moms!

I really liked the message of this blogger's article. I've discovered (with the help of my loving husband) that I worry a lot about keeping up with other moms and looking good.I find myself thinking " so-and-so is doing that so I should be able to as well." ( Perhaps a side effect of living around so many stay-at-home moms.) I was stressing about my house being clean enough, the food I buy being healthy enough, being good at homemade crafts, dressing my kids in the cutest and latest fashions etc.. So lately I've been working on accepting who I am and that I'm doing my best and its good enough. I wanted to share because I was thinking I might not be the only one out there with this struggle. 

http://630andaglassofwine.bangordailynews.com/2011/12/07/married-life/im-a-good-mother-youre-a-good-mother/9