Too long between posts...

So many things to report on:

Finished Kitchen...almost.

Well, the kitchen renovation is almost complete.   We need to finalize a back splash design plan and then Andrew needs to find time to put it up. Hard to find time with the kids and me still working 1 in 5 weekends :(
Here are some (old, when it was just done) photos:

Family Vacation with Royal Caribbean

We had a wonderful family vacation with the Rolt side in November commemorating the 2nd anniversary of Andrew's dad's passing.  So much fun with the kids, they loved the children's pool/splash area but really, really loved the hot tub!  Andrew and I had a nice day in St. Martin where Andrew purchased a new wedding ring (this is ring number three for anyone that is counting:) )!  Some memorable moments included swimming with the gang on a beach we didn't want to go to in St.Thomas. Our kids loving and also hating kids club.
 

Some Islander cut my head off, while we enjoyed a St. Maarten tradition!

 

...and finally, what has become somewhat of another tradition with the Asbury's when we go to St. Maarten with them! lol

Goodbye to a loyal companion:

Echo Rolt 2006-2013.

We recieved a horrible call from my mom on Thursday night on our cruise.  We were in our room with the kids (having picked them up from kids club early after a phone call saying they wanted out).  Nancy (my mom) met Echo a the emergency vet clinic and had to make a decision to move forward with a surgery for bloat or to have Echo put down.  It was a nightmare decision for Andrew and I to make at any time, let alone in the middle of the carribean.  We will miss you Echo. You were our first child, the absence of your presence is felt everyday in our lives and hearts.

In January we had a wonderful celebration of Echo's life although none of Andrew's family could make it, it was wonderful to have Candace, Dave, Braeden, Sadie, Nancy and Drew there to commemorate the life of such a wonderful companion.

Desmond and Violet had a really hard time with losing Echo and we are just now at the end of February finding our lives settling back into routines without issue dropping Des off at school or multiple mentions of our loss of Echo. It is amazing the way the brain of a child works and how something can be at the forefront but because they are not aware of how to deal with it, they act out in other ways. It was a good exercise for our family to have the celebration of Echo's life, helped teach the children about loss and the mourning process.  It was also quite healing for our family to sit down and dedicate some time to remember our beloved Echo.

Funny story about Des:  Andrew, Des and Violet were sitting on the couch watching TV.  Des was pushing on his penis, pushing it down agressively.  Andrew asked him what he was doing and Des hiding his penis said "my penis is sticking up and it is not supposed to do that. I am pushing it down".  Andrew and I laughed so hard at the innocence of the statement.  So cute!

 

 

Christmas Time:

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year.  Christmas morning was spend at home with the kids opening gifts and enjoying cinnabons.  My parents arrived for breakfast and our traditional eggs benny was served.  Then that afternoon we went to Nancy and Drew's place for dinner.  After that we packed a bag and headed to Cambridge, stopped in at the Rolt family Christmas and then off to Betty's for boxing day.  Wonderful time with family, we missed A, Den, Madi and Parker!

Andrew is 40!

Well, Andrew turned 40 on February 16th!  Unfortunately I had to work the weekend of his birthday - no one would take my shift!- so we just had a small celebration with my family on Sunday night, we went to Kyprio's for greek style dinner!  Then on Family Day Monday we went to Betty's for a Rolt family celebration for both Andrew and Teresa. This past weekend, the 22nd, I threw a surprise party for Andrew and I think it worked!  It was so much fun, friends from all walks of our lives were there to celebrate with him.

Finally, our kids are absolutely in love with the movie Frozen.  We are constantly serenaded by both kids to the wonderful songs.

BC Visit and (Salmon) fishing trip

Our BC visit was great, as always. We got a good amount of visiting both friends and family, and even after being out there for 2 whole weeks, it went by extremely fast and didn't get to visit everyone we wanted to.  With my having to work in Both Edmonton and Vancouver for a few days each, the trip seemed even quicker than usual. We also had GORGEOUS weather the whole time we were there. It was the summer that they never got. I'm talking high 20's and even into the 30's some days, clear and sunny every day. It was awesome that we lucked out since they've had such a crummy summer.

When we arrived on Tuesday and had one day to visit then I was off to Edmonton for 3 days on Thursday morning.  I arrived back on Saturday and met up with Marn and the kids at her friend Judith and her partner's place for a visit and then back with the Asbury's on Sunday evening.  On the following Tuesday I was in the Vancouver office for 2 days, and then the rest of the week off for vacation.  So I was quite busy!  Actually, all of September was a blur for me. Being away in BC for the first 2 weeks and then back for 4 days, and then off to Texas for a conference for another 4 days after that.

The BC trip was spent mostly just hanging out and catching up and letting the kids play a lot.... Madison was amazing with Violet and Desmond and wanted to do everything for them and with them.  We felt like we had a personal babysitter the whole time we were there.  It was quite a nice break (for Marn especially!)

We finally made it over to the Vancouver Aquarium for the day with Adrienne and the kids and made plans to meet up with a friend who moved to BC about a year ago and works there now.  He gave us free tickets to get in for all of us, which was so awesome! We didn't expect that.  We loved it and had a lot of fun. After the day we met up with another friend for dinner at their place - they weren't expecting that we'd have our kids and so didn't plan for dinner until 9 pm... the kids did great though. Violet was falling asleep on my lap during dinner. Can you blame her, though? It was probably 10pm!

The kid gang outside of the Vancouver Aquarium - Maybe the last time it will be there as we heard they're moving it from that location.

Violet looking out at one of the lookout points at Stanley Park after the Aquarium visit.

Violet licking her Birthday cupcake icing.

 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was flying over to Tofino with Dennis for a 1 day salmon fishing trip in Ucluelete which is about a 30 minute drive south from the Tofino airport. Beautiful and amazing flight over... want to do it again! (and this time catch some Salmon!)  Den let me fly the plane home which was very cool.  He did take off and landing, but I did pretty much everything in between. Very fun. When you think about how long the trip would have been with out your own personal plane, it doesn't sound as appealing, but it would still be tons of fun.  But the fact that we left on Friday and had wheels up by about 1 PM and landed in Tofino at about 2:45, fished the next morning and then were back home on Saturday by 6pm is just amazing considering that Google Maps tells me that it takes about 7 hours to get from White Rock to Tofino by "normal" means (car & ferry). Den timed it so that we'd land in Tofino in time to make the resort's bus that was picking up other guests.  We just hopped on and "free loaders" both ways.  :)
I'm so grateful that Den was able to do that with me.  As an added bonus to the already awesome trip, we got to see a big grey whale up close and personal! It was just hanging out right near our boat for probably an hour.  Very, very cool.

As for the fishing.... well, everyone on the boat was skunked for Salmon, but we decided to try for other fish and came home with a pretty good haul.  Den did awesome and got probably more than anyone else there.  The crew cleaned it all on the way back to shore and had it all bagged for you when you got off.  Good deal!

What wasn't a good deal was the sea sickness... ugh! I was not feeling well as the ocean was rocking something fierce.  I took my eyes off the horizon one time and it just hit me... barfed my guts out!  This after 2 or 3 times that dude beside us did (I blame him... haha).  Den also said he wasn't feeling very well and had to concentrate hard to keep it in. I think he was trying to make me feel better about it!

 

It's funny... since that day, I get motion sick so easily now.  Coincidence or not, I don't know, but the other day I was reading in the car which I've never had a problem with before, but had to put it down and "concentrate"... lol   Not good.

As a super bonus on this fishing trip, we saw lots of whales, and one even hung out beside our boat for over an hour. It was incredible! I managed to get some video of it from my phone;

ps: I had this post in Draft mode for a long time waiting to add pictures, but I decided to just post it.

BC Bound!

We're going to BC with the kids for 2 weeks!  We didn't think it was going to happen this year because flights were kind of expensive and the timing wasn't working out, but we found decent flights and bit the bullet.... we really wanted the Asbury's to meet Desmond before he turns into a little boy! (Which he is already...) :(
I'll be splitting my time between vacation and working in Vancouver and Edmonton, so the two weeks will go by really fast, I'm sure.
REALLY looking forward to it!!   ...and a little bit nervous about how Desmond will do with a long flight on our laps - the kid wants to go go go!

Camping, crawling and a family picnic

Desmond is growing up so quickly.  I can't believe he is 9 months old.  He is reaching movement milestones a little bit faster than Violet.  Des started crawling forward on June 13th, just before he was 8 months old.  He is already pulling up and walking along the furniture.  Won't be long now until he is walking.  I don't know if it is a boy - girl thing or a Des - Vi thing, but he is into EVERYTHING!  When Violet started to crawl, she would go places, but you could surround her with toys and she would sit and play.  Not Des, he is on the move, going over, through and around things.  He is tipping the scale at about 21.5 lbs now.  Vi had a recent weight gain and is now about 27lbs and almost 38 inches tall.
It seems so silly because they are still so small but I want time to pass a little more slowly.  I am going to miss them like crazy when I go back to work.
My crazy S-I-LTeresa and Branko invited us camping for the weekend of July 7-10.  I met up with them on Thursday and Andrew came down Friday.  It was so hard having a little crawler on my hands without a playpen during Friday.  It was the little things like going to the bathroom (we all had to go - I had to hold Des while squatting, thank goodness I have been working out! LOL).  Quite a sight to behold I am sure. It was a great weekend.  Violet loved the marshmellows on the campfire and we decided that if we can't make a vacation to BC work we might camp again at the end of the summer (fingers crossed for BC).
Des is a little chatter box now.  It is still mostly noises, a few words here and there.  It sounds like he says 'up' and he does say mama and dada but very selectively and not necessarily at the appropriate times so I think it is still just babble.  He has not started signing back to us yet but looks at us so intently when we sign at him.  Especially when Vi does it.  So cute!  He eats like a horse, this must be just he beginning as he gears up for a life eating us out of house and home.  He has started to feed himself - so much fun to watch this skill develop as he wants to get it into his mouth as fast as he can but his two point pinch is not that great.  He gets the food item in or on his hand and then smushes it up to his face.  If he misses his mouth, no worries, he just pushes his hand around until the food hits it! 
We have been watching our friend's pool again this summer and Violet has really improved in her swimming skills.  She can't swim unassisted yet but will jump into a noodle and kick around.  She will go under when she jumps but not by choice when she is swimming and she still doesn't love the back float position.  Des was hilarious in the pool, he cried for the longest time but now he has turned it around and I think he really enjoys it.  We bought Vi a suit with flotation padding in it and she loved it yesterday.  She can use her arms to swim now, so hopefully that will help her along.  Also got Des a floating ring that he can sit in, went well yesterday at the pool so hopefully he continues to like it too.  
Violet went on a special outing with her Granny two weeks ago to see Winnie the Pooh.  They went for lunch with Pop and then she and Granny went to see the movie.  What a special treat.  Violet was so well behaved and told me about the movie - well really she doesn't remember much.  She remembered they fell into a hole and there was no one at the top!  She did remember a number of the characters in the movie, Piglet, Tigger, Owl and Pooh. She didn't there there was someone called Christopher Robin (LOL).
A few weeks ago, Andrew's cousin Bridget and her husband Rolf invited us out to their farm in Listowel for a family picnic.  It was a great time with family.  Violet was in love with Gina's daughter Abby, followed her around A LOT!  Thank goodness Abby loves kids!  Des was great, he was happy to see everyone and  loved the nap in the hammock (oh wait - that was me that really loved the nap)!

 Final gymnastics day.  Violet enjoyed it so much and loved her teacher but going to do swimming and dance in the fall. 

 Mommy made me a new bib!  Leather!

 Checking myself out in the mirror after a bath.

 My vampire teeth at Canada Day.

 Des and Auntie Candace.

 Snuggling with Lia at the BBQ.

 Hanging with Abby - in LOVE with Abby.

 Chillin' with mom.

 Playing minute to win-it games at the BBQ.

 Mommy trying to capture my changing eye colour...will it be green or brown?

 Felt like Echo needed to make an appearance.

 Look at me pulling up on anything!

 

Again trying to capture the changing eye colour...

Great Vacation?

We had a great ending to a 'so-so' vacation.  Andrew and I were sick (off and on) all week until Friday.  We had a beautiful day Friday and Saturday and spent them at the beach.  It was great.  The kids loved it!  It was Desmond's first time in the water and Vi's first time in the Ocean. The first two times in the water, Desmond didn't like it and cried, but as the week wore on, he loved it and went right in with us splashing around.

forcing a smile on my face, trying not to puke?

Our condo was directly above those two people's heads.

He didn't like the taste so much... lol

Thankfully my parents were willing and able to help us watch the kids when we were down and out in the sickness.  Unfortunately now that we're home, Violet has now come down with something - ear ache, stuffy nose and red eyes.  So far Desmond is ok, but it'll be a miracle if he stays that way if Violet has anything to do with it! (constantly kissing him and touching his face).

One of the highlights of this trip for me was (almost) swimming with the dolphins.  Every day we had dolphins swimming by and not very far out (near the buoy's) so one afternoon I swam out hoping to get near some.  Well they came by about 20 yards in front of and on both sides of me.  I yelled out to Marn to check it out and as I was looking out, she yells back at me - apparently there were dolphins between me and the shoreline and I missed them!  I didn't know this until I got back to shore when she told me... bummer, but very cool!