Spring update

I'm afraid I'm not taking nearly as many photos of Nora as I did of Lily as a baby. Second children, eh? But I've scrounged up one or two. And added other topics as filler. You're welcome.

Nora is quite a happy baby and for the most part quite pleasant to lug around. Other than the fact that she's built like a tank and I now suffer from pulled back and shoulder muscles! A previous post showed her as a scrawny kid. Not any more! At 3 months, she's 15 pounds and looks quite the opposite of Lily at that age. Lily didn't hit 15 pounds till she was 8 months.

Petite Lily at 3 months (top) and Nora (bottom).

We're applying for Nora's passport. As expected, it's not easy to get a photo of a baby at this age. Since Costco won't do passport photos for babies this young, we tried CAA. The first attempt was rejected by the passport office because Nora's big ol' jowls created too much of a shadow. (Obviously that would make her a security risk on any flight!) So back we went for another try. I gotta say, these CAA folks are a dedicated bunch. We had a whole team of them trying to create that perfect photo of our quite content kid.

Lily is being a wonderful big sister and loves Nora to bits. She can't wait for Nora to be old enough to do stuff, but in the meantime there are other friends...

Being a weirdo all by herself passes the time quite well too.

I went and bought a trailer recently. Took a while to arrive, but finally the day came.

What's this now?

I ordered it from out of province, and it landed on the other side of town, so I took the car to grab my loot. The shocks didn't like it much, but I got it home. Oh, and stopped by the motor vehicle branch thing on the way home. Denied due to unacceptable paperwork of course.

I wanted a folding trailer, and I bought this thing from afar because it was galvanized and had a greater capacity than most. The deal I found happened to be in Saskatchewan.

Some effort later, tada! Nice and compact, to be tucked away nicely when not in use.

Unfortunately, it wasn't too useful as is, so I bought some lumber (the car roof had to suffice, since the trailer wasn't registered yet) and built it some more.

It took two more trips to the motor vehicle office to finally get it registered, but it's done(ish) now. This trailer will see lots of dirt and mulch and camping trips. I even bought a nice custom-sized tarp for it. The Corolla may just revolt, seeing her usefulness dwindle by the day. Speaking of...

We bought a new car. I was all gonna pick out my Suburban when we discovered Carrie could barely lift the baby seat into the back of the thing. This also disqualified pickup trucks, so here's our new Subaru Outback. New to us... only 9 years old!

So yeah, I don't know what the Corolla did to her overnight... pulled a Herbie or something, but a mere 22 hours after we bought the Outback, it pretty much stranded Carrie somewhere in town. Sigh... all our due diligence and then this? Anyhow, our dealership is super amazing and got it all sorted so we are happy again.

Carrie found a set of six old dining chairs on Kijiji for next to nothing, so her hobby these days is refinishing these babies. Unlike our current old fashioned set, these ones are very solid and will look very nice in our dining room one day.

Happy summer! Oh and don't forget... the days will be getting shorter very soon. Yay!

Welcoming Nora Estelle

Thank you God!

Proud big sister

Sleeping baby = happy parents

Practising the grumpy look.

Little miss scrawny legs has a conniption as soon as a button opens when we change her.

Post

Hmm, it's March and no sign of life on this blog. A few days yet and that should change. In the meantime, Lily's taken to writing. A lot. Here's a sample of the unsolicited love notes she likes to share. (Use your phonetic imagination.)

And a rather dated photo from her ballet recital day last year. Yes,I'm terrible at posting stuff in a timely manner.

A summer recap

Where to begin? No single event has seemed blogworthy (well, yes, but soooo much effort!) , so I get to lump half a year's worth of stuff into one post. Now that's my kind of blogging.

We've had a fair bit of company this year. My sister Karin was kind enough to take her entire brood to Ottawa to help ring in my 40th year. Thanks guys! We were truly honoured to have them come all the way from Smithers.

Lego wars with uncles were highly anticipated events

teeee... veeee...

They took in the town, taking in national treasures like Ikea and museums, and we went along a time or two.

T-Rex at the Museum of Nature.

Lily and I went along to see the Diefenbunker with them, the former government nuclear shelter still stuffed with cold war-era furnishings.

A warm and welcoming entrance.

The kids paying close attention at the bullion vault.

Really? You trust this old elevator?

Cramped quarters, but better than the spacious radioactive wasteland far above.

School doesn't stop when you're being nuked. 

Testing... 1-2-3

Being briefed in the war cabinet room (complete with ashtrays).

Then Martine also escaped Smithers with her hubby but didn't get quite as far, so we found them in Niagara area shortly after.

I'd caption this one "olle wieven" but that would just
get me into trouble. Only Fen's missing!

Some time later my parents came out for a visit (and did again just recently.) We're so spoiled with visits we hardly need to bother leaving town anymore... watch out, family.

And Marian brought her family up for Canada Day weekend, which was fun despite the rain.

Unexpected help getting my new garage doors installed. Thanks Brian!

Reeeeally wet at the Canada Day festivities. We mostly got soakers and embrace the wet.

No shoes... even better!

Cousins... awww

And enough rain already! This was a record rain year for Ottawa, with well over a metre of rain so far. The mosquitoes were unpleasant and the garden didn't take off until September, but our sump pit hardly filled up, so things could be worse (plenty of homes saw flooding).

Rich and Fen even made it over from Edmonton, dropping kids off with grandparents on the way. I think they stayed 24 hours. He used his wiles to get us access to Parliament Hill, where we saw, among other interesting things, the bullet holes from the gunfight in 2014. Thanks for the quick visit guys!

Pasta lunch downtown.

A commoner standing at the House of Commons chamber.

Situation under control: the child is contained.

Bullet hole.

The Senate chamber.

We went camping twice. After the first time, I swore I'd never take our dumb little car out camping ever again, so for the second time I had to keep my word and rent an SUV. It hardly fit all our junk either, but that's probably because I didn't pack nearly as well as I normally have to.

Hammock... best investment ever (thanks Visschers bwahaha!)

Giddy-up!

Round two... pricey rental

Sometime in the summer, we enjoyed a trip to BC, although the forest fire smog marred both the scenery and our breathing. We probably should have shared some Ontario rain with them.

Jetsetter.

First/primary stop: the toasty Okanagan.

Tea with Grandma is an absolute highlight annually.

Cooling off in the back yard.

We went camping with Carrie's parents, somewhere so remote there was no cell service and they only took cash! Who even lives like that?!

Uninspiring overflow camping; we upgraded to a very nice site after a day.

The smoke from far-away fires came to visit.

Back to Vernon, where more of the family came over from the Fraser Valley. We visited a nice little zoo called Kangaroo Creek Farm. Got great pictures of the kids with various birds perching on their arms and heads. I lost the ones of Lily of course :(. We'll have to return one day since I also lost some nice kangaroo pics. Grrr. Old people and technology, amirite?

We headed to the Fraser Valley next, hitching rides with family. Didn't even have to rent a car this whole vacation. I went with Carrie's brother Wes, and we happened to be taking some furniture along with us. So we're whipping down the Coquihalla when suddenly WHOOOMP, a big gust of wind yanks a couch out of the pickup and throws it at the traffic behind us. It's miracle no one got taken out by the flying couch. It's also a miracle that this thing landed on its feet, slid a little, and suffered only a little damage to one leg! After pulling over and dodging traffic to retrieve the couch we put it back in the truck and tied it down this time. There's a time to be a redneck. and there's a time to be a responsible redneck!

Cousins playing at White Rock.

Lily and her great-grandparents.

On the front nine (five?) with Grandpa.

Back at the ranch... The lake view wasn't the same this year.

And one fire got a little too close to home. Mostly they were hundreds of miles away, despite all the smoke.

I did our annual guys' canoe trip in Algonquin Park. Unlike last year, it was very hot and dry.

We come for the views...

...and we stay for all the yummy crap we trek in... and for the (nonexistent) fishing.

A lot of effort, but worth it.

Another successful year!

Yesterday was (I think) the first below-freezing day of the season, so I guess winter's finally around the corner. May it be a super duper snowy one!