The summer

Fall is well into gear, and snow is just around the corner, so I feel the pressure to blog about our summer. We spent some weeks in BC, even venturing up to Smithers for the first time in forever.

We found a lovely house-sitter/dogsitter so we didn't have to worry about a thing back home. Off we flew, with two kids for the first time. Nora did okay; it helped that when she started her loud squawking on the plane, some other kid was louder and more obnoxious and got everyone's attention.

In Vernon we rented a car. Getting rides with others may be a thing of the past with our huuuge family, and besides, we had a fair bit of driving to do. The rental was the single largest expense of the trip, and including gas accounted for close to half of our trip cost.

We got to relax in Vernon for all of 12 hours after landing in Kelowna, and then we headed to Smithers for the wedding of my eldest niece. Nieces/nephews getting married already... another milestone for me! (Her too, I suppose.)

My sisters Karin and Martine took good care of us. And not just us, as almost the whole Vanderveen clan was in town. We enjoyed much leisure time, good eats and some nice hikes. Lily had a wonderful time connecting with her cousin Lauren. I had a lousy time being forced to get firewood from the bush with an old friend. Kidding, it was fun... especially when he felled a tree and pancaked his nice toolbox!

One day a few of us decided to find the shoe house, a favourite memory from our distant past. We weren't disappointed... it's still standing after many years.

Lauren and Lily really hit it off.

Hiking. At least no more carrying Lily on my back. Nora's only half the weight.

The shoe house on Kitseguecla Road.

Oh deer.

The girls enjoying noodles. I think Lauren gets that look from her mom.

Good ol' Bulkley Valley.

A week in the north, and it was time to head to Vernon again. Another 12 hours in the car. Gas prices were very stable, in the $1.40s. At least the gutless 4-banger rental wasn't too hard on fuel.

From Vernon, we left to go camping at Mabel Lake. This was our second annual time doing that with Carrie's parents... perhaps it will (has?) become a tradition. The weather was hot and dry, as expected. The first part of our vacation was unmarred by forest fire haziness, fortunately. Hot on the beach, cool in the shade, no bugs. Would more could one ask for?

Camping in style. We now require an overflow tent.

Our little artist.

Chillin'.

Not much at this remote campground, but there is ice cream.

This kid and her mermaid imagination...

Chillin'... with Grandma this time.

Since her dad won't teach her to fish, Grandpa has the pleasure.

Hung out in Vernon some more. My father-in-law has been terrorized by marmots on his property for some time, and they're too smart for trap cages. I half-jokingly suggested snaring them, and things took off. A day later, we bagged our first marmot! (I'll spare you the photo... a tough decision.) All I need now is to transfer those skills to my squirrel-ridden backyard.

Nora getting a bath.

5.5 years ago, Lily getting the same bath.

August long weekend brought the Driegen clan to Vernon, where we enjoying a raucous weekend of beaches and yelling and crying. Typical young family stuff.

Hey Lily, who needs Hawaii when you have Kal Lake?

Fun with floaties.

A bunch of us went to a local O'Keefe Ranch. It was fun for the kids to explore life in the olden days and pet some animals. Lily also got stung twice by a wasp; she didn't find that very amusing.

Cowgirl Lily. Does this post have enough Lily pictures yet? Yikes! No? Okay then.

Then it was off to the Fraser Valley for a week. This was where my holiday ended. Carrie's dad and I helped at her brother's house, which was in the process of awaiting a new kitchen and flooring (and a whole lot more.) It was exhausting work in hot weather in a hot house... but a rewarding undertaking nonetheless. The girls did whatever they did, including beach stuff (which I happily avoided).

It was Lily's sixth birthday while we were in Surrey, so a party was held in her honour. She was in her glory, surrounded by a mountain of well-considered presents, which we somehow managed to haul back home in the end.

Tickled pink.

Very proud of her new watch.

Proudly displaying a new outfit for her cousins.

We also had the pleasure of attending Carrie's grandfather's 96th birthday. That annual tradition has always been a treat for us, even if it's probably getting to be an ordeal for him at this point.

Just a small part of the family tree was present.

After the week was up, we headed back to Vernon for a few days to recover. By this time the smog from forest fires was pretty bad everywhere, so it was a good time to vacate the province.

The six-month old: Halfy Birthday!

Well, it's time I did the bloggy thing again. Nora turned 0.5 on Wednesday. A party was not had, but we at least acknowledged it.

Nora has two teeth, probably about a month faster than Lily got them. She's doing  other things faster too, like growing and stuff. She has loads of fun in her exersaucer, which Lily was too small for forever.

The girls sure do love each other. If Nora is busy hollering we can yell at Lily to babysit her sister, and she happily proceeds to read Nora a book or otherwise entertain her.

Lily last used her bib in June. Yeah, we're nitpicky parents who hate a mess (well, more me). I suppose it was time we let go. So, the bib went straight onto Nora!

Hanging with mom.

Lily has two years of "school" under her belt, which she really enjoyed. Now it's off to grade one, which she seems to be adjusting to well enough.

Off the bus on the last day of kindergarten.

Lily wrote a note to her teachers and her bus driver. Here's the bus driver one:

Off to real school -- uniform and all!

It's a long time ago, but early in the summer Lily finished her ballet classes and had a recital. Fortunately this ballet school didn't charge an arm and a leg for the recital costume. Here's a link to the video of her performance. She was so dolled up I had trouble picking her out.

Trampoline fairy

Early in the summer we said goodbye to our local MP buddy again. He treated a bunch of us to a private Parliament tour. Here's Lily in the Speaker's chair. (Career track?)

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.