new moon festival

I still haven't finished the story of our little trip but I have a few minutes to put up some new pictures of Madeleine performing with her dance class at the new moon festival, which is a chamber of commerce initiative to bring more folks downtown to shop. There were lots of fun things going especially the stage area where several exciting things were done especially Madb's Gypsy dance. Will had a face paint as a grizzly bear. Also there has been a bear prowling the neighbourhood, notice the large scat in the neighbours yard.
jh

Zuckerberg

Friday morning after dropping Josie off for her course we went back to the hotel to go for a swim. We had a pretty fun time with the area all to ourselves, the highlight for everyone being the waterslide. Madeleine went down by herself five times and would have continued but CeeCee was getting a bit testy. We went up and got ready for lunch for which they behaved and ate in great form. I was relieved and pleased with all three of them I am sorry to disappoint you but no wild behaviour stories where the three gang up on me and make me look like a crazed buffoon in a kiddie food fight. Next we went for a walk so C could get a nap and the other two could run about. Will is C’s sleep monitor saying “ Her eyes are open or CeeCee is asleep” and that was the message before we left the parking lot. She did not even stir when I transferred her to the Chariot. We went to Zuckerberg Island where a chapel was built for Russian immigrants, I am not sure how they are related but here was a larger Dukhobor settlement there as well. We crossed on a suspension bridge to which the Chariot barely fit and was stuck several times. Meanwhile this is supposed to be closing day for the house and I am fielding calls from the mortgage broker and realtor. So I get to the far side which has a gate and I don’t fit. Will and MB are already ahead and running around just off the bridge where there was a five metre crater that really had them enthralled. Next there were people coming behind and I was still on the phone I could not corral the bigs so I forced the gate to open in reverse as I have noticed it comes open wider that way and I luckily made it through without tipping out or waking up CeeCee. No drama there either, all was well, so we tour around finding graves and cool carvings and the chapel and the two had a blast exploring and discovering. That is that and we end our time together playing outside of Josie’s course at a great park with playground and splash park. Will figured out how to get the water running there and got himself a little misty. It was only about fifteen degrees but luckily sunny. Madeleine soaked herself as she thought Will was having too much fun in there and had to join in, all the while I am changing C’s diaper and getting the deal done on the phone again with the realtor. Also a nice family had two little parrots and a dog so MB had essentially joined them for about a hour playing with the birds. So we had some fun and did some stuff. This picture is the suspension bridge and I was on a little land bridge found later to easily return the Chariot on. The kids are getting brave.
jh

A little trip

Our trip through the Selkirk mountains was a great success, Josie was trained, we swam, went to see the sights and had plenty of family fun and stress. We started out after a very busy day of school and gymnastics Thursday, burdened by getting the conditions met for the house offer before we left. It was very last minute and unnecessarily so for the things should have been squared away days ago. Probably all my fault for procrastinating and being distracted by kids and trying to have a good time and work. But it got finished and hopefully by Wednesday we will know for sure that all is well with the purchase. Back to our little trip now, it poured rain all day Thursday and a lot of the weekend too but we made the best of it albeit wet. The ferry ride was well timed and dry, there were rainbows and sunbeams through the cloud and we ate sandwiches in the van. CeeCee’s car seat was for a while forward facing as she is over one and big. All these things plus mountain driving ended in her car sickness a while later, right at Summit Lake where we camped this past summer. A half hour later we stopped again for a stretch and play at Silverton as everyone was being so good and we knew they had a good park. A while later back in the car William puked. Josie caught this one with a food container and good thing too as it was pretty liquid. I think he chugged a whole half litre water bottle after Silverton. C’s barf was thick and chunky, real easy to clean up only it was everywhere, on her car seat and its side and straps, her cloths, the van seat and its cup holder, the floor of the van and a toy. It was luckily sunny when we had to get out and clean this small break in the cloud our little break that day. MadB was superb the whole time keeping busy and only asking “are we at Castlegar yet” about seventy times. Nonetheless Josie was stressed out and simply wanted to get there to get her kids to bed. C and Will both slept the last three quarters of an hour and MB looked about as excited as she could be to see the hotel and Castlegar. We finally made it in and got them to bed in good time we, stayed in bed too. The Super8 breakfast was a hit with fruit loops and waffles plus a water slide and pretty nice pool. We took Josie to work and discovered that Castlegar is a pretty cute city. More on this trip later and there is a lot more for three days in the rain we were busy.
jh

More rain

We have had more rain in Sept here than a whole year in Calgary I would guess. It is two rainy one OK and so on. It is OK though we will get the our vitamin D through other sources. I will start fishing I guess. the salmon are spawning and the rivers are quite full this year. I will try to get some pictures this weekend as we are off to explore/ train in the southern end of the Columbia basin. Josie has two days of training in Castlegar so we are all going and making an adventure out of it. No news on the house yet and MadB still loves school.

Mountainview school

Here is Mad at school. Not much else happening right now, still waiting on house news and trying to get into some sort of rhythm. At Mountainview Elementary, MB has a lovely view of Mt. Begbie, and is right across the street from the river. It is a wonderful setting amongst tall cedars with Mt. Revelstoke as the backdrop. The beautiful old building and it setting inspire something soothing as there seems to be a living atmosphere of community and caring there. Even Will joined in with Brodie at recess Friday when we picked up MB and all the kids played just like he belonged there. Even CeeCee who was set to be trampled by seven or eight ten year olds was given way to as they paused their game for her well being. There are nice kids here as I have mentioned before. MadB's class has Guinea Pigs and she got permission to take Will into see them Friday. she is thoughtful and nice a lot of the time.
jh

Madeleine has gone to school

The previous posting was started a week ago. What a crazy life we have here, it is just go go go and no time to keep things organized. CeeCee is walking all the time now and MadB has finished her second day of kindergarten. Will is maintaining the status quo.
It is a simple pleasure that I have discovered with CeeCee that I only have to bend over far enough to put her in a standing position now. Also an indicator of haw aged I am becoming. She has taken several long strolls and not had any crash issues yet.
MadB has really enjoyed school albeit the days are only an hour and a half so far, Tuesday begins full morning sessions. Josie took MB on day one as C was napping so Will and I had a good time to play together. We sculpted clay and played hot wheels. It is nice for him to get the full attention I am sure and it is kind of fun to hang with the dudes. Today we worked on our bikes in guy time. Will, C and I took MB today as Josie worked. It was fun to see her zip right in there like she was doing it for years. I think she will be a bit of a keener. Will really wants to go too now but he is going to have to settle with dad time.
jh

My apologies for no recent posts or updates. Between getting our things together for this house offer and my quick visit to Calgary I have had no time for fun. And again this connection is strange as I did lose two attempts due to lost connectivity. It seems to be associated with damp weather from if that is possible as the several hot dry weeks we had no issues.
CeeCee is really getting interested in walking and does find herself quite clever when she tries. She has really taken to it even since I first wrote this bit two days ago. I believe she could even be a toddler now. She is very funny and cute and seems to like being a little sister to the two rowdy gorillas who live here. She has no problem telling them to change what they are doing because she is not happy with it and has even on a couple of occasions attempted to slug or bludgeon with a toy her very caring and doting brother Will. Will doesn’t even notice as she still lacks any power to really affect him. He is not yet really sharp enough yet to read her body language or even see the rage in her face to figure out he should stop. Madeleine on the other hand does respond well to C’s signals and doesn’t hang around when she gets testy. MadB starts school in a couple of days now and is really looking forward to it. She wanted to buy a gift for her teacher today while we were at the market but we couldn’t settle on something subtle yet useful, and inexpensive. I negotiated for taking flowers out of the garden that Pauline has here. I suggested that this would be a great gesture as the little girl who lives in this house is away and will be joining her kindergarten class later. This way when she returns to Revelstoke we can tell her that some of her flowers went for the teacher from her and Madeleine. MadB liked the sound of that.
It is incredibly overcast and wet here. I have a funny feeling that when I was excited about the snow at higher altitudes last week that it was also the start of fall/winter. I really expected more hot weather. We are stuck in a cloud more or less and are expected to be so for several months.
We had some more company yesterday albeit briefly plus I worked. The Sara Nick Honour and Imogen family visited overnight and the kids loved it. Thanks for the visit and come back again, and everyone else too for that matter. I can’t enjoy all this snow by myself can I.

pictures for fun

Also when we were camping we saw this weird thing. Even our forestry freind had no clue.
jh

Bike park

Hey yes, the bike park is sweet. Madb took the picture of Will and this is one of our favourite places to go. Will just goes up and down and MadB practices two wheeler riding and having fun. The kick bike is sick and even the teenagers love it. We get a lot of compliments and MB does a lot of chattering and freind making, its a bit of an ice breaker for her. We even have a buddy, he was the dishwasher at the place I acted as a waiter. The kids here are pretty nice and freindly. No one tells us to move or grow up, they are respectful of us playing too and even encourage the kids. Compliments to them and their parents, I wonder if they realize they are creating kids who will be right into this later in life as a result.
jh

Rainy weather and the arrival of Sept

We have had some wet weather and that seems to compromise our connection here so several posts have been lost in the electronic who knows where. I am sure some smart person cold find them but I need tutoring still. We have been busy anyway and there is no big news.
jh