The Enchanted Forest

Our final stop on our trip to the Okanagan was The Enchanted Forest on the way home from Kelowna.



It was a perfect stop in our trip. Reid was just waking up from his nap, and it was pretty close to lunch time. We were planning to stop there ahead of time, so we were excited. Reid was also very excited. Jumping up and down and running around like a loon. In and out of houses. Having tea with wolves, meeting Pooh and his friends. It was definitely worth it. It took us about an hour just to walk through it. Reid was amazed at the giant swing from the zip line place. He's just too little right now. He's going to be quite the daredevil when he gets old enough. There were ducks in the pond at the end of the walk as well. Again, he went crazy over them.

Speaking of birds, we met The Dunhams down at Prince's Island this weekend and we let the boys run around the park for a bit. They spied a duo of geese and made their way straight towards them. Just chasing them all around. By one point Cash was at the bottom of the hill running up at them, and Reid was at the top, running down at them. Those geese were trapped. Good skills from the boys. I had to grab Reid and get him out of there. Those geese gross me out.

Kelowna

The continuation of our travels this summer...

We left a great weekend in Kamloops to spend a few days in Kelowna. Joined, after a day or two, by my parents. We rolled into Kelowna a bit later then expected, so we didn't get to meet up with Christien's buddy and his family. We just made our way to my aunt and uncle's place. It was, of course, the most beautiful weather. The next couple of days we spent a lot of time during the day with our little family and then came together with our extended family at night. Couldn't' have asked for anything better. We went to the H2O Center in Kelowna a couple of times. One day we went in the morning to work out, took Reid and put him in "child care" and then after our workout we went swimming in the splash pool. So much fun. The real fun stuff wasn't open till later in the day so we went again the next day after the vineyards and Christien got to try the wave runner out (indoor, standing surfing) and a water slide or two. It was lots of fun. I loved the lazy float river. Reid loved the slides in the kiddie part. **Christine, you have to take Brian and Cash when you are there next week**

We, of course, went to Cedar Creek. I have to go back there every time we are in Kelowna. Holds so many special memories for me, as that's where we were married. Funny, we never go back to the Manteo. I guess that's where the party was, and the vineyard is where the real stuff happened! We checked out the Last Straw vineyard this year. I loved all the wines from there. So great, and so cute.

Four Years Later

Me and the munchkin at Cedar Creek

Little Straw Vineyards

Ding-A-Lings

With grandpa

Push up contest - Reid is the winner!

Reid is coo-coo for water so we had him at the water park and city park. Once my parents got there, we spend one day at Gyro beach (my favorite) and Reid just had the best time. He found this stick and would hold onto the ends, while Christien held onto the middle and just spun him around and around and around. He just killed himself laughing. They also did some balancing tricks in the water. Christien would pop Reid up on his hands and he would balance and then he would push him up at high as he could and then drop him into the water. Again, another thing that made him giggle uncontrollably. I think that he's starting to get his "water legs".

Eighteen Months

Eighteen months old on the 18th. Isn't that a special golden birthday or something? Happy year and a half my sweet baby boy. Stop growing up so fast. I love you.

Kamloops

Well, we are back from our week long trip out to the Okanagan. It was a blast. And the trip itself was so much better this year with Reid. He seemed to be more relaxed in the car. I think, round trip, we did 18 hours total of driving, and he fussed for maybe 3 hours total. While still frustrating (try driving for an hour with a screaming baby that you can't calm down), it was much better then last year's drive out to the coast. Seeing as we have loads of pictures, I thought that I would break up the blog posts so that it's less like a novel.

We made it to Kamloops in pretty good time, 7.5 hours. Considering we have a baby that we had to stop a few times for to let him out to stretch his legs, that wasn't too bad. And man was it hot when we got there. We opened the windows as we were rolling down the highway and put our arms out and it was just heat. I think that it was about 35 the whole weekend that we were there. Dale and Kristin and Mackenzie showed up a few hours after us. Seems they had the kind of trip that we had last year becasue Dale got out of the backseat with a screaming baby. Ah the joys... We had a good visit with the Witzaneys and the Lockharts. Christien started this "push up contest" at work. It basically includes challenging someone to a push up contest. Whoever goes the longest wins and then they can challenge any duo of dudes to do a contest and so on and so forth. So of course he had the boys in on it on the weekend. They did it so often that even Reid caught on. He would say, "You, me, push up contest, right now" and Reid would fall to the ground on his stomach and just wait for someone else to challenge him. Then he would do one "push up" and proceed to run and jump on his challenger. Needless to say, he was the winner every time. We hit up the beach and the waterpark while we were there. And celebrated Jenni's birthday. Good times with good friends.

.

Say My Name, Say My Name

Reid started saying his name today. So cute. He basically says "Reeeee", but that's his version of it for now. He's slowly adding more and more words to his vocabulary. I thought that we were going to have a "B" issue on our hands. Ball was his first word, and he does dada all the time, but we were looking at the fish and it kept coming out "bish". It has now progressed to "fish" so he's catching on. It's crazy how fast he's picking things up. Sounds and grunts and groans. We have to be careful what we say around him now. I think it's time to bring back the swear jar. If we start saving now, I'm sure we'll have enough for Disneyland when he's 5!!

We're off on holidays starting tomorrow! So excited to head out to the Okanagan for a week. Didn't think that we'd be able to do it this summer, but once I quit my job, time just seemed to open up and Christien suggested we head out there. We're going to be spending the weekend in Kamloops with the Witzaneys! And we just learned last night, that we're having an impromptu visit on the Saturday night by the Lockharts!! Just got better and better. We're all staying with Jenni and Ryan. It's going to be quite the packed out, but that always makes for the best times. I can't wait to see everyone again. Christien is quite lucky, as he's gotten to see his best buds three times in the last two months. That's saying something seeing as we all live about 8 hours from each other.

We head to Kelowna on Sunday and are going to meet up with a guy that Christien works with up in Firebag and his wife and two daughters for the afternoon, then we head to my aunts place. Going to have a nice visit with them for a few days and then my parents get there on Wednesday. We're hoping to hit up the splash park and the beach a few times. Reid is going to love the beach this year. Lake Okanagan just goes out for so far and doesn't really get that deep. And it's warm! I've already got his beach kit packed! Full of buckets and shovels. We're going to stop at the Enchanted Forest on the way home. Reid loved camping so much, and loves it outside that I think he'll get a kick out of it. He won't really "get it" - with all the references and stuff, but he's still going to love being outside and walking around I am sure.

We get back on a Friday night and are planning our annual patio party for the Saturday. I am so happy that we're having it again this year. And surprised that Christien didn't put up more of a fuss. He's never one for the planning of the parties, but he always has the most fun out of everyone. I actually, finally, convinced him to get a new BBQ (smokin' deal cause it's "end of the season, even though I bought it in the middle of July). So we're just going simple this year. Burgers and dogs. A friend offered to bring a salad and I might try to recruit a couple other buddies to help with the snacks. We're just wishing for the sun this year. Last year we got rain and Curtis ran to the store to pick up some tarps to cover the deck so we could actually BBQ. Great guy! Totally helped too. It wasn't really cold out, just rainy. So we did get to spend some time out on the deck. But we don't want that this year. We want a nice day, full of sunshine. I think that Christien is most "cool" about the party this year, cause he really doesn't get to see our friends all that much with him being away. When he comes home, we really try to spend most of our time together (and with Reid). I think (even though it's the best spending time together as a family) we need to remember that we have a lot of amazing friends out there, who we love and miss and want to spend time with. We just have to make it more of a priority and remember that we're still doing it together.

I can't wait for this vacation to start! Love to you all, and have a great week!