A Full Week-end

4 week-ends ago, I did the Ride For Refuge with my Mom.  We did a cold but beautiful 10 km bike ride on Saturday morning, October 5.  Where we were riding, there were 25 teams which consisted of 235 riders cycling for the vulnerable, displaced and exploited.  Our team raised $6799 for the Crisis Pregnancy Centre, which put us at the 5th highest spot and #40 in North America (top 5%).  The goal for our location was to raise $60,000 between all the teams and $103,705 was raised.  In North America, there were 804 teams, 5657 riders and the goal was to raise $1,300,000.  $1,603, 593 was raised!!  Glory to God!  I was so blessed to be a small part of it!  Here I am waiting in the cold for the ride to start (wearing my shirt over my parka):

Just some of the riders waiting…there were way more behind me yet.

I told Jared that I wanted to be surprised for my 30th birthday, so the day before this (so that I would have time to pack) he told me we were going away for a night!  Friends of our’s were there, too, which was also supposed to be a surprise, but he accidentally let it slip the day before.  He managed to keep the location a secret and also the restaurant they had decided we should go to for supper, so he did pretty good! 

Lobby of the hotel

The rooms were a great size and the ceilings were at least 9 feet tall, so that was nice, too.

We played games in this area later on in the evening.

This was on the bed, which was a very pleasant surprise.

We went to a huge store that we had never been to before and it had a ferris wheel in it!

I have never seen so many guns in real life before.  There was a huge section devoted to them.  It’s safe to say this is the biggest gun I have ever held.  Ya, we did some bear hunting for my birthday…just what I always wanted! ;)

Jared has been talking about getting a clock for a while but I didn’t just want a plain clock.  We were wandering around a hobby store and I saw this clock and thought it was unique and quite nice.  It was $50 and when we got to the check-out, we found out it was 50% off, so it was only $25!  It’s now in our living room.

We went to this fantastic wood fire grill restaurant.  You could see the chicken cooking over a fire and the food was SO good!  The prices were great, too, and I would totally go back!

We saw this driving around the day we got there and when we went out for breakfast the next morning, to our surprise and delight, it was parked at the hotel right next to our’s.  Of course, we had to go take pictures.  Highlight of the week-end right there, ha ha!

Jared and I spent 2 hours at Gordman’s and both got a bunch of clothes.  It is definitely my favorite clothing store.  On the way home, I was really enjoying all of the fall colors.  I have a hard time with fall weather (I LOVE when it’s hot) but I’m thankful there’s so much beauty in this season.

We got to see this gorgeous sunset…a beautiful ending to a wonderful week-end!

First Days

Again, I’m over a month behind on this one, but I still wanted to post pictures of Kiera’s first day of grade 1 (September 4) and Blake’s first day of Preschool (September 12).

The first time I told her to smile

The 2nd time I told her to smile without bending over

Ready to walk to the bus stop

She was excited that she got to ride the bus (she asked many many times last year when we lived only a few blocks from her school)

I made a special supper to celebrate the first day of school: cinnamon roll pancakes which were absolutely delicious!

Blake’s first day of Preschool picture…oh how I love this boy!

He really likes his Cars backpack and finally saw the movie Cars 2 a couple of weeks ago.  He still hasn’t seen the first movie, though!

I love his expression as he was looking at all the toys and activities in the Preschool classroom for the first time.

He went straight to the train table and started playing.

And then there was one…

I found this dress in a bin of Kiera’s old clothes and it’s size 24 months, so I quickly had to put it on her for church before she outgrows it.  It’s the dress that I bought at a garage sale when I was pregnant with Kiera and REALLY hoping I would have at least one daughter who could wear it someday (we never found out the genders while pregnant) and now I have 2 girls who have worn it!  God gave me the desire of my heart. :)

It’s fun celebrating all of the firsts!  I only cried a little bit on Kiera’s first day of school as it was her first time being in school full-time and that first day was a bit too quiet (I ended up turning on worship music) and felt long but now we’re all used to it.  I like the summer and not being on a schedule but I’m also enjoying our new fall, somewhat busier schedule. :)

The Rest of Summer

Since it’s fall now, I figured I should finish up posting the rest of our summer pictures.  What else did we do this summer?

Kiera passed her 2nd level of swimming lessons

Fearlessly putting her head in the water

We surprised the kids and took them to a place with rides, which they were very excited about!

It was Haley’s first time there and she really enjoyed it

Blake went on 3 rides and didn’t want to go on anymore, so the staff kindly let us switch his wristband to Haley, so then she could go on unlimited rides.

This was her favorite and she went on it at least 5 times, maybe more.

This was a new ride that Kiera hadn’t been on before

She went on this tall slide again this year by herself.  Heights don’t scare her.

She also went on a small rollercoaster with Jared, which was a new one for her as well.

What else happened this summer?  Jared washed my water bottle in the dishwasher, which it wasn’t supposed to ever be put in the dishwasher.  It shrunk.

I bought a new dishwasher-safe bottle which I really like and take almost everywhere with me, since it was already announced on Facebook that I’m a water snob (or water princess) with my love for distilled water.

There was quite a bit of dressing up this summer.

This is me + Jared’s favorite: during prayer time at supper, Haley squeezes her eyes shut and it makes us laugh every time.

We went to the splash park several times at the end of summer and this was our last time there with friends.

At the beginning of the summer, none of my kids wanted to even get wet and by the end Kiera and Blake were running through the water.  Yay!!

Haley preferred to stay a safe distance away or have me hold her while she got her feet wet on top of the mushroom things.  She got heavy and then would throw a fit when I put her down.  I’m hoping next summer she will do better at the splash park.

The kids sometimes liked to play winter (it’s winter for almost half the year and then in summer they want to play winter…go figure), so they would put on toques, mitts and sometimes their parkas and ski pants.

They thought it was the funniest thing for me to take pictures of them with their butts sticking out.

We really enjoyed the summer and tried to make the most of it since we didn’t do any overnight trips.  Fun was had by all!