The Journey

Fabian trying to get comfortable. Ethan was very excited that the kitty was in the car!

Ethan really didn't want to wake up....

Our little alarm clock. Wyatt in the hotel room.

Stopped in Blue River for a run, Ethan ran around with his suitcase for ten minutes, I fed Wyatt and then we headed back out. It pretty much rained our entire trip!

Fabian has become a little road cat. This was his 5th trip on one of these journeys. He much preferred the van to my old car. He layed between Kelly and I on the console most of the trip. He sat on my lap for awhile and down at my feet. The car is COVERED in hair, I'm just about to go vaccuum it out!

Fully tummy, showing off his two new teeth!

Big smiles!

As we pulled into my parents driveway last night at 12:35 (I guess I should say this morning), both Kelly and I agreed that this would be the first and last time we EVER make this drive with the kids. The journey was, well it was not fun, not because the kids were bad but because 0f a few unforseen circumstances that couldn't be avoided.

Kelly arrived home Tuesday night at 9:30. The car was completely pack and Ethan was waiting at the door with his suitcase all ready to get in the car and head out. Kelly quickly showered, we put the kids in the car and headed out (with a quick stop at Timmy's of course). Wyatt fell instantly back to sleep, Ethan was clinging to his blanket, dancing away to the music and not interested in going to sleep at all. We told him we were driving to Granny's house. Which we learned was quite the mistake. He thought that we would be at Granny's very soon, not so much. Ethan made us listen to 'Shake Shake Shake your sillies out' OVER and OVER and OVER until neither Kelly or I could shake anymore. I reserved a room in Hinton so that was our destination for the night. At 12:15, just as we were coming into Hinton the backseat was very quiet. I figured Ethan was asleep. I turned around to two big brown eyes staring at me. I told him to go to sleep, he looked at me with big eyes and said 'Granny's house', 'Big Bed Granny' (Translation: I want to sleep with Granny in her big bed). I felt terrible, I realized that he figured we were just about at Gran's house.

We rolled into the hotel at around 12:35, Kel went and got our keys and to pay for the room. The second we opened the door (without thinking about it) the cat FLEW out of the car and made a mad dash through the parking lot. Kelly and I both had kids in our hands so we couldn't run after him. I thought he was a goner. Thankfully 20 minutes later Kelly arrived with Fabian in his hands. PHEW that could have been catastrophic.

This was Ethan's first night ever in a hotel, he was wild, running around, screaming, ceratinly keeping everyone anywhere near our room awake, I couldn't get Wyatt go to back to sleep because Ethan was chitchatting, Finally Kelly layed Ethan down and whipsered to him and it seemed he fell instantly asleep.

A quick 5 hours later and we were up and on our way. Another stop at Tim Horton's and we were off. Kelly made it until Jasper before he started to head-bob and slur his speach, dang that meant I was up. So I took a turn driving from Jasper to Blue River. I'm not a huge fan of driving on unfamiliar roads such as the ones we were on, so when Kelly woke up and realized I was driving 80km/h and had a train of cars behind me I had to pull over and switch. We stopped in Blue River to feed Wyatt and give Ethan a little run, then back into the car. I must say the kids were incredibly well behaved the entire trip. Only a few little outburst and i'm sure it was because they were bored and sick of being in the car.

I think someone needs to open a Tim Hortons somewhere between Jasper and Kamloops. There isn't one for hours and no one can make tea quite like them. I swear they would make a killing.

We stopped in Merrit for another quick feed and pee break. We heard on the radio that there was a mudslide just outside of Hope and Highway one was closed both way. OH Great..... but they said use Highway 7 as a detour. I checked the map and that seemed to be an ok alternative so I wasn't really worried. If only I had known what was to come....

We pull into Hope and being our detour.... Traffic was slow, there was a TON of traffic and finally our slow crawl turned into a complete stop.... for TWO and a HALF hours. We were stopped completely for two and a half hours. We would creep fowrard every half an hour or so but maybe 5 metres each time. Wyatt was SCREAMING his brains out for 2 out of the 2.5 hour stop. Ethan was getting very frusterated being stuck in the car. It was POURING rain out and the traffic coming the other way was zooming by so it was not safe to take Ethan out, plus every so often we would move and I wasn't about to let anyone pass us because we were putting kids in the car. So we waited, waited and waited some more. As we were waintg I develoepd a migraine. The kind of migraine that made me have to puke. So I had to puke, Wyatt was screaming everyone was grumpy, the chances of making any kind of ferry were dwindling. We were all pretty miserable.

When we finally started moving we decided to just take the back route the entire way (rather than getting back onto the number 1 with all the traffic). It was a beautiful drive. I wasn't sure how busy the last ferry was going to be but when we got there it seemed we made it with no troubles.

We enjoyed a $32 deep fried crappy meal on the ferry and then Wyatt and I found a nice place on the floor and both curled up and went to sleep. Kelly was stuck with our exhausted Ethan who was walking around pulling his suitcase and just falling for no reason at all and the crying because he fel. Just before we had to drive off the ferry Ethan took a massive poop. Kelly was stressed out to the max, there were wipes flying everywhere, poop all over the seat, the car stunk. I couldn't help him because I was hoping the cat so he didn't run out of the car onto the ferry. HA almost wish I was videotaping.

The one hour drive down to Courtenay was a tough one. Kelly and I were both so tierd I had to shake my head to keep myself awake. Ethan and Wyatt were both sound asleep, but Ethan woke up just before we got there. Granny and Grandad were waiting up for us and Ethan was SO excited to see them! Big hugs, then headed straight for the toys. It was after 1 before we got him to sleep and he was up at 7 all set to play. Kel and I fell asleep within seconds as did Wyatt. Wyatt woke up at 4 then for good at 6:30. It is a good thing I don't need a lot of sleep to function!

We will be flying from this day forward. THe money we saved by driving is not worth any part of that drive. In my head it would be a fun family trip. Never again... EVER... not even when the kids are older. No more flapping road trips. Driving sucks!

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Laundry

Laundry, I loathe doing laundry. I am really good at putting the dirty laundry into the washing machine and turning it on, but that is where the process stops for me. Putting it into the dryer, folding it and putting it away is just not my cup-of-tea. I have three tactics to avoid doing laundry.
1) Wait one week, let the laundry pile up and let my obsessively clean husband take care of the laundry.
2)For the kids I just keep buying clothes, buy enough clothes that I really don't have to do the laundry for months if I didn't want to.
3) and finally, for me, I wear the same thing over and over and over and over until the day I decide that if I wear the same outfit one more time someone might pull me aside and tell me I stink.

Last night I had to pack for our trip. This forced me to do the laundry which hadn't been done in ages. 10 loads! 10 loads of laundry later, I sat beside a MOUNTAIN of clothes folding and watching the Bachelorette. As I was packing up the kids stuff I was picking out all of the cutest things, I think I realized that the kids have too many clothes and too many great clothes that that. Pretty much the suitcase is over-flowing.

We aren't even close to being finished packing. I kind of got caught up in the Bachelorette that packing took a backseat. So the boys and I have our work cut out for us today. We need to finish packing, load up the car, get some groceries for the trip.

So excited about the trip.

That is all,

Well no wait... Who do you think will win the Bachelorette? Last night was a gooder, I think it is going to be JP

28

Today I turned 28. I don't feel 28, I feel much MUCH older than 28. I've got wrinkles, grey hair, a body that is hardly recognizable, swollen feet and an addiction to caffiene. On the flip side I have an amazing husband, two beautiful boys and so many wonderful friends and family. I'd say despite all of the negative issues mentioned above that I am doing pretty well.

I woke up this morning to the sound of Wyatt screaming away in his crib. I rolled over and looked at the clock, 4:18. I fed him and curled back up in bed. Wyatt figured it was time to wake up so he continued screaming. Even the pillow over my head couldn't muffle the sound of the screams. So I thought i'd take a shower. When I got out it was quiet. He was still awake I could hear him moving around in there but I again got back into bed to try to get more sleep. Thankfully Wyatt decided that he also needed more sleep and we all slept until 7:30.

When I went into get Ethan his streams of snot had gone through his mouth and down his chin. This was the same for Wyatt, they were both coughing and sneezing. Fantastic, the boys are sick. Then I sneezed.... Oh great, i'm sick too. The kids were miserable.... and I mean miserable so I decided we needed to get out of the house. That always helps. We stopped for a tea at Tim Hortons then went to the park. Ethan was happy (for about 20 minutes), Wyatt was not happy, clearly uncomfrotable and sick. As we stood in the park I opened my tea. Guess what, it was coffee..... I was getting more stuffed up the longer we were at the park and soon the headache came. We packed up and headed home.

We went back through the drive-thru to get my dang tea. I was going to raise a stink and try to get a free tea but instead I just paid the $1.64, made them triple check it was tea and we headed for home.

While I was making lunch Ethan was crying and hanging onto my leg. He was crying 'hug hug'. If it was up to Ethan, him and I would be in the hug position all day. So I gave him a few hugs between his crys all while trying to make lunch. When I didn't hug him he would cry out 'kiss' but I wasn't about to kiss the snot stream.

Anyways they both have just fallen asleep instantly and I have taken two advil and am about to begin some housework.

We leave for BC in two day and I have so much to get ready. I tried to make a reservation for a ferry on Thursday but they are all sold out, there was a travel advisory on the BC ferry website saying that Thursday (June 30th) is one of the busiest days of the year. So we had to do some changes to our itinerary. I thought we would drive to Jasper on Tuesday night when Kelly got home to get a headstart. Of course every hotel is more than $270 a night (even for the crappy ones I won't stay at). So the new plan is to stay in Hinton on Tuesday night (only one place would accept cats as well... thats right, Fabian will be joining on this 'going-to-be-epic journey).

On another note. I feel that it is time for us to move home. Kelly really wants to move home but it was always me that wanted to stay because of the wonderful circle of friends that the boys and I have here. I knew we would always move home and it was important for me to move home before Ethan starts Kindergarden. I feel the time is now, There is a house in the area I would like to live in by a school I would be very happy to send Ethan and Wyatt to. Kelly is able to work two weeks in and two weeks out and my stresslevel would come way down knowing I would have my family there to help. I would be able to play soccer again. It is definately a big decision and a big move (especially since we just moved into our new place) but I am now starting to seriously think about it. The house I want is still out of our price range at the moment but I check the area out daily.

I am going to put a smile on my face and enjoy my birthday housework!

Exhausted

Seriously, look at that face! How can something SO cute be so dang frusterating! Wyatt just doesn`t sleep, he will fight it kicking and screaming! Putting him to bed is a battle, not really for me but for himself. He will scream and scream and scream until `just-like-that`` it is silent and he is asleep. He doesn`t sleep long, he still wakes up at LEAST three times a night. I put him to bed at 7, if he wakes up before 12 I just leave him and he goes back to bed. After 12 when he wakes up he is SCREAMING and he just doesn`t stop. I CAN NOT handle his cry, it is not something you can ignore. Plus it is so loud the chances of him waking up Ethan are very high. So I go in, feed him and he goes back to sleep. Then we repeat this same routine one or two more times that night. I am exhasuted.
I don`t know what to do, I am so sick of being tierd and I`m sick of no consistent sleep. I can`t let him cry it out, he will be crying all night and will then wake up Ethan.

Heart and Soul Photography

A few photos from our photoshoots. Ethan and Wyatt were ok.... Ethan kind of lost his cool both times. We did a rainy photoshoot on Sunday, Ethan freaked out everytime we took his truck away, thus why his truck is in some of the photos and Thomas is in the rest of them :)

Ethan is grouchy and eating his snack, Wyatt is just eating the rocks~!

Puddle jumping with mum, and the trantrum continue!

Our Family Photos

The Latest Pictures

The boys

Ethan in his 'lovely' Thomas overalls from Granny. He was walking around saying 'Thankyou Granny'. I'm not sure huge fan of them, but he loves them!

Kelly is a very useful engine when he is home........

Ethan in the dino Pj's

Wyatt in the Dino Pj's

Messy Messy Messy

Followed by a Crazy Night

Always looking at Ethan!

Painting away...the prints you do see are the ones I did trying to show him how to do it....

After the boys woke up yesterday we went for a run. The boys seem to really enjoy going for a run, they just sit in the stroller happy has can be!! They hardly make a peep (other than Ethan pointing out everything he sees). I usually wear my MP3 player so they may be crying, I woulnd't know... (but really they usually are very happy). Just after dinner the kids were playing and I was vaccuuming. Ethan was sitting with some trucks on the stairs on the otherside of the gate. Next thing I know I look over and he is doing a nose dive into the ground over the gate. He landed with his head under his body. I was FREAKING out, I seriously thought he had broken his neck! After a few minutes of screams he realized (THANK goodness) that he was infact ok and went back to playing. I went back to vaccumming. I turn around again Ethan is scribbling with his crayon ALL over the hardwood floor. Seriously.... So that was it, playtime was over and off to bed. Oh but wait... Ethan decided he wanted his blanket to have a bath.... SO we had to wait for the washer AND dryer to finish.... an hour later... it was bedtime.

THis morning Wyatt woke everyone up at 4:59. After being up every two hours....I felt like a zombie, we had breakfast, tried to play for awhile but neither of them were intersted, so into the van we went. Off to the park. We had played on the playground, been for a walk and stopped at Tim Hortons and Superstore and were back home by 9. NOW what?

So we did some potato prints. In my minds this was a great idea. I carved out some cute shapes and thought Ethan would stamp them into the paint and the picture would actaully be cute. Nope. He SLAMMED the potato into the paint, PAINT splattered everywhere, he slammed the potatoes so hard that the little carvings smashed. Oh well, he painted for about half an hour, so at least that wasted some time... Now what to do for the rest of the day!

Another Crazy Morning

Well our day started at 5:54 am when my little screamer woke up. I fed him and plunked him down on a towel outside the shower. He has happy for all of half an hour (thankfully long enough for me to have a shower) then the screams started again. He is SO bad at putting himself back to sleep, clearly he was exhausted because there was nothing I could do to soothe him. Of course the screams woke up Ethan. So at 7:35 I threw everyone into the van and we took off.

As soon as we got in the car things were all good (for the most part). So off we went to the gas station and then to Tim Hortons for a much needed tea. I bought Ethan breakfast there because I was in far too much of a hurry to get the heck out the house to feed him breakfast.

I knew Superstore opened at 7 so I had packed the grocery bags in the car and we went grocery shopping. I didn't want to spend too much money so it really didn't take long, unfortunately I had to prescriptions to fill and the dang pharmacy didn't open until 9. So we just wandered around. Ethan was goofing around in the cart and next thing I knew he had falled through the holes (His was sitting in the middle rather than on one side). So he got stuck, he was screaming, I had Wyatt in the baby bjorn so it was hard for me to pull Ethan out. Some jerk man walked right by us and didn't off the help. So I finally pulled Ethan to safety, but of course he wouldn't go back into the death cart. So he was running here and there and everywhere. It was five minutes until the pharmacy opened, they had their windows all open and they were all in there, so I just stood there with Ethan screaming in hopes that they would come quicker! They did not. FINALLY at 9 they came to the counter. We had another 15 minutes to wait until the perscriptions were ready. Ethan took off to the toys, he was taking down everytoy he could see. Finally he settled on a stuffed animal and kept walking around saying 'Lucky Guy'. (This is usually what I say to him after I buy him some thing special). So I think he was hoping that he was going to get this ugly stuffed dog.
AFter we picked up the percription we headed to Stony Plain to take the bottles back, that went smoothly. I took them to the park to change them and feed Wyatt. There was a famers market happening so we checked that out. Pretty pathetic I might add. There were hardly any vendors and even less customers. But Ethan got to see some horses and we got some chocolate out of the deal so we were happy.

Next stop, the SWAP MEET! I had never been with both kids, wasn't sure how it was going to go. I bought Ethan a booster juice and he was very happy drinking that while we waited in line. Once we were in he started getting very restless because there were so many toys around. So I let him out. We bought two busses and pushed them all around, crashing into people and getting in peopls way, all while saying over and over 'Lucky Guy, Lucky Guy'. When they both started crying I knew it was time to go.

I did fairly well at the swap meet. I thought I would just go to look but I ended up getting a few clothes, two buses and a shelf for Ethan's room.

We came home and had lunch and I plunked them in bed. 20 minutes later Wyatt woke up screaming... ARE YOU FREAKING kidding me. I ignored him for awhile, then I put pillows under the door (to try to block the sound)... That didn't work, so I took myself outside and sat on the curb, waited 5 minutes and came back in, still crying. Back outside for 5 more minutes. This time when I came in it was silent...ahhhhhh.... NOW to get some things done!

Summer in the Driveway

Fabian facebooking!

New sand and water table!

Ethan and I. It is blurry, but I like it!

Filling up the pool!

Always waits for me to say "Ready, Set, GO"

Down the slide...

SPLASH!

Wyatt, LOVEs having people to watch, he jumped for more than an hour just watching Ethan play!

Exhausted after spending the entire day outside, but he really wanted to watch hockey.

This morning we headed to the South Common for a Little Peanut meet. It went well, the kids we very well behaved! AFter the meet we headed off to Best Buy to buy Kelly his father's day present. I guess I can tell you what we bought him seeing as Kelly currently does not have a computer with him and won't be able to read this. We bought him a laptop. Last week Kelly was so frusterated with our old laptop because it was so slow that he punched the screen. SO we thought it was a good gift, although perhaps some anger management classes would be better suited.... We walked in (for some reason I chose to NOT bring my stroller). Wandering around looking for help, no one even approached me. So I went and asked for help. They brushed me off and sent me to a guy who was already helping a custmer. The told me he would be finished soon. Not good enough.... I walked over to FIVE employees standing around talking to each other. I walked right into the middle of their little circle and said "Can someone please help me"? (I seriously was sweating and probably looking crazy, but seriously, how useless are you people? (I didn't say that part). Anyways one lady said sure, I told her exactly what I wanted and she started chit chatting away, at this point Ethan was driving me crazy, kept running away. So I just stopped her mid-sentence and said "Sorry, I just want to buy a computer and get the heck out of here'. So she went and got one for me, the manager came over and threw in a thumb drive for me and we walked right out. Ethan was so excited to buy 'Daddy's present'.

Then we headed to Toys R Us. I was searching for a very particular water table (The Anchors Away one) but it has been sold out for over a month at all three stores, so I just bought a different one. They were ALL out of brown sand and gave me the choice of 'pink, purple, blue or red'. So I took a bag of blue (BIG mistake).....

We got home, Ethan fell asleep in the car so no nap.... so we began setting everything up. I parked on the road and put Ethan's pool in the driveway, I put his castle beside it and arranged the slide to end in the pool. We set up his water table and brought out his picnic table. I brought out the jumparoo for Wyatt and there you have it 'Trailer Trash Summer'..... I brought out some camp chairs, read a magazine and did some tanning! It was an awesome afternoon!!

The last few days...

The boys all set for a run with mom, they wore their jerseys, didn't seem to bring the Canucks any luck. Here is hoping they win the next two games at home!!

At the park across from our house, it is not open yet but it is all set up. It is awesome!! We are going to spend a lot of time there!!

We bought a 10 pack of timbits to bring over, Ethan carried the little box into the backyard. Three minutes later we looked over at Ethan and Caleb and they both had about three timbits crammed in their mouths. There were two left in the box for us both with bites taken out of them.

Wyatt did NOT like the water.... Caleb is just about to dump a watering can full of water on Wyatt.... Sorry about the cleavage, can't do anything about that, it is just what happens when you have kids.

Not impressed!

They really liked each others hats....

Kelly has the same smile....

I am currently stuck like glue to the computer chair. Kids both fell asleep at 7 and this is where I have sat since. I started the dishes then I lost interest. Can't seem to understand my complete lack of motivation to do ANY form of housework. I always have big plans to do SO many things after the kids go to sleep, yet every night I plunk myself down on the chair in front of the TV or the computer chair and remain there for the rest of the night, completely exhausted from the day!

I bought Ethan a HUGE box of candy (in attempts to potty train him). So far he hasn't peed on the potty once, so he has recieved NO candy. I, however, have found myself peeing ALOT more, you know just to show him that when I pee I get a candy! Once Ethan has gone to bed the candies come out in full force. He is going to realize soon that the candies are GONE, somehow disappeared!

It was a beautiful day today, HOT hot HOT! I have a burn,. I always find it funny how crazy I am about putting sunscreen on the kids yet I comletely forget about myself. That being said I did use Kelly's stupid tanning oil today, I think that is why I got burnt.

We had some family photos taken on Monday, Our family isn't overly photogenic so I was a little bit nervous. THe boys did pretty well considering it was at nap time. No MAJOR meltdowns, we were taking some photos on a bridge and Ethan was getting agitated and threw his freaking thomas the train off the bridge and into the water. I was freaking SO angry. Thomas floated under the bridge, smile up, and floated away. Kelly was very tempted to jump in. I don't know why but I get attached to the kids toys, especially Thomas. They are expensive little things. Thankfully Ethan has three more Thomas' at home (because he won't go to sleep unless he has Billy, Percy, Toby, Thomas and James with him... and he remembers....). Anyways I'm still fuming a little bit over the train in the river incidient. But I stopped talking about it because Ethan was wandering around the house saying "Thomas, River, Sorry". I think he was a little bit sad.

My sister and Jake showed up at 4 in the morning on Tuesday morning, they left for Scotland on Tuesday, so it was nice to spend some time with them before they left. We did what we always do and went to Ikea and to do some other shopping!! Thankfully we have Rhonda the Honda that seated us all comfortably.

I'm just rambling, I have nothing to report, everything is great, I'm great, kids are great, Lifes Great! That is all, onto pictures!!