No Offense, Little Lakers

When we come to BC (tomorrow!) we're going to say, "you call that a lake?"

Another Little Reader

Roman made this by himself and then called me over, pointed to it and said "daddy!" I'm pretty sure he would have got the first letter too, if we hadn't run out of "d"s! He also spells "go".

Our Trip to Toronto- part two: downtown

There was a very New York Times-Sqare-ish part. This wasn't quite it. Anyway it was very cool to finally see Toronto!

Angelina was very excited to see a real castle. We will definately be going back to see inside.

Those pictures above were taken from the roof of this bus.

Delicious, delicious Mexican food.

Romey strolling his sister through Toronto

Our Trip to Toronto- part one: riding the GO train

Visit

The Highway of heroes is actually the highway leading into Toronto, so we've actually been on it a bunch of times. I haven't seen a soldier funeral though.


Yes, we're coming really soon! We arrive on Friday August 28th and leave September 7th. I super want to make our dates now; the last weekend we're definately booked up and it sure would be nice to see everyone.


I'm hoping to get together at the beach and have picnic/burger stand lunch. That way the kids can play and we can actually visit, unlike at a restaurant. Weekday mornings are best for the kids, but we could do dinner during the week or we also might have a dinner free on the first weekend.


It would be wonderful to see everyone; please let me know when you're available!

Visiting...

You are coming down this month Keira??? Or just for the wedding? I really hope you have time to visit with us!! :)
Love the video of Roman....so cute!

My Son is Such a Boy!

It's amazing: he's into trains and airplanes and dirt and all that boy stuff. It's definately inborn, none of my doing.

I just can't get two of them looking nicely at the camera. Yes, that includes Matt!

I love it

I love the video of Roman. I started laughing when he was trying to stand on his tippy toes with his shoes on. Too cute.
Not too much exciting happening with me. Busy with work, volunteering for the Roots & Blues Festival in Salmon Arm and with the Red Cross.
Have you guys been on the Highway of Heroes? My mom's friend was telling her about the highway when her son come home after being killed in the Afghanistan. She said that everyone stops and waits for the fallen soldier to go by. People stand on the overpass, on the side of the Highway, and all vehicles pull over. She said that the drive was very intense.
Anyway, I can't wait to see you this month. When is the family coming back home for Erin's wedding?

See you when you get here,
Sammi

Audience Participation

Here we are at Angelina's ballet class this morning.


So happy for you Ang, although it sounds like you won't be moving out here closer to me :( But speaking of buying a house, they are waaaaay cheaper here in Oshawa!

HI!!

OMG Keira.... they are sooo cute!! and getting so big! I am happy for you guys, looks like you are having a blast. Loved the video....especially where she was talking and leaning on the wall :)

PHOTOSYNTHESIS!!! are you serious!??? wow....she is going to be a doctor or scientist when she gets older.

Some new things here in our lives... Bryce got a really good paying job in Kelowna which means that we plan on staying here in the Okanagan so that I can still work...and together we will be making pretty nice cash. He really likes the job so far and is very excited to be able to start paying off his massive student loans... I have decided to apply to the RCMP and become a member for 911 dispatch in Kelowna... a very long process but it needs to be done (so that I can still work and get pregnant :) So depending on how long it is going to take, I think we are looking at moving to Kelowna this fall, hopefully. Would love to buy a house, but we have no $ for a down payment so need to look at our options.

Other than that...working on wedding photos and trying to stay inside out of the horrible smoke and ash...I assume you have heard about the forest fires here... 2 are contained now and the fintry one just keeps getting bigger...they are now on evacuation.

Well, so glad to hear from you guys on here.... keep posting :D Say hi to Matt from us!

Both Babies

Here are a few more pictures of my cutie-patooties, including Roman! That guy is so hard to get a picture of, becuase he won't sit still. Now that I say that I remember Angelina being the same way at his age; there's a period of time where all the pictures are of her little butt running away. I have taken so many pictures of the back of Roman's little bald head!

The weather here is so gorgeous. It's shorts weather most days, but there's a breeze that makes it so comfortable to be outside. It rains once or twice a week, but as a result there are no forest fires here and everything is so lush and green. As my Gina always says, the plants need the rain for their photosynthesis.

I figured out why my pictures were coming out so blurry, like those ballerina ones. There was a big fingerprint on my camera lens! So this should be the last of the blurries. Here we are doing fun summer stuff!

Angelina, Stage Performer

Angelina has been taking little kid music classes and had a recital recently. Here is a video of one of the two songs she performed. Out of the whole class, only Gina and the other "shy" girl were brave enough to get up in front of the huge audience (the recital was for very many classes and ages). I think it's hillarious that by the end she is talking to the audience, then she leans on a wall, super-casual. What a star!

Angelina Ballerina

Funtastic Weekend!

Hello Everyone,

I will be volunteering at Funtastic weekend starting on Thursday or Friday. I have my Statistics final on Friday morning, and I will be done my summer course. The pictures are beautiful; I love the view of the lake.
I informed everyone that Keira was updating the blog, so I expect some great updates from everyone. I do see alot of updates on Facebook.

Anyway, until next time.
Sammi

Super, Natural...Ontario!

Here are some pictures of beautiful, beautiful Ontario and a few of the things we've been doing. The first one is a road into the city (5 mins) from our house. Oshawa is very very green and treed; even the main roads. The next two pictures are in wooded groves that start at the end of our road (a few houses down); they're full of hiking and biking trails. The next picture is in one of the waterfront parks near our house. It's on Lake Ontario and it looks exactly like being on the Stanly Park waterfront trail except that you can see the CN Tower. That's where we recently did a walk/run for allergy awareness. Then there's a picture of Angelina riding an "elephant" at the Oshawa zoo right near our house. She can ride a real elephant at one of the other zoos, 20 minutes from our house. All of this stuff is within minutes of our house and we haven't even scratched the surface. Needless to say, we are having a great time! The weather so far is perfect; it is warm and sunny but there's always a breeze so you don't feel hot and gross. Hope everyone is well and having as much fun as we are.

See you in two months!

Blogging is back!

Hello Everyone,

I love the picture of Angelina with the tie...she looks so beautiful. I can't believe she is learning biology. I'm glad to here everything is working out for the family. It's the same old same old here in Vernon. I have one more year left in my degree! I have to keep this short, but I will keep checking in.

It's great to hear from you and see pictures of the kids,
Sammi

Pictures from our last month in BC

Roman found the flour
Grandpa's tie

My little wild animal

Angry Snow White

Long Time, Long Blog

We have been in Ontario for three months now, and wow, what a great time we're having.

Living over here in the East is very, very different. I have started to stop feeling different now, so it's hard to remember all the little things that are not like BC. At first it was so noticeable that milk came in bags, for instance, and that you never have to pay for a grocery cart. As I've mentioned before, people over here are much, much friendlier. It also seems much more family-oriented, which I suppose is because there is a higher proportion of young families whereas the Okanagan was so full of retirees. It really does make a difference. People over here are also less shallow, although they all drive nice cars and live in nice houses (because everything is so much more affordable). A noticeable difference from BC is that even in the less-nice, downtown area, I never see any bums or druggies. And I still cannot believe the astounding amount of stuff to do there is here.


The kids love it here. Angelina is enjoying her gymnastics and is starting ballet at the end of the month. She's so excited and likes to dress up like a ballerina every day, what a girl! She turned three a couple weeks ago, and is just so grown up it's weird. Like, she calls me mom now, and I wasn't expecting that for years to come. Of course, she has always done everything early. She reads as well as many adults, and knows more about world geography than most people, I think. She knows more about human anatomy now than Matt (not quite me, I took physiology in college) and at the end of each day teaches him what she learned, like cells and the circulatory and nervous systems and stuff.

I never knew whether Roman was going to be a genius too, since he never had Angelina's nervous system issues (she overprocesses noise and motion and stuff, that's why she was the world's most miserable baby and is normal for geniuses). Turns out he definately is a genius too. He is one and a half as of this month, and has known his phonics for quite some time. He is almost obsessive-compulsive about letters. He finds them in odd places, like the jungle gym bars from a certain angle or shadows along the wall. He even bites his food into letters or circles letters on paper.

Quickie

That's hillarious, I thought no one was reading anymore so I stopped blogging. I have tons of things to talk about, I'll get back on here this week.

I'll Second that!

We want updates!!! How are you guy's??? We have heard no word from you in months.... you aren't in some kind of cult with no access to the outside world are you!!????? :P Hope all is great with you guys!! take care