Whistler!

About a month ago Geoff and I went away for a 2 night get-a-way in Whistler. It was such a nice break away from the busy household and especially since I wasn't feeling well and couldn't voice it yet. I enjoyed a quiet nap and a full nights rest... what can I say but BLISS!
Geoff has this really bad bug called 'antsy vacationer'. He's a very typical Vanlaar and has a hard time sitting around while away on holidays. He lugged me up Whistler mountain and pushed me down biking trails. It was an enjoyable time don't get me wrong but the constant annoying fact of wanting to throw up everywhere wasn't fun. Our hotel turned out to be more of a bed and breakfast which was totally fine. But I'd say it was more of a bed than a breakfast. Maybe some of you out there are porridge eaters but I certainly am not and that's all they served. It was really dissappointing so I bought a loaf of bread the next day and had that with sugar.... now we know for next time!
While we were on the peak to peak gondola we talked to some people from Louisiana and she was commenting that they love to come here to Canada once a year. She said the air feels so healthy and the food does too. I had to really think about it because this is so normal to us. We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful part of God's creation. It was a wonderful getaway and who better to share it with than my  best friend :)

Exploring around Alta Lake and Lost Lake.

We did about 25km of biking!

We met up with a friend of ours- Greg Welfing for the evening, the boys being boys!

After a delicious dinner at the Mongolian grill we walked around the village.

Brandywine Falls. I think this is my favorite waterfall, other than the height we view it from.

We did this bike trail and after an hour into it we still weren't at the suspension bridge like the map said... and I felt very watched so we turned around and went back... maybe we'll have another chance to tackle it another time.

On the peak to peak gondola... wow does it ever go high up.

Nervously sitting next to the window, took some courage to do this.

Black Tusk

"I'm on top of the world!"

Viewing Whistler Village. We stayed near the lake behind my back.

Geoff was dreaming of fly fishing here.

And baby makes 4!

Much, much to our surprise we are expecting baby #4 D.V due at the end of March. I am slowly starting to feel better after having awful morning sickness for the last few months. I ended up taking medication only finding it got worse so I suffered through it and now a week away from my 2nd trimester I'm feeling good, just really tired. I had an ultrasound to figure out my dates... again a surprise baby! Camron is really hoping he'll get a baby brother.

Summer Holidays

My grandma turned 88 this year and it was a big celebration and (if I counted everyone right) there were 67 people that came, 22 that couldn't make it. What a huge turn out! We all camped on my Uncle Martin and Aunt Jenny's yard and enjoyed the views and visiting all around. Unfortuantely thinking back to our trip all I can remember is being quite sick. I suffered a major headcold and was ready to be home but all in all it was a wonderful trip. Here's a few snapshots.

A big dinner and dessert with everyone!

Sherry

Kaitlyn and Abigail

Alivin and Tristan

Wally Vangroothest

Bethany and Brooklyn

Tianna and Camron

This was the beautiful view from where we parked the motorhome!

The creek in the backyard that we tubed down. What a hoot!!

Truck parking lot.

Kyla on her birthday.

Cooling off in the creek.

Smithers BC

My Grandma VanderDeen was celebrating another year so we all decided it was a good time to get together with everyone and visit her. We had a good time full of lots of new adventures. Enjoy some snapshots!

Unloading and getting ready to go.

Stopping for lunch at the cabin. I never got a shot of it which is too bad. We were eaten almost alive here by mosquitos they were so awful.

If I counted right there were 17 quads... can't remember how many people came along though :P.

Almost at the top of Dome Mountain!

At the peak of Dome Mountain, in the distance we could see Babine Lake but this picture doesn't do justice to the views!

Daniel and Kyla making it to the top. Look at the beautiful views we had.

We camped quietly away from the big group to make napping easier for our girls and for in the evening. It was nice to be away quietly but we missed out in a lot of the action too. The tenters all stayed near us. We had a beautiful view of Mt. Hudson and the creek below.

Enjoying lots of outdoor activities... dirtbiking, quading, volleyball and tubing.

Alivia found trouble several times in the motorhome... we always had to keep an eye on her!

A Week Long Journey

 For memory sake and for family I wanted to post about our trip to Smithers. We rented a motor home from church friends and headed up to Green Lake as our first stop. It wasn't worth camping over night here in the end... seeing as it took up an extra 2 hours of our time but it was neat to see a different lake. Our campsite backed onto a nice large grass field and a playground within close sight. Camron was adimit about swimming in the lake that evening so after he jumped in to get washed up Alivia followed and Abby too of course. After the sun set it soon began to get dark and Geoff and I enjoyed s'mores over the campfire and the full sky of stars.

Our ride for the week.

Excited to go.

For the most part the girls sat in their seats...

Camron on the other hand loved it up top by himself.

First stop- Green Lake. (not sure why he's grum

A Quarter Century Young!

I am so behind on blogging on here its terrible but life has been still going regardless. Now that the summer fun is now ending and slowly heading into the fall months I'm feeling more compelled to write on here again. Time to pull out the sewing machine (maybe) and get back into the hobby groove. 

We had a very fun packed summer with many beautiful sunny days. We went on quite a few day trips and even a week holiday up to Smithers BC to visit my whole VanderDeen family again. 

These blogs pictures are from way back in June on my birthday. Abigail has an inconsistant lazy eye and with that requires a few doctors appointments. We were booked in to see a childrens eye specialist next to the Vancouver General Hospital. The date happened to land on my birthday much to our surprise but I was thinking it would make a fun family trip out there. We booked a beautiful hotel with the whole interior redone and smelling new. The only scary thing was the balcony railings were not secure so we couldn't let the kids outside. Thinking back... we had a very restless nights sleep with our kids waking several times but all in all it was good. 

The van was loaded down to the max, just barely fitting in all of our bikes plus the bike trailer but with some figuring out and some tires coming off we made it work. We biked for 15 km along the Seawall running from Granville Island to the end of the sea wall. We had an amazing day! 

Abigail's raoring to go to the appointment... and into the toilet!

Looking at the map with free wi-fi.

Over looking false creek. We found many crabs and feathers.

Birthday gift time. I was sure spoiled!

It was a rough go at the beginning but before long the girls got the hang of it.

Fast asleep!