A New Path To Travel

Russell won't be taking the West Cost Express for much longer. He received the phone call we've been waiting for today - School District 42 has offered him a job in their IT department, and he's gladly accepted.

This will be a great move for our family, as Russ's commute will change from 3 hours daily to 30 minutes daily. Now he'll have more time for friends, family, and getting his own business up and running. (I'll let you know as soon as his web site is ready.)

Right now, he's completing Apple certification for the new job (they use Mac's - yucky!), and he begins Monday, November 23rd.

Leaving Harbour Air will be hard. They have been very good to Russ, and he's loved the people that he's met along the way. But this is a very good move for Russ and our family.

I'm very proud of my hubby!!! Congratulations Russ xo xo xo

I Have an Addiction

Yup, I'm addicted to photos of my girls!!! Especially professional ones...

Okay, you know the drill: Matt Kennedy's photography, go to the client page - password reid.

Halloween pics! Awesome!

D.

Water and Wine

Although this was a joint family vacation with the Lewis girls, we Reids spent a little time together bonding.

Our girls really enjoyed their time at the Wrights Campground pool and only kind of enjoyed our short (but not short enough) tour of the Naramata Bench Wineries.

Although the pool was the reason I chose this campground over any other, it didn't play as huge a role in our vacation as I thought it might. However, we did get to partake of it's cool waters on a couple of occasions...

We visited 3 wineries: Township 7, Red Rooster, and Lang. Of the 3, I was most impressed with Red Rooster– they’ve got a beautiful space, and their wines are very reasonably priced and tasty. However, my new favouritest wine is from Lang – their Grand Pinot – Yummy!

The garden outside Township 7 was beautiful!

The inside wasn’t so bad either!!!

Red Rooster had some interesting suitcase art around their grounds… hmmm…

Robynn found the mermaid, well, ummm… I guess we’re not art connoisseurs.

This is my favourite art!

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The view from Lang Vineyards:

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The last day – we packed up most of our stuff, and headed off to the public beach for a swim. We should have gone here earlier! The water was nice, the sand was comfortable (no big rocks to walk on), and it wasn’t crowded at all!

See that slide waaaaaaayyyyy out there. Russ and Robynn swam out to that slide and, although it took her a couple of tries, she did go off...

Bye Bye Penticton - until we meet again.

A Windy Day at the Beach

Russ was the only man on our journey for most of the week, and one day we decided to test his limits by packing six girls and allllll their belongings, snacks, drinks, pack ‘n play, towel… you get the picture. Fun was had by all, and we all – those of us over the age of 4 - made it into the water… some more willingly than others!

You can hear the wind – Russ is a little far away, as I’m not quite sure I want to brave the water yet… Look how choppy the water was, Joelley almost lost her balance!

Okay, I jumped in – not very deep this lake!

We all impressed upon Mommy/Miss Auntie Lynda that she needed to go for a dip – she caved under the pressure!

Natasha and Susanna played comfortably in the pack ‘n play – shaded from the sun with a large beach towel and protected from the wind with a large beach umbrella.

Here’s some random video of the girls just enjoying their day at the beach:

The big girls playing in the sand.

Susanna playing in the sand.

Swim Dare Devils!

Our last weekend in Penticton was a little rainy. So what do you do when it rains on your vacation? Take the vacation indoors! We took all our girls to the Penticton Pool! Actually, this pool is really great for families. It has a little, very warm, pool that Natasha and Susanna enjoyed very much, but it also has the deeper pools – you know the ones with the high dive boards. Well, Joelle and Robynn thought it might be fun to go off of the high dive board! We convinced them to try the lower one first, but that was so easy, they just had to try the high dive! Wow! We, and many other spectator parents, were so impressed at these little girls’ fabulous feats!

Look at the difference in leg action - Natasha thinks she's in a jolly jumper! Her legs didn't stop moving the whole time we were in the pool.

Here are the big girls...

3 Birthdays – 1 day

While in Penticton, we celebrated 3 very special birthdays! Susanna, Joelle, and Lynda all have their birthdays in August, so it was an awesome treat to share this time with the wonderful girls.

I had the privilege of taking my friend out for lunch to the bistro at Hillside Estate Winery. We had a wonderful time: sipping the delicious wines, savouring the spectacular food, enjoying the breathtaking views, and revelling in the quiet (we left ALL 4 girls with Russ!).

We even went for a wine tasting down the road to Poplar Grove – okay, we really went for the cheese – yummmmmm. But the views were mind blowing!

While we were enjoying 4 hours of freedom and tranquility, our girls were enjoying 4 hours of playtime with Daddy/Mr. Uncle Russ!

He cheated!

The big girls had movie time while the little girls slept.

Lots of tricks up his sleeve: special toys for the occasion…

A walk to the park – that must have been fun: two big girls walking on their own, one little girl being pushed in a stroller, one little girl being carried in his arms… Wow – what a trooper. He really loves us a lot!

I think Russ took this next video just to see if he could scare me a little.

That night, we celebrated with sugar and presents!

The girls got to ice and decorate their own cupcakes (hmmm, I wonder where I got that idea from???).

We love: Melissa and Doug wooden toys…

Fancy Nancy books…

… and anything red!

Happy Birthday Lewis Girls!!!!

Penticton with the Lewis Girls!

For our family vacation for the summer, we rented a 27 foot Topaz trailer from RV Days – what a great idea! The people at RV Days bring the trailer to whichever campsite you’ve reserved (in the Okanagan) and set it up for you – ready to go! We booked a week at Wright’s Beach Campground in sunny Penticton. Okay, we were there the week it wasn’t so sunny, but that didn’t dampen our spirits…

Many of our meals were outside. Susanna and Natasha had the best seats in the house!

Susanna and Natasha spent a lot of bonding time together during this week. Some of that time was within the safe confines of Susanna’s pack ‘n play: safe from dirt, safe from crawling out into traffic – but most importantly, safe from the big sisters!!!

Lynda likes to spend her time ignoring me and my camera – but I did get a couple of shots in…

Robynn loves baths, and this one was no exception. She even made it look large (relatively).

Although, not as big a fan of the bath as her big sister, Natasha had her share of fun splashing Daddy in the 3x3 bathroom space.

We even managed to get EVERYONE into this itty bitty little room!

Robynn LOVED her top bunk – and she only fell out once. Yup, I’m a horrible mother… Every night, Russ and I would check on Robynn to make sure she was not getting to near the edge. On the third night, Robynn started inching away from the wall side – when I checked on her, she had a leg dangling over the edge, so I tucked her back in. Then, some ungodly hour in the night, BOOM, CRASH, SCREAM! I think I was there before the scream … Robynn had fallen from the top bunk. She was okay, shaken, but okay. And I went to Zellers for a safety rail that day!

Lots of cuddles…

Our girls had so much fun: exploring, biking, going to the park, swimming in the pool and at the beach!

My mint plant! – Don’t you bring plants with you when you camp? How else would you make spectacular fresh mint mojitos??? Russ was just upset, because my mint plant brought more luggage than he did!

Feeding the very tame ducks (much more tame than the scary squirrels!).

Dustin joined us after a few days – you can really get perspective of our trailers from this picture… Regardless – bigger than a tent, running water, heat and A/C – highly recommended!

My Little Mermaid – July Swim Lessons

In between trips this summer, we actually had time (oh, I make me laugh) for swimming lessons.  Robynn absolutely loves the water – okay, pool water.  She’s like her Mum, she’s not really a fan of water that’s not clear to the bottom.  Oh, she would like Thailand – I digress…

I registered Robynn for swimming at the Harris Road Pool – it’s a heated, outdoor pool here in Pitt Meadows.  The girls and I biked there most days, and after swim lessons, Robynn would sometimes play in the gorgeous park right next to the pool.

This July’s swim lessons held a surprise for Robynn – friends from our neighbourhood, Evan and Ava, were registered for the same swim class!  Robynn was so thrilled – she just loves these two.

Evan:

Robynn:

Ava:

Playing games

Of course, it was also an added bonus that Susan (Evan, Ava, and baby Alexa’s Mom) and I got to chat each morning while watching our children splash and play.

Natasha ate a lot of Cheerios

(and possibly some grass) during these lessons.

Baby Alexa, who was born on June 1st, spent most of these lessons napping. 

Susan and I commented that for next summer’s lessons it’s going to be a little more difficult to sit and chat with these two girls running around!

 

One of the cutest things about these lessons actually happened in the change room after each lesson.  Robynn always has a shower after class, and Ava decided to warm up and join Robynn.  There are two showers available, but why would they have separate showers?  Yup, every day, these two girls had showers together: shared the hot water, washed their hair – really it was just an extension of the swim time!

Once again, we are so thankful for where we live.

Tulameen ‘09

The yearly Reid journey to the little town of Tulameen was a go again this year. But this year we were one extra in numbers. Natasha had her inaugural visit, dip in the lake, bath in the sink… Alas she was too young for ice cream.

My Daddy put my hat on. Can’t you tell???

The big cousins get ice cream.

Cousin Grace had more fun than the rest I think!

The big girls decorated cupcakes to celebrate Grandpa Downstairs’ retirement:

While the littlest cousins took the traditional bath in the sink:

Izzy shares with Natasha:

And then they eat! Hmm, didn’t we do this in the wrong order? So, can you guess which baby is the oldest???

Nope, it’s not Natasha!

Auntie Jodi always has fun spoiling her nieces.

Nail art by Jodi!

Natasha is a little unsure of this water/dirt thing…

But if Big Sister likes it…

Then I can eat it too!

Hey wait! This is NOT bath water temperature!!!

We celebrated another special day while in Tulameen: Daddy’s Birthday!!!

So long for another year…