Came home Monday and not even cleaned up from camping and back to work...On Tuesday my Mom came over to help make applesauce (thank you so much, Mom). I couldn't do it without her, or it would take forever, even though I get the rest of the family helping out. Notice no sarcasm"" because they are really helping...

...even if it is just staying out of the way and keeping themselves amused. It was just a bread knife, almost impossible to cut herself with, it's just the glint of the knife makes it look dangerous

Timothy was a great help, in fact, he did almost all the turning in the food mill for me. It's always a long, tiring day making applesauce, but it is sure nice to serve it to the kids, they all love it so much. We could go through a jar a meal if they all had as much as they wanted. I always find myself so thankful to have all this food in my cupboards, so many people live day by day and I have so much stored. It is also such a blessing to have this apple tree in my backyard, nothing beats free fruit.

camping 2010

We spent some time camping a Cults with most of my side of the family this year. We went up on a Tuesday and came home on a Monday, so it was a nice time away from the house. We did come back Sunday morning for showers and church and went back up after the Second service. The absolute best, most wonderful thing about the almost week was that it didn't RAIN... at all not one little bit (well a couple drops but I could handle that) Sorry family, spending time with you was close to being the best thing... but having beautiful weather nothing beats THAT when you are camping in tents with a whole bunch of little kids. It was a wonderful time, the kids had so much fun, and I only lost Danielle once. Yup, she was with her little buddy cousin Cameron who is the same age as her and they decided to go "exploring" together thankfully some adults thought they were a bit too young to be crossing the road together. (and that is not the road throughout the campsite, it was the main very busy road that goes through Cults Lake) They came to my parent's campsite and asked if they knew who a very blond little girl and dark little boy belonged to. Yikes!!! and it was on Saturday so Gerard was there too (he worked full days all the other days) so at least it had nothing to do with not enough adults. And I thought she had gone in the bike trailer with her Aunt Theresa so I didn't even realize she was gone and was in fact quite surprised when Gerard came carrying her back. Thankfully now it is just a "good" story.

My littlest one knew something was in the air but did not know what all the excitement was about the word "camping"...she didn't know what that word meant. She was too young to remember last year, but now when we go again, she will definitely know. She had so much fun. Being two is such a special age...you can walk around with ruffles on you swimsuit and look soooo cute.

Niessa was my big swimmer this year. She loved jumping off the dock without her life jacket and swimming back. (good thing she didn't need a life jacket as somehow I don't have enough life jackets that size. Note to self will have to go shopping)

My girls don't let their looks down even while camping...notice the high heels and short dress...another 10 years and they won't be allowed to leave the campsite.

We made the big purchase and bought a new tent this year aka "The Pan Pacific" as we called it. We had no idea it was so big, our whole family could sleep in it (sleeps 7) but we still put up another tent for the three oldest. I like to have a lot of room.

Is this considered food??? It's canned chicken to put in the Tuna Helper (had canned chicken in the house and no tuna) My kids said the food tasted so much better when they were camping. I make spaghetti sauce and freeze it when needed, it is made with organic hamburger, my homemade veggie packs, garlic, onions, and even garden-grown zucchini all blended together to make a healthy meal for my family. Somehow the spaghetti sauce was forgotten and all I had was just a tin of spaghetti sauce. (no meat, no nothing else) and that's when the kids said the food tasted so much better. Ouch!!! They also loved all the packaged high sodium noodle mixes and all the other junk food that is eaten while camping.

aaahhh the laundry on coming home. And this was not even all of it, there was more on the line and some in the washer. One thing I love about summer is that I can put the clothes on the line in the evening, one less thing to do in the busy mornings, and it still gets dry.

First Time Taking the Boat Out

This was already a couple weeks ago...but we took the boat out for a "dinner" at Cults Lake. Gerard had hoped to take it camping and wanted to try it out to make sure it could still go. It's an old girl but she works every time. It is always a fun family outing, we go across the lake where only people with boats could go (up till this year, now there is group camping on the other side) and have dinner, play around for a bit, and then take a tour of the lake.

My six-year old going on 16. She hung out in the boat for a bit and "talked" on the cell phone. (it doesn't work...she got it from a friend) The imaginative world they can still be in.

Sharleen and I are going to the world-renowned Harrison Sand Scalping Contest next year. We figured without the very eager "help" from the two-year-old in our family...the sky is the limit in what we can make.

What a wonderful family night. They all got a turn to "drive" and it was really interesting seeing the difference in the charter. Sharleen sat down in the chair, couldn't see a thing, and had just a ball cranking the steering wheel to the right and then to the left giving us all a wild ride. Timothy right away had to stand up and wanted to see where he was going. He was very cautious of the other boats and the buoys in the water. If he keeps this up I will have no problem letting him take his buddies out in ten years with the boat. (if the boat still floats)lol.

Yummy chocolate pudding. I don't know how kids get it all over their faces, but it sure makes it look like they REALLY enjoy it. (there you go...what to show me you enjoy my cooking smear it over your face. lol)

This is one of my favorite pictures, (she is not going to be happy this was on the Internet when she is older) the picture is so "her" right now. Any time she gets a bit wet everything comes off and there is no discussing with her that it is not appropriate to run around naked. I make sure she stays in the backyard.

Summer bubble fun.

Fancy Supper

These pictures are in the wrong order but here is the end product. This is probably a normal Wednesday night dinner for a lot of people but this is the first time I have ever attempted a "fancy" meal like this. Before I left for Texas I completely Spring Cleaned my Kitchen and anything that I had had for a while that I hadn't used I put in a pile to use up or throw out...so somehow I had all these sticks that I had to use up. (and not for craft time with the kids, way too pointy)

...but they sure had fun helping me. I don't really like doing anything finicky that takes a ton of time but once everything was cut the kids took over from there making their own patterns. I also cut up potatoes and cooked them on the B.Q. A great meal for a hot day, all the cooking is done outside. And since I don't B.Q. I don't even have to cook dinner. What a win, win.

Summer Fun

It was warm enough to spend a bit of time at the spray park.

I do give my kids water to drink...I really do. This I was O.K. with but put a stop to drinking out of the puddles.

We had my niece Alexis over for a night. It worked out well since we had a family B.Q. one evening and my Oma had her 83 birthday party the next evening. (no pictures waaaa!) Here the kids are all clean and hair done waiting to go. I take no chances with clean kids getting dirty...so they were allowed to watch T.V. I think T.V. is just the best babysitter, especially when I have to get five little kids ready to go. I know I have been told that T.V. should not be a babysitter, but that is the only time it is on in the day. It sure does a good job and is free, what can be better than that!

seriously what is Timothy thinking... I am taking a picture of them eating their snack and he is giving everyone a demonstration on how to catapult frozen blueberries across my kitchen. I put a quick stop to that, even if it did look like fun.

Cultus Lake

Our family project. Our own personal murky, mucky pool. You can't really see from the picture but it is pretty deep. I heard through the family grapevine that the littlest one peed in it, so it was avoided after that for sitting in and washing feet.

Danielle loves animals, even these popping, beach-wreaking geese. She would follow them everywhere, and I always stayed close behind as I knew they could get really nasty. As Gerard and I were loading up all the beach things the kids chased every last one of the geese into the water, with sticks. (gasp for the animal lovers). I kept an eye out for any disapproving looks from the other people on the beach, the park ranger, and the police officer but when three other people joined them, (including an adult) I knew it was all O.K. and continued loading up the van.

Who would have thought that a chip bag Danielle found could give her so much fun? It's not the little things in life, it's the garbage. Really.

What a day.

I wasn't going to blog today...just another day with a kid with hearing aids, but we had to go to Children's Hospital in Vancouver, which is just a long drive, no big deal, but was it it ever a loooong drive. There seems to be construction from Abbots ford although way to Vancouver which slows down my usual 110 (plus) to fifty to stop and go. Extremely tiring and frustrating. Especially since I took Gerard's "new girl" along (GPS) and it says estimated arrival time and I was getting later and later for my appointment. rrrrr I hate being late. The appointment just got the ball rolling for more testing, a CT scan and maybe more blood work for genetic testing, although the Doctor says it sounds like it is heredity. I wish doctors could get paid for appointments over the phone or web cam,(I heard that is being worked on)and then requisitions could be faxed. Would of saved me a ton of time and energy, so much more efficient.
Then on the way home we stopped at Costco to get some food stocked up for camping next week, and I needed to get moving as I was having a hard time staying awake. Sharleen had a great time picking out treats, and even said on the drive home " that it was fun going shopping by herself with me, b/c there is no fighting with everyone else". No kidding, I always say kids are great by themselves it's the dynamics of all of them together. Reminds my I have to take the other ones out by themselves some time too. Anyway home by 8:15, cleaned up the house, got laundry off the line and finished cutting up my rhubarb, and this tired pregnant mommy is off to bed.

Arriving in Texas

So howy'all doing? We were only in Texas for less than six days and I would "find" myself starting to talk like a Texan. After much deliberation about taking the whole family, in the end, just Gerard and I went to Texas for my brother-in-law's wedding. We left all the children in Auntie Theresa's very capable hands. Thank you so much. I know it is a lot of work taking care of four kids aged six and under. And there were moments when I thought of them as they would have loved to see this or that, but it would have made the trip so different. (busy, stressful).
The road system is just crazy out there. There would just be levels and levels of roads and ramps going here, there, and everywhere. They try to never stop the flow of traffic with stop lights, so would just build a ramp conjoining this highway to that highway. (I think we could learn a bit) We would often take a wrong turn or road WITH a GPS. Gerard said that was his new "girl" and I was totally fine with that. No stress on me trying to read a paper map and trying to make heads and tails of it all. Take the wrong turn, it's the "new girls" fault. The GPS was a big investment for one trip but I don't think we could have done without it, traveling Texas. (a total marriage enrichment gadget, no blaming)

We went to South Forks Ranch. It was where a T.V. series was filmed. I had never seen it or heard of it, but it was still an interesting tour. And then it started to rain...WHAT!!! we just can't seem to get away from it.

... and then it started to POUR we were soaked in seconds but it was still really hot, so we just continued walking around looking in the barns and seeing everything that there was to see.

Then late that afternoon was the rehearsal. Followed by dinner at Curtis's elder's house. It was a nice time to meet some of Melanie's family. (she has four sisters and two brothers, so it was a full house) There was also another little girl there with hearing aids, she is only three months younger than Sharleen, so we had a lot to talk about and I found out about a dehumidifier that I didn't even know existed and am looking into getting. (costs a bit though, but will be worth it in our wet climate) Talk about a coincidence. Getting ready for the BIG day.

Curits and Melanie Arink

Curtis and Melanie Arink. July 3,2010.

Gerard still needs his mom's help in getting ready. lol.

The men waited for the ladies to arrive. They always have to wait, don't they?

The happy bride and groom. The whole Arink clan came down for the wedding.The two brothers, everyone kept saying how much they looked alike. And then Timothy was looking at the pictures at home and commented on how much Uncle Curtis looks like Daddy. They were just infatuated with each other. At one point I was talking to Curtis but his eyes were just following Melanie around the room. I hope and pray that they will have a wonderful happy marriage, serving God in everything. The very cute old historical church that they got married in. They belong to the OPC Church and rent the building from the Seventh-day Adventist congregation, but they of course use it on Saturday, so they rented this church.

A pose of us at the end of the night. It was a very different reception than the ones in our Canadian Reformed church, as there was no M.C. (the bride didn't even know what that was) and there was a D.J. instead. An exciting thing to make note of is Gerard wanted to dance!!!! Many years ago (or was it many, many years ago) when we went on a Cruise he would have nothing to do with it, but we got up and had some fun, actually a lot of fun. He even requested the song he sang for me on our wedding, it is a song by Petra called "Love". (now if I was really computer savvy I could put a link here that you could click on and hear the song) The song was totally after there wedding text and is the perfect marriage song, even after nine and half years, I still love the song. It was really romantic of him, and so special to dance to the song while singing it to each other. I still just love the guy so much.

Sight seeing in Texas.

We were there for the Fourth of July Celebration so thought we would see how the Americans celebrate their holiday. We were REALLY impressed. The fireworks were amazing ( in all honesty it has been years since I have seen fireworks, since before we had kids.) so I only have long memories to compare it to. But the announcer was very Christian, saying we all have so much to be thankful for and even mentioning God. Wow, I don't see that happening in Canada. The music was also very moving and patriotic. Hats off to the Americans for a very well-done celebration.

On Monday the whole family that was there in Texas went to Fort Worth to the Stockyards. It is always neat to see a bit of history. There is still a "cattle drive" down the main street twice a day for all of us tourists to see what it was like.

This car is hubby's absolute dream car. Yup, he would like nothing better than to see me driving around town in this with all his little kiddos in the back. The only good thing (if he ever finds one) is it is built before seat belts...so bye-bye car seats. The kids would just have one big wild party in the back.

Then we went on a train trip. It was a good way to see a bit more of Fort Worth and to sit down for a while. It was hot and humid.

On the train trip we passed this sight, many ambulances, police cars along the side, helicopters in the air, and people walking the bank of the river seeming to be looking for something. When we got home we checked the Internet and a family had been out and the little girl fell in the river, so the mom and dad went in after her to get her, and they got into trouble so a passerby went in and got the little girl and mom out, the dad was found half an hour later, it was too late.

There were moments when I wished my kids could have been there, the girls would have LOVED the wedding, and they all would have thought the fireworks were so cool, but it would have been such a different trip had we taken them with us. And I never, not for one moment forgot how easy everything was not having a lot of little children around. Something as simple as getting on and off a train to even riding a train and making sure no one falls out. So my brain and body, which are so used to being on the top-notch go, just got to sit back, beside my hubby (we never sit beside each other since so much adult supervision is needed) and enjoy being with him (and family) and having an uninterrupted conversation. sigh!!!

That evening we were treated to a delicious supper from my in-laws.

Before we caught our plane on Tuesday we went to the John F. Kennedy Museum and memorial. It was really interesting and I am glad we took the time to go. The second window from the top on the right, is where the alleged bullets were fired from that killed the president. (Gerard just wanted to jump in the pool, it was so hot) Home Sweet Home! I wish I could have taped this memory... Danielle was walking around in some heeled dress-up shoes, when Gerard walked through the door with the regular "Honey I'm home" Well she just kicked off her shoes and started yelling Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, with her arms outstretched to give him the biggest hug ever. Then the other ones came to spread some more love around. It was nice to be away for a bit without them (mostly because it would have been really tough doing all the wedding stuff with them there) but this is our life, and how can one not want to come home to a welcoming like that.