Just the Babies

This past week Janae was away at Young Women's camp, and Ben was working with Jason, which left just Alaina and Eric at home with me during the days.

So, while Janae was learning to throw axes (kind of scary if you know Janae!)

and Ben was working on some pretty impressive hat hair,

my little ones and I were going on bike rides,

trying on school shirts for next year (these guys are both wearing the same size shirt!),

playing mini golf,

eating chocolate ice cream,

petting cows,

feeding goats,

and climbing on tractors.

They are so sweet together and such good friends.

It was fun to do some things we don't usually get to do together, just the three of us. And it was also great to have everyone back together Thursday evening.

What am I going to do when they're all in school? 

Start Planning Your Trip to Salmo

As school was ending, people would ask my kids the usual question, "What are you doing this summer?" When they answered, "We're going to Salmo," people would ask, "Where?"

Salmo is certainly not a popular tourist attraction, a well-known city or much more than a speck on a map to most people. In fact, I don't know if I'd even heard of Salmo before meeting my brother-in-law Ted, who lived there when he was little.

It so happens, though, that Salmo is in the B.C. Kootneys, very close to the town of Nelson, where I was born. My family moved to White Rock when I was still a baby, and I'd only been back to Nelson once, when I was 12.

My sister Tina, her husband, Ted, and their family went up to Salmo two years ago, and Ted had seen that his family home was up for sale. His dad then bought the house and renovated it, and Tina and Ted invited all of my family to join them there this summer.

Ted had also recently written a book (Teddy Hit Me), where he describes many adventures that took place in Salmo. My kids and I have read lots of these funny stories, and we were interested in visiting the small town. 

So, on Wednesday we set out for Salmo, B.C. The drive up was so beautiful, with mountains covered with evergreens, waterfalls, and the occasional deer by the side of the road.

Our first evening at the house was about what you'd expect: Ben and two of his boy cousins exterminated close to 30 wasp nests in a couple of sheds on the property while getting covered in mosquito bites. The girls set up their sleeping bags and air mattresses in a big room where they would have their three-night sleepover, and the little ones started setting up their toys and exploring the house. 

The next morning, we went to Nelson. We stopped first at my Uncle Raymond's grave 

and then went to visit the house he'd lived in and where we had visited him when my family went to Nelson.

The houses all had so much character, having been built many years ago, and Nelson seemed like such a nice little town. I'm kind of glad I was born there!

After stopping by my uncle's house, we continued on to hike at Fltchr Creek, where there was a waterfall. When we got there, it was raining a little bit, but we had our rain jackets and thought we'd be okay. During the short hike, though, it started to pour with rain, and we heard thunder and lightning.

We explored the beach just a little bit before heading back to our vans to eat our picnic there.

On the way out, the road was blocked by two different trees that had fallen during our short time at the falls, and we wondered if they had been struck by lightning.

Our next destination was Ainsworth Hot Springs. We actually have a home movie of my dad dipping me in the water there when I was a tiny baby, and I also remembered going there when I was 12 and had told my children about it many times.

We weren't sure if we'd be able to swim, because outdoor pools need to be evacuated during thunder and lightning storms, but by the time we got to Ainsworth the weather had cleared up.

This was the highlight of the trip for my kids. They loved swimming in the warm water, challenging each other to get into the cold water, and walking through the dripping caves.

The ice-cold pool

After swimming, we went to Lakeside Park for pizza and more fun in the water and sand.

When we got there, I thought I recognized the view of the "big orange bridge" (my Mom told me later that the locals call it BOB for short) from some pictures of me as a baby, where my dad was putting my feet in the water.

Eric and Summer loved the beach and didn't want to leave.

The next day we woke up to find two mice caught in the mouse traps Tina had set up in the kitchen (Summer and Mike discovered them, then Summer showed the other early risers, including Eric, Alaina and me.)

Our plan for the day was to see the Kokanee Old Growth Cedars on a West Kootney hiking trail. This was a hike that took us through a "bear salad bar," so we had to be noisy ... which wasn't too hard with this group.

We saw 800-year-old trees,

huge rocks that had been moved by glaciers,

and more beautiful scenery.

The hike back up to the cars was a bit steep, and Eric was pretty tired by the end.

After the hike, we went to A&W for lunch, then hurried back to Salmo so we could spend some time at the community pool. Even though it was just a rectangle with a diving board, most of the time we had the pool to ourselves, and the kids had a great time playing football and attempting flips off the diving board. 

That evening, we had a campfire where people could roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

The next afternoon we headed home, stopping for a few pictures and to buy some Okanagan fruit.

Overall, we'd say more people should choose Salmo as a vacation destination :)

 

Pumpkin Patch Surprise

You might remember that last year we were pretty proud of our pumpkins, all grown from six small plants my dad gave us at the beginning of July.

We had big plans for this year, too, planting a full packet of seeds in a little tray and then transplanting them outside on May 15, just as our internet research recommended.

Unfortunately, all the fragile little plants died the next day. We tried watering them, adding Miracle Grow--all the usual things--but nothing could revive them.

A few days later, though, I found a ziplock bag of pumpkin seeds on our kitchen counter, which I hadn't remembered receiving or collecting. After a little thought, I assumed they must have been seeds we'd saved from our pumpkins last fall--ones that I'd apparently forgotten about in the intervening months.

I sent Ben out to plant them all in our little vegetable plot, and wondered if they could possibly grow, starting outside.

Over the next few weeks, we were amazed at how our pumpkin plants were flourishing. Ben had planted 21, and they all seemed to be growing, threatening to take over our backyard.

I counseled Jason to cut the lawn very carefully around them--to even sacrifice the lawn if necessary to keep these plants healthy. I imagined what our little pumpkin patch might produce--maybe four times the bumper crop we'd had last year, since we'd planted so many more seeds! The plants were flowering beautifully, and every time I looked at them I felt the joy of anticipation.

Then yesterday I thought I'd look a little closer at the plants to see if any of the flowers had little round pumpkins underneath them.

When I got to the pumpkin patch, I noticed there was one growing, but it was kind of a strange shape: more elongated than I'd expected.

I walked around the back of the garden and saw there were a few more, but they were even bigger, and more elongated than the first.

And then a thought occurred to me: these weren't pumpkins ... these were zucchinis!

But no, this couldn't be. We'd planted pumpkin seeds, hadn't we?

We cut one open, and our worst suspicions were confirmed. 

But they did almost look like they could be pumpkins, didn't they?

Finally, we've come to terms with our fate.

I should add that two years ago we planted ONE zucchini, and we STILL have some left in the freezer, despite countless loaves of zucchini bread and dozens of zucchini muffins (not to mention all the other recipes we tried).

If one zucchini plant produced all that, how many will 21 produce? 

We can only imagine.

Luckily Alaina found that her little hamster, Max, isn't opposed to eating the vegetable, so we might have some extra help this time.

Hopefully we will find some more takers as the summer progresses.

And on a brighter note: we also have strawberries ... double strawberries :)

We really are quite the gardeners....

Canada Day Adventures

Gone are the days when my kids were all dressed up in Canada Day attire, sitting on the curb to watch a parade....

But that's okay! 

This year we found some other things to do....

Eric was really excited about our church's pancake breakfast, which featured a bicycle parade. 

I was a little unsure of how this would go, because Eric's bike used to be Alaina's bike ... which had been a birthday present to Janae when she was 5. It was a beautiful pink and purple bike with flowers on the seat, flowers on the side, and flowers on the front--just right for a 5-year-old girl. 

A couple of weeks ago, Grandpa helped us put the training wheels back on for Eric, and he's had such a great time riding around our neighborhood at every opportunity. I thought we could get away with it until I heard about the bike parade. 

Anyway, with Eric's enthusiasm driving us, we packed it into the van and headed over to the Canada Day breakfast.

When we got there, I heard from a couple of people that Eric had warned all the kids and Primary leaders ahead of time that he "had a girl's bike," so--to my relief--nobody said anything negative at all.

The bike parade took place at a water park, where the kids were supposed to ride around the perimeter staying dry. Of course this meant that Eric (and many of the others) rode through all the sprinklers--first the small ones, but by the end even the ones where an entire bucket of water accumulates and then dumps on a person's head. 

When we left the activity our adventurer was completely drenched, waving a flag and saying, "Happy Canada Day" to everyone we passed.

Who cared what color the bike was?

After that we went to my parents' house to pick blueberries (and harass their cat),

and then we were off to Golden Ears National Park.

Last month Janae had gone on a hike in Golden Ears for a field trip with her school class. Afterwards she'd said, "That was the first hike I've ever gone on that I've actually enjoyed."

How many hikes have we taken our kids on?

Anyway, we thought we'd better experience this for ourselves, so we had Janae lead us on a trail to see the lower falls at the park.

The scenery was so beautiful.

But not entirely unlike that of other hikes we've been on :)

After the hike we had a quick dinner before heading over to our local fireworks, where we met up with my sister Tina and her family. Once again, Eric somehow fell asleep during the fireworks and only woke up for a minute while we were walking to the car.

So, even though things have changed a bit over the years, we still know how to have a good time on Canada Day!