Alaina is 15!

Alaina turned 15 on the first Friday back to school! 

During the summer she'd bought a beautiful, shimmering dress especially to wear on the big day. She was so excited to have a double block of MATH (her favorite subject with her favorite teacher) first thing in the morning :)

Alaina had a great day at school and then came home to celebrate with Chinese food and a very tall Oreo cake (3 batches of icing went into this one!).

But Saturday is when we really got to do some of Alaina's favorite things. What Alaina loves more than anything in the world--even more than math--is BUNNIES. She's always showing me pictures of cute bunnies on the internet and asking if we could get one. (It's really hard to say no, but we are only allowed one pet.) So, when we heard there was a bunny cafe in Vancouver, we knew we'd have to take Alaina.

The cafe was home to about 15 bunnies of different sizes and temperaments, all up for adoption. During our 40-minute visit, we met all of them and even got little cups of vegetables to feed them. 

 

Of course, now everyone's wishing we could have a pet bunny ... so Alaina is one step closer to her goal.

After the bunnies, we visited a K-pop store in Burnaby, where Alaina used some of her birthday money/savings to buy a few items she'd wanted almost as much as a bunny :)

I'm so happy we could spend the weekend celebrating Alaina and enjoying some of her favorite things. Even though she is getting quite grown up, she is still my baby Laina, and I love her so much.

Saying Goodbye to Summer 2024

As always, our last few weeks of summer passed too quickly. I think we made the most of it, though....

We visited the beautiful Kitsilano saltwater swimming pool, which is the longest outdoor swimming pool in North America! Eric and Janae swam a length of it, and I tried, too :) 

A few days later, we went back to Kitsilano to see Hamlet at Bard on the Beach. This was my favorite play there in many years, although the kids didn't like it as much as the comedies.

The following weekend we drove to the Kootenays to stay in Salmo for three nights. We made a few stops on the way, including Manning Park, an A&W (where Eric lost his very wiggly tooth in the parking lot!), and a fruit and vegetable stand.

 

 

The house where we stayed belongs to my brother-in-law’s family. It was very comfortable with bedrooms for everyone, a nice big kitchen and living room, and even a Christmas tree :) 

The weather was cold and rainy for two of the three days we were there, so it was nice to play games and watch movies in the evenings.

We visited BOB (Nelson's Big Orange Bridge) and some art shops in Nelson, then soaked in the warm (and cold) pools at Ainsworth Hot Springs. I have to say that Eric has an amazing tolerance for cold water!

The next day we hiked at Champion Lakes, where Eric once again got into the cold water ... in his clothes this time.

Jason went back to the cabin and brought back swimsuits and a boat, so we all had fun rowing out onto the scenic lake. While Janae, Alaina and Eric were far across the lake, we could hear them singing a Hawaiian song, which I recorded on video (You have to listen closely: Singing at Champion Lakes).

 

When we got home, Ben found a website where people publish horror stories written in first person, and he shared a scary story he'd written about people stranded in a remote cabin in the Kootenays. Hmmmm.

During our last week of summer, we visited Burnaby Village. The carousel was up and running, so we got to ride it for the first time in several years.

 

Janae and Alaina got new sun hats at the gift shop, which Eric snatched in an attempt to look like Anne of Green Gables--embracing that red hair, as usual :)

 

 

We realized that somehow we had gone all summer without visiting White Rock beach, so we drove out during Labor Day weekend and enjoyed a nice evening there.

 

Then last Tuesday I had to send everyone back to school. Ben is in his third year of university (studying media arts), Alaina is in Grade 10, Eric is in Grade 5 (his last year of elementary school),

and Janae is in Grade 12! On the first day of school she joined the other grads early in the morning for a sunrise breakfast.

Now we're back to all our usual activities ... and missing summer!