13 Years

Today we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary!  It's hard to believe we've been married that long!  Thanks to mom and dad we were able to have a 'kid-free' evening.  We went out to eat at the Cheesecake Cafe in Lethbridge.  It was so nice to just sit, relax and actually talk to each other without competition!

13 Meaningful Memories (in no particular order):

1 - Watching Star Wars (with Russian subtitles) on an air mattress in our tiny first apartment
2 - Laying in bed and watching thunderstorms come across Harvey Lake
3 - Watching you hold our daughter for the very first time and seeing the tears roll down your face
4 - Staying home from work and jumping off the balcony into waist high snow
5 - Blowing up an airmattress as quietly as we could at a campsite in New York, only to hear the neighboring campers come home ten minutes after we crawled in to bed.
6 - Having picnics by the Saint John River during your lunch break
7 - Moving across country... and all the adventures of finding gas stations, hotels and getting the U-Haul turned around in parking lots!
8 - Visiting most of the church history sites and doing a session in the Nauvoo temple
9 - Watching you bless our children in church
10 - Water fights
11 - Seeing our children race to greet you at the door each day
12 - The day you called in 'sick' to work - and how utterly simple life was then...
13 - Being with you through all the ups and downs and always knowing that you are there for me no matter what.  You are my very best friend and I can't imagine life without you by my side.

Kalispell

We were hoping to go camping this weekend and try out our new trailer, but the forecast was so crummy with rain and cooler weather, that we decided to forego the 'pleasure'!  Instead we decided to go to Kalispell and get the stuff we need to finish off our master bathroom (yes... we are STILL working on it).  We thought we would take advantage of the nicer weather to go through Glacier to get to Kalispell, but as we started out on the twisty roads, Emma started getting a little pale and complaining about her stomach.  Before too much longer, she lost her breakfast all over herself.  Of course, I hadn't brought another shirt for her, so we stripped her down on the side of the road and cleaned her up as much as we could, and put her back in her carseat!  Our first stop in Kalispell was at Ross to find a new shirt for her.  She thought it was great because the only shirt her size had Dora on it!  We managed to get the tile for the bathroom as well as a new mirror.  The cabinet we wanted wasn't in stock, so we'll have to get that another time, but at least we're one step closer to being able to use our shower again!  We spent WAY too much money in Costco.  I only wanted chicken... but we ended up with another big teddy bear (for Ben this time) and a new camera for me (Lennard said it was for our anniversary).  Wow... money has been flying out of the house faster than we can bring it in lately...  By the time we got home, Lennard was so 'done'... lets just say that Ben knows how to scream - and screams loudly (especially in an enclosed van).  We were both ready to be home and out of the van!

Update

Tuesday (the 21st) was a rough day.  I woke up feeling a bit 'off', but within half an hour of Lennard leaving for work I knew I was in for more kidney stones.  I managed to get a quick shower and take some powerful drugs in hopes that I would be able to stay home and not go to the hospital this time.  It took about two hours of horrible pain before the drugs kicked in and I was at least able to breath a bit.  I felt bad for the kids, as they just wanted me to hold them, but there was no way to do that.  I put on their favorite shows on TV and just kept reassuring them that mommy would be okay in a little while.  Not a fun morning.  I was so loopy from the drugs after that, that I ended up laying on the couch while they watched endless hours of Treehouse TV!  Not the best 'mommy' day in their young lives...  When Lennard got home I crashed and slept for a few hours.  I'm so glad that I didn't have to go to the hospital this time!

Wednesday - I was really tired from the day before, but managed to at least do something with the kids!  My mom came over for dinner again and the kids loved seeing Grandma!

Tonight we had a girls night out at Firestone Restaurant in Lethbridge.  It was such a nice break!  Mom and I went in early to get a bunch of errands done and just made it to the restaurant in time.  I love being able to hang out with my mom and sisters.  They are all such amazing women.  Wish Rachel could have been there too!

Not the best picture, but it's better than nothing!

Catch Up... Again...

Lennard went and got the bed liner of his truck sprayed in Lethbridge Friday morning (17th).  It's funny to see how excited he is for each little improvement we make.  I do have to admit that it looks 100% better now that it did before with all the scratches and dings.

That evening we went down to the Mini-Chuckwagon races at the Remington Museum with mom, Shauna and her kids.  The kids loved seeing the little horses, but they wanted to be down and running all the time.  Emma was thoroughly intrigued with the porta-potties and kept telling us that see needed to go to the bathroom.  It was past both of their bedtimes, so it was a bit tricky to keep them entertained.  Gideon ended up being sick all over Shauna and the ground in front of where we were sitting, so she ended up taking him to our house to clean him (and herself) up.  As soon as she was back we left to go home.  The kids just weren't going to sit any longer and since we'd got free tickets to attend it didn't make sense to push our limits!

We had an Elders Quorum sponsored softball game/potluck at 1:00 Saturday afternoon.  There was actually a better turnout than I thought there would be.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun running around and playing with the other kids.  I enjoyed being able to sit and chat with all the other moms!  That afternoon (after the kids naps), we headed out to Wally's Beach.  We had a picnic dinner and then went down to the beach to play in the sand and water.  It was such a nice evening and the kids had a blast playing.  Ben was tired and was ready to go home when we were, but Emma wanted to stay!  She was not impressed that we were making her leave and she kept trying to take off and head back down to the beach!

Playing in the water!

 Ben - taking a break with daddy.

Emma - thoroughly enjoying the sand and water!

On Sunday (the 19th), I went to our ward for Relief Society and Sunday School and then I headed out to Mountain View to go to Sacrament there.  Mom has been watching Shauna's kids and for the weekend and since she leads the music, she wasn't able to sit with the kids in the congregation.  I got there just as the opening song was being sung!  Sarah was up in the choir seats with mom and I sat with the other kids.  Sarah decided that it would be great fun to climb on the seats and check out the organ in the middle of the hymn, so when it was time for the Sacrament hymn, I went up and got her to sit with us.  She was pretty good the rest of the time.  I think mom was glad she had an extra set of hands though!

The hitch was installed in the truck this morning (another 'to-do' checked of Lennard's list!).  Dad is away on Vancouver island for a Scout camp thing with Uncle Bruce, so mom came over for dinner.  We were going to have barbequed chicken, but we must have only had enough propane to light the grill and get it warm.  As soon as Lennard went out to check on the chicken, we discovered that the grill was cold.  So, we ended up frying the chicken instead.  Not as tasty, but at least it was cooked!  The corn on the cob made up for the chicken!

Golf Party

Usually when the Town golf party rolls around each year, I send Lennard off to have a good time and then I join him for dinner.  This year was a bit different though... I convinced Kim (the wife of one of Lennard's co-workers) to come as well and we both went golfing with our hubbies.  I say golf, but it really came down to attempting to hit the ball a few times, throwing it sometimes, and riding around on the golf carts!  It was fun to have an evening out with Lennard, but I am definitely NOT a golfer!  We had a 'special' golf ball that we were supposed to use every hole and then return it at the end of the round... but we lost ours on the first hole!  I think that says about how well all of us did!  We did get a few door prizes - a couple of golf shirts for Lennard and a solar powered charger for our iPhone.

 Lennard is giving Jared a good target to aim for...

 They both thought it was pretty funny.  We're so not showing 'proper golf etiquette'!!!

 The one quick photo we got together.

From the amount of golf balls we brought with us, you can tell how 'good' we are.  The sad thing is we made a serious dent in how many were actually in the jug!  Someone will have fun finding all the ones we lost!

New To Us

It seems like our entire life has been taken over with insurance calls and searching for vehicles.  At least now the search for vehicles is done!  On Thursday (Aug 2), we drove to Calgary and got a new-to-us van.  It's the same year as our other van, but this one is the next model up.  It has 100,000 kilometers less than our other van though!  We are quite enjoying all the 'perks' that come with this model.  It has power everything... doors, locks, trunk, windows, etc.  The side windows even roll down in this model, which the kids think is pretty neat.  It is also equipped with a DVD player (that I'm not completely sure is great).  The kids think it needs to be on the second that they are in the vehicle and we're having a hard time convincing them otherwise!

Then on Monday (the 6th), Lennard and I drove to Calgary (again) to look at a truck.  Unfortunately, it was NOT in as good of shape as we thought.  We ended up passing on it and driving home.  At least we got some time alone... right?!?

Thursday, the 9th, our old van was towed away and then later that night we sold our tent trailer!  It was a bittersweet moment seeing the new owners hook up and drive away with it.  We have had so many fun times with that trailer.  I'm glad we were able to sell it though because it was starting to have some rust issues, and the hail definitely didn't help it look any nicer!

We were able to go to the Cardston Heritage Days parade on Saturday with all of my family (except Rachel).  The kids had a blast gathering up the candy and seeing all the horses.  We had a lunch at our place afterwards and it was fun to be able to sit and visit. The best part of the lunch (for me) was the corn on the cob.  SO good!  That afternoon we made a run into Lethbridge to pick up a new barbeque since ours had been damaged by the hail.  We were lucky to get it in the van!  It was definitely a tight fit.  On our way home, we decided to stop off and play at Wally's Beach for a while.  The kids had so much fun that we had a hard time getting them back in to the van.  We are definitely going to have to head out there again in the near future.

Finally, on Monday (the 13th), Lennard flew to Medicine Hat with my dad to check out another truck.  This one held up to everything we'd seen (plus some) and Lennard was VERY happy to make a deal and drive his 'baby' home!  It's four years newer than our old truck and has a LOT more room in it. 

There is a lot of storage in the middle console with a power outlet in it as well so we can charge our phone inside the console!  One of Lennard's 'favorite' features is the dual climate control.  At least I won't have to freeze to death and he won't sweat!  He also loves the sunroof!

As you can see, even with the carseats in the truck, there is still plenty of room!  At least now we won't be kicked in the back everytime the kids are with us!  The other neat thing is that the seats lay down flat.  I'll have to try to get a picture of that when we switch the carseats back to the van.  There is quite a bit of storage behind the seats too. 

Last (but certainly not least), we got a trailer!  We are really looking forward to spending LOTS of family time together.

As you come in the door to the left there are bunk beds (that we will be building railings to keep the kids in)!

The kitchen is behind me in this picture and the door is to my right.  The couch folds down into a bed and so does the table.

Going up the stairs is our 'master' bedroom.  It has two small closets on either side of the bed. 

Just before the stairs on the right is the bathroom with a toilet and a tub/shower, and the sink is to the left.

This is looking from our bed down the length of the trailer.  The kitchen has pretty much everything except a dishwasher.  We are excited to go try it out as soon as we get the hitch put in to the truck (that comes Monday).

It's definitely been a crazy month full of changes!

Insurance, Vans, and a break from it all in Waterton

The past week has been extremely busy with all the 'stuff' resulting from the hail storm.  We've had multiple phone calls, visits, appointments, etc to sort out insurance claims.  Thankfully, my mom and dad let us borrow their van.  Even though our insurance covers a rental vehicle, there are no rentals to be found!  Pretty much the entire town is driving rentals (at least that's how it feels). 

Last Saturday, we went in to Lethbridge to look at vans (just in case ours got written off).  We found one that we really like, but we couldn't do anything until we knew for sure what was going to happen with insurance. 

Tuesday (the 31st), we had the adjuster for our house come and tell us that we will most likely be getting a whole new roof, eavestrophing, and siding.  We will also need to replace our barbeque, the kid's Power Wheels jeep and their water activity table.  It's a little overwhelming thinking of re-doing all the stuff on the house when it feels like we just barely got it all done!

On Wednesday, we had the adjuster out to look at the vehicles.  Again - it depends on what the insurance says, but in his opinion - both vehicles will be considered a 'total loss'. 

Thursday, after many phone calls on Lennard's part, we found a van in Calgary.  We had put in an offer on the one in Lethbridge, but they wouldn't budge on the price.  The one in Calgary is the same year and a few more kilometers, but it is the model up and has way more features.  We ended up piling the kids into my parent's van and heading to Calgary after lunch to go get the new van!  It was raining like crazy, so I ended up spending most of the time in the dealership, while Lennard went and test drove the van and checked everything out.  I got about five minutes to look at it, but Emma wouldn't let me put her down the entire time... so it might as well of been no time at all!  We got a decent deal on it though, so hopefully it will be a good van for us.  It has almost 100,000 kms LESS than what our van that got smashed had, so we'll at least get a few more years out of it!

Friday we got a call from our insurance company telling us that they had deemed our van a total loss.  Since we'd just bought a new one the day before, it was a relief to hear them say that!  It was an even bigger relief when they told us what they would be giving us for it.  We will still have to put money out for the new van, but not nearly as much as I was expecting to!

After all that, on Saturday, we decided to take a break from everything and go to Waterton for the afternoon.  It wasn't really great planning on our part, as it was ridiculously busy in the park because of the long weekend, but it was fun anyways.  We took the kids to the splash park initially, thinking that they would have fun there, but they wouldn't have anything to do with it!  We then went down to the lake and Emma was ready to go swimming if we'd let her!  Brrr!  That water is so cold!  She had a blast!  Ben didn't want to go in the water, but he had fun throwing rocks and wandering around.  I brought my camera along and tried out some different settings... some worked... others... not so much.  At least I'm trying though - right?!