Amelia and Kristi come to stay. April 16 - 24

BABY PICTURE ALERT!  LOL

Saturday is quite cloudy. but we decided to head into Duncan to pick up a few things at the Farmer's Market, Canadian Tire and Walmart before heading to Cowichan Bay's Mud Works Pottery. Colleen made us more coffee cups to match our set. Going to Cowichan Bay also meant lunch at the Rock Cod Café which just reopened under new management. Ray took this picture of the Museum Docks which is close to the angle of view our new painting. The correct angle location is marked off due to undermining and would feature an ugly looking catamaran. 

Driving down Highway 18, it was 5C here at the lake and once we got into Duncan it's already 11C with sunshine. What a difference. Coming back home at 1:30, the temperature kept dropping to 2C at the top of hill 60 and snowing! Fortunately, when we came back down into Lake Cowichan, it warmed to 8C. This weather is something. Of course it wasn't long before the rain and wind began again. Glad we went to Duncan for some sunshine. :)

I purchased a couple of ornaments for my front garden to accompany my bird bath given to me as a gift last summer. It's been too cold to plant so I will plant metal instead. :) and of course they will light up at night.

The perennials I planted last spring in the back side garden have all started to grow and some flower. Fortunately the tags were correct they were deer resistant and bunny resistant since we have lots of those animals come through the yard at night all year long. More so now that a dog smell doesn't permeate the yard. Downside which I did not know is that the reason they did not get eaten is they are a little toxic ... we will have to watch Amelia when she gets more active and walking.

Hellebore

Shrimp on the Barbie lol I could not believe that's the actual name of this plant.

Larny, my dad's old caregiver, visited his grave in Port Coquitlam yesterday. She was so good to him. I miss him every day. Thanks Larny for visiting him.

Sunday after the fog burned off it was quite nice outside. Great for people with kids for their Easter Egg Hunt. Mainly chores today, laundry etc. How exciting. I managed to get my planter boxes filled with potting soil in the front of the house while Ray worked on the irrigation. Still too cold to plant my herbs though, they sit patiently waiting in the garage and I just open the garage door during the day when it warms up so they can get the odd ray of sunshine. :)

Monday the predicted rain storm arrived. What a miserable day. Glad we saw some sunshine this weekend to last us for the next few days. :) At least the temperatures have warmed up. Supposed to get 25 mm of rain today which is 1 inch. By 4 pm it definitely poured all day.

Roy, our next door neighbour, suggested Ray take our new "slab" for our bistro table to their cabinet shop so they could run it through their sander and even gave him some epoxy to use. Ray had to be there at 7 am before the guys all got into the jobs for the day. Nice neighbours. What a shop and what a sander! This is Jim who fabricated and installed our dining room buffet and clothes cabinet in the front hall. He even cut it to size before running it through their sander.

Ray took me out to lunch at Jake's at the Lake for Seniors 25% off. lol Rest of the day we just stayed sitting in our chairs watching the rain fall onto the lake.

Tuesday Kristi and Amelia arrived at 10 am. Someone did not have a good sleep the night before or a  nap on the way to the lake, so was a little cranky. We managed to distract her with playing with the "new toys" she hadn't seen since the last time she here.

I made ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner so I would have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner after looking after Amelia all day. Beef stew for Amelia as she cannot eat processed food yet.

I decided we would all go to Jake's for lunch for their fish and chips special. First time at a restaurant with Amelia for us. She did fabulous and she really loves french fries!

Back home more toys.

While she was down for her afternoon nap Ray's new saw arrived. One happy camper. The sales guy even took it right into Ray's workshop which saves us a lot of figuring out how to move it. It weighs 350 pounds. His old saw of 30 years finally gave up the ghost. This one has the "saw stop" so no chance of him losing fingers. 

She loves rolling on beds with pillows.

Amelia investigated our whole house over the next few days. lol Kristi helps her climb stairs as this is part of her physiotherapy for her left hip and knee. Boy can she move!

Pretty pleased with herself.

Someone left the bathroom door open and look what she found!

Wearing Grandma's rain hat.

Wednesday we looked after Amelia all day as Kristi left early for work in Nanaimo. She sure keeps you busy following her around. Fortunately for us, she was a happy camper all day, absolutely no tears. She insisted I walk with her instead of pushing her little table. It won't be long before she is walking by herself I think.

Thursday, Kristi is home with us. What a different baby when mommy is home, very "needy". She sure keeps Kristi hopping and doesn't want anyone else for the most part unless we are feeding her food. lol Tonight's dinner is prime rib on the barbecue with Yorkshire puddings. Kristi's favourite dinner. Also Amelia loves gravy and did really good with the beef. This way I have leftovers for lunch to feed Jason and Adrian when they arrive tomorrow.

Zeus always by Grandpa and of course Amelia.

Playing with old wooden puzzles that I kept from Garrett's baby days.

Kristi went back to Nanaimo Thursday evening after Amelia went to sleep as she is in surgery first thing Friday morning. I slept downstairs with Amelia. Fortunately for me, she slept through the night and other than my "cooking to death" trying to sleep with the bedroom temp at 21Cm we had a good night and morning. 

Jason and his fishing buddy Adrian, arrived at 10:30 after packing up from Kissinger Lake. He arrived just in time to wake Amelia up from her nap. She wasn't too impressed with being woken up but eventually came around. It was funny she was kissing and talking to Jason's picture we have before he arrived, but after he arrived she ignored him. lol She put her arms out to me and Ray and shook her head no to him for the first bit. Poor Jason after not seeing her for 3 days. He's never been away from her since she being born.

Here she is playing with Jason's friend Adrian.

The boys filled their bellies with beef dip sandwiches and Jason packed up all of Amelia's things and drove them in our car down to his truck and trailer that was parked outside our subdivision. At 1:30 they were all on their way. What a busy few days.

Once they were gone, Ray headed to Nanaimo to pick up our boat as we are away for a week starting Monday. I collapsed with a beer and sat on the dock for a bit. The repair shop diagnosed our tilt mechanism and ordered parts with won't arrive until the end of May. No sense keeping it in their yard and exposing the boat to theft.

Friday night I was in bed by 9 pm and slept 10 hours straight. Yes I was tired lol

Here are some new pictures of our other granddaughter, Stella and her new puppy Charlotte.

Learning to play guitar with daddy. (Garrett)

Stella and Kat

I slept 10 hours Saturday night after being so busy with the baby. Saturday morning I it's up early and on the road into Duncan to provision for the coming week at Pedder Bay. Once back Ray, took me out to lunch at Jake's. In between doing the last of the laundry Saturday and Sunday were spent loading up the motorhome for our departure Monday morning. 

Sunday morning Ray was tasked with putting bleach in the water hose and hooking up to the motorhome to disinfect the lines after sitting for 8 months. He filled the end of the hose with bleach. Unfortunately, this hose had a kink and when he rolled it, the bleach splashed up into his eye. Mad panic into the house where I had him flush his eye at the kitchen tap for several minutes and noticed the colors on his jacket and shirt were bleached too. Off with the clothes and into the shower to flush his eye some more and make sure no bleach was on his skin. Checked on Google ... yup I am supposed to call 911 and have him looked at immediately. Well I called 911 while he was showering and they said our town's ambulance was already in Duncan and could I drive him!!! I filled a squirt bottle with water and had him irrigate his eye the 25 minutes to the hospital. They took him straight in. 90 minutes later he reappeared. Apparently "Debbie's first aide" was the right thing to do and although he has a first degree burn on his eye, and will be sore for a couple of days, no permanent damage. Whew!!! He was given some eye Polysporin to prevent infection and off we went back home to finish packing for tomorrow!

Barbecue squeeze bottles for sauces came in handy!