My birthday week, Amelia here for the weekend. July 22 - 30

This week has been quiet at Kyle's Kottage. We did a few chores here and there, but mostly relaxed reading out on our deck. The temps came down substantially from 30C down to about 19C, a relief for a lot of people with no A/C.

Thursday afternoon, Ray headed up to Nanaimo to stay overnight at Jason and Kristi's. 

Playtime with Amelia.

Ray wanted to be there at sunrise to take pictures of their yard that Jason requested. 

This is Jason's description:

After a year and half Kristi and I have finished our addition, new deck and backyard reno. Everything was taken down to bed rock and was rebuilt all the way up. From new foundations, retaining walls to fences. We added a playground area for Amelia with 14 inches of woodchips underneath. Stunning new pavers for our walkways, stairs and sitting area. We put in a new greenhouse for Kristi and we installed two massive 8'W x70'L and a 15'x20' garden. Thanks for the photos Ray.

Our slate removed from our yard now in their yard as a path.

Planter build by Jason.

After taking these pictures at 6 am, later that morning, he went up to view the Sandcastle competition in Parksville. His preoperative appointment with our doctor isn't until 3:30 pm  so he wouldn't be home until after that with fried chicken in hand for my birthday dinner. :)

Meanwhile Happy Birthday to me!

Started my day in the hot tub then Carolan's and coffee. lol

At 9 am I get a knock on the door. Superior Propane is here to exchange our propane tanks. I wasn't sure how they were going to get down the side of the house but they managed to crane them down. They also transfered the remaining propane into the new tanks.

The whole thing only took an hour! They were fast.

After a few chores, I spent a couple of hours down at the dock before the wind came up. First houseboat for the weekend heading out.

Ray arrived at 4:30 with KFC in hand. He also bought me a chocolate cupcake as my birthday cake and a bouquet of flowers. Henaged to find me a cool water feature for the front entrance. I'd mentioned I wanted one some time ago.

There were certainly a lot of tubers waiting to launch into the river.

Saturday, a lazy morning before the kids arrive to celebrate my birthday. They were here at 11 am. After lunch, Kristi and Jason had Amelia swimming. So nice to see. Olaf is in the water as well everytime they were. Once he figured out the stairs, he would go down one step and then jump into the water. Kristi ended up quite scratched as he would always just swim to her.

Ohhhh it's cold!

Swimming by herself.

Warming up with Mommy

Nap time lol

Busy day for Amelia. I have a Pork Prime Rib on the rotisserie for dinner and Kristi prepared the corn and potatoes for my birthday dinner. Ray bought a Boston Creme Cake for dessert. A great evening.

Sunday morning is cloudy so while Jason and Ray went to the dump, Kristi, Amelia and I sat outside the front and Amelia played with chalk making pictures on the driveway.  

By noon it's warm enough for Amelia to go back swimming with mommy. The rest of us just watched. Amelia got better and better swimming by herself. Olaf actually jumped right off the dock a few times, unfortunately one time right on top of Amelia's head!

Olaf swims to Kristi and just expects her to hold him and quits swimming. lol

At 2 the kids went home leaving Amelia with us. We went for a walk to the end of our road with Amelia riding her scooter and then it was time for the "Neighbours park".

I bought Amelia a campstove so now it's Papa's turn to make us breakfast. lol

Puzzle time time Papa.

Big jump !

After a very busy day she's in bed and asleep by 7:30 pm.

Monday morning everyone up at 6am. It certainly rained overnight and is very gloomy. Mostly an inside day. At 10 am we took Amelia with us to Duncan to do some grocery shopping and the main destination MacDonalds as they have an indoor climbing gym. She did really well climbing up 20 feet or so for the slide down.

She spent about an hour climbing up and down before a whole bunch of kids showed up, a few rowdy boys lol so we left.

Time to relax a bit once we were home.

The rain stopped so we were able to go outside for some bike riding for 20 minutes before the rain started again.

Zoom Zoom!

Another busy day and after brushing teeth and stories she's out like a light again at 7:30 am.

Tuesday morning everyone up at 6 am again. A very happy girl, packing all her "stuffies" into her bag as she knows her mommy is coming for her after lunch today. 

Final Jump before having a bath and getting dressed. She likes me sending this picture to her Mommy and Daddy.

Helping putting her toys away.

After another trike ride down the road and lunch, Daddy arrived just before 2pm to pick her up. Whew! Time to sit and relax on our deck. It's been a busy few days here at Kyle's Kottage. Three days from now Jason, Kristi and Amelia will be back for the weekend along with my cousin Gord and his wife Susana.

Amelia comes for the weekend. July 19 - 21

Our fun continues.

As we had caught an early ferry, once in Nanaimo we did a bit of shopping at Costco and then the mall before having lunch at Driftwood Restaurant which has a delicious Chinese Buffet. 

Once done we headed to Jason and Kristi's. Jason installed Amelia's carseat and we headed over to her daycare to pick her up and take her to the lake. She was happy to see us. We were home by 2 pm.

It was kind of hard to unpack with her underfoot, so other than unloading the car into the house it was "playtime". First up was filling her pool for the sundeck and adding hot water. She was happy to play there for an hour or so. It was quite hot outside so we stayed under the umbrellas outside before coming inside at dinner time.

Warming up after the swimming pool.

Saturday morning after a good night's sleep by everyone, Amelia was up and running at 6:30 am. 

After some cereal, Amelia and Papa went outside so Amelia could ride her scooter while I got dressed and start breakfast, eggs and sausages with toast. Papa says she goes really fast. lol

After getting dressed, next up was going to the Duck Pond Park

After the park we stopped at Fields to get a bathing suit. Daddy forgot to pack any for Amelia or water shoes. We were able to get a bikini that fits and Amelia also picked out a dress she wanted. No shoes though.

Putting on her sunscreen.

With no water shoes she will have to swim off the dock. We put a outdoor mat down to prevent slivers. First up a snack and playtime before swimming with Grandma.

Learning how to use the dock stairs.

She loved being in Grandma's tube.

Fascination with pool noodles.

Back up to the house for lunch and then for dessert we took her to Mountain Man Ice Cream. She is sporting her new dress.

Watching the TV screen showing all the flavours lol.

Back at home she was playing in her pool, but it was so hot on the deck, Ray and I were going to take turns to jump in the lake and then back to deck. Once she saw Papa going swimming that was it, she wanted to go again. :) Back into her bathinsuit and back down to the dock. It was really hot outside at 30C so a little cooler on the dock. Unfortuately, she had an accident earlier after coming home from ice cream and her shoes were soaked and needed to be washed. Daddy, also forgot to pack any extra shoes, so I had to carry her down to the dock.

I taught her how to go down the stairs by herself, how to hold onto the stairs and then kick her feet. She also had to hold her pool noodle and float. She did really well. By next year she will be jumping off the dock herself.

After all the swimming she was done for and had a half an hour nap in the chair. Ray had to carry her back up to the house.

Another good night's sleep and we were all up at 6:30 am. Lots of playing with Papa and only able to ride her scooter in the house as we have no shoes. lol

Since playing outside was very limited with no shoes and no sweater as it is much cooler today, we opted to take her to A&W for breakfast and then take her home.

Don't take my picture Grandma!

After breakfast Papa carried her to the car and we headed to Nanaimo. She was happy to see her parents and her puppy Olaf. After walking through Kristi's garden, we decided to take them out for lunch .... back at the Driftwood, Amelia's favourite. It actually started to sprinkle and was a very cloudy day. The car works well taxiing the whole family at once. lol After lunch we dropped them off and headed home. 

Ray and I arrived at 2 pm and after putting a few things away, decided to sit outside on the front driveway as it was still fairly cloudy and windy on the lakeside. My gardens are blooming and are looking great.

At 3 pm we invited Roy and June over for a margarita. A lovely hour or so catching up. The sun had broke through by the time they left so we moved to the back sundeck for the rest of the evening. We had so much lunch no one was hungry for dinner.

The end of a very busy week.