Happy Birthday Libs :)

In honour of her birthday (on Thursday!) Elisabeth got to put some makeup on. She's getting very creative with the makeup...see her nice eyebrows? Okay, they're pink, but check out the arch she's got going on...that takes talent!!

David wanted to get gussied up too. He wore his new tie.

We went to mum's house and skyped the grandfolks in Switzerland!

Then in the afternoon I dragged two very unwilling kids to Crescent Park for pictures. They were not impressed. But they warmed up eventually. Here they are decidedly not warm...

See how impressed they look? This is right before Davey complained about how boring I am. Too bad I've heard it all before little man!

Beating up the birthday girl. At this point I was ready to leave them here and head to Whiterock on my own.

Luckily (for the kids) Elisabeth decided she did want pictures taken after all. That's the Historic Stewart Farmhouse in the background.


David kind of snapped in and out of photo mode. I pretty much let him be though. After all, it was Elisabeth's day anyway.




Elisabeth's new thing is leaning as close to the lens as possible. David's is to do these weird action hero poses.

Peace at last. Thank goodness!


Then we scurried back to mum's for cupcakes.

Last Sunday we headed out to Harrison again to spend the day with our old neighbors. It was gorgeous. And hot, but not too hot. Perfect actually.

Elisabeth set up and watered the chairs.

And David headed into the water. . . with a bucket. Why David??

Oh. Fish. For dinner? Great.

Elisabeth decided to join in the hunt.

I think they ended up with about ten dead fish.

Elisabeth was a very diligent hunter.

Very diligent indeed.

Meanwhile David is getting braver and braver in the water. Maybe we'll even get him swimming one day.

The Floystrups arrived and the fun began. Dryden mostly stayed on shore.


Elisabeth got mud treatments
and snuggles.
Andrew figured since he blew up all the floaties, he might as well take them all out for a spin.

Which was pretty much the only way to entice Dryden out anyway.

My chair. Never did get to use it, and now we're away for the rest of the month so I guess I'll have to hope for a chance next year...or a really warm autumn ;)

Staff Conference 2009, Whistler BC

Phew! I didn't want to get out of order with my blogging, but all my pictures from Whistler were on Andrew's computer (filled the memory card and had to download and delete!) It took me this long to get to transferring the files. Ugh :P

After what felt like a very long time driving (but really wasn't! We left TWU at 10 and were in Whistler by 130 even with a stop at Ikea on the way up!) we got to Whistler. It was so hot. It was too early to check in to the hotel so we decided to park in the (free) day lots and walk somewhere for lunch. The kids were so hot and tired they barely made it.

But it was all worthwhile once we checked in to the hotel. My kids love hotel living. As far as I can tell there are two things they like about it (other than the elevators and having Daddy around 24/7) EVERYTHING is in one (or two) rooms and you can watch TV from your bed. How cool is that?!

On Tuesday afternoon we decided to go to the summit and see if it was any cooler up there. I was surprised since Davey has been on gondolas quite a number of times, but he was pretty worried.

These are the new peak to peak gondolas. Just like the Metschbahn. Though I hear some of these have glass bottoms. Uh no thanks!

We decided to walk to the glacier. Elisabeth was too hot and too tired. So Daddy carried her. It must be nice to be the baby.

Luckily David was too interested in climbing every rock and launching himself off it to be too concerned with being jealous.

We'd come a fair ways already when Elisabeth and Daddy decided to stop and wait for us.

So me and David continued as far as the little creek and David dipped his toes in for some relief from the heat.

We continued to the glacier, then met Andrew and Elisabeth (who meanwhile had made it as far as the water). This is from the water and we couldn't even see them anymore.

David and I made a snowman and brought it down for Elisabeth. Who ate it.

Here he is right before she devoured him.


Mnnnnnn, snowman.
These are the cable cars we took up the mountain. More like the Leiterli gondolas.
David was much more confident on the way down.

That night Elisabeth and I went for a walk. She liked this bear. Apparently he was hungry.


The view from our hotel that evening. Nice, hunh? I'd like to stay there again!

The next day Elisabeth wouldn't stay at childcare. So we went for a walk, just the two of us.

The one thing that bothers me about Whistler is how few people obey these signs. It's kind of scary trying to keep kids from being run over by maniacs whizzing by on wheeled vehicles.

The Chariot we rented for 24 hours. Good too, cause then we got to hike around the golf course. It was a nice little 5k stroll and most of it was in the shade.


Back at the hotel, and me and David lost Daddy. So we took some pictures.


And finally found them again. We walked up to the Upper Village, it was so hot that I didn't really take any pictures. The kids nearly expired from the heat, but thankfully a shuttle came and picked us up.

So we did what any intelligent people would do...went for ice cream at the closest available spot.

DIVINE!

Awards night was awesome, but I'll just show you this picture of me and my hubby who has been with PTC for 15 years...or 22 if you count his years as a student with Campus for Christ!

The ride home was mostly uneventful. We stopped at every view point for pictures. And for coffee twice too.




Best Staff Conference ever. Though I still hope we go back to Colorado again soon!!