Visiting Santa

So much catching up to do...but for now I will just post our 2015 Santa photo!

The Sweetest Words

When I picked Thianna up from preschool, one of the caregivers rushed over to tell me something that Thianna had said today.

She said that she had been sitting next to Thianna at nap time and as the kids were slowly drifting off to sleep Thianna said, "I really just miss my mommy today."  

The caregiver empathized with her and said "yes, everyone misses their mommy sometime."  

Then Thianna said "yeah, I just really love my mommy."

So sweet!  I just really love my little girl too:)

Thianna all smiles after carving out Halloween pumpkins!

Australia Week 2

On Sunday we visited Aqwa, an aquarium just outside of Perth.

Nathanh always enjoys the touch pools.  This is a sea cucumber.

Thianna liked all the tile mosaics.

There was a moving walkway through a huge tank.  The perfect viewing spot for stingrays and sharks.

After the aquarium we had some ice cream, well I had ice cream everyone else had slushed, on the pier.  Then Nathanh, Thianna and I walked over to the playground on the beach.

Winter in Australia is really quite enjoyable!

Monday may have been my favourite day of our entire holiday.  We drove out to a kangaroo and koala park and I got to snuggle with a koala!

Yup, our new family photo:)

We also got to feed at pet the kangaroos.

This wallabie has a baby Joey in it's pouch.

Such a fun experience for all of us:)

Later we stopped by a park that we used to play at with Nathanh on our last trip.  We wanted to see if he rememberedit, which he did.

On our final day in Perth we took a public transit ferry from South Perth into the city and had dim sum for lunch. We were treated with some stunning views of the city.

 

In the afternoon we went back to King's Park.  I wanted to find the glass bridge and walkway.  Thianna had fallen asleep in the car so just Nathanh and I went exploring.

It was a very busy trip which went way too fast.  But we are very thankful to have had the opportunity to visit with Erwin's parents, sister and her family, and to have seen extended family.  We are not sure when we'll be back next but one day...

Hello From Down Under

We have travelled to Perth, Australia to visit Erwin's family.  The flights, 3 of them, we're not too bad.  Nathanh generally does well when travelling and he did again, except for when we tried to get him to sleep.  Thianna did much better than I thought she would.  She generally gets bored very quickly and wants to get onto the next thing, so an airplane flight where she has to stay in her seat is long and hard.  But she didn't do too badly.  I think that it helped that she is able to understand the tv shows now.  She attempted to watch about four different kids movies but she got bored of them after a little while and never finished any.  On the last flight, Bangkok to Perth, both kiddos slept for most of it which was good as we landed in the morning Perth time.

After we dropped our bags at Erwin's sister's house we went to visit his parents at their nursing home.  It was much more hospital-like than I'd imagined.  There last one seemed more residential.

At the fish pond at the nursing home.

In the evening we walked to the park with  the cousins.

Thianna was instantly comfortable meeting her cousins for the first time.

The next day, Erwin dropped the kids and I at the zoo while he went to see his parents and their house that needs to be cleared and readied for sale.

This kangaroo was especially fond of Nathanh.  I am not sure if it was attracted to his jacket or if it just liked that he stayed quite still.  All was fine until...

...it tried to give him kisses!

We rented a little wagon to help us get through the day.  The kids liked taking turns pulling.

Riding the carousel.

We played in the park at the zoo after lunch.

Always climbing!

Measuring themselves against an elephant!  Thianna is about 100cm and Nathanh is 105cm.

Our traditional end of the day picture.  I think I have a picture of this ape from all of our Perth Zoo trips over the years.

On Thursday morning we took a walk through Kings Park.  This is close to where Erwin's sister lives.  It is a beautiful area.

As we were walking, trust Nathanh to spot this little creature along the side of the path!

Don't worry, it wasn't poisonous!

The rest of the day we gave the kids phones to play on while Erwin and I filled a giant dumpster at his parent's house.  Reinforcements came by later in the day to help with the heavy stuff!

Visiting Mamama at the nursing home.

On Saturday, we ventured North, at least I think it was North, it is hard to tell, I am so used to the mountains in Vancouver always orientating me to which way is North, to a winery for lunch and then a visit to a chocolate factory.  The kids are still talking about getting to eat chocolate!

Visiting Mamama and Tata in the morning.

Wine tasting in the afternoon!  I guess I was too busy sampling chocolate to take any photos at the chocolate factory!

Stay tuned for Perth week two:)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Our summer has been busy so far.  I enrolled Nathanh and Thianna in swimming lessons.  Thianna passed her Preschool level 3 but Nathanh didn't pass his Preschool level 4.  I thought he should have but what can you do?  Anyways, I wanted to get him through it so that he wouldn't regress so I signed them both up for another session.  I wasn't sure how it would go with them both in the same class but it was okay.  In the end Nathanh passed but Thianna didn't, which is what I expected.  Thianna did really well though and made some good improvements.

Nathanh has also been taking Tae Kwon Do.  He is doing really well and enjoying it tremendously.

He works very hard to earn stripes every class.

On the weekends Thianna has been taking a preschool ballet class.  She is so cute!  She is very good at following instructions and is so serious about her efforts.  But the best part of all is that every five minutes or so she will just run over and give me a big hug and then rejoin her class.  I have to say I am enjoying the difference between little boy activities and little girl activities.  In ballet the teacher says "girls come line up over here" and they all do it!  Little boys run around, pretend they are some superhero, and generally don't listen well. Ballet is a refreshing change for me!

While Thianna is at ballet Erwin has been taking Nathanh to soccer.

The kiddos have just finished up gymnastics too.  I really liked the program, as did the kids but I have no idea when we'll get back to it. Life is going to be very busy in the Fall when I go back to work.

So besides all of the kids' programs we have also managed to fit in a few other things.

Like the Richmond Night market,

Feeding the Goats at Fort Langley.

Panning for Gold at Fort Langley.

Thianna trying out he skills as a blacksmith.

Spending the day at Playland for Daddy's company picnic.

My beautiful butterfly and baby puppy at Playland!

Pony riding with Robyn.

Camping at Cultus Lake with friends for my birthday.

Wow, summer is flying by!  Stay tuned, more adventures to come!