Christmas in July at the cabin

We had another successful Christmas in July at the cabin this year. The weather was beautiful and it is always so great to see everyone! Sydney and Kiley had lots of people to play with them and keep them entertained all day. They loved all the excitement and visiting but they especially loved all the toys the Grice's brought for them and had a blast testing them all out!

Kiley getting a hand from Auntie Michelle

Such a big girl in that chair

Walking with Nana and Aunt Kath again. They couldn't get enough of that!

Sydney and Nan checking out the Christmas tree

More fireworks than Canada day I think!!! It was phenomenal to say the least and fun was had by all :)

**Also a big Congrats to Nathan and Tara who got engaged right before the fireworks after meeting at Christmas in July 2 years ago!**

A Lovely and fun filled visit from Sydney and Kiley's Great Aunts!

Aunt Kath and Aunt Trude came for a visit a couple weeks ago and the girls were spoiled like crazy!! The Aunts and Nana stole them for an afternoon at the park and Sydney and Kiley had a blast walking nonstop around the park and getting Aunt Kath and Aunt Trude wet at the water park :)

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Sydney is just beaming she is so proud! She is showing us what she practiced at the park with Nana and Aunt Kath.

Are you coming Kiley...

Kiley and Aunt Trude

The Never Ending Birthday :)

Sydney and Kiley were spoiled again tonight by Steve, Michelle, Branden and Megan. They had to miss the birthday party, as they were away, so they dropped by tonight to visit and give the girls some birthday gifts.

They bought each of the girls their very own princess chair and they both loved sitting in them. I know they will get so much use out of these!

The After Party...

The party continued on after everyone left and the girls were rested up and ready for round 2 present opening! They hadn't opened their kitchen from Nana and Grandpa yet or any gifts from us. They were the most fascinated though just watching Dad do the assembling!

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Wow, what's in this big box?

Kiley loved ripping off the wrapping paper while Sydney loved to play with the ribbons. She is definitely our more girly girl!

They LOVE their new kitchen!! (Notice Kiley holding the phone to her ear)

The Embleton's picked out the cutest Care Bears for the girls. They love to cuddle them. Dave and I thought they were cute too and a really great gift.


That is until we decided to play the music for the girls so we pressed the button on their hands and they started talking.......TO EACH OTHER!!! The girls were fascinated but Dave and I were a little taken aback! Turns out they sing songs together and talk to each other. "Hi Share Bear", "oh hi Cheer Bear want to sing a song?" "Okay"...and they start taking turns on each chorus-CRAZY! Sydney and Kiley can't get enough though so as long as they don't start saying anything else we're okay with that :)

The Girls First Birthday Party!!

We had a family birthday party for the girls on Saturday and they were spoiled rotten as usual!! We were so glad that the Embleton's and Buchanan's made it from Vernon too. We had a great visit with everybody and Sydney and Kiley had so much fun opening presents and playing with tissue, boxes and envelopes. They were certainly ready for their naptime that day.

Waiting for the guests to arrive

After some mingling it was time for lunch and then the Birthday Cupcakes!! They were both very unsure about it at first and wanted no part of eating them

What the heck is this???

Then Sydney got a taste of the actual cake part and was hooked!

I had to practically force some cupcake into Kiley's mouth as she didn't want any part of it! When she did finally taste it though she liked it too.

Yumm...



We had to stop them before they ended up with terrible stomach aches!

PRESENTS GALORE...


Kiley knocked over the present on top, that was for Sydney, and somehow knew this one was hers-so smart!

Wonder what is in here??

Who is this card from Nan?

Sydney and Inez

Kiley in her new Dora car. Sydney did not like being in hers but would play with it from the outside.

Ready for naptime in their sleeping bags

Two Cute Birthday Girls!

On the girls actual Birthday we headed up to the park by our house and went for a swing. Kiley loved it but Sydney was not into it at all as she was going for the "it's my birthday and I'll cry if I want too" theme that day! So instead we went for a walk around the neighborhood and they both really enjoyed that.

Let's get moving Mom!

Dave bought the girls each a shirt that said "One Cute Birthday Girl" so they had to wear those of course! It was hard to get a good picture of them in their shirts so this is the best I could do!

Willy and Gerry came by after work and brought the girls some gifts. The best part for them though were the envelopes, bags and balloons-which Nana and Grandpa had planned on being the case!

So exciting...

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Our very first balloons...

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And we get our own cards too-Yay!

Sydney trying on her new hat...on her own terms!

Canada Day at the Park

We had a lovely family day at Riverside Park in Kamloops on Canada Day! Sydney kept Nana busy walking around while Kiley had fun staying on the blanket and watching everyone. They have been loving going for picnics lately so it was fun.

Kiley's darn dress kept getting in the way of her crawling! No more dresses until they start walking I think :) Oh the price to pay to be so incredibly cute!

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Ready to roll...The girls had their first taste of Booster Juice right after this and I think they are hooked now too. Sydney made a hilarious face every sip but kept wanting more!

Canada Day Brings a Storm to the Cabin

Something doesn't look right here... Oh yeah this used to be a boardwalk with a dock, two boats and a canoe on the end of it!!

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Canada Day was a great day until a large thunderstorm hit Kamloops at about 8:30pm. Shortly thereafter, a phone call from Rocky at Paul lake alerted us that the storm had broken our dock free and sank Steve and Michelle's boat.

The following Day, Dad and I went up to the cabin to salvage what we could and try to recover Steve and Michelle's boat. The dock and the other boat were thankfully saved by our neighbors, as they fought the 4 foot waves to try and save our possessions. Unfortunately Steve and Michelle's boat was gone too quickly to be saved. They did manage though to tie it to the neighbours dock and remove anything of value before it sank.

Steve's Boat halfway back to the surface.

It took about 5 hours to winch and float the boat.

That is one way to take down the reeds..