A blast from the past!

I was trying to find some pictures today and came across these old ones from my parent talk group. I believe Nathan was about 8-10 weeks here, so tiny, boy how they change.


All the babies, it was so funny, one baby started to cry then it was a ripple effect, all the babies were crying except Drew and Nathan:


Drew, Nathan & Isaac:


Moms and babies (Hi Jen and Christine):

What an end to an exciting summer.

This weekend was the last weekend that we had anything "officially" planned. On Saturday morning I headed off with Russ, Beth and Eli down to the Regina temple. Beth and I went through the session which was really nice since we hadn't gone through together since she went through for her first time, and it was wonderful as always, and Russ stayed in the waiting area with Eli. After the session, Russ and Beth helped clean the temple and I was able to spend some quality time with my sweet nephew. It was SOOO much fun being able to just sit and "chat" with the little guy, and he talked my ear off, in fact I was smiling so much that my face started to hurt. ;)

After the temple, Beth and Russ took me to the hotel where Wayne, his brothers and Nathan were waiting for me. We bummed around for a few hours, Brian, Charlene and Andrew came and met us, we had supper and then walked the 8 blocks or so to the game. We enjoyed the first 3 quarters of the game and then in the beginning of the 4th quarter it just started to pour. Nathan had just fallen asleep and I was trying to keep him out of the rain but when the blanket that I was holding wasn't protecting us anymore Charlene, Nathan and I went under the bleachers hoping for some shelter, which didn't happen. Charlene went back to find the other boys when all of a sudden there was a HUGE lightning strike and the power went out. People started screaming and pushing and I was afraid that I was going to get knocked over so I dug my feet in the ground and just started elbowing anyone that dared to push me. It is amazing the strength you have when that momma bear instinct kicks in. Charlene found us again and we headed to the hallway by the bathroom. We got in and then I went back out to try to find the boys so that we wouldn't get lost from eachother. I couldn't find them so I went back into the hallway. When I tried to go through the door some people wouldn't let me in because some girl was "passed out" on the floor. I finally convinced them to let me in because my baby was in there, well low and behold the boys were in the hallway the whole time. We were standing right beside the door and the "passed out" girl when two people tried to leave. Guys were yelling for everyone to be quiet so they could talk to the 911 dispatcher, and then yelling at these 2 to wait for a few minutes while they tried to help this girl (her legs were kind of blocking the doorway). Anyways, these 2 people started yelling and swearing and then the guys that were trying to help the girl started yelling, and I was sure that a fight was going to start and I was going to get hit I was that close. Anyways, finally the 2 people left and people calmed down again. A few minutes later I found out that the "passed out" girl had been trying to enter the bathroom when someone from the top balcony(which is about 3 balconys up) had dropped a full beer can and it had hit her on the head. I went over to see how the girl was doing and realized that she was laying there in the water without anything on her so I put my coat over her. The police came and were telling people to leave but because my coat was on her we were allowed to stay in the dry hallway. The paramedics finally showed up, I got my coat back, and then we tried to figure out how to get Nathan home since it was still pouring outside. There were these 2 old ladies (who by the way were season ticket holders) that were standing by us and they offered to give us a ride back to the hotel, so Charlene, Nathan and I went with them. We had just gotten into the car when they announced that the game was back on. We made it back to the hotel, thanked the sweet ladies, and then went into a hotel that was dark because it's power was out. :) We climbed 5 flights of stairs with heavy Nathan and soaking wet blankets. We finally made it up to our room where there was a sweet old Japanese man that spoke not a lick of english in the hall. He was there with his daughter and her two little kids and they were trying to find a flashlight, so I went back down the 5 flights of stairs and tried to translate what the man was saying to the front desk clerk. (The Japanese man had a pocket translator that he was using). We finally got them a flashlight then Charlene (who had come down by that point) and the man went out to her car to get us a flashlight. I went back upstairs with Nathan and the next thing I know Charlene comes in holding a few items with the Japanese man loaded to the top with tons of stuff quite a few steps behind her. He looked like a pack horse and he said "She speedy" hehe... it was sooo funny. The poor guy went out to protect her and came back in carrying everything from the car. Anyways, we got dried off, hung out in the windowsill eating chips and pretzels and waited for the boys to come back (they had stayed to watch the ending of the game). When they returned we all went to bed and had a REALLY good night sleep. By the way, the Roughriders won 39-32. Though we had a fun and eventful summer, this was just the perfect ending to it all.

Nothing is mine anymore, nothing!!

Not even my cleavage...hehe.. Nathan has figured out that it is a great holder for different things. He sneaks up to me and pretty much shoots the stuff in there...such a guy!! Tonight he decided that it would be a great holder for his toy spoons while he was making Wayne pretend food. LOL Even though it's a little embarrasing, these are the little moments that I want to remember about the innocence of a child, plus I am totally going to embarass him when he is a teenager. I should add that the stuff doesn't get to stay there.

Go Nathan Go Nathan GO!!!

Nathan is now being potty trained and he is doing SOOOO WELLLLLLL!!!! We started on Tuesday and he had about 5 accidents that day, then Wednesday he had about 3 accidents, Thursday 1 accident, Friday 1 accident because I wasn't paying attention and he had tried to tell me he needed to pee, Saturday 0 accidents, and Sunday 2 poop accidents. Not only is he getting the pee thing but we don't have to put him on the potty all the time he just tells us when he has to go, it's SOOOOO nice not having diapers anymore. In fact, yesterday when we were driving home from the lake Nathan said he had to pee and then yelled to Wayne "Stop Daddy, STOP NOW!!!", it was so funny, Wayne pulled over, I pulled down his Pull Ups and Nathan watered the grass...hehe. I would love to keep him a baby forever but I am so proud of him and I love having a big boy. So GOOD Job little buddy, you rock!!!

We are finally home!!!

We are almost done vacationing this summer, thank goodness, only the Roughriders game this weekend and then no more holidays....YEAH!!! Well we got home on Monday after a very scary plane ride into Calgary. I guess we were flying threw a storm and while descending the turbulence was really intense (I HATE descending, so this was not fun), even while we were almost touching down the plane was bouncing all over from side to side and up and down, we were VERY happy to be on the ground. I was ready to call my Dad and have him come pick us up and drive us back to S'toon, but we made it, in fact the flight to S'toon was really nice. We LOVED the holiday but next time we do this we won't be going after already having a full summer of activities and travelling.

So we were home for 3 days and then off again to the lake with the Shutra's. Wayne and I debated going up but I am really glad that we went. Wayne's uncle Roseaire(sorry I don't know how to spell your name :) ) Aunty Leah, Jordan, Dustin, Mathew, Granny Anny, and Grandpa Joe were all there as well and so it was really fun to catch up with all of them since we don't get to see them very often. We did a lot of fishing off the dock but I didn't catch a thing, however my rod was very lucky to others. Roseaire asked to use my rod for a few minutes and with his first cast he caught a fish, the next day his son Dustin asked if he could cast once and guess what the little stinker caught a fish, but there is no way I could possibly catch any. We also went out in Tenechuk's (don't know how to spell that one either) boat with just the brother's and Kyle and not one of us got a fish into the boat, I think Aaron caught one but it got away, and the rest of us only got "bites". I think that I am the bad luck one, so I am lucky they didn't throw me overboard. I was a fun weekend, but I am SOOOOO happy to be home, and can't wait to get back into routine.

So much fun!!!

That's what we have been having!!! Only 2 more sleeps until we head home and even though I will be so sad to leave I know that we are SOOO ready to be home. We have been travelling so much this summer, which has been really fun, but we are all ready to just be home and enjoy our new house (which still has a lot of work that needs to be done on it) and to get back into a routine, poor Nathan hasn't had a set bedtime for almost the whole summer. However, we really have enjoyed our time away especially being down here in Seattle. I don't know if anyone knows but Wayne has never left Canada before so this has been really fun, plus it's been a very interesting experience for him being in a REALLY BIG city. In fact, on Friday it was Wayne's day to drive and after repeating myself many times for him to make sure he got the directions to the hotel we were staying at before we left, we found ourselves REALLY lost with no directions...I can laugh about it now but it was NOT funny at the time. I am finally ready to admit that I am a control freak. I want to be in charge, or at least know what is going on, and Wayne is as stubborn as I am, just be glad that you weren't in the car with us while we were trying to find the hotel. But I am happy to say that we did find our way and we have made up...hehe. Yesterday, we went to the Children's Museum and it was FABULOUS. If anyone has kids between 2 and 10 this is the PERFECT place to go when you are in Seattle. It has all these neat areas that are like miniature places just for kids. One of Nathan's favorite rooms was the grocery store. It had tons of plastic food and boxed goods, there was a cash register, a debit card machine, phone and a scanner. It was SOOO much fun. Each room is made to be explored and things are to be touched and the more imagination that is used the better. Seriously, Wayne and I had so much fun playing with Nathan and I know that Nathan loved it too. Today we took in the Mariner's game, and even though the experience was fun, I definately like my hitting and fast paced sports, in fact I watched people in the crowd more than I watched the game. The Shutra boys will be shocked but I don't even know what the score was. We took a shuttle to the game and then decided to walk back and take in Pike Market. It was about a 1.5 mile walk to Pike Market and it wasn't what I remembered it to be, plus I was not in the mood to smell fish and that's what it smelled like. We then continued on for another probably 2 miles and finally found a restuarant that was recommended to us from the front desk girl(by the way, if you are ever in a city that you aren't familiar with, ask the front desk people where to eat because they really do know the good places). We had a FABULOUS dinner at a restaurant called 13 Coins and then made our way back to the hotel. We went for a swim tonight and have been bumming out since. In fact, it is only 10:30 here Nathan and Wayne are passed out for the night and I am going to be joining them soon.
Tomorrow we have decided to just leave early and try to find some good outlet malls and then head back up North. I am excited to go home and I am even looking forward to the heat as it has only gotten up to about 25 degrees here and I have been FREEZING!!!

UH OH!!! I've got the bug!!!

I do have the bug but it's the travel bug!! I forgot how much I love to travel but now that we are on the West coast I remember why I loved travelling all over the states for so many years!! Our adventure is just beginning but we have already been having so much fun. Our friend Carla, and her daughter Decie drove us to the airport in Saskatoon. Nathan really liked taking off and he enjoyed paying attention long enough to wave at our house and Grandma Shutra's house and then he didn't care that we were 1000's of feet in the sky. He didn't care that the fields were BEAUTIFUL, or that we were above the clouds, and he didn't even care about the fabulous mountain range, but I sure loved it. We had a little layover in Edmonton which was just long enough to let some people off and pick up some more people. Nathan was able to go up and meet the pilot which was SOO much fun. I am amazed that every plane doesn't crash because there are so many buttons and switches that it is just totally overwhelming in there, and that is just one of the millions of reasons why I am not a pilot. We arrived in Vancouver, got our bags, got our car and headed out to our hotel. Luckily, the hotel was easy and close to get to and we made it without too many arguments. We then went for supper but by this time Nathan was done and even though the food was FABULOUS we didn't get to really enjoy it with a screaming/cranky toddler. We went back to the hotel, went to bed (which btw, Nathan got to sleep in bunkbeds but mean Mommy would only let him sleep on the bottom bunk). We slept in, had breakfast, bummed around (because that's what you do when on vacation) and then packed and left. We had lunch and then headed on our way to the border. It was a quick ride to the border and then we got stuck in holiday traffic and waited almost 2 hours before we finally went through customs, luckily Nathan slept for most of the time. We were driving along, and following the directions for Mapquest but got lost because there are 3 highways that are all named the same thing Highway 20 and we didn't know where we were going. So I went into a car body repair shop and the nice men told me where to go and printed off a new and correct map for me. We then shortly found our way again and finally made it to the Port Townsend ferry. We played on the beach for a while as we waited for the ferry to come and then drove on the ferry and went to the deck to watch as we went out onto the water. Nathan LOVED going out on the water but Mommy was in a skirt and it was REALLY windy so we decided to just watch from in the cabin. This is where we are now, Port Townsend. Port Townsend is the first place that I lived and nannied at, and this town has hardly changed in 10 years. We have already some good clam chowder and oysters, clams, fresh fish, and scallops. Anyways, it is time to go to bed because we have a CRAZY day tomorrow, I can't wait.