Knight, Kaleidoscope, Kin

Today i decided that a great way to describe life is a kaleidoscope. Definition: a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of colored glass or paper, whose reflections produce changing patters that are visible through an eyehole when the tube is rotated. A constantly changing pattern or sequence of objects or elements.

Sometimes we can predict what's coming, but often life is a random mesh of color and patterns that are ever changing, but ultimately beautiful. Life is kaleidoscopic (and yes that is a word... I looked it up).

For Mother's Day, Des and I told our Omi that we would take her for dinner and a movie. Our schedules haven't worked together until last night when we were able to go out all together. It started at Red Robin's and ended at the movie theatre where we saw Knight and Day.
Some favorite moments from the evening:

Twenty minutes into the movie, Omi leans over and says "Is this the movie?"

During the previews, Des laughed intermittently and every time she did, my Omi chuckled in response.

When leaving Omi's apartment, she noticed the stack of newspapers was getting lower and she made a statement about how they never bring enough papers, whilst grabbing two papers and then proceeding to stash them beneath the couch cushion in the lobby so she could get them later.

Being asked 3 times who brought her the wool to make a new afghan. I bought my favorite patterned wool and am SO excited for this afghan! My grandma is a crocheting machine and I treasure every piece dearly!
Today was a beautiful day and tonight the sunset was stunning. I have done things outside almost every day for the last few weeks and haven't noticed it being overly horrible weather. Sure it hasn't been smoking hot, but I've still been able to enjoy each day and the unique mix of weather patterns with it. Anyway, so this is me saying that I like the weather. I'm enjoying the variety and trying to enjoy each day as it comes. And for those of you who are hating the weather and want it to be super hot and sunny, hopefully that day will come on your behalf. :)
Today I enjoyed doing some of my work by the pool, until a bit of wind picked up one of the papers I was about to mark and almost came to the point of throwing it into the pool. Thankfully I caught it before it made it to the pool. Was able to swim some laps as well which is always such a great to clear the head.
Lots going on but I'm enjoying it all and trying not to get whisked away in the scurry of it all but enjoying every moment and trying to see the beauty in it!

Enjoy looking through the kaleidoscope today and allow yourself to be awestruck by the wonder of the myriad of colors and patterns that life brings!

Monkeys, Mmmmmm, Maia

For some reasons I frequently attempt to cram my days as full as possible. Sunday I returned home from camping, and then got ready for a baby shower for my cousin. Then it was back home where people were showing up for an evening of good food and hanging out and a last good-bye to Maia before she left for South Africa.

Was fun hanging out with fam at the shower and seeing the new baby girl who is so incredibly perfect! :)

I absolutely love my cousins' house and they are selling soon and the thought did cross my mind to sell my place and buy their's. Because it has such great interior decorating, exactly the way I would want a house (minus the super bright colours of course). Others said i should look into buying it as well and I thought about it quite a lot. Then I remembered that I don't need an even larger house and I am perfectly content where I am and LOVE where I live. Funny how when something "greater" comes into our vision, suddenly we want it so much that we forget that we like where we are at right now. Was a good reminder for me.
Enjoying some good treats together! :)
Cute onesie cake my mom made

Then in the evening I had a bunch of friends over, including Dave who likes to jump over things. Apparently Wendell also likes to jump over things and so they are a good match for each other. I love the way boys think. Wendell says "Hey Dave, if I jump off the patio, will you jump off too?" And so plans were made to jump out of my house. I made them wait until I had my camera and positioned myself to take some photos, laughing that they were doing it, but also praying that no one would hurt themselves. The grass isn't as soft as it looks...

So here is Wendell leaping off the patio.
Followed by Dave's jump, with all the spectators in the background.
Dave thought he'd throw in a flip or two while outside.
And I guess going back into the house through the front door would have been far too easy...
I figure I can now get rid of my front door and just enter and leave my house through the upstairs patio... My friends are crazy, but I love it! Never a dull moment!
Maia and Cheri
Brooke, Cedric and Chrystal
Amy, Cedric and Jocelyn (Cedric made a lot of new friends)
Matt and Cedric

Dave, Cedric and Megan
Melissa, Cedric and Adri
Jared, Cedric and Ryan

Hanging out on the couches. I wanted to commemorate their first visit to my house. :)


Sunday ended and with it Monday came which is the day that Maia left. :(

I stopped over and made her decide which journal she wanted for her journey.
Us excited about her upcoming travels!
But sad at the same time (or slightly crazed, whichever you prefer...)

BYE Maia!! See you in four months in South Africa!!

Today I wondered if I have been reading blogs too much as my dream was a combination involving people I have never met from some of the blogs I read... I even adopted one of their children. Quite the funny dream, especially when I went to change a diaper. I woke up quite amused but baffled that I was dreaming of such strange and funny scenarios!

Apparently today is camera day.. so grab your camera and snap some photos!

Camping, Coquihalla, Church

A love for camping has recently been rekindled in my heart. Not that I ever hated it, but I think I just haven't done it much. Partly because I don't have a lot of opportunities to go camping.

Anyway, this past weekend, David, Adri and I headed up to Hope where we joined a lot of other people for our church camping trip! Most of them had kids except for us, but that didn't stop us from having lots of fun! Our vehicle was perhaps stuffed to the gills but we had everything we needed!
Setting up our tent and tarp. Thankfully Dave serves as a natural ladder for Adri. :)
On the Saturday, a bunch of our friends came up to join us. In the morning we went for a two hour hike from Othello tunnels back to our campground. What beautiful scenery! It's easy to get lost in it!
All the kids were getting their photos taken and Adri and I were jealous of it, so we got ours taken too!
Corrie and I crossing a bridge
Dave likes to jump over things and I like to take pictures of those moments.
Green!! LIFE!
Looking at this picture makes me think of Oma and Opa at the campground. :)
We headed to the lake in the afternoon and enjoyed some ladderball which is my newly discovered game! I'm quite excited to play more of it during the summer and to master my mad skills.
All the kids wanted a photo running into the water. Delightful!
We were split into groups of four families for some of the meals and it was so great to get to know other people in a different setting! And to share a meal together is always a great thing to do in a community!
For dinner, we made an amazing stew! With all the veggies you can imagine and great meat too! We used a dutch oven and it definitely did the trick!

My view from my dinner seat. :)
We had some great times at the communal campfires with everyone as well as around random friends' fires at their campsites. Sunday morning we had a great little service with a great message that I was super challenged by and definitely set me thinking.
All in all a fantastic weekend full of fun and fellowship and new adventures! I'm thankful for some new friendships formed and am excited to go camping again.

As I showered on Sunday afternoon, I could smell it as the campfire smell came out of my hair and it made me want to go right back to camping again! Soon and very soon I hope!

Tandem, Thursday, Treacherous

Despite almost being killed on the back of a tandem bike, Thursday was a delightful day of adventures in Vancouver with my friend Maia. We decided we would spend a last day in the city before she goes away for five months, and the adventures we had were fantastic!

We rented a tandem bike for 2 hours and drove around the sea wall. I was the first one driving.. and all was fine. :)
Maia even found in the back that she could ride with no hands and take pictures at her leisure instead.

I was able to multi-task driving and taking photos

We even stopped at a few places so I could connect with my inner child again...

And then Maia took the wheel. Apparently we were slightly shaky. Our bike wobbled and we finally got going after MANY attempts. Then a tree jumped in front of us, we wobbled a lot and almost fell over which most likely inevitably would have led to our deaths. Okay, perhaps slightly dramatic, but I may have yelped a little.
In fact, people were all laughing at us who passed and some even took pictures of us.. I figure it's because we're famous.

Classic black and white :)

Then we met up with our little red statue friends and had a bit of a photoshoot.

Then we picked up Jannie who had gone home to get some semi-formal clothes (oops.. that may have been my fault for joking with him that the evening was semi-formal and him not realizing I was kidding.. hehehe)
Went for dinner and then to see Buddy Holly the musical! It was super fun and very rock and roll. We had a great evening with a lot of laughs and good times!

In 20 hours, Maia will be heading off on a plane to South Africa! Crazy! But I am excited that I will see her there in four months time!