Visiting the Farm...

On a recent visit to our friend's farm here in Smalliver, Jackson had his first face to face encounter with real farm animals in their natural setting. Our friends' the Marshalls have chickens and cats and dogs and lots and lots of acreage on which to run and play. Rose is a co-worker with three amazing tween-teenage girls. Jackson loves visiting 'the girls' and since there are three of them and one of him, he always has someone who will play with him and he is almost always pooped out and has a fantastic sleep after a day of playing. So momma has no problem with letting him loose on the farm. Joy & her Scott were out visiting when we had our first visit. She took some amazing shots of our little farmer. I need to figure out how to make my camera take pictures as good as she can...of course taking extensive courses on specifics about her very expensive, beautiful camera would help.



Jackson's first meeting with all these new feathered creatures was very comical. He did not know what they really were and why there were so many of them. I was trying to tell him that this is where our eggs come from but of course he can barely understand me when I tell him why it is not good to eat the soap so why would he have a clue of what I was saying now. But he was sure fascinated by them as they were of him.



I think his most favourite thing that day was the large orange water buoy that was hanging from their tree that was meant to be used for a swing. To Jackson it was a huge orange ball waiting to be pushed and played with even if it was about the same size as him. Especially funny when he pushed that 'ball' and it knocked him right over. But up he got to get it again and again. It could have gone on for hours. Luckily there is an indoor pool and trampoline that distracted him for the rest of the afternoon and used up even more of that never ending toddler energy.



We are very thankful for such wonderful friends for sharing their home and yard with our little munchkin. He loves time with them all as you can tell from the pictures and they love having him. He has since visited a few more times and can't wait to go again, but maybe not with all those chickens!

Just Hanging Around

Future Training Video for Baby Olympians

One of Jackson's newest tricks.  I can not believe how long he loves to just hang.  And with a little boost he is attempting at full chin ups with Daddy's big bars.  Can't wait to see what his next feat of strength will be.... Stay tuned!

Whirl-Wind Weeks...

These past two weeks have been such a whirlwind of activity for our little family.
Starting from where we left off with the water line flood in our basement to Scott's most recent eye surgery and check ups. We have been on the go go go!
So to pick up where I last posted...

The insurance adjuster has been in to access the damage, the restoration company has been in and out of the basement to suck up all the extra water, cut out the damaged drywall that also was sucking up the water into the walls (that's how mould happens people!), fixed the drywall, painted the walls, relaid the underlay and carpet and finally today, put in new baseboards and reattached the closet organizer. Wow! Sounds like lots of work for us to have to put up with but we were actually away on the coast while the bulk of it all happened, thank goodness! And the restoration company was so good about keeping to our deadline as we have company coming for this coming Easter weekend. Good job guys! And although it was a huge pain in the patootie in the beginning, it was a blessing in diguise as when the restoration guy was in initially he found a little tiny bit of mould under one of the baseboards on the wall under the window. He said it was very old and not recent, like a spill of some sort, and it was actually all removed when they had to cut the foot of drywall out of almost three walls. So I am very thankful that it was found and dealt with so quickly. And we may have never known it was there at all if not for the flood. I guess you could say that we found a silverlining in our rain clouds.

So as mentioned before, while our home was getting a little reconstructive work we were on the coast. It was a work/medical/family trip. We like to squeeze in as much as possible when we get away.


Packing for our trip.

It started off as just Scott needing to go for some work with a couple of Juno parties in Vancouver. Then Scott was able to book his laser eye surgery the same week he was there, but we would need a driver back home as he would not be able to see well enough for this task. So Jackson & I willing jumped at the chance to get in some family visiting with my parents and Joy & Scott. We hadn't seen them all since Jackson's birthday so we were all very excited.

We spent some great quality time with everyone. Jackson learned some more sign language while there...of course it is all food related, that's my boy! And he is a crazy climber. All day long to Grammie & Grampere's house, up and down, up and down. Stairs are his favourite toy at their place.


Our goofy boy hamming it up with Grammie.

Aunty Joy was able to spend some one on one time with our little Jack-Man on Scott's surgery day. And he had his first taste of Japanese at her place. Loved the gyozas but found the seaweed a little too chewy on the sushi. Jackson also had his first taste of Scott's favourite restaurant on the coast, Banana Leaf. Yummy yummy Sambal Green Beans and Mee Goreng.
But our little doughboy loved the Roti Canai the best!!!


Bun Master!

And of course, what's a trip to the coast without an afternoon at Ikea. So after a super frugal and yummy lunch we pulled out the list and got down to shopping. We were on the lookout for a certain rug for Jackson's new transportation themed room when he goes to a toddler bed... it's pretty similar to the one on the website but we weren't finding it in store... until super sleuth Grammie found it in the As Is for half priced because they were not going to be selling that model anymore.... Yeah to Grammie! We can't wait to set it up in the new room when the time comes. (Update: Under further investigation and inspection, this is indeed the same mat and it is not discontinued.... Oops! My error, but we still got a deal!)

Of course the big event for Daddy this past week was his laser eye surgery and recovery. But that's his story to tell. We will let you know he is doing great and seeing better each day. He has already had his protective 'contacts' taken off and is already back to his crazy P90X workout schedule. So stay tuned for more of our adventures...