Birthday boy turns 4!

It was a week full of birthday celebrations around here. Tuesday our neighbor Karl turned four and Wednesday our buddy Noah turned four and Thursday Andrew turned four. Poor Andrew was anticipating his birthday all week and everytime we went to a party I would tell him " soon it's your birthday, after Karl's birthday and after Noah's birthday". As soon as we left Noah's birthday Wednesday afternoon Andrew was convinced that it was his birthday. I had to explain that first he had to go to sleep for the night and then when he woke up it would be his birthday.

Our birthday plan was to go to a park in Lethbridge to celebrate with friends. They just built a new Toddler playground at one of the parks, it is about 5 times the size of our house. Pretty cool. Well due to the rain and thunder and lightening storm we postphoned it till Friday. Poor Andrew had to wait a whole other day to celebrate.

Ken is in Edmonton all week marking achievement tests so Daddy wasn't around to celebrate with us either. I decided we would go to DQ for lunch and then we went to visit Uncle Pete and Cousin Kevin at Adora Kitchens where they work. We also had a visit from Auntie Ang, Karina, Tara Lee and Andrea.

Yesterday we went to the park and met up with our friends and had a great time. We did get Sam a few gifts so he wouldn't feel left out. He was convinced that it was his birthday too and would argue with everyone that it was. It was really cute to see how excited they both were.

Andrew got swords, guns, a kite, croqs, a hoodie and lego. Lots of fun toys. I asked what his favorite present was and he said "all of the presents Mom!"










Luke trying to blow the birthday horn. Thankfully none of the kids figured it out.

Hang'in with Grandpa!

We went to Auntie Ang's this afternoon and who appeared in his tractor but Grandpa. You wanna see two little boys eyes go huge? Just bring out a tractor! And riding with Grandpa is such a bonus!
Andrew Leffers Sr. and Andrew Leffers Jr.








Sam and Grandpa
I love these pics. It brings back memories of me going in the tractor with my Dad. I remember I used to fall asleep in the harvester while he was driving. I saw Grandpa rubbing the boys heads a few times. I also recall my head bouncing off of the windows! Thanks Grandpa for the special treat!

Our Escape- Day 3

On our third day we slept in and had a big breakfast. Did I mention that Ken did all of the cooking the whole time? He's the breakfast man and the BBQ man. After lunch we headed out, parked the van on the side of the road and started our bike ride. We biked 60km in total along the mountains. It was beautiful. There were a lot of hills. Thankfully for everyone we went up there was always one to go down.





This picture of us reminds me of a picture I have in an album of us when we biked the Cabot trail in N.S. We actually haven't changed our looks too much.









Just when we thought we didn't need to worry about bears anymore.....I spotted a grizzly and her baby cub in the ditch about 200-300 feet in front of us about to cross the road. Ken was ahead of me and hadn't even noticed until I quickly brought it to his attention. All I could think about was Ken's description of a worst case scenerio with bears. You get between a grizzly and her cub!!! Yikes.....the Mama heard me warn Ken and then she quickly scooted her baby back into the woods with her closely behind. We were going uphill when we spotted them, so we continued on as fast as our little legs would pedal!
















Ken's contribution to the holiday pictures. A beer between his feet. On our last night we had pizza and leftovers, and I had the best night's sleep yet. I think it had something to do with the fact that we were heading home alive to our children. The next morning we took the longer way home to drive through the triathlon course that Ken will do in a few weeks time. It was an awesome holiday!

Day 2 - The Alternative

We still made the most of the day and did a hike at Beauvais Lake to Piney Point and back. We didn't see any bears there either, although at the entrance they had a sign posted that said "Bear in The Area!" Much easier landscape to hike on.

This was our dinner: Shrimp and steak kabobs loaded with fresh veggies. This picture makes my mouth water.

We parked the van on the side of the road and biked 20 km into Beauvais Lake and back. It was so beautiful and quiet and it smelled so nice. These were just a few pics along our ride.



















Beautiful Mountains.















It was really funny how the day went. We did so much. Everytime we looked at our watch we thought....now what are we going to do? It is truly amazing how much you can accomplish in a day when you don't have kids. I had forgotten what that was like. It was also kinda neat saying... "Hey, you wanna do this?" and saying "Yes!" instantly without reviewing three little one's daily schedules in my mind. When we got back from our hike and bike ride we went for another quad ride, had our kabobs and had another fire at the creek.

Our Escape to the Mountains - Day 2 The Hike!

I'm sorry but for some reason my pictures never post in the order I want them to. When you scroll down to the picture of the mountain at the bottom you can see the mountain that my husband wanted us to hike up. The picture is taken off of the cabin's front deck. Everytime we've been there for the last few years Ken has talked about climbing that mountain, so we made an attempt.

This is pretty much what it looked like for the hour and a half that we tackled it. Our feet may have touched the forest floor for 5 steps the whole time. We had no idea there would be so much deadfall. These trees we are climbing on were probably 3- 5 feet above the ground which made balance crucial. Occassionally we would step on an old stump and our feet would sink as the stump broke apart.






We climbed over, under and around. Please note that I took this picture at eye level.


















I comforted myself throughout the hike that no bear would be crazy enough to try to tackle this. Why would they bother? Until.....Ken nicely pointed out a bear paw print. I know it's a bit hard to see but I can promise you that it was real and BIG! Later Ken informed me that he saw bear fur hanging off a tree we passed. Nice that he kept that quiet until we were back in the cabin.





After awhile we made a mutual decision to not bother anymore. We had no idea how far we had gotten or how much of the forest section was left.


At the rate we were going who knows how many hours it would take to get to the top. We had estimated 8 hours to get up and down but this was an estimate before we saw all of this deadfall in the woods. We thought we should be responsible parents and tackle this at another time.



So, I guess it will be another year of looking out the cabin window dreaming about hiking this mountain... stupid mountain.

Our Escape to the Mountains - Day 1

These are just a few snapshots of what we did on our getway to celebrate our 5 year anniversary last week. Ken's parents have a cabin at Castle Mountain Ski Resort and we have discovered that making use of this cabin any season is awesome. There is so much to do and see! We dropped the kids off around noon on Weds. at Grandma and Grandpa's house and headed to the mountains. This picture was taken at Frank Slide. We bought matching rings in the interpretative center. I had been thinking about getting Ken a ring to replace his wedding band that he lost on the soccer field 3 weeks after we were married. This was a very cheap alternative. I told him he has to prove to me that he can take care of a cheap one before he gets a more expensive one.







In the afternoon we sat on the back deck that faces the ski hill and enjoyed the sunshine. Can't get any better than that!











We then hopped on Dad's quad and went for a ride into the mountains. This poser pic is for my cousin Daniel ( a bit of an inside joke).
















This is a picture of Frank Slide. In the early 1900's a piece of the mountain collapsed and tumbled down into the town of Frank killing approx. 70 people. Huge chunks of rock are everywhere.














After we enjoyed steaks, fresh mushrooms, garlic bread and potato salad we headed down to the creek to have a fire. I was quite on edge and unsure how to position myself around the fire to keep watch for bears. Once Ken told me that bears are scared of fire I couldn't get close enough to it!

Simple Woman #4

Our kids fall asleep in the cutest positions. Sam and Andrew spooning on the chair one afternoon last week after playing in the sunshine all day.

FOR TODAY June 30, 2009

Outside my window...

it's cool, cloudy and a bit dreary this morning, only 11 degrees but it's supposed to get sunny and be +25 later.

I am thinking...

that I have the best husband in the world! First he let me go for a run this morning while he dealt with all three kids when they woke up, now he's getting groceries and when he gets back he is taking Andrew and Samuel to Grandma and Grandpa's house to get sort/pile some firewood in one of Dad's barns.

I am thankful for...

three healthly beautiful boys that keep me busy from sun up till sun down. I couldn't imagine wanting to spend life any other way!

From the kitchen...

Tonight is BBQ'd pork chops, potato salad and frozen veggies

I am wearing...

plaid shorts, a green tank top and a green hoodie (Brrrr it's chilly this morning)

I am going...

out for lunch today with Ken's mom, it's part of my birthday present. This is the first time we've done this and I'm so excited. Again, my darling husband will watch the boys while I'm out. And tonight Ken's mom and sisters and I will go out for dessert somewhere. His sister Denise is down from Edmonton for the week so we thought we would get together.

I am reading...

Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson.

I am hoping...

Firstly that The Poppe's (our minister and his family) get to Austrailia safely. They left last night from Calgary with six kids ranging from ages 10months old to 10 years old to visit family for 5 weeks. It would be quite an undertaking travelling with that many kids for such a long period of time. Makes the trip to N.S. seem so easy.

Also that the boys are all good for Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Ang and Uncle Pete this week. Some sleepovers have been arranged while Ken and I head to the cabin for a few days to celebrate our five year anniversary that's coming up July 17.

I am hearing...

CBC kids on the tv, Sam and Luke playing in the basement and baby potatoes boiling on the stove for my potato salad.

Around the house...
lots of packing and organizing will be taking place today. Hope to mow the lawn and whipper snip as well.

One of my favorite things...

the smell of freshly cut grass

fresh pineapple (my newest addiction)

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Heading to the cabin tomorrow around noon. Ken's got big plans for us to hike a mountain that you can see outside their cabin window. He figures it will take 8-9 hours. I'm quite nervous b/c of bears but he has been researching bear attacks and we plan to make lots of noise and carry Bear spray. He told me last night as we were going to bed what to do if a bear attacks: play dead or fight back depending on the situation. I asked him politely not to talk to me about bear attacks before I go to sleep ever again! We also have a big road ride planned to do on our bikes and we hope to check out Bovie Lake to go swimming and hiking. We have lots of yummy food on the meal plan. We are really excited to get away. I'm wondering how I will do with NO kids for 3 days but I guess we will find out. We are so blessed with family that allows us to get away once and awhile. I know that three boys under 4 is a lot of work so for family to offer to take them when they are busy with their own kids and responsibilities is quite something. Do you ever feel like you just can't express enough how grateful you are? I feel that way alot and for a lot of things. I have a wonderful life filled with wonderful friends and family!

When we arrive back on Saturday morning we will pick up the boys and head to the Annual church picnic for great food and fun games!