Ice In The Water

It is finally starting to feel like spring outside, the snow is melting again and it is NOT forecasted to snow this weekend. We have had about a foot of new snow every weekend for the past 5 weekends. The kids are loving the warmer weather and all the puddles and mud that come with it. This week spring staff training began where the brave souls spent a day on the river on a cool 5 degree day. They started that day by having to literally “break the ice” the launch site had about 8mm of ice coating the water. They spent most of the day paddling and some rescue techniques at the very end of the day. The bus wouldn’t start when they wanted to come home so Troy went to meet them with booster cables to get the bus going. When Joelle asked where dad was I told her what he was doing and she would say “Oh daddy is rescuing them so they need him” I am so glad she is so understands sometimes.

 Showing the ice in the water

The launch site

 The North Saskatchewan River

 Warm up and info time

Claudius, Johannes, and Cameron

 

Spring is comming?

Looking out our window and seeing all the snow that has fallen over the past week it is hard to believe that our spring staff are arriving this weekend for staff training week! I think we have more snow right now than we did on the day we moved here in December. A few weeks back we went to Camp Caroline for a staff retreat before the summer busyness begins. I was blessed to be able to attend every session with the staff and have a better chance to connect and learn more about everyone. The focus on the retreat was Unity, purpose and blessings. I was challenged by a speaker that came in and was talking about unity and challenged us to step out of our comfort zone for the sake of unity. It was a good reminder for me to get out there and do things that I am maybe not good at, don’t really enjoy doing, for the sake of working together as one staff for the purpose of God’s glory. It also challenged me as a mom to try new things for the sake of my kids and giving them experiences to help further build into their lives. I want them to grow up to be adventurous and kind people not afraid to step out and do things even if no one else does it. I came home from the retreat looking forward to a summer (or spring when the snow melts) full of crazy adventures with Joelle, Liam and our little one when she arrives in August, and the opportunity I have been given to be a part of summer camp ministry again.

Liam enjoyed the pool at Camp Caroline 

 

If we let her Joelle would have been in the pool every second of the day 

 

 

Easter and a touch of pink

It has been a busy few weeks here. Right before Easter our furnace was broken, so we had two very cold nights. We had a space heater that we put outside of Joelle’s room for her and we bundled Liam up in his snowsuit because he moves around too much in his sleep and I was worried he would be too cold. Thankfully having small children under the age of three is considered a furnace emergency and they came out right away to assess the problem and came back the next evening with the parts to fix our furnace. We were lucky that the furnace repair guys were working out in Nordegg and at the end of their day they came by to help us.  

Liam sleeping in his snowsuit

 

 I had my 20 week ultrasound of our newest wee one. Our baby was moving around a lot making it a bit of a challenge for the tec to get the measurements she needed. The tec told us that everything looks good, a nice thing to hear after having two emergency ultrasounds early on to see if the baby was doing alright. I was a bit worried when the tec kept on saying the baby is moving so much because we were hoping to find out what gender our little bundle was going to be this time. The baby surprised me and was cooperative for us, we are adding a touch of pink, a little girl to our family in August. Joelle is really excited about having a baby sister she has even picked out names for our little girl. Tinkerbell (this I know comes from the newest Tinkerbell movie where she finds out she has a sister, makes sense) and her second most verbalised one is Monie Laka, this one I have no idea where it comes from. It amazing that she can’t come up with names for her toys besides blond baby, gaff, oh so cute baby gaff, monkey, baby monkey ect. I think her vote is for Tinkerbell because she has started talking about our baby using the name Tinkerbell.

 

 

For Easter we went home to Troy’s parents place and brought Johannes, Claudius, and Patricia with us. They are from Germany and working with us for a year. It was a weekend full of fun, driving, shopping at West Edmonton Mall where Troy and Johannes went bungee jumping! Troy said it was terrifying and seemed so un-natural to jump off the platform. He was glad he did it because it was something he always wanted to try.

Troy and Claudius on the roller coaster at West Ed Mall

 Troy Bungee Jump!

Troy right before his jump

The kids had a blast looking for Easter eggs with our friends.

 Joelle and Johannes on the hunt

 Patricia fell in the snow trying to get and easter egg

 Liam LOVED looking for the eggs and eating a few along the way

Claudius and his find

 

It has been a good few weeks!