october

october 12

happy late thanksgiving to all you canadians. we had 3 days of thanksgiving dinners!

the weather here has been amazing. temperatures have been hovering around 20 degrees, there's been no rain and almost every day has been bright and sunny. i have a feeling it's all just about to come crashing down around us, so we're appreciating every minute of it while it lasts!

dani came to stay with us last week so we spent a lot of time dashing around doing some really interesting things:

the lavender farm - where we met dani's friends ally and will [will being an olympic rower - he was very nice and very tall]. the views from there were great if only i hadn't had to spend most of the time in a sandbox near the entrance with zoe!

kangaroo creek - wow - cute doesn't even begin to describe those joeys wrapped up in blankets for snuggling!,

the okanagan observatory - VERY cold but well worth it. it was much less domey than you might think. no dome, just telescopes on the top of a mountain with amazing views of the milky way all around us,

myra canyon trestles - amazing views. we only made it across 2 trestles because we're REALLY not the hiking types. next time we'll start from the other end of the trail and make it through a tunnel as well.

lavender farm

at kangaroo creek

another crazy geocache [this time in winfield]

myra canyon

october 2

what a busy week. sascha gave me my birthday present on saturday afternoon after mysteriously disappearing with the 3 children for a few hours to give me some much appreciated peace and quiet. the present was a new car - a mazda cx9. i'm so happy in it. i've had a minivan for the last 6 years or so [first a mazda 5 with 6 seats, then the mammoth dodge grand caravan with 7] and i'm just not a minivan person. i love suvs and sports cars. i figure i'm probably not quite back to being at a sports car time of my life so an suv is perfect. it has a lot less space then the van but still has 7 seats [which is important with the 5 of us, plus my parents who are usually with us for a couple of months of the year]. it can just about squeeze in a stroller, but fortunately we don't generally need one with us anymore. yippee! thanks sascha :)

mum and dad arrived on saturday afternoon just after the car excitement. they're with us for a month. [my sister needs them back quickly than normal since she's moving house and giving birth in november - not to mention the fact that she has SPD and is on crutches for the remainder of her pregnancy - i wish i could give her a big hug and feel baby flynn kicking and elbowing her!]

my birthday treat on sunday was to go ziplining at zipzone - something i've wanted to do for a long time. this one is the highest in canada and fastest in north america. my dad, aly, sascha [who hates heights!] and i all went. we all had a fantastic time [although everyone except me did seem to come away with some neck issues after some rough braking at the end of the faster lines]. i was amazed at how much better it was than i even expected - more relaxing than i imagined. i can't wait to go again.

aly took to it like a duck to water!

dad relaxing 350ft up!

after ziplining we had a lovely lunch in peachland and then visited mission hill and quails' gate wineries on the way home.

peachland

mission hill

sunday evening cousin dani joined us to hang out for a week while toryn is off hunting in the interior. monday we all did some geocaching while the children were at school and today we went pear picking [77lbs for $20!]. this week we have plans to visit a kangaroo farm, goat's cheese factory, farmer's market, lavender farm, observatory and croctalk. we seem to have lost our 25 degree temperatures so we'll have to see how many we make it to!

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