family pictures

this is for those of you who might actually still visit my blog. we had some family pictures taken and i wanted to show them off. we went out to Chilliwack to our friends Ryan & Carissa's place and her sister Jocelyn took pictures for us down by the river. i included a few pictures of Landen with his little friends Mathew and Jordyn.

where has the summer gone?

so my plan of going to the beach every weekend this summer has seemed to fail. life just seems to pass us by lately and we don't know where the time has gone. looking back i was tying to think of what we have actually done this summer. at first i thought 'we haven't done anything!' but there's always something that has kept us busy. so okay, i guess we've done a few things. i will see what i can remember...

adrian ran a soccer camp at our church for the second summer and it was once again a hit! thanks so much to all the volunteers, i heard you were amazing! i was not involved this year, therefor do not have any pictures to share.

landen and i were actually in wpg for the first half of that week. yes you read right, we were in wpg. sorry to all the people we did not see, which there were many. our trip was five day (really only three full days, the other two were traveling, by plane of course). one day i spent at my 10 yr high school reunion (i know, hard to believe i am that old) and one celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary. the third day we found out why landen had been so cranky the whole trip (he had strep throat).

we've managed to make it to the beach twice i think (i know, that's kind of sad) with our good friends jon and becky and their kids. we actually spent our 6 year wedding anniversary there just this last sunday, it was a great day! this last weekend we also made it out to ryan and carissa's place for a swim in their pool finally. they then twisted our arm and convinced us to go to the chinese night market with them. mmm... bbq squid on a stick! it was a great night.

a few weeks ago adrian and i decided to spend a day at stanley park. we had a picnic, took landen to the water park, played in the field, had ice cream at prospect point and ended the day with a nice diner at adrian's grandparents place on the way home. this is apparently one of the few days this summer that i have pulled out the camera. it is totally true that the older your kid gets, the fewer the pictures become. i think i will have to do something about that!

















landen was a little unsure about the water park at first

















here we're both a little unsure about it (man it was cold!)

















warming up to it

















actually enjoying it
















landen running toward adrian
















a more common sight, landen running away from adrian
















a quick stop for a picture















and off again





















a great picture of landen with his grandpa (from our wpg trip)


















and this is herman. my dad made this toy box for landen awhile ago, and it took me a long time to actually finish painting it. and it took me even longer to put this picture up. i will have to get a picture of landen actually sitting in it.

we're still here!!! are you?

ok, so does anyone still read our blog? i know, i have been the worst lately. it's busy being a wife, a mom, a friend, a working women, and trying to enjoy the summer! it is really summer now right? so blogging has gotten pretty low on the priority list.

so here are a few random photos taken since the last time i posted, cause i know everyone comes for the pictures not to read me ramble on. oh, and don't be fooled, there is another post below from our weekend away so be sure not to miss that one too.




















a picture of landen and i on mother's day




















i attempted to take some family photos one day with my tripod and timer (not an easy task with these two). i loved this picture but unfortunately the lighting was terrible! this was my attempt to salvage it.



















so better lighting this time, but how do you get a kid to look and smile at a camera that has no one behind it? well i guess one out of two ain't bad.




and here's my little goof!










the neighbors let landen join them on their slip and slide one afternoon. they even let him hold the winner flag.

he had a blast!













though it got a little cold






oh, wipe out!

weekend on the sunshine coast

adrian's parents came out for a visit and wanted to take a little trip. so we decided to check out the sunshine coast. they rented a nice house right on the water in lower gibsons. it was a great location and we had wonderful weather. here are a few pics



















my two guys cruising the deck (oh, the view was pretty nice too)




















all three of us, of course adrian needed his coffee




















landen and grandpa dueck playin in the grass




















landen and grandma dueck having breakfast at 'Molly's Reach' (where apparently Beachcombers was filmed)

























landen testing out the kayak

























ok, so he didn't get to go. he stayed back and entertained grandma while the rest of us went for a leisurely kayak, right adrian ;)




















the next day we decided to take landen to the beach (his first experience, well we took him last summer but he wasn't even crawling yet) here he's checking out some seaweed




















as you can see landen and i are attempting to sink the air mattress.....and succeeding





















apparently we have an issue with sand

























ok, so maybe it's not that bad




















hmmm....i wonder how this stuff tastes?

goodbye dear friend

so on friday we said goodbye to milo. because of his bad leg he was aging beyond his years. we had to make a very hard decision and had him put down. yesterday we realized how much a part of our daily lives he was. he was such a great dog and a huge part of our family and we will miss him terribly. we spent the evening talking about all the good times we had with him and decided to do

top 10 milo moments

10 i'll be your friend, as long as you're sitting in that chair
though milo appeared to be protective of landen, milo did not think they were friends, well at least not till landen was in his high chair. he was happy to clean up anything landen decided to throw on the floor and landen enjoyed willing sharing his food with milo. when we gave milo treats he almost snapped our fingers off, but he took food from landen's hand ever so gently.

9 i'm not hungry
anyone that knew milo well knew he loved to eat! he would eat pretty much anything that even smelled like food. so one morning adrian let milo outside and forgot about him and fell asleep. an hour later when he woke up and called him back in and tried to feed him. milo wouldn't eat. that has never happened. so he went outside to find 1.5 garbage cans worth of garbage scattered all over the back yard, or at least what was left of it. milo had a bit of a sore stomach for a few days after that.

8 road trip
one christmas we took milo to manitoba with us. he traveled so well in the car. he liked to sit there and watch every car go by, his head wiping back and forth. it was so cute on the way home he was so excited to get home he wouldn't get out of the car when we stopped for gas, we had to force him out when we stopped for night.

7 that glorious cold white stuff
milo got to fully experience snow when we were in manitoba and he couldn't get enough! our dog loves to eat and we thought he was going to try and eat all the snow. my brother-in-law was outside shoveling snow and milo would try and catch all the snow he would throw.

6 the nudge
milo was a very friendly dog and liked to get peoples attention, especially if there was excitement around. so he did that with 'the nudge'. for those who might not understand yet, milo is a big dog and was a very unfortunate height. some considered wearing a cup when they came to our house (right jon and robin?)

5 oh no you don't
daniel, the boy who lived upstairs got pretty comfortable playing with milo and decided to try and push him over. milo ran away and came back up beside him and gave him a nice hip check, two can play that game.

4 loose the crutches
when we first got milo he seemed to get upset at anyone who carried anything resembling a stick. our friend jeremy upstairs had crutches when we got milo. we took milo outside and he started barking and growling at jeremy, and jeremy threw his crutches down pretty fast. the look on his face was priceless!

3 i wanna play with the little dog
adrian and his friend rick were at the park, rick holding his small dog and a coffee while milo and his large dog were running around a field. milo came running full speed behind him and took him out at the knees, coffee and dog went flying.

2 inducing labor
the day before landen was born i took milo for a walk, he decided to chase a child, i tried to hold him back and he dragged me across the street. i went home not feeling that well and in the middle of the night my water broke. i must admit i was happy to deliver 4 days early.

1 take me home
i went to the spca looking for a dog to bring home to surprise adrian with. though the dog i went to see was out for a walk when i got there. so i walked around to see the rest of the dogs, most who growled and barked at me or were jumping up and down peeing with excitement. then there was milo sitting nice and quite just looking up at me. i walked over and he came and let me pat his head. i got up to walk away and he looked up at me with those sweet brown eyes and gave out this tiny whimper. i was hooked!

if you have any fond memories of milo we'd love to hear them

we love you milo!

photo shoot

i was honored when some friends of ours asked me to take some family photos for them. i enjoy taking pictures and was excited for the challenge. i figured with them it would be a breeze since they are such a good looking family. it was a bit of a challenge as their son was not too interested in me or my camera. this has never been a problem with my son, as you can probably tell from all the photos of the piercing blue eyes and the wide open mouth. anyways, i hope you enjoy. this first picture is one of my favorites, what a cutie!