I've neglected this blog over the past months, but have decided to get back to blogging to document our move.  Following a work transfer, we put our house up for sale,and miraculously sold it in decent time.  

It was sad to say goodbye to the friends Dylan and I made, some really good friends that we miss already.

Our Kamloops family, who are our next door neighbours hosted a going away open house for us.   It was more of an intimate affair rather than an open house unfortunately, but the positive side is it was opportunity to spend a bit of extra time with Donna and Kerrie before we left.  Your friendship has been an important source that helped us settle in Kamloops.  You four will always be special to us.  

Dylan and I had a final playdate with our besties on our last full day in Kamloops.   We will miss you guys more then you know, and it's very sad for me to think of not seeing you guys weekly and not seeing your kids grow up.  

As we've learnt when we moved from Calgary to Kamloops, and now from Kamloops to Edmonton,  friends often disengage as soon as they know you are leaving.  It's tough, but I guess it is what it is.

So off we went early Saturday January 26th 2013.  We loaded up our vehicles with kid, cats, last minute stuff and were waved out by Kerrie and the kids before the sun rose, which was nice, but sad.

It all began with a lot of boxes...

 Moving truck came on Thursday to take most of our stuff.  

 Dylan did NOT want to leave, he wanted to watch every moment of the move

 Oh house, I will miss you.  After all, this is where we brought our baby home to, and had the first four years of his life.

 Note, my beautiful chandelier in the dining room came with me

Was replaced with that $10 restore one.  

hehe

 Sadly Dylan missed his last day of school, and his playdate with Jessie because we thought he

 broke his foot and had doctor's and xray appointments.

Foot is ok.

 

One of the handsome mover guys

 Goodbye kitchen.  I regret doing you green,

But I do love that floor I installed.

 Where is our stuff???

 Early Saturday morning....

 Goodbye Kamloops.  Sorry we got off to a rocky start in the beginning. 

 Sorry for calling you Krap-loops.  

We did love you in the end.

 Goodbye house.

Mat says you were gonna be a money pit in the next few years

But I still loved you.

 And the kitties ask... where are we going?

Back to Alberta Max.  

Bit flat here eh?

Hello long lost blog !  It's certainly been a while !  I sort of just went back to putting everything on facebook instead of here, but I figured with us moving, it's a good time to document that, and get this blog up and running again so our good friends can keep up with what's happening with us.  I'll get more into the move in future posts.

This is our fifth winter in Kamloops.  The year Dylan was born was crazy snowy.  This winter is shaping up to be worse !  The temperatures are decent- not too cold, but the amount of snow is huge !  Possibly more than the year Dyl was born.

Today, Dylan and I had a lovely play date with a good friend and her adorable little one.  After they went home, we were playing downstairs when we heard this loud noise outside.  I looked out, and there was tiny hail stones falling into our winter wonderland.  It was the oddest thing.  I yelled for Dyl to get his pants (don't ask) and we promptly went out and marveled in it.  

It was pretty amazing.  It lasted for about 15 minutes.  We went in, took a bucket of the hail inside to put in our freezer, and then the rain fell.  Rain falling fast into the winter wonderland.  Soooo odd !  

It was a fun experience, something i'd never seen with the hail coming down in WINTER.  Dylan enjoyed the novelty of it, and we didn't think twice about getting dressed as quickly as we could and going out to enjoy it.  It's times like this that I love the nature of being an at home mom.  We can follow our whim, and do what pleases us.  

Dylan is full of stories and creativity lately.  There are a few "gems" I've been wanting to share.

"When I'm big and a fire man, i'm going to take my fire truck and go get a dog from the pet store and i'm going to name my dog Cutty"

"When I'm big and a fire man, I will need somebody to drive my truck to Edmonton because I don't know the way"

In talking about being a fire man, he was also surprised to know he can't take the big fire engine home with him at night.  He said he'd have to buy a truck like daddy's.  But blue.

He is currently saying he's going to be a fire man in Calgary and live with Grandma.

Out of the blue one day, he said "When I am a fire man and a daddy I will name my son Magnet"

It took about a day for me to figure this one out, because he kept telling me that Grannie would be happy that his son was named Magnet.

Finally I said.... Margaret?  Yes, Magnet.  I'm going to name my son Magnet.

He's started calling all babies Magnet- he laughs and thinks it's funny.  We've been in various restaurants/stores and will hear a baby make noise.  He always says, that's Magent.  He sarcastically asks how Magnet gets so many places, since the Magnet thing started in Vancouver.

He suddenly refers to "Moaney"  the fire guys have to go save Moaney.  Not sure where he got this name.

He is developing a sarcastic sense of humour.  (oh oh)  Having snack before bed one night, our little friend pointed to a cookie and asked what it is.  Now our little friend should know, he's 3 1/2, but didn't know.  Dylan told him it was a pizza.

There are many incidents of this sarcastic wit as of late.  I have noooo idea where he gets that from.

haha.

Ohhhh little Dyl.  

We are blessed with such a sweet little sassy soul.

 This little boy 

 Rode this giant water slide

 and was so proud !

We spent a long weekend in Vancouver, and Dylan LOVED the aquarium.

Beyond loved actually.

night market on the coast

 The third night of our Vancouver trip we stayed in Richmond.

I saw a small sign about a night market. 

We kept Dylan up late and went.  It was an interesting mix of asian food, and strange things to buy.  It was neat though because of the diversity of people there, the sheer size, and the interest factor.

It's the second largest night market in North America.

Mat ate some gross stuff.

Dylan ate potatoes on a stick.

I turned my vegetarian nose up at all the odd delicacies.

What can I say, he's cute, he's wacky, he's silly, and these are some of the faces that we see often but that don't always get captured.

Dylan

3 1/2 yrs

We like to eat out, and were really excited when Cora's came to Kamloops.  We've been many times, and always leave upset about the children's meal.  The other weekend we decided to give Denny's a try- it'd been forever since we've been.

I think we have a new breakfast go-to spot !  

Thumbs down Cora

Thumbs up Denny's

Sleeping beauty

I've been a photography rut lately- since closing my business and being able to just photograph for me, I've sort of missed a step with my continued learning.  Or I've slacked and haven't found much inspiration.  Today, during a rare nap in my bed, I captured some images that I think are magically beautiful ones that in years to come I will look back at lovingly.