What a unique place...

Handsome Adam standing on the Santa Monica Pier. This was our first night in town.

And this was our last day in town:

We venture down to Venice beach to check out the famous "muscle beach" i was shocked at how absolutely strange this area is! We saw a man, about 50 years old, hop onto his skateboard, whistle at his dog - who go onto the front of the skateboard, and off they went. BUT the strange part was they had matching mohawks, both died blue. Poor dog.

Then we saw this man skate by! Nobody else seemed to be gawking at this clown... and the strange part was he would stop and out of a bag he'd pull out shirts to sell

OHHH NO! this is more like MOLSON MUSCLE BEACH!

Us down by the ocean. It was chilly.

Today's fun.

The pirate ship floats again.

Southern California Sun

I've been out of Canada for mother's day twice this year.
Yes it did come twice for me... see blog Mum's the word - twice! !!!!
Adam had a few meetings here in Santa Monica and I got to tag along.

So yesterday I called Chaplin and he said
"Good Morning mommy Happy Mothers Day" in his little chirpy voice and my heart melted.
I tried to keep him on the phone as long as I could, but a four year old with a full day ahead of him had other things on his mind. He is staying at Watham's house, and '"m sure he's being fully entertained by Susanna (she's home from University for the summer), Christie and Robert (I think he was home for the weekend). Adam took me to see IronMan 2 and dinner at Sushi Roku.
Good movie, and best sushi I've ever had. YES better than sushigo!!!!

Oh and we've spotted one celebrity, Natascha McElohne at the farmers market on Main Street. Main Street is like 4th Ave in Kits.


Boardwalk. Just down from our hotel, and on the peir we found Bubba Gumps. It took me a bit to decide what Santa Monica feels like then this morning I decided it is Big City Beach Town (the air smells like Maui from our hotel patio).

Have you ever heard of June Gloom or May Gray from the marine layer? yeah me neither!
Anyways, it has something to do with the sun not really coming out until later in the morning! I don't understand, but anyways the sun did come out at about 10:00 am and it's beautiful!

Two Firsts

FIRST first:

HEY... what's going on here?

First hair cut... or maybe it's more like First Trim.

Chaplin flat out refused to have his hair cut - until today.

He went with Adam today to watch his daddy have his hair trimmed and when Adam was done Chaplin felt it was okay to let a few of his own long locks get snipped. He did not want it short, but the bangs are now off his eyes.

http://kristydavies.com/

(this is our hair dresser, and she even put a picture of me on her website)

SECOND FIRST -

After his hair-cut the boys went to the optometrist. Adam has 20/15 vision - so he's got super hero eyeballs. Big deal. And Chaplin has his dad's eyes with perfect vision. Dr. Renke told Adam that Chaplin was the best patient he had ever had in the office.

Learn to Ride

This morning we went for a bike ride with the Nordby family. Adam was pulling Chaplin in the Chariot behind his bike when he decided today was the day that Chaplin gets his first bike. So after our ride and some lunch we went shopping.

Lori: What do you think of your new bike?

Chaplin: it's great, I like riding on the sea wall and it's DARK BLUE.

This is a birthday gift from Nana & Papa Viens. Thank you, it's a perfect fit.

First crash. He took this corner too fast and actually tipped right over into the weeds.

He didn't let his crash stop him, he got right back on his bike and continued to pedal hard.

Stop in the park for a rest.

A fellow stopped and asked us "What breed is he?"

I said "pardon me?" ... he's human of course!... OH you mean the DOG not the KID!

Too funny and Fever is a she not a he, can't you tell.

1537 miles in the jeep

YES that is a bit of hockey history that Adam and Chaplin are touching! The Stanley Cup made a tour up to FSJ to be on display for one day during the Allan Cup.

And as announced in many newspapers (Vancouver sun, globe & mail)

Fort St. John Flyers went through the tournament undefeated to win the 102 Allan Cup.

We washed Fever up before our long road trip home, and I thought this was the funniest sign I've seen in ages:

I read it as "touchless Dog Wash"! I envisioned putting Fever on some sort of conveyor belt that took her through a series of wash stages, you know - something similar to a drive-in car wash. too bad, all the Dog Wash bay had was a large sink with overhead hose and she was washed the old fashion & boring way - by Adam with his hands and a bottle of soap.

I LOVE Chinese food in Fort St John! I don't know why, but it's the best I've had - ever.

Plates out and getting ready to eat. Neacail is graduating next month!

Sweet Auntie Cailin and Chaplin.

This photo of Sheri is in this spot for no reason other than she needs to be in the blog.

Okay back to our last day - our car is packed up to head back to Vancouver.

Chaplin's very first song he ever sang to us was,

"It's hard to say hi, it's easy to say goodbye" - so we'll take his advise and drive away with a smile being happy to have seen our family again.

Look at those mosquito bites! i find nothing nice about these bugs.

Judy gave Adam a Tim Horton gift card for helping her setup her computer email... thank you Judy we filled up our tummy's at Timmy's a few times.


We arrived home Friday, and Saturday night we went to the International Wine Festival with Mark and Sue stock! This is about our 5th time going, and it's truly a great night out. Sorry that the picture is out of focus.. but after tasting wine for three hours it's lucky i could even get the camera out of my purse! kidding.

Road Trip

Road Trip up to Fort St John, BC Canada




deer. hundreds of deer.

one bear.

one happy kid!

Fort St John, BC Canada

Road to Cecil Lake, what a beautiful valley.

Crayon Box Design & Promotions Ltd. - my office!

One side of the showroom.

Embroidery machine at work



Dwan and mom and some people from work decide to go out for dinner after work.


And Adam learns to 2-step!


Chaplin playing with Jaydon and Donovan

Tavis is such a big boy now, but in my mind he's still the little boy who came to visit me in Vancouver.


My dad's brothers are up for the Allan Cup (hockey) being held in Fort St. John.
Adam is going to a game tonight with the guys and myself and my sales girls will be there handing out Crayon Box sponsored hats to all the Alumnis as they walk onto the ice. We get to stand on the red carpet! oohhh big time hey!

Home Sweet Home

Chaplin, Resse, Adam, Fran and myself went for a walk on our last day in Pirton. Rod was not being lazy, he had run 23 miles earlier in the day and decided to skip the walk and stayed home... to prepair our turkey dinner while we walked over to Pirton Pool and Pirton Castle. Thank you!

Pirton Pool, a man made pond use to be owned by the Croome family and is now part of the Croome Park Estate. It was a medieval fishing pond... and in 2010 there paddling around this pond were Canada Geese.


View of Pirton Court (Fran & Rod's house) from the top of the hill next to Pirton Pond. They own the manor house of Pirton, unfortunately I don't know how old it is. The house is nestled between the Croome Estate grounds and Pirton Pool both owned by the National Trust.


As always, a good walk requires a good sturdy walking stick.


I got such a giggle out of the field full of frisky lambs. They would hop a little ways over towards us and then mom sheep would call them back. BUT i think if i had apples or some lamb treat with me I could have had a few of them come up close.


Pirton Castle! hey wait a second, this isn't a castle but a folly!
and what a weird position i am sitting in.



Plane ride home to Canada

We arrived home to Vancouver safely, and true to form Chaplin had airplane insomnia. He was up from London time 7:00am, until Vancouver time 7:00pm - that adds up to 19 hours doesn't it. The day we arrived home my super duper best friend Anita stopped by with two bags of groceries for us, Grandpa Boyd and Nana & Papa all called to check on us, and we also snuck in a short visit with Waltham's.

So how does it feel to be home?

Adam: relaxed

Chaplin: happy

Lori: been gone so long it felt strange crawling into my own bed.

I'm looking out my living room windows at Vancouver and it looks like a paint pallet, bright spring green leaves, pink cherry blossoms, clean clear blue sky, white tipped mountains, silver building of downtown. I did not forget what a view we have, my eyes are glad to see it again.

Today Adam and I decided to give Chaplin an allowance. We were talking to him about how he will earn his allowance by doing chores - such as cleaning the windows, and he can earn extra money by choosing to help with adult chores. Chaplin asked what type of adult chores? We said stuff like recycling or helping wash the car could earn him an extra dollar if he choose to help instead of play. Chaplin had been sitting on the floor paying close attention to our conversation, at this point he got up and broke out into a musical that went something like this:
(he was dancing and using finger pointing as he sang this made-up tune)

"with your money you can goooo to the car wash. The car wash, the car wash, at the car wash with water you can spend your money, if your lucky. Attttt theeeeee CAAAAAAAR WASH."

Second Song:

Earlier in the day Chaplin was playing with a soft bouncy ball, he wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing and without thinking he threw it at Adam... Adam was eating and not prepared for a ball to be launched at his head! Well Adam took the ball away from chaplin and put it up on top of the fridge. Chaplin was upset and cried a few tears over it, he really wanted his ball back but Adam was firm. THEN about five hours later Adam was at the kitchen table working on income tax and in comes Chaplin with his little guitar in hand and starts singing

"I want my ball. I can see my ball. It's on the fridge. Oh how to get my ball. I'm sorry daddy. I want my ball, i'll be good." this was all sung to Adam like a lament! Of course daddy got up and got the ball for him! So would i have.

New helmet for Chaplin because his whopping 50 cm head circumfrance is now too big for his dorky yellow bike helmet.