Too many things

I have not posted for several weeks and there are too many things to post about. So I am just going to give quick updates.

1. We took a two week trip to Oregon. We were in Eugene the whole time except for a couple of nights when we went to see my brother in Corvallis and spend a night at the coast. We met my sisters new baby, Maron‘s first cousin on my side of the family. Here are some pictures:

2. While we were in Oregon we attended my 20 year high school reunion. We saw friends that I haven’t seen for many years, and met the children of friends. Here are some more photos:

3. I am pregnant. 13 weeks along. Due date March 1. I had quite a bit of nausea for a while, but I am feeling better. We had an ultrasound on Friday and saw the baby moving. We are all pretty thrilled :-)

The Expedition

Maren has said things in the past couple of days that have made it hard for me to keep a straight face. For example:

“I prefer not to get dressed right now because I’m making trains.” (Said while making trains out of LEGOs)

After I explained that I was putting an ice pack on my face to cool down: “That’s not a thing. You just made that up.”

It’s not that the things she saying are particularly funny, just that they are so funny to hear, said with all seriousness, out of the mouth of a child who is not yet three years old.

She has also been singing a ton. She was singing in the bath today, and I tried to capture what I was hearing, but somehow she knew I was there and started singing more quietly and carefully after I started recording. So this video is really not that great compared to what we were hearing:

But I would like to draw your attention to the phrase “the expedition can pick you up, pick you up, pick you up!“

Camping, take 2

We returned today from a two night camping trip at Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive, which took us quite a bit longer with a lunch stop on the way there, and construction on the way back. It is lovely and quiet there. The campsites are quite close together, and the first night the campground was full, so it felt a bit crowded. But last night the campground was almost empty - we had no neighbors at least two sites in every direction, so it was incredibly quiet and private.  The first night and next morning it also rained hard for a long time, but then the weather was lovely for the afternoon and evening. However, last night and this morning it was unexpectedly cold, so much of our trip was fairly physically uncomfortable. 

Yesterday morning we went for a short hike with my trike. We didn’t get very far before the terrain was too sandy for my trike to go forward, but it was still nice to get out. 

Then in the afternoon we went to the beach. The lake has a beautiful sandy beach, and the water is incredibly shallow for a very long way. Perfect for little kids. Unfortunately bad for me -  wading is something that messes with my balance pretty terribly. The movement of the water on my legs (in this case only part of my legs) tends to knock me over, so I need to either be all the way in the water or all the way out. So I watched from shore. 

Last night Maren couldn’t get to sleep before dark, and woke up with the sun. The daylight hours are long in Saskatchewan this time of year, which meant that Maren slept about 5 hours less than normal. Needless to say she had a very difficult day, as did we. Also our air mattress got a hole in it yesterday, and we thought we fixed it but we didn’t, so we all slept terribly. All in all I am ambivalent about this trip - sort of good, but sort of awful. Definitely our last tent camping trip of the summer 😊

Camping

Earlier this week we went camping. We stayed at a provincial park less than an hour drive from here, in a permanent tent structure with cots to sleep on. The park, the campground, and the campsite were all nice.



We had our first foray into reading chapter books with Maren - Winnie the Pooh.



We even went on a short hike with my trike.

Unfortunately, some of our camp neighbors were loud and inconsiderate, keeping us up with their drunken loud ramblings until about 1:30am, when the sun woke Maren around 5am. We were all tired, and I think a little cranky.

After some consultation with friends with young kids, we are heading to a different campground next weekend, this one a little farther out of town and very family-oriented. We are hoping for better luck there!

Backyard fun

Yesterday we had some fun times in the backyard, with popsicles and the sprinkler.