Playground build

For the past year and a half our little school has been fundraising for a new playground.

The day has finally come! 

The kids and parents were so excited!

We had a huge turnout of staff, community members and groups and parents come out to build our new playground. 

It was alot of fun! 

Truck delivering our playground to the front doors of the school

Unloading piece by piece

First part going up 

Hard to imagine this is organized with everyone there, but it was great 

Using my head 

Little kid portion - it was fun because it was built to look crooked. Some of the guys were trying to straighten before the supervisor guy finally came over and said it was built this way!

 

Roping off for the night 

Some of the crew 

The next day - I came after work so I missed out on the morning building but this is how it looked when I arrived - amazing !

Almost done 

Digging holes for cement 

Leveling - okay everyone LIFT!

Done waiting for the cement and gravel 

It looks amazing! So much better than the old wooden structure that we had before. There are still a few things to put in - tire swing and put the original swings back.

The kids are so excited! They love it! 

Its nice to have a new playground in the community for the summer and many years to come for young and old.

Barkerville

On May Long weekend we decided to go up to Barkerville for a Day trip.

The kids and I were up 2 years ago but Ed has been since Dylan and and Russ were toddlers.

It was a beautiful day for a drive. 

Highway into Barkerville - notice the snow 

Jack of Clubs Lake still frozen 

Holy snow drifts 

Snow between the buildings

I love walking down the plank sidewalks

My Boys 

Cornish Water Wheel 

One of the two guys teachng us about the Cornish waterwheel - he was hilarious the boys were laughing so hard 

Stagecoach 

The other guy - they put on a great skit 

Rivers down the main street 

My baby and I - what a face 

I think Russ and Dyl need this car! 

Happy Birthday

As many of you know - I just had my 40th birthday - holy crap how did that happen!?!!!

My wonderful Friend Beverly and sneaking husband threw me a surprise birthday party at the end of May, it was so great! Apparently this was a very hard task too, because I do things on a whim - such as go camping at the beginning of May, when she had planned my original surprise birthday party. Poor Bev had to phone guests to cancel their hotel reservations and replan for end of May. 

Well, she and Ed did a wonderful job!

My Dad, Grandma, friend Owen, and cousin Don came up from the coast to celebrate with me. Owen stayed with us for almost a week fixing up our power system and setting up our solar panels. What I didn't realize at the time was that he was also up for my birthday installing three more panels - a birthday present from him, Rick and Jo and Marg and Ted. He was quietly laughing at me for not noticing there was three more panels and never did tell me until we arrived at Bevs Saturday evening for my birthday! 

I absolutely LOVE my new solar panels!

 We have so much electricity now, I don't have to worry about the power going out (like when I had a shower a couple months ago in the dark because the power was out) or when I do laundry, vacuum floors and the biggest bonus of all - now I can look for a fridge! Yes we have lived out of a cooler (ice box) for 5 years!

I can't thank everyone enough for making this year a wonderful one! 

Unfortunatly I have NO pictures at my party I will ask Bev to see if she can send them to me and you too can see my surprized look!

Owen and I 

Ready for placing 

While Owen was up we put in a new strawberry patch

So beautiful!

Here is the New Playground at Forest Grove School! 

After 2 yrs of fundraising and lots of Community help the kids finally have a new playground - so exciting ! 

I will post some building pictures too - It was alot of fun building it! 

This picture was taken by my wonderful photography friend Corrie!

More Churn Creek Adventures

 VanOschs were out at Churn Creek this year with Dylan, again, so of course we can't let Dylan have all the fun so we joined them for 2 days.

We left 100 Mile House on Saturday afternoon in the snow and arrived to Churn Creek, with temperatures of +8 and cloudy - WAY better than snow!

This year Ed came with us to see what all the fuss was about. On the drive out couple of spots that were a bit questionable for the car but as usual it carried on through, with no problems.

We arrived around dinner time got the beds set up and visited for the rest of the evening

The next day after a huge breakfast, Dylan and Mike took all of us up a hill to see the view. The climb didn't look so bad from the campsite, but the first three hundred feet up I thought I might die! By the time we were at the top we had climbed 1000 feet - the view was worth it in the end  

Climbing the first three hundred feet almost straight up!

Tayler wanted to go so bad, but when we got half way up she announced she was going back and not coming with us. Her and I sat here for about ten minutes before I could finally convince her to keep going. She was so scared, she figured on the way down she was going to fall and die - poor kid. She did make it to the top - yay!

View of our campsite from half way up

Dylan was across a little valley on another point

Tayler keeping hold of Daddy

Deer footprints

View from the top 

The climb down - all fours is better!

Walter and the Rescue truck so we didn't have to walk all the way back 

That afternoon we drove out to Empire Valley and had a picnic snack by a little creek. It was so pretty the road winds along through the hills way above the Fraser River. We saw a bear running through some trees and alot of deer.

Calving barn on the drive out to Empire Valley. This is another spot you can camp. On Monday afternoon before we left for home a couple trucks hauling horse trailers were headed towards this barn. We figured they were going for a ride in the back country - HOW FUN WOULD THAT BE!!! 

Monday morning we took Ed out to the Gang Ranch to have a look around. The store was open this time so everyone got a souvenir (I have a Gang Ranch Travel Mug ;-) )

This mom and babe were in the field beside the store 

It was a really fun weekend! 

Russ was with us, but obviously was successful in dodging any photos!

Hay fields to come

Ed and the boys have been working hard clearing trees to start the hay fields. We have had the use of an excavator for the last few months so Ed pops the trees out and the boys pull them to a massive pile.

And of course the boys are having a wonderful time on the machines!

Road trip in the big truck!

Easter long weekend I drove down in one of Big Country Storages freight trucks to pick up some stuff from Dad!

Russ and Tay and I had fun pretending to be truck drivers! 

We had a good, but quick, visit Dad, Matt and the girls and GG, then headed home again. We got spoiled with chocolate snacks all the way home! 

On the ferry!