Easter at Stanley Park

This year we started celebrating Easter with family home evening. First we had a lesson with a bunch of plastic eggs filled with things that represented certain things from the scriptures about the Atonement and the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was great, and I think I will do it again next year.

For the activity we dyed eggs. I still don't know what to do with them because I don't think any of us are big on deviled eggs.

I guess Summer is not quite sure what to think of the color. Her face just cracks me up. I am not sure what she is thinking.

I searched and searched for a community Easter egg hunt. Maybe I didn't search good enough, but all the ones I could find were on Sunday and you had to pay a bunch to go to one. Thanks to my brother-in-law Andrew we were able to go to Easter on the train at Stanley Park. He sent me a link and it sounded great to me. So we decided to check it out. Summer loved seeing the Easter Bunny. Apparently the Easter Chick was suppose to be there too, she could not find the chick anywhere and was disappointed. She even wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny to tell the Easter Chick that she missed him today.

As part of the hunt she got to ride on the train. We all enjoyed it and saw many interesting things.
We saw our first Canadian moose. OK so its just a statue, but it was a moose in Canada.

I obviously need to learn how to operate my camera. Here is a very blurry picture of Summer hunting for the three empty plastic eggs she was allowed. After she found them she traded them in for a bag of candy.

After we left that area of the park we decided to walk around a little bit. The tide was low, so Philip, his dad, and Summer went down to search for baby crabs. I stayed up because the stairs were really steep and I had already fallen down the stairs in our house today. So, I decided to play it safe.

Here is one of the baby crabs the found. I just know if my sister's kids were here that they would love to do this.
Summer showing me a crab. She really did not want to hold it even though it was dead. She was just fine putting it down.
There were piles of purple starfish all over the place. I don't think I have seen so many before. We also saw a raccoon, but I couldn't get a good picture because it hid behind a rock.

The pictures don't really do the justice, but it really is so beautiful here. I thought I would have a picture of myself.
Philip, Me, Summer, and Grandpa Harvey.
Summer really enjoyed spending time with her grandpa. She loves him so much. We walked a long way and I was impressed how far she went.
Summer enjoying the sun and the break while we waited for dad to go get the car. I was the wimpy prego lady that insisted to wait for a ride.
We really had a lot of fun there. I would love to go there for a picnic, and a bike ride. Oh, and so many people still roller blade here. I haven't done that in years. Perhaps I will try it after I have this baby.

There are so many things I have yet to see here. Now that it is getting a little warmer I look forward to going out and having new adventures.

More on Easter after Easter.

High Heels

Back in Houston Summer had a few friends that had dress shoes with a small heel on them. Ever since she has always wanted some too. Finally I gave in after her Grandma Harvey bought her this cute Easter dress that she needed shoes to match. Of course we stumbled upon a pair of white shoes with heels on them.

Here she is so excited to finally be wearing her very own pair of high heels.

She is so proud of them and could not wait to show her dad. She is such a girly girl and I think Philip likes that. The first thing she wanted to do after she put them on was hear them click on the floor. She makes me smile.

She insisted that I take a picture of her doing a curtsy.

Finally here is a photo of me at 30 weeks. Kristen this is for you. OK, and anyone else who cares to see a huge prego lady. I had to use Summer as my Photographer and I think she did a pretty good job.

It is fun to see my little girl transitioning into a girl rather than a toddle girl. I do admit that I wish I could have her small again, but I can look at pictures right. Anyhow, I hope all you women enjoy your own high heels as much as my little one enjoys hers.

Two weeks in Canada

We have been here in Canada for about two weeks now. Things are definitely different, but we are doing good and trying to adjust.

Here are a few highlights from the last two weeks.

Summer waiting in the line up to go into school. She is very shy and doesn't like standing in the line up without me nearby. She is adjusting well and likes her teacher. It is not nearly as intense as her last school. In fact it may be a little too laid back. She even compared it to the Owl's Nest preschool that she went to. She likes it and as long as we continue practicing reading, writing, and math with her at home I won't worry. The biggest challenge is picking her up from school because it is very busy and there is no system for picking up. There are very few parking spots which makes for a chaotic dismissal.

Today she told me that the best part of school was making Easter baskets that they are suppose to leave at school so the Easter bunny will put stuff in it for them.

Here are a few pictures of our townhouse. I only took a couple because we still have a lot of stuff in boxes. The thing I like best about it is the light that comes in. It is very different having the morning light wake us up.

This is the view from our chapel. Isn't it nice. We are so fortunate to live only 8 minutes from the temple. Now we need to take advantage of it and go frequently. It will also be nice for Summer to see it every week.
Summer holding her new cousin. She is practicing for when she gets to hold her own baby brother. Isn't he so cute. Now he needs a name.
On the way to the hospital I spotted this ghostbusters car. I had to take a picture. It would be so awesome if the owner would let me borrow it for the trunk or treat at Halloween and then I would dress my family up as the ghostbusters. Anyhow I thought it was neat.
Summer found a new thing she can do to help me cook. She can grate cheese. She really did a great job and found it to be very enjoyable.

Yesterday I let her go outside because it had finally stopped raining here. She made some sort of lounge area and brought her dolls. She really enjoyed playing outside and I enjoyed letting her go out and seeing her from the window.

She also had the idea to have her lunch outside on the patio so that she could enjoy the sun. So here she is with her doll enjoying a picnic.
We are starting to feel somewhat settled. It will be nice once we have everything set up. I especially can't wait to get my permanent residency papers turned in because then I can actually go into the US without fearing being refused entrance back into Canada.

It is nice being close to family and seeing them often. Summer has enjoyed being picked up from school by her grandpa once and also going on a special date with grandma to dinner and shopping. We really enjoy having them so close now. It is even nice that we are closer to my family so that it is much more possible for them to visit us as well.

Anyhow, more updates to come as we venture here in Canada.

Moving and What Not

Well, I have a lot of updating to do. So I will start from the beginning. Just before we headed out of Houston our wonderful neighbors had us over for dinner. We will seriously miss them so much. We have been fortunate to have really awesome neighbors all the way around us. Bertha and her mother Nancy live next door to our place in Houston. They are always so kind to us and especially to Summer. Bertha is like a grandma to her. It was just nice to be with great people before we left and it only made it harder to leave. Oh, and yes we were all wearing summer clothes.

On Philip's last day of work at Merrill Lynch he was able to get this photo of all his colleagues. I know he misses them greatly. Our family is very fortunate to have had them all in our lives and provide so much growth and learning to Philip. They really are the best team.
On Summer's last day of school each of her classmates made a goodbye card for her. It was so cute. Most of them were of Summer and the classmate with tears in there eyes. The pictures and notes were very fun to read.

She is going to miss her teacher so much. She was such a great teacher. Really I will miss the school as well. This is Summer and her teacher.
I had to get a picture in front of the school entrance so we went back after all the kids had been let out so we could take one last picture.
Now on to the actual move. We ended up with a 26' truck and we are glad we got it because anything smaller would not have worked. It is amazing how much we accumulated over 4 years.

Summer had a lot of fun with her good friends while the men packed everything up. Here they are teaching E. how to ride a bike.
Thanks to all our friends who came to help us out. They worked hard and got it all packed within an hour. Way to go. We really could not have been so lucky to have all the help.
On to the actual move. We headed out late afternoon on Saturday the 26th. We drove what we thought was a great route until Philip realized he packed the directions. So we just looked at a map and decided on our own. I think we ended up taking the scenic route. Summer was so exhausted and this is how she ended up sleeping most nights until we made it to a hotel. It looks very uncomfortable.
I am not sure where we stayed the first night, but it was somewhere in Texas since the state is so huge. Our second night we stayed somewhere in New Mexico and the next morning as we started driving Summer finally saw what she was hoping to see. SNOW! She took many pictures of the snow and even asked if she could play in it.

Summer taking more pictures.
Summer and aunt Laurel. Having fun while we were stuck on the Mountain.
Yes, we got to the top of the mountain and had to come to a complete stop. At first we were nervous because there is no way Philip would have been able to turn that huge truck around. Apparently there was an orange snow plow that was in front of us that had gotten stuck in the snow drift. They asked us for a shovel thinking with all the stuff we had in the Uhaul we had to have one. Little did they know we don't use snow shovels in Houston.

Finally the snow plow got out and was able to clear the huge drift that was blocking the entire road. We were so lucky there was a snow plow up there or who knows how long we would have been at the top of that mountain.
Finally we were on the road again and we drove and drove. Reminds me a little bit of Dumb and Dumber.
When we saw the Utah sign we were all so happy and excited because that means we were almost half way finished with the drive. And the roads would become more familiar.

This is in Moab. Really the scenery in Southern Utah is quite interesting.

I guess this is where we were just wishing we were there already and we stopped taking pictures. Anyhow, we finally made it on Wednesday March 30th. The border didn't take as long as we thought, however, it was more expensive than we thought it would be. We were just happy to finally be done driving.

Well that is the short version of the trip details. We will really miss Texas, as well as America. Fortunately we are about 25-30 minutes from the border. We will be visiting often.