Catch up!!

What up??!!

 Well, another school year has come and gone and in 2 short months I will have 3/4 in school!!! *insert big sad face here* I thought I worried about Abby starting kindergarten....I'm more terrified for Kylie because she is still a bit difficult to understand. We're working hard on her speech and it is definately improving, but likely won't be perfect by September. Oh well....I'm sure she won't be the first or the last to have speech issues. If she was...I wouldn't have a job to go back to! :)

Here are the girls on their last days of Gr.2 and Kindergarten.

The next series of pictures are completely backwards, but I am too tired to switch them all, so go to the end of the blog now and read bottem to top! Ha! Sorry...but it seems like less effort for me that way.

Thank you so much Nate and Rachel and precious cousins Addison and Kendra for the special time at your house.

 On the last day there the kids and I headed for Toledo for another new experience. I found the zoo without getting lost so that was a bonus. We decided to go to this zoo. Rachel was worried we would be dissapointed in its size. We loved it!! Yeah the Edmonton zoo is pretty pathetic. Can do it in about 30 minutes. This zoo took us 4 hours and we still didn't see everything. It was like the country bumpkins come to the city for the first time. Haha. We were so tired and hot that we.....had another new experience....went out to eat at a sit down restaurant by ourselves. Then we got a hotel room across the street and settled in to bed. The next day we dropped off our vehicle, and had a pretty uneventful trip home. The girls were ready to see daddy but it was sad leaving :( The next day we packed up and headed to convention....all by ourselves. Poor Steve. We are looking forward to convention with him in a few weeks.

Nate made all the kids snowcones. They were really good!!

 Apple collectors

The kids got to ride a camel! Exciting! Kendra doesn't look too sure and Chelsea is thinking "This is an odd experience when mom forgets to put panties on you!!"

Rachel this picture is just for you. Hahahahahaha.

 Of course we had to have ice cream. It was hot!!

 In a cyclone.

One day Rach took us to this neat African safari type thing. You drive through it and feed the animals out the window. Kids really enjoyed it! I did too!

 What a long tongue you have Mr. Giraff

 Please don't eat me!!!

The girls put on a show for us....poor Nate....he put up with a lot with 8 females in his house!!!

 Kendra. I know....don't they look similar??

 Chelsea...

This was after Wednesday night meeting so a little out of order but oh well. Uncle Nate bought an ice cream cake for Rachel and Kylie since their birthdays are 1 day apart. It was an awesome cake.

It was so hot (by Canadian standards) that the kids wanted to swim every day. This was a great little pool and now every time they see it in the store here they ask for it. Hmmm.....

This is at Lodi Station, an outlet mall nearby. It was a VERY hot day, as were all the days, and I thought the kids did really good. It's not always fun shopping when you're a kid. They got to ride this little train that goes around the shops too and loved that.

Kendra is convinced they are all cousins. So cute!

Check out my ride!!

Hayley had been telling me that her head was itchy and I felt it the night before and thought maybe she had a bit of matted hair or something. Left it alone. In the morning she commented again so I looked....here it was a nasty looking tick!!! Ugh!! Thank goodness for nurse Rachel and her mom...they got it out for me. YUCK! I don't have any pictures of Rebecca's baby Bridgette but she is a little doll. So tiny and sweet. Was glad to see them briefly too.

The wait is getting a wee bit long.... So here is where I tell you how the rest of the travels went. They had a medical emergency on the flight we were to board leaving Edmonton (really person....you screwed up my whole trip....wait until you are off the plane, THEN have your heart attack!) so....we had to run to our connection in Chicago. Made it....had to skip supper. We got to Chicago about 9:00 at night. So I stand at the luggage carousel and watch it go around and around and around....people start to leave.....soon we are all alone. My luggage apparently doesn't run as fast as the kids and I do. Sigh....dealt with that. Then we catch a shuttle to the car rental place. Stood in line FOREVER!! Got a nice upgrade though so that was cool. That way if Rachel and I went anywhere together during the day we only had to take 1 vehicle. Plus it had a mounted GPS that I was much appreciative for. WE pulled out and ran through a McDonalds....but oops. I turned the wrong way onto the interstate. Why is this a problem?? Because now one must go through the dirty nasty drug infested city of Detroit at 11:30 at night!!! PLus I slammed on the brakes and stawberry fruitopia went everywhere on the cream colored carpet!! And Chelsea had to pee. Made her pee her pants. I was NOT stopping. So I'm stopped at this red light....the guy beside me doesn't feel like stopping so he just runs the light. On the other side of the road someone must have felt the same? Someone's been hit and they are still lying on the road surrounded by people. Maybe he's been shot. I dunno....just get me out of this city!!!! WE finally arrive at 1:30 in the morning. Nate woke Rachel up....she has pictures of that on her camera but I think we managed to pull off the surprise pretty successfully.

 So here we are in the Edmonton airport awaiting our first flight.

Well thank you for joining us as we bring you on a journey to a land far far away. I have to begin by telling you that as soon as this trip was booked, my first thought was "WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" You see....I was taking 4 kids all by myself to the great city of Findlay Ohio! I was thrilled to finally be getting to see Nate and Rach and their 2 little princesses after 10 years of seperation but to fly to Detroit, pick up a rental, and drive us there all by myself....for the independent this might seem easy, but for the DEPENDENT!!!!!! Oh my!!!!