A Day (and a heartstopping moment) at the Beach

Last week Tuesday I took the kids to the beach. Ninety-five percent of the day was a total blast. The other 5% was pure horror for a mom! Before I go on, let me say that Ellie is fine. She didn't drown or even come close, but here's the story:

So there were lots of us at the beach. My mom, the four young cousins of mine that she had camping with her, my brother-in-law Nathan and my niece Regan, Regan's 2 cousins, plus our friends Andrew and Ruth and their three kids. Needless to say, it was busy. Lunch time rolled around and I decided to feed Josh his lunch first while Ellie played by the side of the water with the other kids. I asked my mom to keep an eye on her which was no problem...she didn't appear to be going anywhere. About five minutes into Joshua's lunch I hear my mom call up to me (where I'm sitting in the shade) "Do you know where Ellie is?" Of course, I'm not worried at first. There are so many kids around that she's probably just blended into the crowd somehow. Well, we start scanning the beach, and can't see her anywhere. So I call to Nathan and Andrew and ask them to look, too. My cousins are also looking. Ellie is nowhere. By this time my heart is beginning to pound and three things keep circulating through my brain: "Did someone take her? Is she under the water? Is this the worst day of my life?" After what was probably only a minute of looking (which felt like an eternity) I suddenly see this little brown-haired head floating face-down in the water. I completely lost it. "MOM!" I said, instantly crying. "She's floating! She's floating!" (I guess you don't really think about whether what you're saying actually makes sense when you think your child is dead.) My mom took three big steps towards the water before realizing that it wasn't Ellie (it was some little kid floating that way for fun). "That's not her!" she said, and I instantly felt foolish, but totally relieved. But now I'm thinking she's kidnapped. I can't even explain how nauseous I felt, though I'm sure some of you who've gone through this would understand completely. Suddenly one of my cousins calls from the other side of the beach, "She's on the playground!!" I make a beeline for the playground, and there she is, happy as a lark in her too-big pink shades and white sun hat, having a great old time...all by herself. Maybe I should have, but at the time I didn't make much of an effort to explain to her what she'd done wrong. There were too many people around who were 'sort of' taking care of her for her to feel obligated to tell any of them where she was going. Plus I was so INSANELY relieved and grateful that she was alive that all I could do was hug her and try to stop my limbs from shaking. And watch her like a hawk for the rest of the day. :)
I didn't post about this last week, because even now (over a week later) I get all worked up just thinking about it. Incidents like this one sure make you do a reality check...and put little things in perspective. All I can say is thank you Lord for our two healthy, wonderful, crazy little kids.

Wiener roast

Saturday evening we had a 'house group' wiener roast at my mom and dad's house (they were our house group leaders this past year. They lead the finance course which is very enlightening!) Unfortunately, most of our house group couldn't make it. It was a beautiful evening, however, and we had a blast with our friends Arnold and Alvira, and of course, with mom and dad.

(My dad is trying very hard to foil my attempts at keeping my kids pop-free until well past the age of 5.)

Grunthal parade

On Saturday morning we packed up early and headed off to the hick-town of all hick-town parades. I mean, what else would you really want to do on a Saturday morning? We spent a considerable amount of time waiting for it to begin. And this is what we saw:

-20 horse-drawn buggies
-20 old fashioned tractors
-20 semi trucks, honking their horns
-1 fire truck blaring it's sirens

I probably don't need to mention which of my children liked the horses, and which one liked the rest.

Waiting for the parade to start.

Still waiting...apparently I didn't take any pictures of the actual parade.

After we went to the Co-op for lunch where my Dad was BBQ-ing hotdogs like he does every year. He tried convincing Ellie to go in one of the Co-op trucks, but she refused, insisting it was "too honky".

Lunch in the shade of someone's van with some of Rob's friends from work. A wonderful summer morning!

Thank heaven for grass!

Every two weeks, when Rob's back on evening shifts, I get pretty bored. Most folks are having supper with their families, so play dates are out of the question. I prefer to visit our mall once a week (maximum), since it doesn't have any good stores I don't have anything to shop for anyways. Walks are good...unless it's too hot.

But one thing that never ever seems to fail to entertain us is (drum roll please!)...sitting in the grass. I don't know why, but it seems to be therapeutic for the kids. There are no tears, sitting in the 5 foot wide strip of grass alongside our apartment. So that is what we do. Here are the kids on one particular grass-sitting evening:

Development

All you parents out there know that one of the most fun parts of having kids is watching them grow up before your eyes. Here's a few new things that have happened in the Balfour household during this last week:Suddenly Ellie's "scareprows" (scarecrows) look like real happy faces! She's a bit fixated on scarecrows, and I really have no idea why.

Ellie learned to make her own toast! (with adult supervision). Next time I'll have to mention that, as a general rule, we don't put our hands in our pants while we cook. :)

Joshua got his fourth tooth - top left, and we have peace in our home again. :) But top right is showing signs of coming, so who knows what tomorrow will be like!?!

And now instead of Joshua only saying, "Bah bah bah" in his masculine voice, he also makes this strange pigeon-like sound at the back of his throat. All. The. Time. And it must require a fair amount of effort, because it makes his voice all hoarse. I have a feeling it could be a looong time before this boy talks. :)

One Incredible Day

(Warning: whenever I enjoy something, I respond by over-posting about it. This will be a long one!)

So a while back in our Vancouver days, some good friends of ours (hi Cheryl!) gave us the inspiring idea of taking turns planning our anniversary from year to year. It's genius, really. I don't spend the month before our anniversary dreaming up all the romantic things Rob might do for me, only to have him come up with no plans, or worse yet, forget the day entirely. No, with each passing year I think we get more and more excited about how we're going to surprise each other. One year Rob took me in a rental car to the Vancouver Zoo. Another year to a hotel. (These are both big deals for us tight-budget sort of people).

This year was my year to plan, and I decided on...

...a 3 hour hike and a bonfire! I asked Rob for a good chunk of money, partly to throw him off, partly to cover gas, and partly so I could load up on whatever food I wanted to make the day special. We started off the day around 11am by dropping off the kids at my parents' house...the world's best babysitters! Then we stopped off at Fairway Ford (which REALLY confused Rob) to pick up a great worship CD from a friend - for ambiance on the 1.5 hour drive. Then we stopped at Subway for a take-along lunch. Rob still had no idea where we were going, though he had some good guesses! When we arrived at our destination, he was even more excited than I expected (I really love this guy). We're not really outdoorsy-type people...but there must be a little bit of wanna-bes lurking within, because we couldn't have been more pumped to be out in the woods! A total adventure for us small-town, full-time parenting folks.

We used to hike this trail when I was a kid, but I was way too young then to appreciate how beautiful it is! We couldn't believe the huge variety of landscapes we saw in a 3 hour time frame.

The hike started off with the falls, which were kind of piddly, seeing as it's almost the end of summer.

We climbed up for a while and then came to this marshy pond with several beaver dams.

We were truly sweating by the time we climbed up to this elevation (we're only used to climbing stairs and lifting kids) but felt pretty great...

...especially considering the view! (Note the lake in the distance)

I got to see a lot of sides of Rob that I don't normally get to see. The tour-guide side, for instance. :)

As well as the rock-throwing side. He enjoyed picking up large rocks and smashing them on even larger rocks. I played the part of thoroughly impressed female. (This is the lake that we saw 2 pictures back.)

This was one of the strangest ponds I've ever seen!

It was actually a bit creepy. It seemed like the kind of pond where a dead body would suddenly come floating to the surface. Don't ask me why. All we saw were some really great frogs.
We took a snack break at the halfway mark. And watched the lake and a bumblebee. And enjoyed the total silence .

The last half of the hike was WAY easier than the first...down rocks like this the entire time.

The next part of our day was a bit of a challenge...it took us at least an hour to find a place to have our fire! The picnic area I was planning to go to...wasn't there anymore! After a little prayer and asking for help, we landed this sweet spot in between an old church and a playground. No one else was there. It was perfect.

Rob got to show off his man-skills yet again by making a blazing fire to cook our dinner on.

Honking big steaks!! DELICIOUS!

We were so full and bloated after that we decided to walk through the field close by. Rob couldn't resist a little leap across these tires, and was having a great old time when suddenly the heavens opened up and shone down upon him!!

The perfect end to an absolutely wonderful day.