My generous Mom used all her long-collected Airmiles to get us a digital SLR camera!! So, I took it out of the box, turned it on and started shooting - I think the pictures below are pretty decent, considering I have no idea what I'm doing (and we still haven't bought a flash for it).
We rode our bikes to 2nd Beach after church yesterday (well, after all 4 of us miraculously had a nap!). It was sunny and very busy, but a great opportunity to try out the camera.
(This shot below is so typical of how you might see Max fighting for a spot around his big brother!)
Yesterday, Jeff and I also started our "Reset" diet, as I'm calling it, since it is kind of a detox but more like 28 days of super healthy eating, to re-adjust our bodies away from all the crap we've been getting used to lately. Unfortunately, it starts with 2 days of only green smoothies (filled with lots of cabbage, spinach, kale and all other greens), so it is currently quite a kick-in-the-pants, that's for sure! Wish us luck!
We've been going to all of Callum's various classes - gymnastics and swimming, and he started his Soccer Camp (!!) - all the while Max tags along and wants to participate too. Max finally popped his front right tooth a few weeks ago and his left one just peeped out a little. Climbing, crawling at light speed and making monstrous messes are his major talents, though he has been steadily increasing the number of steps he is taking all by himself! I thought maybe he would be walking by his birthday, and if you count 10 steps as walking, then he made it, but he still ends up on his hands and knees most of the time.
Here he is throwing whatever he can into the sink (and notice we now keep the toilet paper far from his reach).
We took Callum "skiing" again for one last trip to the snow hill for the season. Both he and Max prefer, however, to just crawl around in the stuff instead of ski on it.
And, of course, it was birthday time for our family since Jeff and Max share their special day. We went to my parents/Scott and Samantha's place to celebrate on Saturday. Max wasn't really sure what to do about all the attention, the singing and then this little flame put in front of him, but he quickly figured out the cake!
For Jeff, I planned a little surprise get together with some old school friends and friends from Jeff's office on Tuesday. My Dad picked up the boys so it was an adult-only party - it was so civilized! And I actually managed to get the apartment cleaned (without Max around to follow me around and undo everything I manage to do).
Jeff was mildly suspect to the plans since there was more food than usual in the fridge the day before and the day of the party he actually came home earlier than he ever has, so no one was even here yet. Oh well, it was fun anyway (and I made one heck of a super chocolate cake too!).
Today is the first day of April and it looks like this month could be full of good stuff too. We are currently gathering all the car accessories that will allow us to travel with all our bikes, bike trailer and all our stuff, and that will allow us to delay the need for a minivan a bit longer.
Our TV has been on the frits for a while now, so it is currently sitting in the truck of our car until we find time to get it repaired. I has been a bit of an experiment without it, seeing if we could go without (though we never had cable anyway and just used it for DVD's), but I have decided that movies on the laptop are just annoying.
We are also trying to sneak in more work on the interior design drawings for Kim and Sven's place and it turns out I may potentially be designing a house for my parents/Scott and Samantha in the near future (so I guess it's a good thing my old office didn't want me to come back to work after all!).
Well, I guess I should stop ignoring my kids and just publish this post to go play with them (though they are doing such a good job getting on without me right now...Ooh, but I may also sense a distinct odour emanating from the smaller one...)
Dropped the kids off at Kami's, got a ride to the airport and we were off...
The idea was to "do nothing" - just sit around, read, sleep, maybe shop a little. We did manage to relax by the pool for about half an hour and we did pick up a few new clothes. My Uncle Ted and Aunt Lorraine happened to be in Palm Desert so we could sit to watch the Gold Medal hockey game with some fellow Canadians, but it turns out that doing nothing actually grows old quick. Palm Springs is actually a bit dead - the economy has hit it hard, it seems, with every other store window vacant.
So Jeff went golfing with the relatives while I went to the Spa.
The best part of the trip, however, was exploring in Joshua Tree National Park. Very cool trees and rocks (I couldn't help but think that my sister Krista would have a blast scambling around here).
If you wonder what that funky cactus looks like without all the prickly stuff, this is the insides:
We came home Wednesday night, picked up our sleeping babes from Mom and Dad's place, and awoke Thursday to plenty of snot and coughing - Callum and Max are sick. Oh well, at least I feel a rejuvenated sense of love for these mucus-hacking, runny-nosed boys!
(This shot below is so typical of how you might see Max fighting for a spot around his big brother!)
Yesterday, Jeff and I also started our "Reset" diet, as I'm calling it, since it is kind of a detox but more like 28 days of super healthy eating, to re-adjust our bodies away from all the crap we've been getting used to lately. Unfortunately, it starts with 2 days of only green smoothies (filled with lots of cabbage, spinach, kale and all other greens), so it is currently quite a kick-in-the-pants, that's for sure! Wish us luck!
