Four months of catch-up!?! (Super long post coming up!)

Ok, I tried to be selective when I went through my photos to only pick a few that represented the "major" moments in our lives over the last few months.  Here we go...

MARCH
Callum had his first Cub Car Rally in Scouts.  He designed his car as a subdued Monster truck, painted a metallic blue with flames and skulls stickers.  He won a few races, so I thought it was a decent introduction to the experience.

The boys had 2 weeks of Spring Break off school, so we filled it with various activities such as; hiking in the Capilano Canyon area.

 Going to Ikea and Science World.  The boys love Ikea almost as much as their parents do.

Hiking up to Quarry Rock in Deep Cove. It was actually a rough hike for Simon and Max - Simon was freaked out by all the dogs on the trail and Max got separated from me and felt lost for a while.  So, they were rewarded with some seriously tasty shaved ice (while Kim, Adam and I devoured Honey's donuts).

We also played mini golf, went to the wave pool with our friends the Strands, had a playdate at our friends the Baldwins, had a birthday party at friends Gwen and Carys' place and went to the climbing gym with Daddy.  I think they were thoroughly entertained.

Kelli participated in a trail run called the Cap Crusher on March 22nd.  It was a trail run with 500m ascent over 8km.  I had no idea how long something like that would take me, so I was satisfied with my time of 1:04:10.

Of course, the most important events of March are Jeff and Max's birthdays.  I had actually planned a birthday brunch at the Vancouver restaurant Chambar with a bunch of Jeff's friends, but we ended up cancelling because Aspac decided to send Jeff to Hong Kong over his birthday weekend.  We had time for a quick meal and gifts before Jeff went off to Scouts for the evening.  

The next day was Max's Birthday party.  He wanted to have it at Go Bananas in Langley, which actually made planning it pretty easy.

 APRIL
Easter came and went with some work on the house (bike shed, garden).  Max and Callum got back involved in soccer,  Max's team "White Lightning" and Callum's team "Dragons".

Simon started having some regularly occurring playdates with his ladies, Ember and Heidi.  I did some kid-switching with their Mom's every week, Ember's mom Michelle and Heidi's mom Laura, so we could each get some productive time without kids.  It made everyone happy.

We even had extras girls some days, like Perry from church and Elena.

April 28th was super special with the addition of Elena's little brother (my new nephew) to her family, Ryan Arthur Davis. 

 MAY
 I had been training to run the Vancouver Half-Marathon which took place on May 3rd.  I was hoping for a sub-2hr finish time and, according to the official race website, I ran the 21.1kms in 1:59:38!  Kami was originally planning on running it with me, but she just met me at the finish line instead.

The highly anticipated, long-awaited and epic trip to Italy with my sisters happened between May 19th-June 2nd.  I created a detailed and successful schedule of playdates and frozen dinners for Jeff to deal with the kids while I was away, so I felt confident leaving my family behind to enjoy myself.  (Luckily, my sisters took better pictures than me, so it was easy for me to just choose a few shots I took with my iPhone to include here).

We started in Venice (Stacey in Piazza San Marco):

Then headed to Cinque Terre (we stayed in the town of Manarola)

We hiked between Riomaggiore, Manarola, saw Corniglia from the trail above, then stopped in Vernazza and took a boat to Monterosso al Mare.

 Florence was our next desination.  Gelato in front of the Palazzo Pitti (and near the first leather store, where I tried on a 2,700 Euro jacket!).

 And my view from the top of the Duomo.

 We rented a car for a few days of Tuscany and Umbria exploration, including our first stop at Tuscan Montefiore.

This is Kami in, um, San Gemignano, I think, or, um, Perugia, or maybe Pienza...

We slept one night in Siena (though I'm not standing in front of our hotel).

And our last Umbrian stop was in Assisi.

 Our trip ended with Rome.  Ah Rome.

JUNE
When I came home from Italy, there were only a few days before Jeff's  parents came to visit for a week.

The boys enjoyed playing games with them, taking them to the beach for fish and chips and showing them crabs and being silly.

 We took Jeff's folks to Whistler for the weekend and stopped at the Britannia Beach Mining museum on the way.

After Jeff's parents went home, it was only a short couple of weeks until the end of school.  Callum said goodbye to Mme.Afilal, Max graduated from Kindergarten with Mme.Paulus and Simon finished Preschool at Wind&Tide.

And finally, the same week that school ended, this happened:

Yup. We put the house up for sale and we're moving to North Vancouver!!!!  Sigh.  I will mention that it ended up taking about a week to sell the house, meanwhile Jeff found us a townhouse to rent in North Van (until we buy a house), and we found out which school Callum and Max will attend, so this is really happening!