1 post tagged “kids”

Though Chris went into work on June 30th, having Canada Day off on Tuesday still made things feel like a long weekend.  In the morning we packed ourselves up and headed downtown to Riverside Park where we try and beat the crowds. 

Every year, the park is the site for a variety of things: games for kids, a climbing wall, face painting (or henna - the adult's version!), a variety of ethnic and "Canadian" (read: hot dogs and hamburgers) foods, live music, dozens of booths, in particular, dozens and dozens of artisans and craft vendors.  That last bit is my favourite part - pottery, prints, clothing, carvings, jewelry, wooden toys, foodstuffs and on and on.  The selection is impressive in part because this particular market attracts not just Kamloops folks, but small companies and artisans from the whole region and as far away as Vancouver Island.  I guess the 25,000-30,000 average attendees spend money.  I know we do: it's often where we get a start on birthday and sometimes even Christmas presents if we really have our act together.  These last two years we've also started keeping a close eye on some art work for our house.  We're quite fond of some glasswork for the front window made by a woman here in town.  This year there was a woman from the Okanagan who was selling some beautifully framed pressed flowers that was sorely tempting.  We keep telling ourselves one of these days we'll get around to it!
Jonas was a bit crabby that morning and though we tried to get out early, we still didn't beat the crowds.  We didn't take any photos, but it was just as well as Chris later realized that I had forgotten to return the picture card to the camera after uploading the last set. 

We came home, napped and prepared for some guests we had invited for a barbecue.  Again, we didn't get the camera out until after we had to move everyone inside: a huge storm blew up, complete with lightning, incredible gusts and even knocking out the power briefly.  Fortunately by then, everyone had eaten and the kids had already spent plenty of time splashing in the kiddie pool; we spent the remainder of our time watching the wind wage war around us.

Around that time, some friends from our university/childhood days arrived in town, as planned.  Tyler and Leah had ended up purchasing a vehicle while in Manitoba for a wedding and so they had an impromptu road trip home to Delta and we were quite happy to host them along the way.  Their son, Asher, is about 5 months younger than Jonas and is was interesting to see them interact. 

I am very thankful that Asher is a laid back kid since I caught Jonas taking toys from him more than once ("Mine!") and so I imagine it happened when my back was turned, too.   We had to do a lot of talking to Jonas about sharing and taking turns and also just had to take him for some time outs, too!  He sure didn't like the 'threat' to his 'turf.'  (Makes me really wonder about this baby coming... oh well, at least a newborn won't want to play with his cars, but we will need to work out seating arrangements!) 

By the end the boys actually played quite well together. I got these two shots of the boys when we were at Tim Horton's for lunch; they were giggling at their cars (which they had traded and then traded back without incident!) which they would drive up the window and then let fall.
Our time with them felt too short, but they had places to go and we had my parents en route so it was just as well.  What doesn't hurt is that Tyler and Leah live only about 10 minutes from Chris's parent's place so visiting them isn't usually so tricky when we're down south.  It was great to spend time with you guys!

As I mentioned, my folks arrived that day and many, many more extended family members over the next few days for a family reunion here in town.  But that's another post and since we're off for the weekend, you'll have to catch it next week!