The Rescue

The scene:Baby brother walks to the edge of the boardwalk holding his sister's cherished "Erin" Bear (a green beanie baby bear named Erin) and stares through the railing at the rocks and water about 10-15ft below.  I beam with pride at the picture of my precious son looking out at the view of the harbor. Then to my horror, I see Erin Bear dangling from his fingertips. I run over to him to grab the bear, thinking he may inadvertently drop it through the rails. A mere second before I reach him, he doesn't drop the bear, but raises it over his head and chucks it through the railing.

Here is the result:

 

With no access to the rocks below, and since Brynn did not witness this incident, we decided to quietly walk away and buy a replacement. 

NOPE

Brynn as we're leaving: "Wait, where's my Erin Bear?"

Quivering lips and tears ensued, to which the man playing the accordion on the boardwalk empathized and played "twinkle twinkle little star" just for her.  That didn't work.  A promise of a new Erin Bear and ice cream didn't work. And to be honest, I was getting a little sentimental too...the thought of Erin Bear going out with the tide to eventually be swept to the depths. We were about to have a lesson on loss.

However...
After a harbor pilot tried unsuccessfully with a long pole, he got a boat...

 

 

OUR HERO!!

Amazing! The people in Vancouver are so nice! A lot of commotion over a little bear, but we provided some entertainment for onlookers. All in all it was a good day.

Our First Week In Vancouver

We've been anticipating the culture shock we'll receive when we arrive in South Asia, but we didn't expect one in Canada.  This is the first time I've visited Canada, so I expected beautiful scenery and a lot of talk about hockey. Any preconceptions I had about Vancouver were overshadowed by the diversity of the city. I heard Vancouver was very diverse, but I didn't expect to feel like a foreigner myself. This could be one of the most international cities on the planet...Chinese, Indians, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, Iranians...just to name a few of the people groups that make up this city.

This is Vancouver.
It's wonderful and extremely multi-cultural.

However most of the culture shock comes from having to use public transportation on a regular basis.  Simple outings to the store with the kids to get a few groceries is a thing of the past. I'm learning to live with less - we had eggs and broccoli for dinner the other night, because it was all that we had in the house.

It's kind of stressful and kind of fun. I am thankful for this step before we head to South Asia!

5:30 am at the Charlotte airport....they were troupers!

This and the following city shots were taken all in one day as we
familiarized ourselves with the city using different forms of transportation.
We were thankful for wonderful weather on this particular day!

Riding the Sea Bus.

Taking their time waking up one morning.

Picking flowers at the bus stop.

Riding the city bus...one of her favorite activities.

Celebrating Easter at a friend's house.

Having a picnic in Stanley Park on our day off!

Riding the kids' train in Stanley Park.

Not so sure how he feels about this large bunny.

Brynn never turns down a photo op with an oversized animal character!

September Activities - Fall Has Begun

September marks the start of football season, apple picking, AWANA, and for Brynn, dancing! 
Here are some random pictures from this month so far.

Showing off her craft from AWANA.

Her first dancing class - she had a ball.

Apple Picking!

 

Aunt Beth, Uncle Aaron & cousin Eli

Luke missed apple picking due to his deep snoozing - here he is after waking up.

Buddies...playing football already.

Resting up for the game.

Luke in gameday attire

This is where we kept the kids during the game.

Luke - Growing Fast

Luke loves drinking from cups.

Realizes mommy has a camera...

loves the camera and has to smile...

forget the cup, I'm a camera ham.

Potty Trained....FI-NAL-LY!!!!

As a reward for using the potty for a week with no accidents, Brynn got to see Barney at Tweetsie Railroad. On this visit to Tweetsie, she also got to go onstage with the cloggers and is now obsessed with clogging.
She also got to pick out a cake and icing (confetti cake & chocolate icing with rainbow sprinkles), and we had a little Potty Party, to which Brynn said, "Potty Party - eewww yuck."  Anyway, she was proud and I am on top of the world about this - she is finally potty trained!

Anticipating Barney coming out on stage.

Brynn staring in awe....she just sat and stared while all the other kids danced.  I'm not sure what was going through that brain of hers.

Brynn onstage with the Tweetsie cloggers.

Brynn in the center of the stage - she totally got into it.

She'll dance in front of 100 people, but won't look at the camera.

Brynn and her "Potty Party" Cake

Chocolate mustache.  This is how happy I feel about being over this potty training hurdle!

Final Trip Before Baby Comes

Jimmy and I had to go to a conference in NC without Brynn, so we took a little side trip.  We visited his sister Beth and her husband Aaron, then headed to the mountains to hang out in the Boone area for a couple of days.  Our first vacation without Brynn. We missed her, but it was nice...the longest I've been without changing her diapers in over two years.

Heather (32 weeks) and sister-in-law Beth (33 1/2 weeks)

Luke and Elijah's first picture together.

The boys' belly shot

Drinking our Cheerwine after a visit to the Mast General Store...simple pleasures.

Where I used to go to church with my grandparents on my summer visits...so pretty.

Love the architecture here.

Jimmy eating breakfast in the lodge of our hotel.  Ahhh....North Carolina decor!

Relaxing by the duck pond at our hotel after breakfast.  I tossed some of my bagel crumbs to the ducks and they swam away from it...weird ducks.

Back in Georgia to pick up the munchkin - we missed her.

And of course Luke can't be brought into this world without his own deer head mount....thus our souvenir from NC.