♥ Happy Valentine's Day ♥

Wishing family and friends a very sweet

♥♥♥

Valentine's Day!

Capiz shell hearts that are hanging over the dining table.  This is the extent of our Valentine's decor this year.  Love the simplicity of them. 

 Wish I could send these pink tulips to you!  I've enjoyed fresh cut flowers lately - dreaming of a little spring.

Our youngest turns 10 today!  Two ten year-olds under one roof for a week.  Me-oh-my!  Time is a flyin'!

Ice Capades

Keith took Jaeden and Boo to the ice rink, for the first time, last Saturday.  This is what Boo has to show for it!  She was doing great, and they were almost to the end of the 2 hour open-skate session when she tried going around someone and fell.  Oops!

Jordan and I met up with them at the Urgent Care.  When I got a look at it and saw the swelling on one side in particular, it was pretty obvious it was broken.  Her arm was x-rayed and the radius was broken on a diagonal almost completely across just below her wrist.  A splint was put on till the swelling could go down. 

Today was cast day!  When the splint was taken off, we took the opportunity to wash her arm really well.  It doesn't take much to make Boo gag and she was already having a hard time not gagging from the smell after only 5 days!  The bruising has turned to an ugly yellow-green and there's still quite a bit of swelling.

Brooklyn wanted an aqua blue color and this blue was the closest they had.  The assistant came in to put on the cast and forgot Boo had asked for blue when she started putting on the pink.  When she realized her mistake, she told Boo she'd make a special, striped cast just for her.  I think it's great 'cause it tones down that bright pink!

Had to take a pic before it gets filled up with writing.  Big bro Jordan was the first to sign.  She goes back in 2 weeks for a follow-up x-ray.

We tease Brooklyn that this broken arm is her birthday present - she'll be 10 in a few days.  She tells us it's not funny!  :-p  We tell her that at least she has a good story to tell about how she got it.

Lefse

The kids and I were invited to make Lefse over their Winter Break with a lady whose grandparents came from Norway, I believe.  Being the amateurs we are, she had us make the kind using flour instead of potatoes since it's supposedly easier to work with.  I think we need quite a bit more practice, though.  None of ours were uniform like hers. 

See?

But we still had a great time!  They tasted good, too.

A Shelf

Jaeden, what are you building?

For me?  Awwww...thanks!

Target Practice

Brooklyn's dad got her a BB gun (she's a tad bummed it's not PINK) and so her older brother is giving her a few pointers.

 Having a big brother can have it's good sides.

Uh-oh ~ Mom has the camera out. . . .better put on the hood.  Maybe it'll dissuade her from taking pics. 

As if . . . .

Sky & Sea

While we were so close to Vancouver, BC, we wanted to do a little sightseeing.  We discovered that because it was the weekend, for just $1.75 - $2.50 per person, we could ride the SkyTrain and the SeaBus all around Vancouver and all day on that one ticket.  What a bargain!  So we hopped on the SkyTrain at a station and rode it to the Vancouver waterfront where we took the SeaBus across to North Vancouver and had lunch at East Side Marios.

 Riding the SeaBus from Downtown Vancouver across Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver.

 North Vancouver

"Our" SeaBus

 Another SeaBus we watched cross the inlet

 I'll take one of those yachts, please...

 The fish market in North Vancouver reminded me of our very own Pike Place Market.  I'll skip the octopus today, thank.you.very.much.

 Looking back towards beautiful Vancouver.

 Our trip back on the SkyTrain.  We purposely hopped in the front car so we'd have the best view.

Our holiday went all too quickly!

Wedding Barn

Keith's uncle has acreage further away with an amazing old barn on it.  Uncle Ralph had a granddaughter who wanted to get married here this last September, so they cleaned it out and set it up for an adorable country wedding!  We got to see pictures of the wedding and the next day we took a tour of the old barn.  I could totally move in and call it home.  It was such an awesome barn!  We were talking about how neat it would be to hold all sorts of events/parties in this barn if it wasn't for the liability factor.

 Love the old ice house sign!

 I could NOT imagine climbing the ladders in the lofts.  I got dizzy just thinking about it!

 A transom window above the barn doors - how cool is that?

 Leftover props from the wedding.  During the wedding, they even had a couple of calves in one corner with hay bales around them.  I guess the children just loved it!

 Looking at the old barn wood out back.  What I wouldn't give to use some of that for flooring in our house!

Back of the barn

 Loved this moment I caught of Cousin Kayla taking a pic to probably post on Facebook.

Beautiful farm country

 Waiting for the loooooonnnng train

 Of course, the first thing Brooklyn does when we get back to the dairy is check on the calves.

We can't wait to visit again!  The last time we really spent time here was when Brooklyn was ten months old and now she's almost 10 years old!

Dairy Farm

We spent the Turkey Holiday at Keith's uncle's dairy farm in BC.  Brooklyn was in LOVE with these sweet babies, and who could blame her!?!  She spent a lot of her time visiting them and bottle feeding them.  Most of the calves in this area were about 2 weeks old.

 This little darling was only 2 days old.

 The pens for the older calves.

Showing off their rubber boots.  The ground seemed even more mucky because of the recent snow that had just melted after raining all night.

 The feeding barn.

 Jaeden sitting on a tractor.  He got to go for a couple of rides on them with Keith's cousins.

 Keith's mother's maiden name is Newman and this is her brother's dairy.

One of two silos on this property.

I cannot believe I forgot to take pics of the milking barn!  When I went through it, it was all dark, and I didn't get up at 5:30 AM for the first milking.  Next time...  Jaeden, however, was ALWAYS up early to help out with the milking.  He loved every minute of being on the farm.  I would have to say we ALL did!