A Day Spent with Family

Last weekend 

we had the privilege of hanging out with my family.

My grandma,

my aunts, uncles and cousins

were all able to be together and spend the afternoon at the beach.

We enjoyed each others company,

the sunshine,

baby kisses, 

trying new things like paddle boards and shaved ice.

Sometimes we allow months to go by

without seeing one another.

Time gets away on us too quickly.

I need to a better job

of not letting that happen!

We are a small clan

and its still relatively easy to gather in one place.

“I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life.”– Barbara Bush

Sophie, Ethan and Claire.

Catching jellyfish and trying new water sports. 

Auntie Barb and Jane.

My grandma and cousin Adelai keeping cool under the umbrella.

Ethan entertaining Jane in the swing.

The baby whisperer

Jane loved Jacob the dog.

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”– John Bowring

Links For Your Weekend

This past week 

was a bit crazy and a lot of fun.

We returned home from camping

with enough laundry to keep me busy for the rest of the week.

Camping is fun,

but oh the laundry.

Tuesday the girls and I headed out to Vancouver.

Wheat Canada,

one of my favourite children's clothing shops,

was having a pop up shop in Vancouver.

My friend Danielle,

who introduced me to Wheat,

met me there with her girls. 

We shopped for back to school clothes

and each of the girls picked out an outfit that they wore out of the store.

It was really fun to meet Katherine and her husband in person.

Then we went for lunch at Bestie.

Danielle and I each tried the Chinese 5 Spice Duck bratwurst. 

They ventured on with their day and us with ours.

It was so fun to kind of go about our day with no real agenda.

Vancouver is one of my favourite places to be on a gorgeous sunny day.

We went to Emery Barnes Park,

then made our way to Kitsilano Beach.

We walked from the beach to West 4th and back to the beach

where we played, splashed and built sand castles.

Then we went back to East Van to make a loop

and had dinner at Tacofino. 

Such a fun day with my girls.

They were both so easy going and happy.

I had a moment standing on the beach,

breeze blowing my hair, sun on my face;

I felt so blessed.

I don't want to sound cliche,

but I really did.

My girls were playing in the water,

the sun was shining and I was standing with my feet in the sea

 feeling so grateful for this life. 

It was a perfect day.

Wednesday was a quiet day at home,

a perfect balance.

Jane woke up with a yukky green snot-nose and

we just parked it indoors catching up on cartoons and laundry.

The weather was cool and rainy.

Thursday Claire and I both had dentist appointments.

It has been a great week.

What did you guys do this week? 

How did you unwind after the long weekend?

Was it back to work,

or did you try and stretch the extra Monday 

into an extra Tuesday too?

Here are some fun links for you from around the web! 

- Our guest post over at Thinking Outside the Pot

- This lipstick shade by melted is one of the top colours for summer

- Loving the look of this Kate Spade planner for 2016 

- Adding Earnest Ice Cream to my summer list. London Fog intrigues me! 

- Starting to think about planning a first birthday party for Jane. (Where did that year go?) 

- Celebrating with Codi Lynn over at Creative Wife & Joyful Worker as she relaunches her blog! 

- Have you been to the Fairy Forest? If weather permits we are heading there today! 

Happy Friday everyone!

Hope your weekend is great.

Hip hip hooray for a short week!

Bad Blogger

Have you noticed?

Sometimes I am great at keeping my blog up to date,

then there are other most times I am terrible at it!

My apologies.

This blog is supposed to keep you

up to date on what's happening with us down here in Portland.

But it ends up being spurts of catch ups. 

We have some BIG news!

Spencer found out about a week and a half ago

that he is being transitioned from the on-campus clinic

he us currently working at,

to an off-campus clinic.

This is unofficially known as being "off-sited"

and is a super big deal.

Let me tell you why -

At the school campus clinic Spencer only

is able to treat faculty,

fellow students and their immediate families.

That is great, and still offers the hands on experience that he needs,

but generally speaking most of those people are in good health.

At the off-campus clinic he will be treating the paying public.

So basically people who have real issues that they really want fixed!

Spencer will be diagnosing, developing treatment plans

and putting the last years of schooling into action.

The thrill of seeing someone come in with something,

and eventually leave feeling well must be an amazing feeling for Spencer.

But let's remember to whom the glory goes to.

Spencer has spent hours upon hours

with his head in books,

hands in cadavers,

time in adjusting labs

in order to help people feel better.

But his hands are really tools of the ultimate Healer, Jesus Christ.

What an amazing way to glorify God!

With Spencer being transitioned 

it has increased our chances of him getting a 

preceptor-ship,

which would allow us to be moving back to B.C. 

in June instead of September.

The chances are great, 

but still not a guarantee.

Please keep us in your prayers 

as we are thinking, preparing and planning for this transition.

It is going to be a big adjustment moving our family once again to a 

different (although not new) country,

settling our family and learning to live a life NOT as students!

(Did you know that Spencer has been in school since we met in 2004?!)

Needless to say I am sure,

we are really excited to be close to our friends and family in B.C.

However,

 we have really come to love Portland,

our church family, and our friends we've made here.

The school is such an interesting community to be part of,

and I am going to miss certain aspects of it.

We love our church,

our small group

and the MOPS I am apart of there.

We've been blessed with amazing friendships

and it is really hard for me to imagine mothering without 

their nuggets of wisdom, advise and support.

Here's to blogging more often...