Technical Difficulties

Hey Everyone, not too worry, we didn't crash our van off the side of a mountain, or drive into the ocean...no the computer died. The sad thing is is that seems just as tragic! But 80 bucks later we are back online.

So we left Oregon and hit sunny California. We spent our first night in California in Lodi (no idea where that is, and wasn't nearly as glamorous as I thought it would be). We froze our butts off because we ran out of propane in the middle of the night! Kinda ironic huh?

Then we woke up, jumped in the van and hit the road. We decided the prospect of driving to the Grand Canyon wasn't looking like such a good idea, because it meant 3 more days of driving and our kids were getting squirrely (Emilee still freaks out whenever we put her in her seat).

So we took a detour to towards the coast and stopped at this place called Pismo Beach. There isn't much here except a fairly nice RV park where we have been for the last 3 nights.

We have been enjoying hanging out on the beach (not swimming, its too cold still), going to walmart to shop for JJ's birthday party, cooking meals and marshmellows on the campfire, reading, and making friends with all the other young families at the playground.

Tomorrow we are leaving. We aren't entirely sure where we are going, we are heading towards LA/San Diego (we think!?) but aren't sure where we will land.

Here are some pics from the trip...

We made it to the sunshine state!

I figure we need one picture of me doing something manlyThe boys enjoying a morning stroll on the beach in their pj'sEmilee being cute!Mom and the boys feeding the ducks (or the chickens depend on who you ask)Tyler concentrating hard on making sure he doesn't burn his wiener (that sounds funny?!)JJ polishing off some more marshmellowsUs enjoying a late night campfire after the kids are gone to bed (another manly thing I did)

Couple of quick PS's...

1) we just found out yesterday (Wed) morning that we got the job in Victoria.

2) we immediately phoned our real estate agent and he put our place on the market. And we just found out tonight (Thurs) that we have an offer. Assuming the subject get removed it is sold!

We are very excited.

One more thing in case we don't get to blog tomorrow. Happy Birthday to my grand mother who just turned 80. And a huge congrats to Spencer and Kelsey who are getting married on Friday. Wish we could be there guys!!!!!!

We will blog about JJ's day early birthday festivities ASAP.

Grants Pass, Oregon

So we left Olympia with every intention of making it to Northern California, however...

Not much happened. Lots of driving. We stopped at a Christian outlet bookstore because I forgot to pack my books for reading. We stopped in Eugene to have some lunch in our trailer and let the kids run around a bit, and then we rode through the mountains until we hit Grants Pass. It was around 5 and seemed like sane people would stop rather then push the limits of the kids and our tiredness we stopped. We will definitely be in California tomorrow!!! Here are some pics....

the boys chowing down breakfast in the trailer

dad driving the vanWe made it to Oregon (a day late but who cares we have 27 more to kill)mom making dinner in Oregontylers prize boat! this was our ploy to have him put it away rather than save it!

Olympia

Hey for those of you scoring at home we are spending our first night in Olympia, Washington. Not too far from Seattle. We didnt really hit the road until about 1pm, so not too bad. For the most part it was uneventful. Lots of laughing and singing. We are hoping to hit California tomorrow. We will be making a pit stop in Portland!

We havent taken any pictures yet, sorry!

See Ya Later Aligators!

Just a heads up, we are leaving either late Thursday or early Friday for a month long camping trip to California/Mexico. We really aren't sure where will be or when we will be there and we will try to blog on occasion to keep y'all in the loop. We will be back before Christmas sometime.

Whoo-Ah

The past couple of weeks of unemployment have been crazy. There have definitely been some moments of relaxing and enjoyment, but overall we have been very busy. However, the kind of busy has been nice.

Last week some friends of mine from Salmon Arm (up North) invited us to come and hang out with them for a few days. So we loaded up the van and took off for Sunnybrae Bible Camp. We had the privilege of having the whole camp to ourselves. It was a blast. During the day we went swimming at the pool, hung out at Jungle Mania (Go Banana's), walked the beach, went to the library, pretty much whatever we wanted. In the evening we hung out with Ben and Kirsten Hall, Mel and Sherry Reimer, and Joel and Katie Neustater. It was a great time of relaxing for our family. Here are some pics:

Our family at the Sunnybrae tunnel

Tyler and JJ skipping rocks into the Shushwap LakeTyler enjoying the beachTyler going down the slide at the pool.JJ showing off his 'mad skills' as he jumps in!

Tyler and JJ passed out on the couch while they watch a movie.

Also, since we have been back from Victoria (from a 5 day job interview) Emilee has started eating rice cereal. Here are the pics from that fun time:

It all looks so fun at the beginning.

Happy baby for now.The rice enters into the mouth.Its in the mouth.Its out of the mouth.

Blur

Does life ever feel liked it barfed all over you and you feel like you are playing catchup all the time? This has been our lives since October 31st. We finished at Newton and went immediately into 'home reno' mode. I was painting like a mad man, while Kellee was packing like crazy. We spent 6 days prepping our house for sale in anticipation that we will be moving to the Island (perhaps a little presumptuous, but necessary nonetheless).

Then on Sunday afternoon we all piled in the van and drove to Salmon Arm to hang out at Sunnybrae Bible Camp and visit some friends. This was an awesome trip. The Reimers and Halls (pastors in Salmon Arm, and friends of mine) were so generous to us. We essentially had nothing to do for 5 days and it was wonderful. However there was the looming unfinished projects at home still hanging over our heads.

We arrived home late Friday night after a visit with some friends from our 'old church'. And Saturday morning got right back at 'er. So now we have a storage locker almost completely full of stuff, baseboards almost completely up, a house almost completely painted, and carpet guys coming on Tuesday to replace our carpet. So we have a lot of 'almosts' to do between now and Wednesday morning.

Because...on Wednesday morning we leave to go to Victoria for 5 days to interview at a church for the job of Youth and Young Adult Pastor. We are very excited about this opportunity and believe that God has been leading us down this path for some time now and we were just not aware of it until recently. But it gets better still...

Once we get back from Victoria, we are piling in a trailer and driving to Mexico! We are taking 7 days to camp our way to Mexico where we have a free place to stay for as long as we would like (thanks Mel). Then taking a couple weeks to camp back up to Surrey. So we are hoping that in the 4 weeks we are away that our house will sell, we will discover that we got hired by the church in Victoria and that we are moving....how is that for crazy!

But somehow in the midst of it we are relaxed and calm.

Pray for us.

Happy Halloween

This Halloween was our kids first time ever 'trick-or-treating'. In the past we have had to be at Newton's Harvest Party as part of my job, but since I am a jobless bum....we didn't. So we gathered at Ladner Baptist Church with the Oldhams, Frews, Vanderkuips, and Unruhs for some food, a bouncy castle, and some trick-or treating. It took our boys about 5 seconds to catch on, and at one point JJ suggested we do this every day...good idea. Here are some pics:

Mommy, Emilee, JJ, and Tyler

Our whole clan of kiddies
Mom and Emilee

My cow and Lion