A visit with Friends

We arrived safely on Monday afternoon. The kids travelled well - except for when I was signing out our rental car... We barely made it in time for our flight. I totally underestimated how long it would take to get to the airport from a store I wanted to stop at before going, and it took much longer to park and unload, get on the shuttle, load a cart at the airport again, put the car seats through the oversize luggage security check, lug the kids through security, RUN down the terminal to our gate, quickly stop to pee, and arrive at the gate as they were ending the pre-boarding time. We never had time for lunch! I am glad I packed lots of crackers and cheese sticks for the plane. Thankfully, they allowed a full sippy cup of juice to pass through security, so the kids had a bit to drink. They were so excited when the plane lifted off. With the low clouds, we could not see more than a couple glimpses of the mountains, but they stayed entertained watching Treehouse on the little TV's.

I had them in their knitted hoodies from their Grandma (Maralee). Ethan was exstatic when he saw he got to wear 'hanky sweater' that day. Both the kids got many compliments over their sweaters. (Hint hint, they'd like more pullover sweaters like those ones... ;-) )

Ethan's ear seems to be on the mend again. No more drainage, and he had no ear complaints on the plane. Today is his last antibiotic day, which will be nice because he really hates the flavour of this one.

The kids have gotten along quite well. Ethan is the odd man out most of the time, so he's been getting extra cuddles and extra shouts of "Ethan! stop touching!" or, "Sit down Ethan!" from the other kids.

Ethan really likes baby J. He calls him 'Baby' and 'her' all the time. Whenever he cries, Ethan asks "Is the baby okay?" He loves to give him kisses and hugs and starts giggling whenever J makes faces.

Evelyn and B have been playing together a fair bit. We went for a walk into town yesterday, and they held hands with both each other, and the other little boy that K was watching that day (Andrew). He was a little womanizer! It was pretty sweet to see them all holding hands though.

K-A and I went to her Toastmasters meeting last night. It was interesting. I can see how the skills can be transferred to many situations, and it teaches you to think on your feet and express yourself in a logical way. It's a bit like a game or contest, because they award ribbons for 'best table topic speaker' or 'best evaluator'. One woman shared a binder filled with her ribbons and certificates. They were obviously very important to her. Seeing her display made me think about getting a feeling of self worth from outside sources, which are fickle, or from your own inner sense of accomplishment. Perhaps the ribbons were a concrete and tangible representation of her personal sense of accomplishment.

The plan for today is for me to take the girls out for a girly shopping trip. Tomorrow, we plan to go to Jungle Mania in Salmon Arm, and Friday, we head home!