Family Time

Well the family arrived in full force last weekend. My parents drove up, (they are here for 3 weeks and are renting their own PMQ) and my brother with preggo sis-in-law and little J flew up along with Opa (the GREAT grandpa) for a 4 day visit.


Papa and little J taking a walk.
Opa, my dad and I at the beach

At the same time, B's side of the family stayed at our place for their 5 day adventure. There was Grandma, auntie, uncle, 2 cousins and the dog. They never stopped. We barely got in the door from a morning out crabbing and Grandma says 'So what are we doing next? Are you ready to go yet? Where can I go shopping?' We sent her off to Fields and she came home with a bagfull of stuff.

We ate A LOT of crab.

The kids crabbed, quadded, snorkled and surfed like pros.

J and R had fun hanging out.

We also witnessed our first truck being lost to the ocean. We were out crabbing one foggy morning: I did not see the water line till I was about 20 ft away so I pulled a U-turn and headed back for a higher ground. We came upon this guy trying to shovel himself out of the wet sand just a few feet from the low tide line. Things went from bad to worse as the tide started to come in. We pushed, some guys from Smithers on quads pulled, then a truck with Alberta plates came along but by then the water was coming under the truck and he was sinking deeper. It was a case of a bunch of tourists trying to help this guy but they didn't have a local know-how to do it. I showed the video to our neighbour and he says 'what was the problem? I could have got him out'. I left my truck up on the sand bar. No way I was going out there to get stuck beside this guy too :)

A drive to the East Side

Last week, before all the family started arriving, the boys and I went out to Rose Spit and East Beach with some local friends for the day. This destination is probably the most 'out there' place I would ever go without B along and I would never go without another vehicle. We were going to pick wild strawberries but once the kids got into the water looking for crabs, there was no going pickin'. I did not know that the East side was closed to non-natives so my card carrying boys caught lunch for the gang.

There was good crab hunting in the tidal pools.

A feast on the beach!


And when the tide came in, the sand bar was a good runway from the warm tidal pool water to the cooler ocean water.


Unfortunately, J felt the wrath of a jelly fish and he was quite uncomfortable the ride back home.

July 09 Pictures

Maybe if I get a bunch of new pictures on here at one time it will make the posting easier: here it goes...

This is an action shot of the jello eating contest at cousin R's 9th birthday party in Vancouver. It was a lovely warm day (before the temperature kicked up a notch). We gave her a North Beach surf shirt, can't find that down in the city :)

We spent an evening at D&C's place. Here's another action shot of the sandal flinging contest... there is a little park behind their house and they were kicking off their shoes to go over the alley and up over the neighbours garage. No shoes were lost in the playing of this game. The boys also tried out the water balloon launcher and balloon rockets that D&C will take up to Princeton for the huge group camp out this summer.
Lounging on the new deck at D&C's place. AK came over for a visit too.

We spent a day at Kits watching the Beach Volleyball Tourney. Uncle B came out from Toronto to referee the event and soon-to-be Auntie J came from Cincinnati to hang with the family too.

J and grandpa had a front row seat at centre court.

We have had fantastic weather here the past week. Every morning starts of foggy but it clears up by mid day. Last weekend we went out at low tide behind the elephant cage. B made a fire, the boys rode the machines and we waited for the fog to lift. Then I got a sunburn :(

And there were super low tides last week; perfect for crabbing. The wind was very light so there were no crashing waves to make the crab catching difficult. It was the best day yet.

The crew of crab hunters.

And we have a freezer full of fish thanks to the two outings B has had. Here is B processing the fish in the backyard.

Here is the catch!

Now I will enjoy my last few lazy days until the waves of family start arriving in town all through August then it will be g0-go-go. From little cousin J at 1.5yrs old to Great Grandpa, we will have fun stuff to do with everyone!

I would rather be...

rolling pennies
peeling potatoes
pitting cherries
looking for the special lego piece in D's collection of 1000's.

the list could go on... but when there are 2 bags full of delicious cooked crab in the fridge, they must be shelled, packed, frozen and saved for another day. Apparently I should be canning it. no thanks. too much prep work for me. My back is killing me standing over the sink that long. B's pliers came in quite handy though.

I spent hours yesterday cleaning out the freshly caught and cooked batch; I made a hot crab dip and an orzo/veggi/crab salad to take to K's birthday party, where we ate even more crab... I got the leftovers to take home.

I have been using www.allrecipes.com for my crab and halibut recipes. Didn't even think to look on the oracle of all wonderful recipes www.mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot. Since when do us mennos cook seafood? My mom never did :) I just looked on there and there are a few. hmm. I guess we can.

How'aa

I just got home from a wild weekend in Vancouver picking up the boys. So much to do, so many people to see... and some of you were not even home when I stopped by unannounced :) We will be down again for a bit mid-September so maybe I'll catch you then!

So a big How'aa very very very much to everyone who spent time with our boys the past few weeks: thanks so much for your time, your caring, your spare room, your patience, your driving, your entertaining, your FOOD! They had a great visit with family and friends; reports back were that a good time was had by all, especially little cousin J.

The rest of July will be TBA around here. I am only working a few days a week to leave lots of room for FUN stuff like crabbing, fishing, beaching, camping, wave jumping... Then in August, we will be the official Masset Tour Guides (we should get T-shirts made) with all the family coming through town for a visit. More good times to come this summer :)

Looking forward to HAIDA GWAII MMA class happening tonight. Ben had a really good turn out last week and with the new equipment he just got, classes will be even tougher. I think we need MMA T-shirts too!

missing the boys

It has been really quiet here the last week. It's quite different without the boys around... there is little laundry to do and few dishes to wash. I quite enjoy the quiet lunch hour at home with B; maybe over summer, lunch would not have been so rushed anyways. I open the fridge and there is always food in there. We haven't even finished the jug of milk and the cheese has almost expired. So while they are in Van, we will enjoy the peace and quiet. My grubby, hungry, noisy, messy boys will be home soon :) but I do miss them.

Schools out for summer!

Here is a post I wrote last week but it takes more time to add the pics: so here it is, finally.

This is a very popular Guitar Hero song around here today! Yeah!

It has been a busy couple weeks, lots going on... no matter where you live, I think June is the craziest month of the year when you have kids in school. There is not a lot of schoolwork happening, just lots of fun stuff. We are not at the age yet where there is exam stress, but that will come soon enough.

It started off with a Track and Field meet in Sandspit. Only 4 lanes on the field, only 4 schools in the district. The boys won ribbons in a variety of colours. nice work.


Next was Sports Day and every class picked their own team colour. D's class was the pink team. There were a lot of girls in the class :)

We played baseball on nice evenings. Here is proof I was on the field and not sitting in the stands as a spectator huddled in a blanket. When the team was short on players the boys would be asked to play too. They were pretty pumped.

Last weekend we camped at the Hiellen River and caught a few crab. just delicious!

My mom flew in on Monday and has worked all week. She is a real trooper getting right back into the routine after being retired almost 5 years. I think she has met everyone on the hospital, has chatted up lots of patients, and is baking buns with the kitchen crew tomorrow morning. Have you met my mom yet?

Then we had Beach Day complete with a huge game of capture the flag, lots of tug-of-war challanges and hot dogs for lunch.

Yesterday was the awards assembly and both boys were on the stage for 'outstanding academic' awards and J got some math and athletic certificates too.

Today was the last day of class and with that comes report cards: they did great. And the grand finale of the day was a helicopter ride. My friend KM works at the airport and got us connected. It was a last minute arrangement so B was not able to make it but I took the boys and they each had a friend along for the ride. It was my first time in a chopper. J sat in the front and got to chat with the poilet.

There were 100's of sea loins along this sand bar.

I didn't know the end of Old Masset had this peninsula (I think that is what it is called?) We will hike out there and check it out sometime.

The boys had such a great year. School was fun, there was zero homework stress, J played every sport available (D will next year being in grade 6), D matured a lot this year (I think because I was working it forced him to 'stand on his own 2 feet' a bit more) and they made some good friends.