Summer Kick Off

Well, Summer vacation has officially begun.  I LOVE my job and I had an amazing year at work!  I had the perfect coworker and really appreciated having Cheryl there to help out this year.  I am looking forward to sharing another year with her come September.  I already miss all the kids and all the parents that I saw weekly.  I don't think my job would be the same without the supportive families I have in my preschool.  They make my Job even better and I really appreciate them!

Thanks for a GREAT year!  

But, lets be honest... getting up at 5:30 and being at work before 7am is wearing on a girl and the one thing that I am going to enjoy the most this summer is being able to sleep until I feel like getting up! Although, I don't think I have slept past 6:30 once but at least that is when I want to get up!

Well, I don't exactly get to rest my entire summer away.  I am taking two condensed courses this summer that are proving to be more work that I had anticipated.  No leisure reading this summer, just big scary text books.  I also get the joy of bing a Guinea pig in psychological experiments as part of my psych course.  I find this amusing.  They have to force psych students to partake in these studies (4% of my grade) because they can't find enough people willing to take time out of their busy days to be studied... lol.  Oh well, I intend to get a full 4% for this portion of the course.  I am a little nervous of what I am going to have to do for these experiments though.  I guess we will see.  Maybe a blog post will have to be made about this adventure in my life.

I fully intend to enjoy summer regardless of the fact that I have to be in school.  So, I kicked of summer holidays with a camping trip at Nairn Falls with some friends.  Nairn falls is about 30k north of whistler just before Pemberton.  It is so beautiful there!  I have to say, camping is one of my favourite activities.  I love sitting by the fire, reading a good book, playing games, eating good food, going for walks, exploring, etc...

So we got all set up for our camping trip.  Setting up can be a lot of work...

As you can see here, Kristen and Trieneke are working really hard to get the camp set up for the weekend.  Its stressful and tiring but since we all pitched in it went really quickly....

Calvin, you slacker...

Calvin is such a trooper.  He took on camping with three girls for an entire weekend.  I don't know many men who would be brave enough to do that.  He did a really good job of taking care of us all and making sure we were dry for the weekend.  Oh, did I mention that it rained the ENTIRE weekend? well it did.  Anyway, Trieneke... you got one good husband!

We "Hiked" up to the falls.  The trail was just off the campgrounds.  It was poring rain so we all suited up in our rain gear, determined not to let the rain get us down, and set out to hike up to the falls.  It was soggy but totally worth it because the falls were beautiful!

Well, by that last picture the rain had made the lens on my camera all wet so it looks blurry... It was so wet and the viewing area for the falls is like a gigantic rock covered in moss... so, lets just say it was slippery... I fell... twice.  sigh... But it was amusing for everyone else.  I was very wet by the time we got back considering the second time I fell I landed in a puddle on my butt.  But you should all go there!  Maybe on a dry day though.  When we were hiking in we saw people hiking out in flip flops and flats... How did they not fall?  I was in hiking shoes... Anyway...

Canada Day...

We got to spend Canada Day in Whistler.

They had lots of festivities.  There was a parade...

What would a Canada Day parade be without some Mounties?

Smokey the Bear!  

And there was some shopping....

And best of all, and you guys are not even going to believe it, but there was FRED PENNER!!!!!! OMG right?  Kristen was disappointed he didn't come out of a log and enter the stage.  But we sat and sang along with all his songs.  It took me back to my childhood days of watching Fred on TV. So great!

Still wearing the same vest!

Then it was back to the campgrounds for some wood chopping lessons.  Well, Kristen did it voluntarily and Trieneke was forced.  But we had some good kindling for starting a fire the next day!

It was a good trip but I was glad to come home, warm up, and dry out! 

I guess I have rambled long enough. Until my next post!