Last weekend, during our camping trip, we were visited by my sister and her daughter and son, and we went for a short hike up the trail to a waterfall called Margaret Falls.

As we were walking along the trail, my nephew said, about the waterfall we were going to see, "I hope it's turned on! " :) Gotta love kids.

Lucky for us, the waterfall WAS turned on, and was actually flowing pretty good, so it was definitely worth the walk.

Along the walk there... and back... my niece was jabbering away non-stop... she sure can talk! In fact, she never STOPS talking. Hehe. My sister says she always used to make sure to talk to her daughter when she was a baby/toddler, to encourage her to pick up speech and talking... and now she thinks she's created a monster. :p My niece is going into grade 3 and she sure does loooove to talk and tell stories. It's quite cute, but I imagine my sister much enjoy the occasional moments of piece and quiet she gets when my niece is sleeping. :p

Emma is going through a tough time right now... she seems to be teething in a big way. No teeth have popped through yet, but it looks to be close... we can see a couple of little pale bumps in her gums, so it probably won't be long. In the mean time she is quite uncomfortable, is drooling like crazy, and has had diarrhea for the last few days (the side effect of which is a horrible diaper rash).

Poor little girl. She had a doctors appointment last Thursday, which was good timing... and the doctor wasn't concerned, said it's normal... but to try to give her a bit of Pedialyte to keep her hydrated, and if the diarrhea is still around next week to bring her back.

So far, the diarrhea is still happening... so unless it stops suddenly in the next couple days, Lisa will probably make another appointment to see the doc early next week.

Other than that, Emma is doing great. She's still a light-weight for her age (on Thursday she weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz) but she's gaining weight on her curve, so all seems to be well. Guess she's just shaping up to be a small-ish person.

Emma has gotten pretty adept in the last week or two at pulling herself up on things... the coffee table, her toy box, the side of her crib.

Just a couple weeks ago, Lisa and I started having success at putting Emma down at around a set time (7:30-8pm or so) in her crib and coaxing her to sleep (as opposed to her falling asleep in our arms). Unfortunately, she then quickly learned to pull herself up, so now putting her down is a test of wills and stubbornness as we put her down in the crib, she flips over and climbs the side... we put her down, she flips over and climbs the side... we put her down, she flips over... you get the idea... lol

Occasionally we leave her for a bit, but once she climbs up, she doesn't know how to let herself down again yet, so then she's stuck. Lisa has gone in and seen her standing there hanging on to the side of the crib half asleep... haha!

So, we can't leave her for too long, we have to go back in and set her down... at which point she rolls over, climbs again! Eventually, if we outlast her, she gets tired of the game and lets sleep take over. But, it is one situation where my stubborn streak is a great benefit. So far I've outlasted Emmas stubbornness every time... it's been close occasionally though. :p

Anyhoo, I'll wrap it up with a photo of Margaret Falls, turned on and flowing. :)

View On Black

This past weekend, Lisa and I packed up the car (and I mean PACKED .. like... to the roof...) and headed out camping overnight.

It was Emma's first camping experience, so we only went for a single night. We weren't sure how Emma would like it... specifically, how she's fare overnight sleeping in the tent... but she was great.

The new tent we bought... we knew it was big... but once it was set up and we got all moved in, we realized just how big it is... it's massive.

We had Emma's portable playpen/crib set up in one half, which is like it's own room, and our own queen sized inflatable mattress in the other "room", with all of our bags, clothes, shoes, Emma's things, etc all in there... and still had room for, I'm sure, another 4 or so people.

So, that was cool! Heck, the main "room" is even tall enough for me to stand without hunching over! Luxury! lol

Only down side was when I put the tent up, I noticed there is a little access flap (supposedly for a power cable...???... in one corner that was partly open. When I tried to close it I couldn't, and then noticed that the zipper was broken. In my attempt to "fix it" (which involved my Swiss Army multi-tool LOL), I destroyed it. Doh!

Oh well, we shoved my sleeping bag pack in the opening to close it temporarily, and Lisa will sew it up permanently, as we have no need for a "power cord access door".

Anyhoo, Emma seemed to enjoy it. My dad and stepmom live not far away so they came for a short visit, and Emma always loves to see her grampa and gramma.

And my sister came out with her two kids (she also lives nearby to where we were camping), and Emma also loves to see her auntie and cousins.

Emma seems to have inherited my and Lisa's habit of being mesmerized by a campfire, as several times we all were just sitting there staring at the fire.

And Emma slept great... slept right through the night in fact. Lisa had her bundled up really well, and she was snug as a bug... meanwhile Lisa and I were cold, as we could have used an extra blanket... it got COLD over night.

It rained the following morning, which was a drag... nothing worse than packing up from camping while it's raining... everything is soggy and dirty and miserable. But, c'est la vie!

So, anyways, the first outdoor camping was a success. We weren't sure how Emma would do, but we are no longer worried.

Now all I need is the cross bars for our roof rack on the car, and a cargo box... so we don't have to completely jam the inside of the car full of all the "necessities". lol

Actually... we'd probably still stuff the car... we'd just fill the extra room with more stuff. lol


Here are a few shots from the weekend.














And me, looking like a total hoodlum... lol... hanging out with our Jellybean by the fire.



All in all, it was a good first Fathers Day for me. Two thumbs up!

Click To Enlarge

Having posted an epic entry a couple days ago about the horrors of our drive to Surrey, I thought I should add an entry saying that the trip was still worth it.

We don't get to see our family there often. They rarely come to Kelowna, even less now as Lisa's aunt and uncle get up in age, and their health isn't the greatest. And we don't often get a chance to go down to the coast to see them.

So, despite the crazy 8 hour drive to get to them, it was still a great couple of days, and was a real joy to see how Lisa's aunt and uncle totally fell in love with Emma after meeting her for the first time.

They both must have said a hundred times how cute Emma was, how much of a doll she was, etc.

Funny too... almost every we go out somewhere with Emma... whether to a grocery store, restaurant, the mall, etc, almost every time, some total stranger will stop us and comment on how beautiful little Emma is.

Sure makes a dad proud. :)

The photo is "Super Bear", a gift to Emma from Lisa's cousin Edward, who also came over to see Emma for the first time. The stuffed bear was being sold as a fund raiser for BC Children's Hospital, and Emma promptly gave it big hugs and chewed on it's ears.

The sun was out in full force today, so we took the opportunity to go for a walk down on the boardwalk downtown.

As it turned out, the sun being out didn't mean much as far as warmth, as there was a cold wind blowing, so we didn't loiter around too much, and kept on moving for the most part.

The one stop was in the bird sanctuary to check out a flock of ducks in the water right by the walkway.

I snapped a few pictures, and Emma was watching them like a hawk. She seemed very keen on keeping tabs on them as they moved around.

I've been a casual bird-watcher for many years... ever since I took the most awesomest biology course ever invented, at U-Vic. It was called Biology of the Vertebrates, was a 3rd year course if I remember right.

The lecture portion was fairly dull... lots of animal physiology stuff. But the lab consisted about 99% of animal identification. And of that, birds made up about 90% of it (with mammals and reptiles making up the rest).

So, most of the lab sessions (3 hours each week) consisted of going to different locations around southern Vancouver Island, with binoculars and guide books in hand, bird-watching, identifying all different feathered friends we saw.

I sort of fell in love with the exercise... even though I never developed a great amount of knowledge about a great number of birds, I did get quite good at spotting and identifying most of the common species... and around that area there were a ton of different birds.

I was a bit of a loner, so on weekends I'd often pack a thermos and a lunch, and go out to a random beach somewhere on the ocean, a park in the city, maybe to East Sooke Regional park, or to my favorite, Witty's Lagoon in Metchosin (Click Here for some photos {not mine} of the park) ... and I'd sit there for hours just looking, watching, listening.

Great way to kill time and mellow out. I don't do it much anymore... not sure why... maybe because the variety of birds here is so much more limited.

Anyhoo... what the hell was I talking about...? LOL Got lost in a memory there.

So.... yeah... maybe Emma will inherit that "mellow out, sit back, and watch stuff" gene from me. =) Lisa has some of it as well... we both love people watching.

To finish this rambling post, a couple shots of us from today.

I'm not completely sold on the shot of Lisa/Emma, unfortunately.. I like everything about it except for the sharpness... my focus was a teeny bit off and I couldn't quite bring it back in processing.

The shot Lisa took of me & Emma though, I really love. That one took a bit of work, as there was another photographer in the background, who I edited out... but I think it turned out great.

*Click for Full-View*







* and just for kicks and giggles, a copy of the second shot, before I edited it *



Ahh, the wonders of photoshop. :)

Well... I'm now officially a "real dad" I think... I've managed to traumatize my baby, and have scarred her psyche for life... :)



lol It was her first shower... and apparently she wasn't sure what to think of it.

Meanwhile, we've now got a perfect shot to share at her future graduation/wedding.

Will she ever forgive me? :p