Finley and friends

Here are some photos from Finley's social engagements in September and October! :)

Play date and walk to the pool with Cadi, Chloe and Carrie...

Rach and Carrie, Nicole and Cadi, Helene and Chloe, us

Reunion picnic with our prenatal class...

We are arranged with the babies from youngest (Finley) to oldest (far right)

And a few miscellaneous events...

Hanging out with Chloe and Cadi

Storytime at the library

Meetup with our online birth group (Finley in yellow)

As you can see, he's quite a sociable and friendly little man! :)

Well, who wouldn't love all this?! :D

Miscellaneous July photos

Here are a few photos from July...

22 weeks

23 weeks

Enjoying a pie from the Aussie Pie Guy food truck

23 weeks

Eek!

Stuck!

With Loretta at Symphony in the Park

23.5 weeks - first symphony concert!

Picnic in a park

Another trip to the pool

24 weeks

Grandma and Grandpa (i.e. my parents, David and Wendy) arrived on July 23rd! Here they are fresh off the plane, their first ever trip outside of Australia (they handled it like seasoned travellers - no jet lag!)...

First cuddle with Grandma

First cuddle with Grandpa

It's hard to believe Finley will be 6 months old in a few more days. He's full of energy, wriggles, bounces, smiles, giggles, cuddles, drool and charm... and he's already trying to figure out how to crawl! We're loving every minute with our wonderful little boy!

Salmon Arm long weekend, Post 1

On the Canada Day long weekend (June 28th to July 1st), we headed to the lakeside town of Salmon Arm, BC, to meet up with Roxy and Nathan. Salmon Arm is approximately halfway between Vancouver and Calgary, so it was was a perfect and very picturesque place to meet up.

Ben finished work a couple of hours early on Friday afternoon, and we set off on our drive. Between the slow traffic spots, a leisurely 3pm lunch stop at the Cactus Club in Abbotsford, and Finley's pit stops, the normally 5 hour drive to Salmon Arm took us 8 hours. Roxy and Nathan had been there for hours by the time we arrived, as they'd both been off work all week due to the flooding in Calgary!

We were extremely impressed by our room at the Podollan Inn. It was very spacious, and its second floor location at the front of the building meant we had gorgeous lake and mountain views. The inn also features a large heated free-form swimming pool, and Table 24, one of Salmon Arm's highest-ranked restaurants on TripAdvisor.

Here are a couple of photos from Friday night...

Finley getting reacquainted with Aunty Roxy

Roxy teaching Nathan a few chords on my guitar

The next day, Saturday, we enjoyed a lazy morning and then headed into downtown Salmon Arm to have lunch at The Shuswap Pie Company. Delicious!

After eating our fill of pie and chocolate cake, we went 5-pin bowling at "J" Lanes Bowling. We were the only customers there the entire time! We played two games, and it was a perfect way to escape the heat (in the high 30 degrees!) and chill out in the air con for a couple of hours.

Hehe!

Late that afternoon, we went for a swim in the pool back at the inn. Finley was able to show Daddy his skills from the month of swimming lessons he'd recently completed!

That night we had dinner at Hedi's Bistro, a small European restaurant in town. There were only two other people in the restaurant and we were served by the German husband and wife who own the place. The highlights of the meal were the complimentary hors d'oeuvres and the bacon-wrapped scallops and roasted garlic we shared for our appetizers. It was a relaxing and yummy way to end our day together.

And that was our first full day in Salmon Arm! To be continued...