spawning Salmon and more

We made our annual trip to Vernon on Labour Day Weekend (by now we are passed Thanksgiving, but I had already started this post so I may as well finish it). We had a great time as usual. First we walked down to greet the horses...this time the "snobby" horses actually came to meet us at the fencethen the kids filled up Gabi's basket with apples that were on the ground under an apple tree - and the kids fed the horsesand here is brave-Katherine riding Beth's electric scooter!Of course we went to DeMills for ice cream and to greet the animals thereand we loved upon the bunny
and drove the Gatorand we had a campfire in what turned out to be a downpour once we got the weiners out to roast!
Then we did something we've never done or seen before - we went to Adams River and saw the salmon making their way back to their stomping ground to spawn/die. There were fish all over this very low river, many dead and many almost dead. There were bright orange eggs all over the bottom of the riverbed... it was amazing, we all loved it! Here is Beth climbing over the log to the other side of the river - in her cowboy boots which made for a bit of a challenge, however very stylish!
if you are interested in seeing the eggs, click the following picture to enlarge and see the orange eggs sprinkled around in the waterJason was able to grab three or four of them - some of them all of a sudden got a spunk of life back in them and jumped free of his hands... it was neat for the kids to "pet a salmon". LOLThis was such a great experience - thanks for the idea of going there R-Family!! :) See you next Labour Day Weekend!

Tunnels

On Saturday, August 28 we met for an "in home" picnic lunch with the T-Family and then headed up to the Othello Tunnels! None of us remembered it being unpaved along the path, so that was a bit hard for some of the kids to ride their bikes on - but we figured it all out and did leave some bikes along the side for us to come back to! Worked out great! At one point Jen T. had 3 kids on the stroller! Here are two of them; Ben and Jessie!It was fun T's!

Kelly

This summer Kelly (one of our girls from China that we hosted a year ago) came back for a 6-week program! Unfortunately due to our travelling in July, we weren't able to host her again though. But we did have Kelly over for a weekend in August and then again for a quick visit the night before she was leaving for Home again! (shown)

That night we I pulled out a chipboard book for everyone to cover with pre-cut patterned papers and some stickers/letters. We also had our Japanese Student with us - Kana - at that time. Kana was with us for 2 weeks at the end of August.

Kelly, it was soooo good to finally have one of our Students return! We pour so much into the lives of these kids and so it was a real treasure to actually see one of these faces return!