Kyle's Girlfriend Arrives!

Sunday was a big day for Kyle (and us all) as the love of his life arrived - all the way from New Zealand. I am sure you have guessed that it is Missey (his dog).

She has been staying with Heather & Grant since we left NZ, till we got ourselves a bit settled.
She hopped on a direct flight from Auckland to Vancouver and 13 hours later she arrived here. She was soooooo excited to see Kyle, she didn't know what to do with herself. She leap around for a few seconds, then she took off running! Kyle took off after her, but couldn't catch her! She was heading for the closes piece of grass - she had held on for the entire flight, plus the hours prior to the flight she was in the cage, and after, in all it was about 17 hours!
It was funny watching her cause she wanted to be with us, but she really had to go toilet and she didn't quite know what to do. Once she got that out of the way she was wiggling and squirming with excitement.
Kyle couldn't stop smiling the whole way home!



Missey's nose hasn't stopping 'sniffing' - so many new smells and sounds for her. I don't think she realizes she in on the other side of the world.
Kyle left for school this morning and Missey wouldn't settle - I figured she might need to go toilet so I let her outside. Within seconds she had picked up Kyle's scent and was off at a 100 miles and hour to find him - it took quite a lot of yelling for me to get her to come back (I hope no one on campus heard me yelling!).

Missey checking out the view.

We left early on Sunday so we could do some shopping in Vancouver before we collected Missey. We are starting to get a feel for the shops (which you would imagine as I have spent so much time in them!). We went to Costco to stock up on a few things and we found this fantastic looking pumpkin pie - it is hugh and it only cost $5.99. We are having it for tea tonight - I can't wait.


Some of you have asked how Kyle's first quartet performance went on Sabbath. Well they didn't perform - they didn't feel they were ready yet. Which took a bit of pressure off the 2 new guys. Kyle is finding it quite challenging to sing a 'part' which isn't the tune. He could do with a few prayers if you feel so inclined! He has never sung a part before, so is having to work quite hard at it - but he will get there. They are planning to sing this weekend and instead of performing one piece, they are planning to do 2! Pressure, pressure pressure.

I am sitting in orchastra practice at the moment and the quartet is going to sing! I am nervous and excited at the same time. I will let you know how it sounds....................

............... sounds great - I am feeling very proud right now! Thanks for those prayers - keep them coming

Visitors - both furry and not!

What a lovely sabbath we are having.
Last night we went to vespers - we felt a wee bit out of place as there didn't seem to be any other staff/parents there, just students - but thats ok, we want to get to know the kids and be part of what is happening. None of them minded at all that we were there.
We spent nearly 2 hours listening to the students testimonies of how they came to be at Fountainview and experiences they had had over the summer selling books.
Listening to some of their stories made us realize how lucky/blessed we are.

The orchestra and choir did there first performance today in church. It sounded great. Here are a couple of pictures - can you spot Kyle and Tamzin? It's not hard to find Kyle in his red shirt, Tamzin on the other hand is a bit harder to spot in amoungst all the guys in the cello section!



Speaking of Kyle and his red shirt. Here at F/V the boys are required to wear ties to vespers and church. We still haven't found/unpacked Kyle or Alistair's ties yet. The only tie he had was the one that came with this red shirt we bought for his baptism. Well this tie is the narrowest tie ever - I think it came from the 80's! Kyle did not want to wear it as the fashion now days are those great big wide things! But since that was all he had, he wore it.
Well the whole evening all the students kept commenting on how 'cool' his tie was - it was so funny - maybe he can start a new (old) trend.

Today we had our first visitors - they came for sabbath lunch. I wasn't sure if the food would be hot or cooked as I am still trying to work out this oven. But it all went well.
They were Steve Hall and his daughter Jessica. They are the family who live close by and are the only ones whose girls are day students here (rather than living in the dorm). His wife and other daughter were away for the weekend so we thought we would have them over. Jessica is in grade 12 here at F/V - she is lovely.

When we got home from church today we found we had another visitor - it was a deer in our yard. It was great. It was missing an antler though. This is the first time I have seen wild life here on campus. They say there are a number of bears and cougars around. Don't think i will rush up and take a picture of those if I see them in the yard!


Today in church they announced that they will be doing another major filming production this year - like the Steps to Christ in Song DVD they did. They will be basing it on the book Ministry of Healing - they are hoping to film it in Hawaii. Sounds like lots of fun (and lots of work).

The weather has turned cooler (told you that would happen when we bought an air conditioning unit). Last night there was snow on the mountain beside us - it was gone this morning, but in it's place was fog! So we felt quite at home. The fog was gone by 9am which was nice.
It is much cooler today thought - had to put a sweater on, and it is cloudy today. They say fall is on it's way.

Rumor has it there is a games evening tonight - if so we will go check that out.............

Hope you all have a good week.

Singing News

Today was a good day for Kyle - he found out he will be singing in the guys quartet!
He couldn't stop smiling. All the kids have been congratulating him and encouraging him.

They have 2 existing singings in it and they took on 2 new guys - one being Kyle and the other a student that was here last year. Kyle will be singing baratone.
There first performance is this weekend! Talk about pressure!

Tonight at orchestra practice they had the choir singing with them - it was fantastic, made me get goose bumps listening to it. And to think it was only there 4th time playing/singing together.

I can't imagine what they will sound like by the end of the year.

Kyle seems to be doing quite well this week - after spending 2 days working in MG (Market Gardens) with Alistair, they put him in Media (video editing) - which he thought was great. Not quite sure how he managed to get a go in there, but he thought it was pretty good. All the students who have had a go in media have been given the same song to edit and make a video of. I guess that way they can 'compare apples with apples' and see who does best, then they can decide who they will have in there long term. Kyle isn't holding his breath on that one.

I didn't unpack any boxes today - thought I would have a day off.
One of the other new staff families here gave us a microwave today - which was a blessing. They had 2 and were having trouble fitting 1 into there new place netalone 2, so gave it to us. It was the very one I was looking to buy (at $150) - God is good.

Tamzin and I went to Lillooet again today to do some more 'poking about'. It isn't too bad of a place. Seems to have most everything one needs, and the prices are quite good too.

Well 5.30am will come all too soon, so I best be off to bed........good night all.

Frist Day Of School

Yesterday was Kyle's first day of school. Doesn't he look handsome?!

He wasn't too sure about this whole business of sitting in class for half the day (they work for half the day and have classes for the other half).
But the day went well, and I think it would be safe to say that he actually may have enjoyed it! He got to hold a snake in science class, so thought that was pretty good. Lets hope the enthusiasm continues.
He has a very busy schedule: He leaves the house at 6.45am to be at the boys dorm for worship at 6.55, then off to breakfast at 7.15, music practice from 7.50-8.20, then work from 8.30-11.55, lunch 12-12.55 (they have to change clothes in this time), classes from 1-5, orchestra from 5.10-6, tea, then worship from 6.45-7.10. He comes home till 8 as this is the boys study time then heads back to the boys dorm at 8 to have free time with them till 9! Not much time to for the students to get up to 'no good'. I think that is the idea.

It has been a few days since I last updated the blog. This is due to some internet difficulties, but we had the computer man up at the house today and he seems to have sorted it out. So hopefully I will be able to do regular updates again. (As if you guys hold out for my updates!).

We had a fantastic time at the lake over the weekend. Tamzin went out for the day on Friday and had a blast with all the kids wakeboarding and knee boarding and all that fun stuff. James Rafferty took his wakeboard boat also, so that was fun.
The camp is about a 20 minute boat ride up the lake. On Saturday Alistair, Tamzin and I went up to the camp site on the jet ski. The weather was amazing - the lake was as smooth as glass. The surroundings are so ruggered, set in the midist of hugh mountains. The helicopters would come a fill up their water buckets from the lake and dump it on the fires which were burning on the otherside of the mountain!

Upon arriving at the camp, I was blown away. There were near on 200 people camping there (all the students, there families and some staff). The size of the beach was not what I was expecting, it was about 3 meters wide at it's widest point and was about 100 meters long and there wasn't a grain of sand in sight - it was stones/pebbles.
Mostt of the boys had just rolled out their sleeping bags and slept on the beach/stones and the girls had pitched their tents up amongst the bush - which wasn't very flat. What really amazed me though, was that there was just 1 long drop toilet for all those people! I tried really hard to not have to use it while there, but unfortunatly wasn't able to hold on so had to brave it - not something I would like to repeat!

Having said all this, it was very well organized. They feed all those people without any power or running water and the food was great.
They ferried everyone's things over on the pontoon boat Fountainview made themselves and also on the houseboat of one of the staff here. The house boat comes equipped with a hot tub which was very much a hit with the students on Sunday when the weather turned rainy and cold, but they all still swam etc, so was a nice place to warm up in after. There were so many kids on the front of the boat it looked like it was going to sink!
Unfortunatly, the weather didn't play the game on Sunday and rained - they only get a few inches of rain a year and it had to come on that weekend. So everyone packed up and headed out earlier than planned. But it was still enjoyable.

Yesterday there was a first for me too - I went to a new hair dresser! I have been going to the same one for 15 years, so it was quite a big deal for me to have to find a new one. I managed to find a lady who works from home in Lillooet (about 20 mintues away) and she did a good job. So that was a relief. And she was reasonably priced too - I guess we are talking Lillooet not Vancouver!

Alistair is still 'finding his feet' with work. His job discription has change from what we thought he would be doing, so he is getting his head around that. He is now the Farm Manager for the the organic carrot market gardens. Fountainview is the largest organic carrot producer in British Columbia, so he has his work cut out for him.
His work force is 28 students age between 15 and 18 (some of whom would rather not be pulling weeds in the carrot patch!). They rotate the students around to different parts of the school for the vocational work. Kyle has been put in the market gardens with Alistair (not our choice), but at least Alistair knows his capabilities and can put him on the machinery.
Kyle is hoping to get a go in the media department where they do all the video editing etc. I guess he has 3 years to get a go in there - i think it is pretty sort after.

Tamzin and I unpacked a few more boxes today. Doesn't look like we have made much of a dent on the piles and piles of them. Small steps I guess, a few each day and we will get there. Somethings will have to stay in there boxes as there just isn't room in this house to have everything out.

I better go do some more............

A Busy One

Another day is drawing to a close - and it has been a busy one.

It was registration day today - The place was 'humming' with people. It was quite the operation getting all the kids through all the stations - auditioning, uniform sizing, student id, financial, student life to name a few.

I even had a job - I was working in the office helping to make sure each students papers were in order. Haven't even been here a week and I'v got a job! So much for the unpacking........

Tamzin and I returned back to F/V last night after a very busy shopping trip to the 'lower mainland', as they call it. The back end of the van was nearly touching the ground with the load we had in it. We had some pretty heavy items (it wasn't all clothes!). Had to buy a wall drobe unit for the kids rooms as there aren't any in there, and a 'garage in a box' for Alistair. It is what is says it is - a canvas garage which is big enough to put your car in. (it was really heavy). We don't have a garage and we thought it would be good to put the jet ski in, plus the bikes etc.

On our way home I realized we had forgotten to buy hand soap and since we are soooo far from anywhere thought we better get some. So we got off the freeway at Chilliwack and pulled into a shopping centre to go to Walmart. Well much to my surprise there was a police man standing in the parking lot stopping cars, and you guessed it he stopped us. We rolled down the window on Tamzin's side (as that is the side he was on), he took a look in and then informed me that Tamzin was wearing her seat belt incorrectly - she had it tucked under her arm. That is a $167 fine for that he says - and told me that I would get the ticket (not Tamzin). I couldn't beleive it - as if we hadn't 'hemeraged' enough money in the last 2 days! like I needed to pay that, specially after we had had to pay $150 fine last week when we got towed.

I never knew you could get a ticvket for that - at least she was wearing the thing!

Well next thing he just stepped back from the car. I sat there waiting for him to give me the ticket. Then he says 'you can go'. What a blessing. That would have been a really expensive bottle of hand soap!

Alistair and Kyle have gone to test out the jet ski. Thought they better give it a trial run in the water before we take it out on Sunday for the campout the students are going on.

We went and checked out Seton Lake which is just out of Lillooet, about 30 minutes away. It looks great, and it is hugh. I will put in a picture of it.



This is the lake the camp out will be on. All the students are leaving at 8am tomorrow (Fri) to go camping till Sunday. They are getting a speaker in for the weekend - James Rafferty - he is from 3ABN and does a slot with Ty Gibson I believe. I think we will go out for the days. Quite a few families are camping too, but I can't face the thought of packing up for camping right now. It is hard enough finding all the stuff in the boxes that Kyle needs for the weekend!

The weather has cooled off. That would be right, just when Tamzin and I bought an airconditioning unit! The A/C does make it nice though and I guess now is the time to buy while they are on sale for next year.

When I say cooled off, I think it was still round 28-30 degrees today.

Tamzin auditioned for the orchastra too today - they have said that she can be in the orchastra also even though she isn't a student. So that is great. She is quite excited about that.

Well I see the boys have just returned from jet skiing so better go get the 'low down' on how it all went.

Till next time....................

Here I am Finally

Well I can finally get on the blog! Sorry for the delay in putting an update. For some reason at Fountainview the blog will not let me update it. They are having a few issues with the server there and will be updating it soon so hopefully that will fix it.

At the moment Tamzin and I are down in Abbotsford/Vancouver shopping so am taking the opportunity to give you all an update................

Let me see, where did I get to - we collected our belongings from the container on friday. Mitchel, Aaron, Ruby and Connie came and helped us - which was great. Made the job go so much faster and was a great help with my back the way it was. (It is much better now) Everything seems to have travelled well, which is nice.

We bought a jetski trailer so we could get the jetski home. They are the biggest rip off's ever. They cost a fortune for not much of a trailer - anyway I guess we had to have one.

So after getting all that sorted we headed on our way back up to Fountainview. We got to F/V right around sunset, so we left everything in the truck till Sunday.

Kyle was rather 'gutted' that we didn't get back a bit earlier so he could ride his 'new' bike which he purchased 3 days before we left NZ and had to put in the container.

F/V has lots a great places to ride a downhill bike. I wonder how long it will be before he puts a scratch on it - or on himself!

Saturday evening we unloaded quite a few boxes as it was much cooler then. Then Sunday we finished unloading the truck and squeeeeeezzed everthing into the house. We have 2 bedrooms FULL of boxes, but at least it all fitted in.

I have spent the last few days unpacking and washing. For some reason everything has come out of the container smelling horrid, so I have to wash EVERYTHING. Bit hard to wash the couches and mattresses! I think I will try and get some sort of fabric spray to make it smell better. Those who know me well, know that I have a rather sensitive nose, so I will have to sort something out.

Alistair started work on Monday. He still isn't sure what he will be doing, so he wondered around - actually he stole someones motorbike and cruised round the place most of the day I think! No, he did try to look like he was doing something useful!

Kyle has been working on campus helping prepare the place for the students which arrive Wed (tomorrow). Tamzin did some work too. They had to sort, wash and bag-up for freezing 250kg's of blueberries for the cafeteria. They are a bit over blueberries at the moment.

I did a 5kg box for us - they are yummy, will be nice to put in/on pancakes.

On sabbath we went to church and met more of the people here on campus. They are all so friendly and welcoming - it is really nice. They all seem to know who we are, we are having abit of trouble remember everyones names, but we will get there.

Sabbath afternoon the princples and his family asked if we would like to go for a hike (obviously they don't know me very well yet!).

Alan, you would have been proud of me - we climbed up the side of a mountain in 38 degree heat - and I didn't even complain (perhaps that is because I couldn't speak as I was gasping for air). Finally, the family must have realised that I was on the brink of 'passing out' so decided that perhaps we should head back down the mountain and sit by the creek - I would have jumped for joy at this suggestion - if I had had any energy left in me. I think they got the idea that I thought that was a VERY good idea, with the vigiours nodding of my head.

I haven't felt that ill in a long time.........

Today Tamzin and I have headed down to Abbotsford (a 3 hour drive each way) to do some shopping for things we need for the house and also to buy her a cello. We were hoping to make it back home tonight but the cello buying took longer than we thought and we had to go right into Vancouver which took quite abit more time. So we are staying at Janel and Dan's place (I use to babysit her when we lived here) - that makes me feel old.

So tomorrow we will hit the shops again then head homeward.

I better get some sleep so I have the energy for shopping tomorrow - I must say I am a bit over this shopping.........

Good to Go

Wednesday we headed off back down to Vancouver for our appointment with customs. We borrowed a covered in trailer from Fountainview with us in case we needed some extra room for our stuff. We didn't think we would be able to find a parking spot in downtown Vancouver so we swung by Connie's and left it there.

After a 5 hour trip to Vancouver (there were road works), it took all of 4 minutes at the customs office for them to look at our inventory list, passports and give us the stamp of approval. It was great that it all went well, but it did seem a waste of time and effort for 4 minutes!

Anyway, we are very greatful that it got cleared so quickly and easily.

So we are good to go, the container will be ready for us to collect on Friday morning. We have booked a truck for Friday so will be off to load everything into it. Mitchell and Aaron are going to come and help us load it, so that will a big help.

Today (Thursday), we have spent the day in the shops - we are all very 'over' shopping - never thought I would say that. We managed to get quite a bit of the things we need to set our wee house up though, so that was good. Still haven't done the big 'first' grocery shop yet, not sure what we will eat, may have to keep eating in the cafeteria.

We did get a rude shock today. We came out of the bike shop to discover that our van was gone - it was a pretty 'seedy' part of town and a guy had been hanging around it. I had been watching it, but obviously took my eyes off it for longer than I should have.

Well it turned out it had been towed away - not stolen - which was a relief, even though it was a pain. Alistair had to catch a ride with the tow truck driver who was there towing the next vehicle and went to retreive it - paid his $150 and then came back to collect us.

We had parked there at 2.30 not realizing that it became a clearway at 3pm. We came back at 3.07 and it was gone. They sure didn't waste any time. We watched them as they towed away about 6 other cars. They didn't even leave a note or anything to say what had happened to the cars, it was just a God send that we saw the tow truck man and asked if he knew what had happened to the van and he took Alistair to get it.

Lesson learned - check all signs before parking!

After getting our van back we headed off to the airport to bid farewell to Carol, Sarah and Katie. They were heading back to NZ. Was nice to see them - I am sure the rest of their family are very much looking forward to them returning home.

My sister-in-law Connie which had the brain surgery 3 weeks ago, is doing much better. We saw her yesturday and she was looking a lot better than last time we say her. She still has a ways to go before she will be 'running marathons' or anything like that. It was nice to see her with a smile on her face rather than 'pain lines'.

Well I better go get some rest so I have lots of energy for tomorrow - I have the feeling it will be a long day. After loading everything into the truck we will be driving the 5 hour trip back to Fountainview.

Wish us luck - actually on second thoughts pray for us, I think we may need it..........

We Are Home

Well we have made it to our resting place..............

Yesturday (Monday) morning we left Vancouver Island and caught the 8am ferry back to the mainland and headed for Fountainview.

It was a very overcast and rainy day - which was very good for the forest fires which are burning everywhere.

We spent last night in our 'new home'. We still don't have our container of belongings yet, so we blew up the air beds we used at camp meeting, rolled out the sleeping bags and we were good to go.

They told us we could eat in the cafateria till we got our things.

Last night though, instead of having cafateria food for tea, a group of the staff (deans etc) and the students that are staying on campus all headed to Lillooet (1/2 hour drive) for tea. So we climbed aboard the bus and went along too. We went to a hot dog stand that serves vegan american hot dogs and sweet potato fries (like golden kumera). They were very tasty.

After tea they decided to go for a short walk and have worship along the way. The kids saw a bear as it scurried off into the bushes. Very exciting.

Worship was taken by one of the students - it was excellent. All about how hard it is for us to leave our friends and family to follow God's leading, and how God will be with us every step of the way and will be our best friend - very fitting for us we thought. We felt very blessed to be part of the evenings activities.

Another highlight of the day was that we got visitors - kiwi visitors within an hour of arriving at Fountainview!!! We were very surprised when David & Carolyn Hunt (Ellis) and Owen Ellis arrived on our door step. It was lovely to see them. They have been over visiting family and friends for a couple of weeks. It was very nice of them to pay us a visit.

Today (Tues) has been a slower day - trying to get paperwork sorted etc.

Tomorrow we are heading back down to Vancouver to customs to clear our container of belongings. We will be down there for a couple of days and all going well, we will be able to bring our things back on Friday. We have hired a U Haul truck to bring it all back in. Just where we are going to put it all, we aren't quite sure yet!!

I have been busy making a list of all the things we need to buy - shower curtains, toilet brush, microwave, dishwasher!, food - the list goes on and on...........

It will be a very busy couple of days in Vancouver.

Market Day

Today Lynne took us to some markets in Coombs.

Can you see the goat on the roof???

They were great markets. They had shops with all sorts of interesting things in them.

The grocery store had lots of different foods from around the world. They had a fantastic bakery with yummy pies and breads. See the swirly colored bread and all the different pies. i couldn't get over all the different cheeses there was to buy.

They had an ice cream shop with heaps of different flavors. Tamzin got 'deep dish apple pie' flavor - it tasted just like apple pie.

After we were done wondering the markets we headed home to drop Alistair and the kids off, then Lynne and I hit the shops appliance shopping. Made our first appliance purchase. It is a panini maker, griller and waffle iron all in one. You change the plates in it depending on what you are cooking. It is really neat, and since space is a bit of an issue we felt that having one appliance which did all this, instead of 3 was a good thing.

Haven't been able to buy to much house stuff yet as we don't have alot of room right now to fit it in the car.

Returned the new camera I bought on Friday. The photo quality wasn't good enough. Just goes to show one shouldn't judge something by the outward appearance, it's whats inside that counts!

We are heading to Fountainview tomorrow to get settled in our new house. Our container is due to arrive this week and hopefully we can get it cleared customs etc and in to the house by friday. In the meantime we will camp in the house with the camping gear we got for camp. Just as well the air bed is a comfy one.............

Happy Birthday to You

Today was Alistair's birthday...... which he kept reminding us about.

We headed off to Harbourside SDA church and met all the nice folks there.

Thought we would stay for church lunch and see what happens at church lunches on this side of the world - much the same as at home really......

After having a wee spot of R&R we headed out to the park in search of some geocaches.

I think we found 6 or 7. Along the way we came accross this deer, which wasn't very scared of us.

We had a nice time in the great outdoors. It wasn't such a nice day weather wise today. Rained for the morning, but stopped in the afternoon, but was cooler than it has been - had to have a sweatshirt on.

We sang happy birthday to Alistair and presented him with not one, but 2 birthday cakes. One with chocolate and one without (for the Tamzin's amoungst us).

We have had a nice day meeting new people and spending time with old friends...............

Friday

Another week is drawing to a close. It is Friday evening and we are relaxing at Lynne and Lyndon's place on Vancouver Island.

We have spent the last 2 days shopping - trying to get clothes sorted for Kyle to wear to school, finding a jet ski trailer to buy and looking at washers/dryers.
Somewhere along the way I found a new camera to buy - it's red, so I couldn't resist it! Kyle is busy telling me all the features it has - I haven't got near it yet! It is just a point and shoot one, I wanted a small one that I could carry with me.

Today the 4 of us sat our boat exams to get our boat license. Over here you have to have a boat license to drive ANY thing on the water. It's a bit of a joke really - none of us had studied and we all passed! Glad we have gotten that out of the way.

The weather has been nice and warm. It has been very hazzy here though as there are 400 forest fires raging between lillooet and Williams Lake and the wind has carried the smoke down here. The sun has been orange/red from the smoke. The fireman are keeping very busy.

My back is feeling better than it was on the day I did it, but it still is giving me a hard time. Hopefully it will come right before we have to unload the container.......... any volunteers to come help us move into our house????

Painful Day

Here I find myself on my knees beside the bed. Yes I have been praying, but I must admitt that the reason I am in this position is because it is the most comfortable place to be, with the least amount of pain...... but I am getting ahead of myself - I will start at the beginning.

Tuesday: We headed down to Vancouver and spent the day with Connie, Mitchell and Aaron. Not sure if I have mentioned that Connie (my sister-in-law) had brain surgery 2 weeks ago. She is home from the hospital but isn't doing as well as hoped. She is getting very bad headaches and vomiting on and off.
The doctors aren't sure why this is happening.

I spent the afternoon chating with her and keeping her company while she slept. It was nice to be able to do that. Alistair took the 4 kids off swimming and looking at motor bikes. Sounds like they had a great time. They even managed to get Alistair to do a back flip off the high (no just joking the low) diving board - the kids said it was quite the sight (don't think he acheived it).

After we had enjoyed Indian food with them for tea (supper), we headed back the 2 hours drive to where we were camping. Upon our return we found that they had locked the gates and we couldn't get in - it wasn't even 9pm.
Alistair went in search of the care taker to open the gate and let us in - which he found.

When we reached our tent we discovered that it must have rained VERY heavy while we were gone. Well you remember that lovely mossie tent in the photos that we bought - well that is where we had all our food/chairs/ cooker etc - while it doesn't have solid sides now does it. So you guessed it - everything was soaking wet.

Luckily the inside of our sleeping tent was pretty much dry. There was some water on the floor and praise God the books we had bought from the ABC were on a bit of a 'lump' so didn't get wet. We fell into bed and decided we would deal with it in the morning............... hopeing that by then the wind would have dried everyting.

Wednesday: Well the wind didn't dry anything!

We spent 3 hours trying to sort through wet food/chairs/tents and cookers. Unfortunatly about half way through this process, while packing up the airbed, something went 'ping' in my lower back and that was the end of me! I was down and out, hardly able to move.

I was gutted - that was the last thing I needed. Specially as we had a 2 hour drive and a 2 hour ferry crossing ahead of us to get to Vancouver Island.
I did lots of praying and talking with the Lord and the pain did ease somewhat. It wasn't the most comfortable trip to the ferry but we got there.

Upon arriving at the ferry at 2pm to catch the 3pm ferry, you can imagine my dismay when we were told that we wouldn't get on the 3pm one and would have to wait till the 5pm. My heart sank at the thought of sitting in the car another 2 hours than first thought.

Again I had a wee talk with the Lord - and you guessed it - we got on the original sailing, the 3pm one. What a relief.

We are now at my friend Lynne & Lyndon's place. She has given me some wonderful drugs to help with the pain and beleive it or not this kneeling position has really helped - why should that surprise me!

Lyndon took Kyle and Alistair to see some hotrod cars - '66 corvette, older camaro's, GTO, 1948 Plymouth, 1937 Plymouth, mustangs - for those of you who care to know what some of them were. Then they went to see some remote control airoplanes. So you guessed it - Kyle thinks we now need a remote control plane - thanks for that Lyndon!

Well it is late and I have put off going to bed for long enough.......... goodnight all

Slow Day

Today has been a rather slow day - it has been great.

We headed into the town of Hope - the chainsaw carving capital of the world. The carvings were quite amazing.

The town had some lovely flower pots. The ones in the photo below were huge. I hope I can grow some like that next summer - yeh right.

We did a spot of geo caching - found 2 of the 3 we went to find.

We went to check out the local swimming spot - it is called Lake of the Woods. We were surprised to see all these people perched on rocks around the edge of the lake, enjoying a day at the beach. There was not sand or clear shore line in sight. But they were all having the time of their life. I was surprised how warm the water was, but I still didn't get in. It was very clear and very picturesque.

We drove about 30km to a resort town called Harrison Hot Springs. What an amazing wee place. It is at the bottom end of HUGE lake. I think every man and his dog decided to go there today - well today is the monday of a long weekend. Had we had out jet ski we could have launched it for a mere $18, we couldn't believe that they would charge so much to put your boat/jet ski in the water.

We decided that we couldn't afford to stay in any of the fancy hotel/motels they had, so we headed back to our cozy camp site. We had planned to go for a swim in the hot pools, thinking they would be something like Miranda, but they were in a building. Just like going to the swimming centre. we decided that that wouldn't be that exciting, so gave it a miss.

For those of you who appreciate old things, we took a picture of this old Harley motor bike. Check out the seat.

For tea tonight we enjoyed a big cook up of perogies and onions, and Tamzin made a fantastic salad. it was very yummy.

The mossies have decided to arrive and partake in some good kiwi flesh. Tamzin has been eaten the most. We had to dig out the bug spray. We were quite enjoying no bugs...........

Well camp meeting has come to an end.

It has been nice meeting new people and catching up with a few old friends.

We have been really impressed with how camp meeting has been run. Not once during the 5 days here did I strike no loo paper, no hand soap or no hand towels (I did encounter no hotwater though). They kept the toilets so clean and tidy. The campers were all very considerate of each other. You were allowed to have your cars at your site and drive them in and out whenever you wanted. No one abused this, there were no 'hoons' speeding round the place. It has been very pleasant.

On Sabbath we were invited to have lunch with a group of families from fountainview. It was really nice for Kyle and Tamzin to met a number of kids that will be at F/V. They made them feel very welcome. Even took them of a bit of a hike - which Tamzin hasn't stopped complaining about!

Today saw the camp ground empty out as everyone went home. We have decided to stay on camping here for a few days and use it as a base - you can't beat the price $11 per night - for all of us. We plan to go and visit Connie, Mitchell and Arron and do a spot of shopping. Might even go for the odd walk...

Here are a couple more pictures, since some of you asked for more......

Ruby & Mitchell, and Hannah and Scott (K&T's cousins)