Birthday letter to my TEEANAGE girl.

 To my beautiful girl,

     13. Today. How did this happen? You are an inch from being the same height as me, you wear my shoes, you're going to high school after the summer and you're not a little girl anymore. You wanted to redecorate your room and honestly, it was a little sad peeling off all the adorable little woodland creature decals off your walls...you used to love that pink owl and the little bird art. You don’t want to sleep in the pink and white whale bed anymore, and that bed used to belong to me so it was a bit sad to process you’re not so little anymore.

 As sad as ut was to see the little girl bed go, it was really amazing to new bed assembled and new bedroom decor while you were at camp for a week. I really wanted to have one of those Extreme Home Makeover moments where you walk in and see your new transformed room. It was worth watching the YouTube video multiple times and put that bed together in time for you to be so surprised.

    Wasn't it just yesterday that you were this squishy toddler with a wild mop of wispy curly hair? 

    Just last month was your last day of elementary school, you have been so blessed to have so many amazing teachers and friends. Some of those friends (like Nala and Alexa) you have known you since they were born (like you literally met Nala hours after she was born and Auntie Rachael and I prophesized that you two would be besties for life).

 Some of those friends (like Ella) you have known since you were in kindergarten and some of those friends you have made in your years of elementary school.

     I'm really glad you have found such a solid friend group - they are fun, quirky and have good hearts just like you do. As you walked out those doors for the last time as elementary girls, I pray that as you walk in the doors as high school girls this fall, I pray you will be girls who are kind, grateful and love people immensely. 

    So a bit of a confession, your dad and I really have no idea what we were doing in terms of parenting, especially with a newborn. When you were born, being first-time parents, we tried to do everything right and then soon realized that there are so many different opinions of what is 'right'. I remember one nurse telling us to clip our fingernails so you don't scratch yourself and another nurse told us never use nail clippers but to gently chew off your nails! And one nurse said to let you breastfeed whenever you wanted and another nurse said to be on a schedule. I didn't want to mess you up and it was really overwhelming with all the advice and 'rules' from other people. Do I let you 'cry it out' and sleep train you or do I rush to you whenever you cry?  I remember being so anxious when they let us leave with you at the hospital, we didn’t know what to do! You were so tiny, you grasped daddy’s finger in your delicate little hands and I knew my world would never be the same. 

    This picture was from your 3rd birthday. I can't believe that was a decade ago. Those were the bleary-eyed, exhausting days of parenthood. You were 3 and your little brother was almost 1. I don’t remember a lot, I didn’t sleep much trying to keep up with you and your baby brother…

    And now today, I feel so blessed seeing you blow out the candles to your 13th birthday cake.

    Somehow even though your dad and I had no idea what we were doing, by grace of God, you are so beautiful inside and out. You have a kind heart and you think about other people. You are intelligent and a voracious reader, you are working on collecting a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf of books. You have always loved animals and in the last decade, bunnies have been your favourite. 

    In the classroom and with people you don't know, you are a silent listener. The reoccurring comment on your report card from Kindergarten to Grade 7 was some form of, "Natallie is encouraged to share her thoughts and participate in class discussions." That's OK, I know you are listening and learning. You have lots of thoughts; if you're at home or with your friends, you laugh a lot and you have so much to say. And especially with your brother, he can bring the crazy out of you and make you laugh like no other person in the world. I hope you continue to grow in your friendship with each other. It’s really special what you guys have. Treasure it!

I hope you are feeling the love on your 13th birthday. You have so many people that love and adore you and so many people that have been praying for you since the day you were born. May you continue to walk with God as you mature. I can't believe you are a teenager today, I am so proud to be your mama. I know you're not so little anymore but you'll always be my firstborn and my beautiful baby girl.   

Love you to the moon and back, Nallie! 

XOXO…Mama

10 steps to an awesome kid-free getaway

This has never happened before. The kids are 10 and 12 and Simon and I have never been away without them for the last 12 years so when the stars aligned to have both of them attend camp at Anvil island for a whole week together, I was excited...

Step 1 - Send the kids away (hopefully to a place they are so stoked about and will be having too much fun to miss you). This would be camp at Anvil island. Last year, the kids went to camp together too but I decided to volunteer the week with them and I know from first-hand experience that a week here is a blast. If you're a parent then you know that you can't relax and enjoy yourself unless you know your kids are well taken care of and having a blast. We dropped off the kids 6:30 am Saturday morning and I knew they would have an adventure and so would we...

Step 2 - Pick somewhere not too far away. As much as I would have enjoyed going to Hawaii while the kids were away, I didn't want to be too far away in case there was an emergency and also I didn't want to do a big vacation without them. Honestly, I love my kiddos and it would be sad to go somewhere epic without them. Since we love hiking, biking and the great outdoors, we picked Sun Peaks in Kamloops.

Step 3 - Pack last minute. We were helping the kids pack their bags for camp that we didn't really get around to packing for ourselves until the morning we were supposed to leave but fitting everything in the truck is 100% easier when you don't have the kids and all their stuff. 

Step 4 - Enjoy the drive. Our kids are used to the long trek to Grandma and Grandpa's farm so it's not like it's usually bad but without the kids in the pack, we listened to our favourite podcast American Scandal which is a true crime podcast told like historical non-fiction, it's so good and made the drive go by so fast.

Step 5 - Coordinate with friends. A couple of our good friends also sent their kids to the same camp and we were able to meet up at Sun Peaks all kid-free. It was so nice to have the freedom to do whatever we wanted and no one whined or asked for a snack or needed to pee when there weren't any bathrooms. It's the simple joys of life.

Step 6 - Bike into a postcard. Lift-access biking means you get to start at the alpine without pedaling uphill and the view is just stunning.

Step 7 - Hike into a postcard. Same as for biking - lift access hiking means you don't need to hike to the peak to the gorgeous views. The wildflowers are right there all along the hike. Looking at the view and the mountains just makes you want to sing "the hillllls are alive with the sound of music...."

The guys had an epic day in the bike park while we hiked and admired all the wildflowers

Step 7.5 - Bring bug spray. I sent the bug spray with my kids to camp and didn't think I would need it but I was wrong. So wrong. Like 25+ bug bites wrong. We had planned to have lunch at Tod Lake but there were so many mosquitoes, we couldn't even stop for a minute. We stayed still for a nanosecond to take this picture and then pedaled as fast as we could outta there.

Step 8 - Figure out the answer to the age-old question “What does the fox 🦊 say?” This fox was so curious and came up on the bike trail and stuck around for us to awe and posed for pictures. I adore wildlife so I was stoked that this fox wanted to hang out with us. And the answer is that the fox says nothing … at least this one didn’t make a sound. 

Step 9 - Hotub with a view. The condo we rented had a hot tub facing Mt. Morrisey. It was 30+ degrees during the day so no one wanted anything to do with the hot tub but by 9:30 pm at night, it cooled down enough to enjoy the hot tub and the sunset.

Step 10 - Make new memories. Our oldest is turning 13 next week and everything has been a bit of blur since we had kids and we have never had a vacation without the kids. What a blessing it is to that Simon is still my favourite person to spend time with!