Well we this weekend Carrie and I decided to get out for some family fun. For starters, we finally saw some weather that almost resembled summertime. This weekend was absolutely gorgeous, and since I've been doing so well, there is no way we were going to waste it. We started by taking the girls to their first parade. On Saturday they had the May Day parade down in down town PoCo, so we packed up some gear strapped the girls into their car seats and headed out. The girls absolutely loved it. Eva was fascinated as she watched the VPD motorcycle drill team weave up and down the street performing tricks. Meanwhile Cassie decided that the parade was in desperate need of her involvement and continually tried to shake mommy she could walk with all the other people. It was absolutely adorable and the girls were fascinated watching for nearly two hours as the parade passed them. After the parade we went for a little walk, and maybe stopped at Dairy Queen for a little snack. I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise that the girls were a little sleepy.
On Sunday we decided to take the girls for their first real trip to the beach and thought we'd visit Fiona's favorite dog park at Buntzen Lake to do it. Again we loaded up the minivan (I don't care how uncool people may think minivan's are, I love ours) and headed out on the road. Since the weather was great the beach was filled. Dogs everywhere and the girls cackled gleefully every time any of them came near enough to let them be petted. They also got to spend some time digging in the sand, which, while they weren't sure about at first, they warmed up to as time went on.
We ended up the weekend with a great Mothers Day dinner at my Sister's place with her family and my Mom and Dad. The sheer chaos of 4 kids, where the oldest is 2yrs and 8 mths and the average age of the four is something like 15 mths, is truly something to behold. We had a great dinner and there only a few territorial battles throughout the evening. Before we left we gave the girls a little night time snack, got them in their jammies and then bundled them up in the car. Now, I'm not going to add a picture of the last part of our story more for your sake then anything else. As we were driving home we stopped at superstore for Carrie to look for some red hats for the girls for our great strides walk in a couple of weeks. I let Carrie out and went to go find a parking spot. All of a sudden I heard some less then pleasant noises coming from Eva. I looked back just in time to see the visual result of those noises as she decided to say goodbye to her dinner and snack in the fastest manner possible. I quickly pulled into the fire lane and quickly got Eva out of here car seat. Now Eva was quite upset by this turn of events because aside from the casual spit up as an infant this is the first time she's actually thrown up and she didn't really understand what was happening. I quickly started the damage control and that was the moment when you realize how much you truly love your children. Here I was, up to my elbows in nastiness as I tried to clean the car and cuddle Eva at the same time ... and my only thoughts were that I hoped she was ok. No frustration, no anger, no repulsion at the mess, just parental concern. She was fine by the way and within minutes she was having the time of her life sitting in the front seat pushing buttons on the stereo while I made her car seat usable again.
The long and short of it is this was a truly great weekend and without all the effort that I've put in over the last few months, I never would have had the energy for it. I didn't have time for any afternoon naps and while I'm tired, I'm not exhausted. I also hope this can be an example for all those CF moms out there that worry if their son or daughter can have a normal life when they grow up. It really doesn't get any more normal than hitting up a parade, the beach and celebrating mothers day with your wife and two baby girls.
I also just want to add a little addendum. In two weeks I'll be participating in the Great Strides walk as a part of team "Reddy for a Cure". It's a team put together in honour of Eva Markvoort and I'm accepting any and all pledges of any amount you can spare, every dollar helps. Thanks to everyone who has already pledged me and I'll be sending out more personal individual thank yous to everyone who helps me after the walk.
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