A Historical Visit

We finally had a chance to get out to the Chase & District Museum & Archives. The museum is in a church and it's always looked super cute. Since we were staying here for a while, I thought it'd be nice to know its history. The museum is operated by volunteers and during the summer they have a government grant to employ a student from a nearby university or college.

Now Chase is a nice little place to visit if you are going to be staying by the Lake but as a historical museum stop, I don't believe it's a hot spot. So it was understandable that as we parked our car, the student who was on for this summer came racing out with a grin. "I thought I heard someone pull up!" he exclaimed with a little hint of desperation. We then had a VERY thorough tour of the museum. I found it really interesting to have every nuance of the place described to us, the young man definitely knew his stuff :o) There is the Laviolette Log House depicting the life of the early settlers in Chase and in the garage off the museum they have a 1923 Franklin,the eighth oldest in existence; it still runs and was in a parade recently.

At the entrance with the sunflowers.

My favourite part was the back of the museum where they had barber shop mock-up and the Original Underwood Hotel bar - apparently, some visitors are quite shocked when they see a bar in the church :o)

Getting ready for a trim :o)

A visit from family!

Brea's Po-Po and Uncle Ambrose came to Chase for a weekend getaway/visit last week. They really missed Brea and wanted to make sure she hadn't forgotten them. It was a lovely weekend and we got to show them around the Lake on the boat and Uncle Ambrose even went diving for a few golf balls! Brea really enjoyed having more people to lavish her with attention, especially Uncle Ambrose who would pick her up and play with her WHENEVER she wanted :o) He was pretty tired by the end of the visit - I think he hid for the last hour before they headed home.

Captain Brea taking us out!

A nice conversation with Po-Po.

Enjoying the breeze with Uncle Ambrose.

Siesta on the water.

The Written Word

A current favourite lift-the-flap book.

She loves kissing the babies in this one!

Brea LOVES books. She comes by it naturally of course, having two bookworms for parents, but it's truly amazing how she is totally drawn to them. Every morning she has her stories. We brought most of her board books with us to Chase and she makes her way to the book basket for her selection with a smile without fail. She can sit quietly for 3, 4, 5 books! Her favourites are the Sandra Boynton books and she always gets "Goodnight Moon" before bed. Magazines have been her latest treat. She'll sit and finger the pages, flip the corners and eventually rip the cover off (they are more flimsy than her books!) and she'll have a grande time doing it. And then of course, there's ANYTHING that Mommy or Daddy is reading - it doesn't matter to her if there are no pictures, if we're interested in it, it MUST be great!

OH! That was SUCH a GREAT read!

Brea does not have the typical favourite toy. She learned to roll over for her mittens, scoot for her shoes, and it looks like books might do it for her learning to walk.

Showing her furniture walking skills but only when offered a book!

Brea discovers the perfect reading chair.

We were visiting "Betty's Used Books" the other day and Brea was in heaven. There were more books there than she'd ever seen. And to top it off, the shelves had books at her height! I stood her by the Games books so I could check out a few things and when I'd turned around, she had a book about Chess in one hand, another about Scrabble in the other and she wasn't holding onto the shelf! If I hadn't panicked I think she would have stood for a few seconds longer before she realized she was no longer being supported. The same thing happened later that evening when she furniture walked her way to her book basket. I guess there's nothing that can quite distract like a good book :o)

Baby on the loose!

She's moving alright and quickly at that!

Wordless Wednesday - Good enough to eat!

Not exactly what I had in mind when I hoped she'd develop a taste for reading...

Moving Day!

Where did all my stuff go?!

Finally some space to move!

It figures that Brea would make her mobile debut on our "Moving Day". Perhaps it was the vast expanse of floor space after the towers of cardboard boxes were removed or maybe it was just because Mommy and Daddy were stressed out and busy but Brea discovered the joy of scooting just before we moved out of her home of 10 months.

Pushing off!

She's been perfecting her skills in Chase alongside with furniture walking. It's been great for her, not so great for Nana and Grumpa's wine racks :o) Don't worry, Nana and Grumpa your bottles are safe!

With the onset of mobility, Brea has also developed a keen sense of separation anxiety. It figures that with the move, loss of familiarity, and all the other weirdness around her, our normally chill baby has turned into "DON'T LEAVE ME!"-girl. I'm lucky if I can make it a few feet away before the whine starts. Sleeping has totally regressed, she's been clutching me to sleep and really anything where I am not in full view is impossible. Poor Craig has borne the brunt of it for the last few days because she would not accept him as a substitute for me and there's nothing worse than when your holding onto your daughter and she's wailing because you're not the parent she wants.

Happier times on the dock.

Our lovely home for the month.

A smile in the sun.

Luckily, Chase has many diversions: boat rides, walks on the beach and many doggies to see has made it not so bad for "DON'T LEAVE ME!"-girl. It has been amazing to watch Brea with dogs. She's not scared one bit! She's very fascinated by them and will stare for hours if we let her. They bark at her, she stares, they lick her, she smiles, they smell her, she tries to paw at them... you get the idea. Maybe a dog will be in our future? We'll see.

Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!!!

We hope you are all enjoying celebrating the country we live in and basking in the sun. We are finally taking a breath after moving the last few days. All of our possessions are in storage now and we are anxiously awaiting July 31st when we move into our new home :o)

The move went quite well, there were a few moments to remember :o) Like when the new owners walked in on Craig when he was in the shower. Somehow, they thought they would be able to come in early and got the keys from the real estate agent. Let's just say I don't know who was more surprised, Craig when the alarm went off or the people when a half-naked, covered in shaving cream, dripping guy came running out of the shower.

We arrived last night in Chase, BC where we will be living for the next few weeks. It's gorgeous here and once I've settled everything and baby, I will snap some pictures to share with you. Brea has been the best little girl throughout this whole thing and apart from clutching me to sleep last night, she's been adjusting well and taking everything in. Tonight we are heading to the park nearby where there will be music and fireworks to enjoy (maybe Brea will even stay awake for it). Our email is still working and my cell phone too. As soon as we have our new contact information set, I'll send out a notice to you all.