We had a good long weekend. Chris only had Friday off, but it was nice to have him home one extra day. We did a family dinner at his parents’ place on Saturday and then took the boys out for dinner on Sunday, so that was fun. Justin was so excited about the Easter egg hunt that we had to re-hide the eggs three or four times so he could find them again; Brayden mostly enjoyed making a huge mess with the Easter grass from his basket. Good times all around.

Brayden turns three in a couple weeks — boy, time sure flies. His speech keeps improving by leaps and bounds, and it’s amazing to finally get an idea what’s been going on inside his head. Last week we were out walking and we came to a construction sign that said “Trip Hazard”, and Brayden paused, then pointed to each letter and told me what it was. Not only that, but later that day when I told Chris about it, Chris asked Brayden if he saw a sign today, and Brayden proceeded to spell it out again from memory (he only got as far as “t-r-i-p”, but it was still astounding). This is a kid who spoke almost no words until a month or so ago, so it’s incredible to hear him come up with something like that. Another activity that’s been great for his speech is Play-Doh — he’ll want to make things that remind him of movies or TV shows he’s seen, so we make a fish tank and some fish (Finding Nemo), or a cheeseburger and hot dog (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) or different cars (Cars). I don’t even have to prompt him; he just starts telling me all kinds of stories about each movie. Awesome.

Three weeks from today we’re off to Europe for our Mediterranean cruise — I can’t wait! I get a little panicky when I think about leaving the kids for two weeks, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get over that. My brother and his girlfriend are leaving a few days earlier than us to do Venice and Rome on their own before the cruise starts. Cool story about them: when they booked the cruise, they chose a cabin with a fully obstructed view (cause it’s cheaper) but said they were open to upgrades. Then they got a free upgrade to a room with an unobstructed view, so that was neat, but then the cruise line offered to upgrade them again if they paid a little more money. So they paid, took their chances…and ended up with a verandah cabin (meaning they get a balcony) on the navigation deck, mid-ship. So they’re going to have quite a view. Chris was jealous and had to be reminded that I have motion sickness problems and could never have a cabin that high up on the ship (and then he had to be reminded that no, we can’t afford two cabins). I figure we’ll hang out in Dave’s room (he says the price of admission is beer…when I mentioned that to my mom, she noted that it would probably be cheaper for us to get our own verandah room) and if the sea gets choppy or whatever we can always go back to our cabin. The best of both worlds, I say.

More news about Dave and Tanya: they’re moving from Whitehorse to Kamloops. I’m very excited cause they’ll only be a two-hour drive away. She got a new job in Kamloops and he’s giving his up to follow her, so we’re all impressed. They were on a house hunting trip a couple weeks ago and managed to come down to Kelowna for a short visit, so that was great, although the boys found it strange that Uncle Dave was only here for lunch (usually when he comes, he stays for a week). I’ll finally have a golf buddy within a reasonable distance — yay!