It's been a few days, and we have been very busy. Grandma has been here for Samanthas birthday since Tuesday, and we have all been having a great time together. After the birthday party on Tuesday we all had a great sleep. Wednesday was a really nice day here, and we all decided to go out to Bunsen Lake so that the girls could swim and I could go for a run around the lake in preparation of running the Frosty Mountain Trail Run is September. The run around Bunsen is pretty difficult, up and down, and pretty exposed. The heat on Wednesday was quite oppressive to run in, and I eventually ran out of water for the first time ever during a run, but I was only about 1.5 Km from the end, so it wasn't so bad. Christine, Mom, Uncle Allan, Brenn, and Samantha all played at the beach while I had my run. They all got wet, and had fun playing in the water. When I got back from my run, they wanted to continue playing with me, for a little while before we had to leave. We had planned on making it home for dinner, but once we hit a traffic jam, we knew that we would have to go out for dinner so that the girls could get some food into their stomachs before they fell asleep. We ended up going for a great dinner at Milestones and made it home well after bed time. In hindsight, we should have taken Uncle Allans suggestion of going to his house for pizza, but we thought that we would be able to make it back in time. Once Samantha fell asleep in the car, we knew we had to stop.

Thursday, we played around at the house for the morning, and then headed down to Langley with Mom so that she could tour the prize home for the Childrens Hospital Lottery, and buy some tickets. It was our third time out to see the house, and it is still pretty fun to go look around. We have a lot of time on our hands some days, and it is fun just to go and do something that is free, and kills a lot of time. After we left the house, we stopped at one of the strip malls in Langley city, and walked around for a while before grabbing a bite to eat and going back home for another night. It was a really relaxing day all in all, and I felt quite refreshed after it. It was nice to just spend some time with the family, and enjoy each others company.

Friday was a bit of a difficult day. The girls were getting into some trouble, and having a hard time listening. We ended up all of us upstairs in our room, cleaning and organizing in preparation for me going home again in a few days. We are trying to get some stuff up to Prince George that we don't really need while I have the chance. My Mom and I will be travelling up to Prince George on Tuesday for a few days. We will likely be travelling back down on Friday, or Saturday. It was really good to get a lot of the extra stuff that is just to much to store here back home so that the kids will really be able to get into it and play with the stuff that they have here. Once we got settled down on Friday, the rest of the day went really well. Chad and Joanne will be heading home for good tomorrow, and we had been planning a night out for the last week or so. My Mom watched the girls, feeding them dinner, and putting them to bed to give us a greatly appreciated night out. We went to Shabusen Sushi, as they both really wanted to try out the Korean bbq. Once we were finished a great all-you-can-eat dinner, we headed down to Granville Island for some theater sports at the Improv Theater. It was really quite funny, and we had a great time. I have never been to a comedy show quite like it, and the format was really good. The crowd was involved in every part of the show, and it really made it fun. We ended up staying and watching the 11:45 show, so we got home a bit late, but we really had a fun time.

Today, again, we spent the morning, just hanging out around the house, and playing with the girls. My friend Bruce came down from Vernon to see us this afternoon. It was really special to see him. We have a very tight connection with one another, and it is always really great to see him. He has an amazing ability to level both Christine and I. We gave him the grand tour of the house, and made him some lunch before him and I headed down to Stanley Park for a round of pitch and put. We used to go to the pitch and put beside out house in Burnaby when we lived together all the time, so it was quite the day. We had an incredibly good time, and I really wish that we would get more time together more often, but that is the way things go I guess. It was wonderful to see him, and the kids were really happy to see him as well. We made some tentative plans to see each other here again in November, so hopefully we will be able to get together again then.

Things are a bit melancholy around the house today. We have found out in the last two days that two of the of the long term families will be heading home for good this week. We have really become close to both of the families, and they will really be missed. We all live in this crazy little bubble where every family has a major illness with one of their children, and we are all able to talk openly about them. It is a comfortable environment, but a strange one, and it is always sad to see one of the families go. We all want to go home, and re-join our normal lives, but when someone else goes, it is kind of scary. We are all so close to medical attention when we need it, and it is always scary to go farther away than our comfort zone. We of course wish both families well, and will miss their presence in the house. Seeing someone leave is sad, but it also brings you hope that someday that will be you!

Scott