summer photo shoot

Almost every year I try to do a photo shoot with the kids (many have been on the beach).  But this year I decided to use a groupon I had bought ages ago for some family pictures.  This particular photograher does her photos at a local outdoor location which I love, I wanted some natural looking family photos as a memory from this summer in Ontario before moving to Seattle.

 

 

Tennis

Kyle has definitely improved his tennis game.  He has missed a few weeks of lessons because of our trip to Seattle and a forgetful Mom (yep, last week I was so busy getting the house ready to put on the market that I completely forgot about his lesson).  This week he was back on the court and I was impressed with some of the shots he made.  I'm pretty sure he could take me now in a game!  Next up is finding a good place for Kyle (and maybe me) to take lessons in Seattle.

We have been busy

It's a busy time when you have a house for sale and planning a big move.  Keeping the house in near perfect condition for showings and following up on paperwork.  But we've managed to have some fun too...

Leah has continued with her gymnastics program through the summer and Jillian had fun at a couple of days of gymnastics camp with one of her best friends

 

Spending a lot of fun time with Nana

Trying to enjoy our last few weeks of owning a pool (but the weather is making this difficult)

A visit from a very pregnant Sam...we can't wait to meet the little man (also we noticed Kyle is now as tall as his former nanny!).

 

a trip to the dentist for all three kids...this little 5 year old is beyond excited to have two (slightly) wiggly teeth!

One night we had to be out of the house for a few hours for showings, so we did McDs for dinner and open family gym night.  We were the only family there so we had whole the gym to ourselves!

The kids are enjoying all the eating out (so many showings at meal times!).  I'm a little sick of eating out and convenience food now and looking forward to when we can cook some real meals again.  

exhausted

I remember clearly the day Jeff came home from work asking what I'd think about living in Seattle.  I thought it sounded like a fun adventure, no matter how unlikely it seemed at the time, sure I said, go for it, see where the interviews lead.  Fast forward a couple of months and we are in the process of buying a house in Seattle, selling our house here and dealing with the logistics of moving a family of 5 to another country, on the other side of the continent.  It's exhausting.  Mentally exhausting with all the forms and financial stuff we have to deal with, with new stuff coming at us each day...certifications to import the car and van to Washington state, forms for the bank, negotiating with the sellers of the house in Seattle...new stuff every.single.day.  Then there's the physical work of getting our house market ready.  And believe me, it was quite a job!  There's Jeff and I, plus our realtor (who was literally washing my kids' lunch dishes while I cleared out bedrooms) and an amazing cleaning lady who spent all day here working hard.  We did manage to get the house looking good (as long as you don't look in any closets or the garage).

Jeff and I feel like there really is an end in sight to the forms and logistical planning, but we are definitely in the hard part right now.  I'm so happy we have help from friends and family along with our realtors and the company organizing our move.  It just seems like so much work right now.

The kids by the way are being amazing about this whole thing.  I realize things will get a lot more emotional once our move day (yet to be determined) is in sight.  For now we are able to look up info about their new schools and talk about some fun adventures we are hoping to have once we are living on the west coast.  I still think it will be a fun adventure, but we are now living the reality of what moving out of country means...it ain't easy!

12 year old boys

Kyle was a bit disappointed when we didn't have time to do the exploding coke thing during his birthday sleepover, so we had his 3 buddies over for the afternoon.  In addition to playing magic the gathering and going for a swim, we headed to the park to do this...

mentos + diet coke = explosive fun

It really doesn't take much to make a 12 year old boy happy!

Home from Seattle

A few observations about our trip the Seattle area...

* everyone is friendly in Seattle, seriously everyone

* I always thought of myself as a night owl and not a morning person, it turns out I've just been living in the wrong time zone because on pacific standard time I'm up early! (this may or may not change once I move there and fully adjust...)

* if you are house hunting remotely it's good to do some research beforehand but you need to keep an open mind and have a real estate agent who knows what you want and knows the area well.  We checked out many areas and loved all of them, but in the end we bought a house in an area we hadn't even considered before the trip.  We were focused on schools and Jeff's commute and we think we found the perfect house for our family that meets all of our criteria

* my kids are awesome...a long flight to Seattle followed by three days of driving all around the Seattle area and looking at house after house...they were very well behaved (even our real estate agent was impressed with how well they'd done)

After having a few beautiful sunny days, we finally experienced the Seattle drizzle...this was taken on one of the floating bridges as we drove to Bellevue

Overall the trip was a success.  Not only did we find several homes that would work for us but we even put an offer on one of them.  We still need to do all the boring stuff like an inspection, arrange financing, get our house on the market and sell it.  Once we have a move date then I can start focusing on the actual move and things like getting the kids registered for their new schools.  Because we won't have the house until the end of September, the kids will start school here and we will move when house and schools are all organized.  It will be hard for the kids to move once school is started but this happened so fast it just wasn't possible to have everything in place before the start of school.  Also, because all of this happened after school ended I think it will be good for the kids to have a chance to say goodbye to all of their friends and teachers.  

We are all still a mix of being excited and nervous at the same time.  The most important thing is we are all in this together.

The kids loved an entire week of eating at restaurants including The Old Spaghetti Factory

You gotta have Starbucks in Seattle.  This isn't The original one, I will be sure to visit it at some point though

At the airport ready to head home after an exhausting week!

House hunting trip...day 2

Today was a busy and productive day!

1. We checked out houses in Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond...we love downtown Kirkland and have ruled out Redmond due to long commute time for Jeff

2. The downtown fountain is THE best splash pad I've ever seen.

3. The monorail is a quick and fun way to get across downtown Seattle

4. Even when the market is closed, Pike Place smells like fish

5. We saw jellyfish!

6. Jillian's hives came back :( we still don't know why for sure but Benadryl is helping thank goodness

7. I'm getting tired of visiting every single public washroom with Leah...every.single.one

8. I think the gum wall is gross but hey, I'm not in charge of tourist attractions.  All three kids left their mark on the wall, although I had to stop Leah as she started to lean in to stick the gum directly from her mouth to the wall (ICK!)

9. House hunting in a strange city is exciting but also difficult and exhausting

Tomorrow we are checking out houses in the north Seattle area and more sightseeing stuff with the kids.

House hunting trip to Seattle...Day 1

The day started early (far earlier than normal for me).  The flight went well, kids all did amazing on the flight.  And surprisingly I only had to take Leah to the washroom twice during the 5 hour flight (I was worried I'd spend the whole flight in that itty bitty bathroom).  

In flight on demand movies and tv, puzzles and art supplies kept the girls happily entertained.  Kyle loved the movies and read a new book.

Checked into the hotel and went for a walk.  Ate our very first family meal in Seattle at an Irish pub! Some time exploring around the space needle and the park but kids (and mom) were cranky and tired.  At this point we had been awake for over 12 hours.  Some resting at the hotel, well resting for me as I had a nap but the kids did not.  

Playing on some whales with the Space Needle in the background

The girls on a seashell hunt

Jillian got her feet wet in the Pacific

Dinner on the patio

More walking and this time we walked along the water, stopping at a place on pier 66 for a yummy dinner out on the patio looking over the water.  A stroll through Olympic Art Park on our way back to the hotel then time for bed.  The girls were asleep before their heads hit the pillow and I am not far behind!

Today went really well.  No problems other than a mystery rash for Jillian (my poor allergy girl, hives just follow her wherever she goes!).  Some benadryl and a shower cleared them up, hopefully no more allergic reactions on the trip.  Next up tomorrow is bank stuff and looking at houses in Bellevue and Kirkland.  The kids really want to try out the very cool splash sphere in the park.

a very BIG adventure

Our family is about to embark on our biggest adventure yet...we are moving!  To Seattle!!!

A couple of months ago Jeff was approached by a recruiter and started interviewing with a company based out of Seattle.  While they do have a Toronto office, we knew moving to Seattle was a possibility.  When the offer came it was for the Seattle location which meant we had a big decision to make.  There were a lot of factors, and it was a very difficult decision but in the end we have decided to take a leap of faith and take this opportunity for our family.

The thought of leaving family and friends behind is hard (VERY hard).  We are leaving our comfortable life here including schools, the kids activities, our neighbourhood, our church, our support structure..the thought is terrifying (typing it out here makes it seem even more real!).  As hard as this all is, I'm feeling blessed that we are in a position to take advantage of this opportunity...my children are healthy and do well in school so I have no doubt they will adjust and my parents are healthy and I'm looking forward to having them visit us on the west coast for some fun adventures.  The more research I do on Seattle and the surrounding area, the more excited I get about how much fun this will be for our family.

I'm also becoming overwhelmed with the logistics of what needs to be done in the next few months to get our family of 5 moved to a new city, in a new country, on the other side of the continent.  But it will all get done, and thankfully we are moving in the easiest way possible with the company paying for our relocation and helping out with real estate agents, a house hunting trip, and the many, many forms to be filled out.

First step is a family trip to Seattle.  Other than a short trip Jeff took for his interviews, our family has never been to the west coast.  I've had a few people comment that it will be difficult for us to take this house hunting trip with the kids along but both Jeff and I feel we need to involve the kids in every step of the process.  They've known about this from the very beginning and we have tried to help them feel involved.  I feel like there are so many things about this move out of their control, anything we can do to help them feel more comfortable is a good thing.  We have a Seattle real estate agent helping us, and I've already done quite a bit of research on schools and neighbourhoods so we have a good idea of where we are looking.

And that's what's new with our family!

a full house

Kyle, Jillian, Emma, Leah & Thomas

language was no problem for these 5 french speaking kids

It's always fun when my sister and her family comes for a visit.  But this recent visit was even more fun because we had in-laws from France along as well.  My brother-in-law is from France (a french chef...how lucky are we?).  Sam's sister and her family have been in Montreal and other parts of Quebec visiting for the past couple of weeks and we've been looking forward to their visit here when we could all meet.  Add in visits from my Mom and Dad during their weekend here and we had a full house!

(see Kyle's photo bomb?  I looked at this picture 3 times before I noticed it!)

One thing is they do not speak english.  Thankfully Kyle & Jillian do so they were able to help out with interpreting and the kids were all able to hang out and have fun together.  While in the Toronto area they went downtown twice and went to see Niagara Falls.

It was so much fun having them all here.  Seeing my niece and nephew is always fun, they are changing so much from visit to visit.  And as always I loved spending time with my awesome sister.

This is pretty much what Noah does whenever my sister isn't within arms reach 

Family time

The kids and I spent the night at my Mom and Dad's house to hang out and have some quality time together.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time with Nana and Granda including a walk around the lake, playground fun and going to see Smurfs 2.  

The family fun continued the following day when Aunt Tara and Brent visited for the day.  Kyle had a great time playing video games with his big cousin and the girls loved spending some girly time with Aunt Tara (and Aunt Tara left with an original artwork collection for her office walls...my girls are always willing to help out when someone has bare office walls!).

Very soon we will be spending time with Aunt Christina, Uncle Sam, Alicia and Noah along with some in laws from France...looking forward to have a full house and seeing my sweet niece and nephew (and having my kids practice their French).