Beautiful!!!

Wow! We have the most gorgeous view we've ever had camping!! We are at a campground, just outside of Salmon Arm, B.C. on the Shuswap Lake. The campground is very quiet, which is what we were hoping for!! We're 1 row back from the lake, with no one in front of us. The lake, mountains, hills, etc. surrounding us are so pretty. Absolutely gorgeous :) Only downfall is the train tracks behind the campground! Well, I should say only downfall for the adults, Blake is absolutely thrilled with all the choo-choo's he's seeing! Today he saw 5 engines!! We've had a nice time here in Salmon Arm. We arrived Tuesday morning, it was a short 1 hour drive from Kamloops. The weather has been nice overall, it rained off and on on Wednesday and it's been between +15 and +24 during the day. Nice for a group of people who don't really enjoy extreme heat! We visited an amazing indoor jungle gym on Wednesday and of course we had to hit up a fruit stand - SO yummy!! We checked out the local mall as well and spent lots of time digging in the sand! Blake loves playing on the beech and splashing on the shore. Today he had jeans and running shoes on and decided to go wading in the water! What a mess ... but he was having a blast! Emerson was feeling a lot better, but this evening I think she seems to be getting uncomfortable again. I hope tomorrow she'll have a big diaper full!!! Tomorrow morning we're leaving the Shuswaps for an overnight stay in Banff. From Banff we're heading to Candace and Brandon's house for Sunday and Monday night. We're visiting Lindsey, Andrew and baby Parker, going to the zoo and hopefully stopping at the new outlet mall north of Calgary! Home on Tuesday. It will be sad to be done our vacation, but nice to be home on the other hand. The kids have been awesome. Everyone seems to think I'm a bit hard on them, and I admit I am, but hey, what can I say?! I am, who I am!! Camping with just Blake was a piece of cake, camping with a 2 yr old and a 6 month old is not as easy, but they make it pretty darn good :) Thankfully Emerson is not waking up at 4 and 5 am, like she did in Saskatchewan! They're both sleeping in, phew! It has been so nice having my parents with us. I think Blake is going to go through Bampa and Bamma with drawl come Sunday when we go our separate ways!!! He enjoys riding in their truck with them and doing all sorts of fun things! We are so blessed to have such wonderful parents :)

We hope everyone is having a great week, have a good weekend and we'll "talk" to you when we're back home!

xoxo Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson

Interesting Beginning :)

Hi everyone!! I am writing to you from Kamloops, B.C.! We arrived here this afternoon. We began our holiday in Jasper. We left Friday morning around 9:30, stopped in Niton Junction for gas and Edson for lunch. We got to Whistlers Campground just outside of Jasper right in time to check in at 2 pm! Erica, Dion, Danielle, Mom, Dad and Jeremy and Lindsay were not far behind us. Unfortunately Emerson was not feeling very good. Ever since she started solids she has been a bit "backed up" and I think it finally caught up with her! She was very uncomfortable and straining quite hard, so we decided to take her into the E.R. We figured we might as well get the problem dealt with right away, rather than hoping it would resolve itself. I was kicking myself for not bringing her into her pediatrician before we left home. So we took her to the hospital and she was given a glycerin suppository and we went back to the trailer. The glycerin suppository didn't produce much and she continued to be out of sorts and not herself, so after a visit to the Miette Hot Springs, we put Blake to bed and took her back to the E.R. I felt this Dr. was a bit more attentive. She manually removed some of the blockage and used another glycerin suppository to try and extract more, but not much happened. At this point in time, Em was pretty upset! The Dr. also found fissures, which were causing Em to withhold everything. The Dr. wasn't sure what else to do, so she called a pediatrician at the Stollery to consult with him. He suggested an enema and a prescription laxative. So the Dr. administered the enema and wrote us a prescription. We have to give her the laxative (laculose) for at least 2 weeks, until the fissures have healed and she sees her pediatrician back home. The enema did not work, so we were back to the E.R. Sunday morning! But the Dr. who was on call this time said try the laculose and if that doesn't work then come back again! So we filled the prescription and it worked!!! Thank goodness! It didn't take long and she was back to her smiley self :) Now we hope her sleep routine will return ;)

So that was the interesting beginning to our vacation. Heidi headed back with Lindsay and Jeremy for a vacation in Fort Mac! We're leaving for Salmon Arm tomorrow morning. The weather looks like it will be in the 20's, which is great for digging in the sand!!! We'll be in touch! We have Wi-Fi there as well! Hope everyone is doing great!

Luv Tracy