Tonight Brad’s parents had everyone, including all of my family, out to their place in the country for a big Easter dinner. The Okanagan has been blessing us with some amazing weather, and because of it, we spent almost the entire night outside in the backyard. Barefooted babies, football tossing, and ridiculous amounts of delicious food made for an absolutely lovely evening.
Here is our night in photos…
Anxiously awaiting the arrival of her cousins.
Grandma Sue and her girls.
Dinner outdoors.
Girl talk.
Little performer.
♥
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Afternoon walks with Grandma Charlotte have become a routine around here… Each day, G returns with a lapful of hay for ‘Santa’s reindeer’ (a white-tailed doe and her fawn) and sets it out on the snow-covered lawn so we can watch them eat it up in the evenings.
Just one of the perks of being out in the country…
♥
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Our Christmas was lovely this year. We awoke to our usual morning call – “Mama, Mama! All done! All done! Grae Grae had a nice sleeeeep”, had a little family snuggle in bed, and made our way into the living room so that Miss G could open the little gifts in her stocking. It was filled to the brim with bath fizzies, miniature kitchen utensils, wooden stamps, a couple of little clothing items, an owl puppet, and some of her very favourite nuts and treats. Grae opened the tiny packages carefully, admiring each before moving on… She was thrilled with all of her new goodies.
With her stocking opened, we took a little present break and made a big Christmas breakfast together.
Brad and Gracen’s jobs? Playing with our freshly made gingerbread play dough and entertaining the crowd.
With breakfast eaten and cleaned up, we gathered back around the tree for our gift exchange. Gracen opened her gifts (plus helped everyone else open their’s) and spent a few minutes investigating each, before thanking the gifter and moving onto a new package.
She was hugely spoiled with new clothes {these little black boots included}, games, puzzles, a doll stroller, and wooden kitchen accessories, as well as this giant dress-up kit filled with all kinds of costumes and accessories.
After a lazy rest of the morning and early afternoon {plus a good nap for Miss G}, we all got dressed and ready for the big Ogasawara family Christmas dinner.
My mom and Rorie were able to come out and join us, which Gracen loved. She toured around the house showing Grandma Sue the gifts she’d opened earlier in the day and then settled in to play with her gingerbread play dough again.
As usual, christmas dinner was absolutely delicious. Gracen’s favourites included the turkey and rosemary smashed potatoes.
Afterwards, us adults visited with full bellies and glasses of wine while Grae snuck in a few last minutes with two of her very favourite new things – a vintage doll from Grandma Sue and a stroller to push her around in from Grandma Charlotte.
It was a good day. And only the start to our special days with family this holiday season…
After a fairly uneventful drive home yesterday, we’re back in the Okanagan to kick off our Christmas holidays. Today involved sled rides, icicle pops, and plenty of snow – the perfect winter combination.
Upcoming destinations on our Christmas 2012 adventure include Cochrane, Edmonton, and {the wee little town of} St. Paul. Fingers crossed the nearly 40 hours on the road will go easy on us…
♥
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For the most incredible little girl (and her pretty decent daddy), for our wonderful families and friends, for bellies filled to the brim, for a lovely weekend away, and for the most gorgeous autumn weather… I am thankful.
A week ago, Gracen was enamoured with the idea of Bella (Grandma Charlotte’s dog), but whenever the dog came within a 4 foot radius, she’d shake in panic and desperately try to climb up the legs of the nearest adult in search of protection (in Grae’s defense, Bella is still just a puppy and has been easily excitable and quick to jump up until recently). Now, just 7 days later, after many long walks and several baggies of dog treats, it’s a completely different story. They’ve become best buds. Grae isn’t the least bit fearful and Bella has been calm, patient, and gentle despite the lingering hugs, overzealous pats, and ongoing tail tugs. Just look at these two…
Tonight we celebrated Gracen’s Poppop’s 60th birthday with a low-key backyard barbecue. The weather was gorgeous, the company was good, the food was delicious, and most importantly… the pool was warm! Oh, and how can I forget – the cake was only slightly gravel-y… If you follow me on instagram (jkossowan), you know what I’m talking about. ☺
Each day that we’ve been here in the Okanagan, Grandma Charlotte has taken Gracen along on one of her daily walks with Bella, her two year old water spaniel. Besides some quality Manmaw-Gracen time, the result has been Grae becoming much more comfortable around Bella, Bella becoming much more calm and trustworthy around Gracen, and this Mama {and Papa} having an hour of our day to do anything we like. (I must admit, living overseas for the first year of Grae’s life and now living 5 hours away from the nearest grandparent has not allowed us many of these opportunities, so at first I didn’t know what to do with myself… But I quickly realized that the time could be very well spent doing little crafty projects for Gracen’s second birthday party, which will be celebrating at the end of August. Yay for getting things done early!)
The other thing that’s come of these walks is the realization that there were several currant bushes bursting with berries down at the farm. So this morning, rather than sending Gracen and GC on their way, we all headed down the narrow dirt road, pails in hand, with the goal of clearing the bushes and using the currants to make something yummy.
Of course, we had to stop part ways to allow Gracen to give Bella a treat. During the past week, she’s become the official doler of puppy goodies and she takes the job very seriously.
We arrived at the bushes to finding them bursting with tiny, dark berries. While Papa whined pretty much the entire time (hi Babe! ☺) and even tried to sit in the grass and just watch us pick, Gracen loved picking berries. She carefully plucked them off of the branches, gave them a sideways glance, and then popped them into her yellow bucket.
Of course, she made some time to sample them as well.
Before we knew it, the bushes were empty and we were on our way home with a bucket full of currants and a plan to make my yummy baked berry oatmeal for breakfast the next day.
When I heard that there was a zebra farm right here in the teeny tiny town of Lumby (the town that is so small that it’s technically a village), I didn’t really believe it. Zebras, like the ones from Africa, right here in LUMBY? Sure enough, my good friend, Google, confirmed the story. Rawhide Ridge Ranch, located just 25 minutes outside of downtown Lumby (towards Mabel Lake), is not only home to four zebras. but it’s home to turkeys, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, coy, and bison too.
Curious to see what zebras living in Lumby looked like, and knowing Gracen’s love of animals, we picked a day and booked a ranch tour.
Today, we arrived to the ranch to meet James, one of the farm’s hosts, a big friendly rottie named Max, and this sweet little calf named Sophie.
Gracen wasted no time and wanted to go over and say hello to Sophie right away.
Our host, James, was wonderful. He was super friendly, truly excited to tell us all about the farm, and very mindful of the fact that we had a {soon-to-be} two year old with us. He even brought out a bottle of milk for Gracen to feed Sophie.
We spent the first part of our tour oohing over Sophie and this one week old foal, named Sky.
After a quick trip to the pond to admire the gorgeous water lilies and lily pads, it was off to the barn to meet a mystery animal named Tom.
Turned out that Tom was a giant, friendly turkey who roams freely around the ranch.
Such a funny looking guy – and with a personality to match.
We hung out in the barn for a while and visited with the other birds, and then it was time to be on our way.
Next stop – the fish! Strangely enough, this was one of Grae’s very favourite parts of tour (most likely because James gave her the job of feeding some of them).
It wasn’t easy, but when we finally convinced Grae to leave the fish, we headed down to the field to find Lucky, a very friendly ram who happily walks on a rope and visits with guests. We petted him, learned about what to do if he ever puts his head down and looks as though he might charge at you, and some of us (not me!) were even brave enough to try playing a butting game with him.
Then it was off to see the farm’s highlight… The zebras.
When we got up to their enclosure, they were all the way at the very back of it near the forest, so James went in, rounded them up, and got them to come towards us. The four of them, including 3 mares (2 of which are currently pregnant) and one stallion, came right up to the fence to let us admire them. They were beautiful and it was really cool to see zebras happily living in this sort of setting, rather than in a zoo. We learned all about zebra behaviours and even got to witness Apollo, the dominate stallion, keeping the herd close together by nipping the rump of one of his female counterparts.
After a visit to the bison herd, that was our tour. We stopped to see the fish again, visited the beautifully rustic guest house that can be rented out much like a bed and breakfast, said goodbye to Tom, and left with a dozen free-range eggs and Grandma Charlotte’s name on the list for an all-natural free-range Christmas turkey.
We had such a good time at Rawhide Ridge Ranch that I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to visit a real, working farm.
♥
UPDATE: Rawhide Ridge Guest Ranch has closed since our visit.
Rawhide Ridge Guest Ranch is located on Siglet Road in Lumby, BC. Contact them at rawhideridge@gmail.com to book a tour. Tours are $10 for adults, $5 for children, free for munchkins 4 and under and can be booked from April 1st to October 31st.
I knew I would (I may have sat in the back of the taxi with silent tears streaming down my face as we drove away from our baby girl’s first ever home and made our way to the smoke-filled airport for the very last time), but I miss it more than I expected to. No, I don’t miss the insanity of the highways, the snail’s pace at which government processes happen there, the nearly impossible task of finding black beans on grocery shelves, or the dust storms that turn the sky orange and coat your apartment in a thick layer of sand.
What I do miss though, is the community we had there. I miss being constantly being surrounded by friends and fellow stay-at-home-mamas. I miss impromptu baby play dates that were as easy as taking an elevator a few floors up or down. I miss walking over to the building next door for take out and homemade wine with friends. I miss our door being knocked on by people just stopping by to say hello.
But then I see photos like these {taken by Bradley while out for a walk with Miss G this morning}… And they remind me of why we’re at home in Canada right now. Because a little girl meandering through a field of flowers surrounded by fresh air and tree-covered mountains just doesn’t happen in Kuwait…
No matter how long our vacations in the Okanagan are, we still seem to have troubles making time to see all of our friends and family members during our stays. It just seems there are always too many plans and not enough time… Luckily, many of our family members make the trip out to see us, which is always very appreciated.
Today, Gracen’s Great Grandma Shirley was able to come out to the farm and spend the afternoon and evening visiting with Miss G (and us too of course). We played outside, went on a couple of walks, and had dinner, all whilst Grae showed her great grandma her best tricks.