I appreciate there has been 3 ½ weeks since our last post and apologise to anyone glued to their computer awaiting our updates – probably just our mums!! We had 2 ½ weeks in Abbotsford just outside of Vancouver and then we’ve spent a week in the US with no wifi. So finally here is our time in Abbotsford.

Like an oasis, Abbotsford and more specifically Barb and Norb’s home, had been what we were heading for as we crossed Canada. We finally arrived on Friday 29^th August and I can’t describe how excited we all were to see each other, how ready we were to get out of Frankie for a while, to have a proper bed, a proper shower, washing machines, home cooking and time with family.

We had thought we might stay 10 days to a fortnight with them. John had a long list of repairs to be done on the van and I was looking forward to some time ‘out’ of the van, ‘in’ a house and ‘with’ some other people!

Barb and Norb, we knew, would be lovely hosts and had tons of plans of things we could all do together. I hope they weren’t too disappointed that all we really wanted to do was to ‘live’ with them and have a bit of a ‘normal’ life for a while.

Our first night we spent a lovely evening with Barb and Norb and 2 of their kids Jake and Emily and their spouses, Tricia and David. Last time we were here all 3 of their kids were young free and single and in the space of 3 years all 3 of them have got married.

Barb presented both the boys with their own tray of home baked buns the moment we walked through the door – lemon for Will and cinnamon for Charlie. They had literally died and gone to heaven. Barb’s cooking is legendary and 24 hours in we were loosening our belts!!

In our haste to exit Frankie we literally threw some clothes and our wash bags into a bag and slammed the door behind us. The next morning John wandered out there to get our teabags and came back reporting a rather unpleasant smell. I ignored him as I was in no rush to get back in the van, but eventually late morning we went out there together to investigate. Sulphur was the smell. And our battery was the source. Overnight it had boiled and was emitting some fairly horrendous fumes and spitting battery acid. I’m not sure if I really believe in divine intervention. But really…. we had slept in that van every night (bar 2) for 100 nights and on the night we move out the battery boils. Lucky or what!!! So that was the first of many many repairs that took place on Frankie over the 2 ½ weeks we were there.

As I said we were craving a bit of normal life. We hired a car and so for the time we were there we were able to ‘nip’ places and buzz about like we do at home. Being used to thinking where we will be able to park a 28’ RV with a 8’ trailer on the back this gave us such a huge sense of freedom, not to mention independence. I love my husband and kids but to have 20 mins in the car on my own with the radio blaring as I zipped up to Walmart to get milk felt like the best thing on earth.

Back on the farm the kids were in heaven; thousands of chickens, 2 cows, 2 pigs and a huge orchard and an enormous vegetable patch. Barb and Norb raise all their own meat, as well as growing most of their own fruit and vegetables and have I think 5 enormous chest freezers stacked with their own home grown and raised food. This is the Good Life taken to a whole new level. The kids completely loved it.

 

So day 1 the boys helped pick hundreds of ears of corn, husk it all then cooked, cooled, scraped and bagged it. Tricia got over 30 bags for her freezer and we got 10 bags for ours!!

They then helped Jake collect, sort and put onto trays 17,812 eggs (well with the help of the incredible computerised barn!). Charlie is well suited to the work, firstly loving eggs and secondly being so focused and possibly slightly OCD….

Charlie and Will both think of Jake as teenager and the fact that he is now a married man living in his own home on the farm, has done nothing to stop their hero worship of him. I heard them say to Jake that afternoon that they would be “waiting for him outside his door at 8am tomorrow morning to help him with his chores.” Poor Tricia!!

Day 2 will probably now rank as the kids best day in Canada so far. Norb and Barb took us out for the day on their boat with Emily and David and Norb’s sister Nancy and her lovely girls Erin and Hannah onto the Fraser River to fish for sock eye salmon.

The river has been closed for recreational fishing of sock eye for the last 2 summers, so now everyone is rushing to get their quota of fish. They are allowed to take 2 per day, so with our group altogether we were aiming to get up to 14 to take home and put in the freezer.

I’m not exactly known for my interest in fishing and when it started raining I was seriously regretting not pulling a sickie and staying in bed! But it turned out to be a beautiful day and such a lovely spot with the mountains behind us even I loved it.

Within minutes of arriving 2 guys along the river from us who had obviously already got their 2 each and were now only interested in hooking some huge Spring Salmon asked the boys if they wanted to reel in the smaller sock eye they had just hooked. So they immediately wrestled in a couple of huge salmon, which went into our cool box!

   

At the beginning the boys were quite squeamish about killing the fish and then watching Norb gut them on the rivers edge. By the end of the day Charlie was pulling out the guts and throwing the roe in for the smaller fish to feed on. They were in boy heaven.

They each caught – hooked and reeled in – at least one more fish each so they were absolutely chuffed to bits.

Home and then we all stood, watched and offered moral support to Norb and Barb as they cut and filleted 14 fish, then vacuumed packed them ready for the freezer. The kid’s fish were all labeled up and ready to go in the freezer in Frankie. So lovely to see the satisfaction on their little faces at this most simple but pleasing of tasks.

We went fishing again the following Sunday. This time on an absolutely blazing hot day. Nancy and kids and her husband Brian, Marlene, Beth and Dan and all of us. This time the show belonged to John. He caught 7 enormous fish and hooked and lost double that. The kids were less interested in the fishing this time as they were the mud pool Brian took them to. Another great day on the river…

   \

Barb hosted a family reunion on the first Monday, which was a national holiday, Labor Day. Barb has 4 sisters and 3 of them came with their kids and grandkids. Great to see them all.

This was our 4^th visit to Barb and Norb’s home and we insisted on being introduced to Norb’s family this time. How glad we are that we did. We had a fab Friday night in the garden at the farm drinking wine and sitting round the fire. Within minutes we all felt we had known each other forever. Nancy, Norb’s sister has 2 gorgeous girls, who our boys immediately bonded with.   Charlie and Erin are so similar in their personalities, cheeky and adorable in equal measure that they were inseparable immediately. Hannah is so loving and we so enjoyed her excitement at our visiting.

Norb’s brother Al is married to Marlene and we loved them immediately. (Obviously we ridiculed here daily and showed her the clips of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ so she understood why we insisted on saying her name in such a strange over exaggerated way). Once we’d met we arranged more and more meetings. Lunch dates with Nancy and the girls at the fantastic bakery Emily works at, play dates at Nancy’s house, BBQ supper and hot tub session looking at the stars at Al and Marlene’s up on the mountain and lastly a fantastic farewell party the day before we left. I think Charlie said in his post that we have made friends for life. I would add to that, that these lovely warm, loving people gave us a few weeks of precious family time, which we will never forget. We are truly missing you all and can’t wait to be with you again wherever and whenever that may be.

Ok back to the update…. One night in the first week Barb and I were invited to her friends for drinks and appetizers! June lives opposite Barb and Ruth is on the farm behind them. It was so lovely to have some girl chat. Not that my husband and boys aren’t wonderful company but it was so lovely to have a girls night. Had to smile to myself about the reading material in June’s bathroom – oh we ‘certainly aren’t in Kansas anymore Toto!!” (I told you I would blog that June!!).

The ‘hairover’ was for an adults only night out. Emily and David took the boys to the cinema and we took Barb and Norb out for supper. First time we have been out with out our kids in over 3 months. Obviously I got completely over excited and drank too much. But we so appreciated it and promise we will babysit any Heeres babies in the future!!

 

We managed another get together towards the end of our stay, which resulted in me getting my hair done. I really enjoyed having some girls time. I am really missing my girls from home and ‘borrowing’ Barb’s girlfriends was great.

 

  

 

Possibly one of the highlights for the boys was the skateboarding. We went along to the local shop and learnt of some lessons due to take place over the next week. Luckily for us BC teachers were on strike so the summer holiday classes were continued (not so luckily for all those parents itching to get their kids back into a routine again). Paul was their teacher, a guy who works in the shop and as it turned out was once taught by Norb’s brother Al. He was so wonderful. The kids hung on his every word. Fist bumps and high fives in class left John Barb and I stood on the side of the park looking like total parental losers. Barb’s shouted words of encouragement left Will looking very embarrassed!! They went to 4 classes in total over the time we were there and learnt some great stuff (so I’m told, I have literally no idea what it all means!!). Great news for me was I got to go to a couple of exercise classes while they were safely skating around under Paul’s watchful eye.

      

John worked tirelessly on Frankie. When we arrived there were no less than 20 parcels waiting for us. A few were parcels and postcards from some of you lovely people – thank you. I can’t tell you how lovely it was for all of us, but especially the boys to have something from home. But mostly they were parts for Frankie. New headlights. New winches for the awning. New struts for our bed (no jokes please – the van is 15 years old so it isn’t US that have worn it out over the last 3 months!!). So all in all John had a lot to do. The farm was such a perfect place for him to do all of that. Norb has workshops full of tools and is himself endlessly patient and helpful so John was able to do things we could never have done ‘on the road – alone’.

Barb waited on us hand and foot. I think I probably put a few things in the dishwasher (dishwasher – what a novelty!!!) but other than that I did nothing ‘domestic’ for the whole time we were there. The kids were completely spoiled with pancakes for breakfast and a freezer full of home baked cookies and buns that they devoured at will.

  

We had a couple of fabulous days out. A lovely afternoon on the beach at White Rock, when Emily and David joined us. Sunshine. The Pacific Ocean. Delicious seafood supper. Fabulous.

A great days walking at Aldergrove Park with the most incredible views of Mount Baker – nice of the Americans to give that to the good people of Abbotsford. It looms over the skyline at the back of the farm, which is so beautiful. I know as I spent many a morning on the phone to the UK doing work calls while the rest of the house were still asleep.

We made sure Frankie had gone ‘coast to coast’ by driving into Vancouver one day. Trailer on the back with our bikes and Barb and Norb are chucked in too. We went to Stanley Park and ‘biked the seawall’

  

Our last day we headed out on a whale watching tour. John and I did this tour with Barb and Norb and Emily, Beth and Jake 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Will. We headed off on an absolutely beautiful morning and were lucky enough to follow a pod of 13 orcas for over an hour. Sea lions and 100’s of seals. Priceless trip. My favourite part was when I heard a tourist ask the fisherman selling tuna from a stall very clearly marked TUNA what the fish was and then what the thing on the fish’s back was. “His fin” said the fisherman glancing at his mate in disgust. The tourist then asked “And do all fish have those…..” Genius.

 

Although it doesn’t sound like we have done much of any real ‘interest’ here in Abbotsford and I am well aware there are countless ‘places of interest’ in this area that we have missed I can’t emphasise enough how welcome this time was. Barb and Norb welcomed us into their home. They gave us a base. They allowed us to have for just a couple of weeks a hometown. We all loved getting to know Abbotsford and more than that we loved being a part of their fabulous network of friends and family. We have left feeling a part of that and know that we will certainly return. Thank you.  We love you guys.