Cousins
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Okay, so I've finally uploaded many of my photos from our trip to the Turks, so feel free to check them out. There's a lot there, so be forewarned! And maybe tomorrow I'll upload a bunch from NYC and Seattle. For now, I must get ready for my massage tonight - I know, I know, a rough life!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

home sweet home!

here we are
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Okay, so we've made it home safe and sound - exhausted but happy to be here! I've uploaded about half of our photos onto flickr, and will do more tomorrow, but for now I'm heading upstairs to eat some of the yummy smelling stir-fry that Jamie made us!!!!!!!

Cam, Easter morning

Cam, Easter morning
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Ryland searching for eggs

Ryland searching for eggs
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Tiegan's grouper

Tiegan's grouper
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

It was kind of funny - we'd spent a day at the beach collecting shells and diving off the boat into turquoise waters. Then on the way back we decided to stop and try a bit of fishing - the guys went at it for about an hour, constantly snagging the bottom and drifting out to waters that were too deep. The girls were starting to feel restless, so finally Jamie told them they could have a turn. For both of them, they no sooner put their line in the water when they got a bite! Tiegan wiped her hands, proclaimed that this fishing stuff is easy, and went back to sit down wondering why everyone else was having such a hard time!

Kea's catch

Kea's catch
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

nurse shark

nurse shark
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

So, Jamie, Ian and Wayne went fishing yesterday and Jamie caught a nurseshark. I think it was kind of crazy, and once they saw what it was and how many teeth it had, they decided to let it go. Shark's supposed to be good meat, but noone really wanted it in the boat with them!!!!!

There's been some debate around here about what to name the boat, by the way, and I think suggestions would be welcome. I've suggested "Baited Breath" and "A-Lure", and then there was the favoured suggestion of "Master Baiter", which we all think is PERFECT but I don't think Wayne is quite as convinced!!!!!

Our days in the sun are up now, and in about an hour we head to the airport to fly to New York which will be rainy but fun!!!!!! More photos when we return home, for now I'll add a couple of the kids!

Jamie's day out fishing....

Jamie caught a parrot fish (also the most common fish we see snorkelling in the Coral Gardens)
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Jamie and Wayne went out on the boat fishing today, and came back with all sorts of envious stories of dolphins swimming with the boat, catching huge fish and spying on exclusive resorts - of course, they also had hours of boredom, but Kea thinks it would almost be worth it to see the mom and baby dolphin!!! A few more photos of his adventures on flickr!
Another day, another tropical beach. I could almost get bored of this pace! Perhaps we'll seek out a day adventure to North Caicos in search of bright pink flamingos and a new snorkelling spot!

We have arrived!

I have arrived.....view while reading a book on back deck
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Just a quick hello from the sunny, hot climes down south here! I have a few photos on flickr, the ones that we've taken with Wayne's camera - but we can't figure out how to download mine so you'll just have to wait until we get home!

We've spent every day in the water, we've dove for conch, ate conch salad, gone fishing and caught a cool-looking fish, gone snorkelling along the corals, I swam with a sting ray and then turned around to see a sea turtle up swimming right next to me. WOW, very magical! Lots of colourful fish - Kea is all over this snorkelling thing, and goes out for hours with me, pointing out one colourful fish after another. Tiegan has yet to get used to using her mask in salt water, so instead bobs along in her floatie next to Jamie, asking him repeatedly what he's seeing as he tries to snorkel! And Ryland sits in the shade and eats sand :-)

We're well, over our jetlag, almost over our coughs, and relaxing muscles that we didn't even know were stressed!

Pink teeth

Tiegan's new pink teeth (forget silver!!!)
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

We knew that Tiegan had cavities, as over a year ago we'd done her first dentist appointment and he found some on her molars. Apparently she has deep crevices in her molars, so it's not surprising at all that she would have small cavities in them. However, our dentist does not deal with young children, and he recommended me to another office that does not allow the parents into the room with the children. Now, knowing Tiegan's personality I knew that would not work, so we just left it while I sought out an alternative.

And then someone recommended Vedder Clinic out in Chilliwack. Yes, it's far from Vancouver, but originally I had booked the appointment for when we were on our way to Princeton anyways. But then Tiegan threw up on the way, starting her round with the flu, and we had to cancel. So on Thur. we trekked out there again, and after our hour long appointment I have to say it was WELL worth the drive!

Dr. Miriam Liem is such an amazing dentist. She was very calm, patient and respectful of Tiegan. She told her stories, played counting games, let her play with the tools, and never once had her anxious or upset. Tiegan doesn't even KNOW that she got a huge needle in her gum, that's how skilled this dentist was! Tiegan got 2 x-rays done, four fillings and a check-up, was laying in the chair for an hour, and thought it was a fun adventure! I think Dr. Liem could make millions coaching other dentists in bedside manners, she's brilliant!

And best of all in Tiegan's mind, she could pick from 8 colours other than silver for her fillings....so she's now got pink teeth!

Foot drama is almost over!

splinter that has been in Kea's foot for the past 2 months
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

So, for those of you following our long drawn out drama with Kea's foot, it looks like it's almost done! About two months ago, Kea got a massive splinter in her foot (about 10 times as wide as this one). It was pretty traumatic at the time, but we pulled it out, cleaned it up and just assumed it would heal on its own.

Then 3-4 weeks later, I saw the bottom of her foot in passing and noticed a large purplish bump below the skin where the splinter had gone in. THIS did not look normal, so off to the doctors we went. She was a bit worried, as I guess a major infection could get out of hand, so she gave us a prescription for antibiotics *just in case*, sent us for x-rays where nothing was spotted, and then was at a loss as to what to do so told us to soak it in epsom salts numerous times a day. Which can get really tedious week after week. And the drama around having to walk on the foot, we put clay on it at night, we forced her to squeeze it to get stuff out even though it hurt, it just went on and on.

And then two nights ago, after swimming lessons, I convinced her to squeeze it once, and wouldn't you know it, the leftover piece of splinter had reached the surface FINALLY, and started coming out - and kept coming and coming and coming. Wowsers, this was a big piece leftover, no wonder her foot was so infected!!!!

Now we're off to the Turks in a couple of days, so hopefully the ocean water will take care of the rest of the infection.

There's been a brutal chest cold going around the city, and everyone we know seems to have it these days, so it's hardly shocking that I would eventually come down with it. BLAH. I don't have time to be sick right now. One benefit of it is that I cancelled most of our activities this weekend, so we are enjoying a very restful couple of days before we leave on our big trip to the Turks and Caicos on Monday. The downside is that I feel like crap, and my lungs are on fire. Ugh.

Fri was an insanely busy day for Jamie at work, as you can imagine it would be right before taking two weeks off. However, it was also the day that I felt the absolute worst. Ugh. And parenting three kids while feeling like death warmed over is NOT a fun situation!!!!!! The lowest point of the day was definitely when I FINALLY managed to get Ryland down for a nap, I set the girls up with a video, waters, lots of snacks and explained that I REALLY needed to sleep, lay down long enough to fall into a much-needed deep sleep until little miss Tiegan started screaming up the stairs at me. She woke Ryland up, who was from then on grumpy but unwilling to go back to sleep, and forced me to drag my sick butt out of bed, all because she didn't feel like going to grab her own spoon from the drawer.

It's a miracle children survive some days!

And now, Jamie is off for two weeks, and all is well with the world - if only I could stop hacking up my left lung!

Oh, and today the girls had their third downhill skiing lesson up on Grouse Mountain. I've come up with a great routine where I drop them off for their 3-hour lesson, then grab a pair of snowshoes and go out into the woods for a hike with Ryland on my back. I love our Wednesday mornings! And it turns out, the girls are great on skis - they're both going on chairlifts and running blue and black runs. Their teachers raved about how quickly they're learning - turns out they've inherited their father's athletic genes!!!!!!!

Okay, so we've been seeing this natropath to help work out some of Ryland's digestive problems (constant green poos and excema on face - nothing major, but I just wanted to see what it was from). So, this guy tested both Rye and I, and informs me that between the two of us, we are sensitive to wheat, dairy, sugar, yeast, soy, corn, carrots and mung beans. For 5-6 weeks, he wants me off all grains, starches, dairy, sugars (including very little fruit) and soy. Wowsers, a bit of a restrictive diet! But for the past week I've gotten really good at creating great soups, salads, steamed kale with fried eggs on top, various meats and veggies. Turns out I love a hamburger wrapped in lettuce. AND soup for breakfast is actually really delicious!

And the thing is, I feel fabulous after only a week. Obviously, this is what my body has been needing......and then tonight, after a crazy day and no dinner for us all during swimming lessons this evening, I decided to just go for sushi for just one night. And blah, now my gut aches, my mouth tastes awful from all the stuff in the rice and none of it tasted particularly good. How disappointing.....I can't believe this natropath is ruining all my favourite foods!!!!!!!!

Of course, in a few days, we're take off on our trip so we'll see how strict I can be then.