Hello,
It has been a while since I’ve made a blog post. A lot has happened. I was just scrolling through my latest blog posts and found myself becoming more and more heartbroken as I got to previous posts. I no longer have a pregnant belly…I am no longer doing pregnancy updates and for those of you that don’t know, we lost our little guy at about 35 weeks pregnant. I never thought we’d be a family to experience delivering a stillborn…but we have. I’m not gonna go into the full story as this isn’t what this post is. But if you haven’t already watched our story on our son, Leif (who is with Jesus now), please go and watch the videos we created. We put them in two parts on our Youtube channel, so be sure to watch them both. Here is the link for you: Our Story of our Baby Leif
It has been a very crazy past couple of weeks; very emotional at times, but we are recovering slowly. I’m sure the hurt and pain of losing a baby will never go away, but I’d have to say we are doing pretty well considering all we’ve been through. Our little guy is pain free with Jesus now, and that gives us peace.
The beginning of this week we had the opportunity to go out camping. Some pretty awesome friends of ours lent us their trailer and canoe for our trip (one day we will have some of our own).
Monday night we spent the morning just getting organized for our two-night camping trip, then we dropped our boys off at their Nana & Papa’s house. Jayden’s parents offered to take all 6 grandchildren for a first sleepover at their house, so Jayden and I thought it would be great to do some camping while he still has the rest of the summer off. Once we packed everything up we went to our campsite and set everything up, then we went for a drive and did a bit of exploring.
When we got back to the site we decided to start getting our supper figured out!
My drink of choice is always ciders, I just love them, so simple yet so delicious. Also you always have to have a spider friend try and join ya right? This one was extra creepy, Jayden eventually moved him into the woods.
I could stare at this guy all day long. Plus he let’s me experiment with practice shots and doesn’t even get (that) irritated!
Who else loves baked beans when they go camping? This dinner was seriously so easy to prep and so simple yet so good!
A caveman beard, and a pipe in his mouth. That’s my guy. Also have you ever had bannock on a stick? It is one of our favourite camping food must haves. I mean who doesn’t like bread dipped in butter?
It took me a while to get this shot, I wanted his face to be pretty focused as well as the smoke. vision…accomplished! Love when that happens (even after a few tries).
We just sat by the fire the entire night and enjoyed each others company. It’s not very often it’s just the two of us. We did catch ourselves talking about and missing our little boys far too much though (even Jayden admitted that).
Tuesday morning we met with Jared & Emma at a creek near our camp. They had their canoe all ready and we had ours…we planned to canoe the creek together. I didn’t bring my Sony a7iii, but I did bring my little Canon G7x. It did an awesome job of capturing all the moments. The creek took about three hours to paddle and took us through four different lakes!
Later in the afternoon we went and picked the boys up, they were so excited to join us for camping in the trailer!
I loved the feeling I had bringing the boys to the site, they were so happy to be there! It was such a special little memory for us to cherish as a family. They ripped on their bikes almost the entire time and just explored the area!
so. much. joy.
We spent the rest of the evening just playing at the park, eating bannock on a stick and s’mores and then put the boys to bed. We could hear them talking to each other as we sat out by the fire. Remembering the times when we would have adventures with our families and not being able to fall asleep. Good times. A good reminder to “let them be little”.
The next morning we ate breakfast and then went and did a little bit of fishing off the dock.
This one makes my heart sing….what a dreamy photo captured. This is not fog, though it sure looks a lot like it. I’m very sad to report that it’s smoke from some wildfires in BC. The smoke is very bad here in Alberta and I just cannot imagine how it is for the folks in BC…prayers going out to them.
Isaiah is going to be such an outdoorsy dude, this boy is always up for outdoor activities!
What a fun time spent with each other, it was exactly what Jayden and I needed after experiencing losing Leif. A night together and a night away. It was so nice to have a kid-free night, but we were so happy to have them with us the second night. As we watched them riding their bikes to the park in that first photo of them above…I remember saying to him, “this is better…having our boys here with us”
As we go through this time of loss of our little Leif, we are growing closer to each other. We have each other. Always.
xo,
-Cynthia
This Little Cedar Cabin 