Back to School

We survived our back to school....(notice how we are wearing sweaters and rain boots in these pictures...yes, it was cool)

Megan started on the first of September.  Here she is all decked out and ready to go.  She started grade 4 this year.  This will be a good and challenging school year for her I hope.  Something to keep her busy and occupied and to stretch her mind.  She is starting to learn French this year. 

Here is my Kindergartener.  He was so ready and waiting to go to school.  There was a staggered entry, so half of his class went on the first and the other half including him went on the second.   I walked up to the doors with him, and waited until the bell rang.  Then helped him into his class room and hanging up his coat, getting his indoor shoes on and dropping off all the school supplies.
His class is rather large with approximately 30 kids, they have a teacher and a teacher's aid and have 2 classrooms to work in.  So I think that they often split the class to do various activities.  He loves recess and playing at the park. 

The first full week of classes I stood with Evan outside and Aaron actually started crying when Evan left.  He finally knew that Evan was going to be away for a while.  We have since adjusted more to the routine.  But I never have to walk Evan to the doors anymore.  Megan is a huge help in walking with Evan and then picking him up after school from his room and walking with him to the van.  Secretly I think that she likes having Evan attend her school.  She has been encouraging and helpful for him. 

Only one time last week did Evan cry after I picked him up.  I asked what was wrong and he said that he didn't want to leave cause he would miss his class.  I told him not to worry he would be back tomorrow.  He has been tired at the end of every day, often taking a short nap on the couch while watching some after school tv. 

Two down one to go...

The rest of our summer part 2

So one nice day I decided to take the kids to Jurassic Forest that just opened up a year or so ago just outside of Edmonton.  This was going to be a real fun outing, I packed some snacks and thought that I would buy some lunch there.  I kinda knew where it was but didn't really get directions, I figured that there would be some road signs that would guide me along the way.  I was almost there, but didn't want to be lost on the highways so I phoned Spencer to give  me directions.  Which he did.  In less than 5 minutes I found the place. 

It was fairly busy, which is a good sign. There they have a little indoor part with a few dinosaurs that you can see and learn about.  Then you go outside and go on a little hike.  In amongst the trees and plants you will come across some dinosaurs that are motion sensored and they move a little and make a noise.  It was alright.  I would have loved to see the updated Dinosaur part of the Calgary zoo, since Megan said it was very much like that.  So at Jurassic Forest you can go on two different not terribly long loops to see the dinosaurs, they have a few dinosaurs to play on in the middle of the complex and you can also play in the sand to uncover some dinosaur bones.  We did one loop and then decided to eat some lunch, so I went to the concession stand to order some hot dogs for $4 each (yikes) and it was cash only.  So I went to find a bank machine, but to my dismay the bank machine wasn't working, I was the girl at the cash register if I could use my bank card there and that was a no go and she said sorry the bank machine wasn't working.  I was a little bit miffed that I had no options for lunch.  Luckily I had packed some snacks that we sat down and ate.  Then off to discover the loop.  There were actually a lot of repeat dinosaurs and due the the lack of a real playground and my lunch mishap and poor road way signage and the cost of the experience I give it 2 thumbs down.  We did it once and that was enough. 

Here we are on one of the loops

This is the dinosaur dig part of the playground.  In the back you can see a little dinosaur slide. 

 Here is one of the dinosaurs up close. 

On a happier experience note we also made it to Calaway park this summer and to the zoo.  We made a weekend trip out of our trip down to see our new neices be blessed on Sunday in Calgary.  We love Calaway park.  There are a lot of good rides for all ages to go on.  The big one we made it to this year was the log ride.  We wound our way through the line.  The kids were so bored.  But we finally made it to the front of the line and the gal said that Aaron was too short.  Boy I was mad.  I waited in line holding him for the past 45 minutes.  What a waste of time.  So we left and went on a little boat ride while Spencer, Evan and Megan enjoyed the log ride. 

After that we ate our picnic lunch that we purchased at Safeway.  We was really good.  The food at Calaway park, is all the same, deep fried, hot dogs, hamburgers....and pricey.  This was a good suggestion that we got from my sister in law. 

The day before we visited the Calgary zoo with my brother and some of his kids.  That was fun. The kids enjoyed that and my brother was a good tour guide.  We stayed with my brother and sister in law.  They were great hostesses and our kids love to play with their cousins.  Not to mention being able to play with and walk their dog chip.  Evan was crying when we went to Calaway park because he was going to miss the dog.  He didn't realize that we were staying another night and would see the dog again. 

It was a full weekend that kept us busy and we en

The rest of our Summer Part 1

I've located our camera so now I can have a fun update on the rest of our summer....

Before Spencer started up again into his schooling for another intensive 8 weeks we thought we would take our final weekend to go camping.  So we picked a place that we had never been before and just went for the night.  We packed up our car and off we went to Elk Island National Park.  We loved it.  It is close and we all enjoyed camping.  Despite the name of the park we didn't actually see any Elk, but the park is home to a great herd of Buffalo that stopped us a few times on the road and we also saw some coyotes.  We did get a few showers but that didn't last long. 

Our campsite was smaller than we were use to but it had everything that we needed in close proximity.  We even did this while Aaron was learning to potty train.  You can pretty much go and do anything with pull ups!

Here we are enjoying our popcorn.  We didn't have a camp stove it died last year and since we were only going camping for one night we decided to just cook over a fire.  This was a little tricky....our fire building skills were a bit rusty and it took longer than we wanted to get going, then if we were really good campfire cooks, we would have waited until the fire died down.  But the kids were hungry so we had most of our meals with the campfire kiss to them. 

The kids loved chasing the dragon flies around since they were pleantiful due to the large number of misquitoes that we experienced this year.  The kids had fun just hang out and being outside.  We checked out the beach that was pretty close, but it was a bit cooler and windy and acutally more rocky.  You can't swim in the water there but they did have a park to play on, some hikes to go on,  some interpretive programs and a living boardwalk. 

 We hiked around the boardwalk that takes you around the shore of one of the lakes there and in the water you could see all sorts of little bugs and water critters.  Evan made me promise that the next day before we left that we would come back and bring our net and a container to scoop up some water life to enjoy.  So that is exactly what we did.  The kids loved being there and trying to scoop up everything that moved.  They learned about sharing and enjoyed watching all the bugs float and swim, just when they had a container full of things, Aaron would try their patience by dumping it all back into the lake....not to worry though they were more than happy to capture all the bugs again. 

There is a snail, tadpole and a leech along with some smaller insects that you can't really see in this picture. 

This was actually at the park, it is a ukrainian house from some of the first settlers in that area.  It is traditional in design.  We couldn't go inside this one, but after we packed up we drove to Ukrainian Heritage Village that was like 2 minutes away.  This is an interpretive site and it was really good and interesting to go to.  Megan actually studied about Ukraine in school this past year.  So she actually got to see houses, schools, farms, churches etc, from the Ukraine Stettlers in Alberta.  The guides and actors were really good.  You could go inside the various buildings and ask questions and they would answer like they were back in the day.  It is a fantistic place to visit. 

It is quite a bit of walking but Spencer happened to get us on a wagon ride that took us to some of the parts that were further away in the park.  So here are the kids in a school.  They loved sitting in the desks and using the chalk boards. 

Here we are in front of the grain elevator and a train. The early settlers worked hard to make a life for themselves and to be able to provide a better life for thier families.

Aaron's birthday

My little guy turned 2 at the end of July. It seems like this year has just flown by.

We just had a quiet family party for him after Spencer got home from work. Followed by cake and ice cream and the opening up of presents.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate our "little big guy" as we sometimes like to call him.

He started out his day in a favorite way....by having a sweet cereal. Froot Loops are his favorite and it sounds so cute when he says it.

He then helped me make his cupcakes. He always comes running over, dragging a chair behind him so he can stand on it and "help".

Here is he blowing out the candles on his "cake". Yep, cupcakes with different types of sports balls. He loves balls. He owns over 20 different ones himself. Often in church he'll get me to draw pictures of different balls. Basketball, soccer ball, baseball, football, tennis ball, marbles, gum ball, meat ball, snow ball, ball of yarn, eyeball, bowling ball; You name it, if I can draw it he is so pleased and it keeps him quiet and entertained. So how could we not celebrate this birthday without balls. He is good a throwing and working on the catching part.

Here is a huge balloon that Spencer bought for the party at the dollar store. I asked Spen to pick up one of those preinflated balloons at the dollar store...but he got this instead.

Here is some of the gift opening. He got a transformer, more Hot Wheels stuff, a lacing kit, a Diago DVD and a bubble blower. I love young children as they are usually easy to please. He loved and plays with his toys so well. Now he can add his toys to Evans and they usually have a good time.

Here's to Aaron:

• Hearty eater
• Potty trained
• Loves Thomas the Tank Engine
• Loves to play at the park
• Loves to read books
• Draws on my walls
• Can speak in short sentences (reminds me of Megan at this age)
• likes to wrestle
• Dancing machine

We love you Aaron and are glad that your a part of our family. Happy Birthday!

Summer Holidays

Our big trip this summer was to drive down to Montana. I am slowly realizing the reasons and benefits of an actual holiday. It was so nice not to have any committments, no church callings, no work pressures and very lax schedules. It was nice to get away from it all even if just for a week. Megan wished to stay longer since it was such an enjoyable experience and fun time.

I was prepared for the drive this time with the portable DVD player, I downloaded some fun kids songs to listen to and packed a few new toys to keep the kids entertained not to mention the treats that they looked forward to. We made a few stops to break it up and drove as far as my parents house on day one to stay and stayed and slept there. The next day we drove the final few hours and took it at a bit of a slower pace. Logan's pass was still closed so we had to drive around, I had forgot how narrow the roads are and how twisty. I was starting to feel sick when we were finished with the worst of it.

We had such wonderful weather most days. It would rain at night for us, so we were able to get out during the day and do things. Grandma and Grandpa Ord did a great job of showing us around and spending time with us. There is really more things to do than we had time for, but this is what we spent our time doing....

Here we are out of the van and stretching our legs. Out on a walk around the complex (notice the book in Megan's hand!) that we were staying at. My BIL and SIL have a home away from home down in MT and let us use thier place. I know that they described to us what we could expect....but it was even better than we imagined. It had everything that we needed and there were awesome ammenities at the complex that we enjoyed.

We visited Whitefish City Beach. The day we went was really nice. We got there just in time as it kept filling up. We packed up a picnic lunch and headed off. The kids just love to play in the sand and swim in the water. We soon found out that some of our blow up toys had holes in them. Thank goodness that we had a few extra toys to play with. We all got some good sun that day.

After our day at the beach we went into Whitefish and found a little ice cream shop to enjoy a cool refreshing treat. We found a great deal $2 a cone, I remember Spencer being so impressed that MT doesn't have any sales tax so he quickly figured out our cost and was retreiving the money when the gal behind the counter said that will be $8.16? What? Afterwards we found out that in Whitefish they have a 2% resort fee on most things. Oh, well the ice cream was good.

Another day we headed up Whitefish Mountain...they have some hiking, gondola rides and an alpine slide going on during the summer months. We thought that would be great. The weather that day was nice and hot. We didn't do anything except go on the Alpine Slide. The kids loved it. You ride down on a little cart, which you can control the speed of and then you can ride up the ski lift to the top for free.

Here is Spencer and Aaron. Aaron loved the ride. Both boys weren't tall enough to ride by themselves. Megan loved the opportunity to ride by herself. She was a bit nervous at first but her and Evan wanted to go again. So they did. Aaron also wanted another ride but we ran out of tickets.

Here we are riding up the chair lift. Getting a bird's eye view of things on the ground. I was a bit nervous riding on the lift with the kids. We did fine, no injuries or deaths to report.

Spencer and I almost went Zip lining down the mountain. But it didn't work out for us that trip, maybe next time. That would have definately would have been one of those unique life time moments.

Another day we went to see the Hungry Horse Dam. The Best Dam town in the west (their town slogan). It was quite amazing to see and learn how they built the dam. It is quite an engineering wonder.

After visiting the dam, we stopped at a near by lake for a quick bite to eat and to throw rocks in the water. It was funny to see people actually swimming in the water and more people were coming to canoe. We are used to having water being so cold, but most of these lakes aren't fed by the mountains. So when we felt the water with our hands, it was actually quite a nice temperature for swimming.

Another day we went shopping at kalispell with Grandma and Grandpa Ord. I wasn't too impressed with the prices of some things, but we did find some pretty good deals on some clothes and we picked up school supplies while we were there. We almost bought a Dyson vacuum at costco but decided against it. We spent some wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa. We saw a movie in their club house theatre and made it swimming there too. The kids loved to spend time with them.

Here are a few last pictures of our stay. We had a great time and next year we just might follow Megan's advice and stay for 2 weeks!

Here we are with the local wild life (and I'm not talking about my kids!). We'll miss the quite peaceful nights and mornings.

Grandma and Grandpa Ord came with us to Glacier National Park and took us on a hike. It was nice to be in the mountains and see everything. We love to be in the mountains.

Logan's Pass officially opened up 3 days before we left so we were lucky enough to be able to drive over the pass and have that experience. This was the first time for Spencer and the kids to see that, so I drove so they could enjoy the views and see all the great scenery. It was so beautiful, the waterfalls were flowing heavily. This is at the top of the pass. Slippery snow. It was fun to try and walk on it, but it was sure slippery as people were falling down all over the place. We wrote our names in the huge snow banks and threw a few snow balls. We had a great vacation but were glad to be back in our own country and finally home again.

Megans Birthday

My little girl turned 9! Yikes. Where does the time go?

We decided for her birthday festivities this year to invite some friends to go swimming with us and then come back to our place for a pizza dinner, games, present opening and games.

Since Megan's birthday falls during summer holidays we tried to hold it earlier this year so more of her friends could come, maybe next year we need to hold it even earlier. Two of Megan's friends were able to join us and we all had a fun time.

Here they are playing unwrap the present game. Luckily for our guests they each took home one of the prizes. Next we splashed around at the pool. They each got their own pool noodles to have some extra fun in the pool.

, After all that we come home to a pizza dinner and opened some fabulous gifts (book, necklace, littlest pet shop, gift card, body lotion/spray, clothes and finally from us an Ipod Nano). With age comes great responsibility and even greater privileges. The Nano has proven to be a life savor for us on long car trips.

Her cake selection this year was a Rolo cake. It was super yummy!

some highlights about Megan....

• loves to read, read, read
• reads out loud the funny parts and shares all the interesting facts that she learns
• is a fantastic big sister
• second mother to Aaron, He will often go to her for sympathy when I don't give him any
• loves music -- listening and playing
• is a swimmer and a gymnast
• considers herself a Wii Master. Enjoys playing Animal Crossing and any new and challenging game we get from the library.

We love you Meagn and are so glad that you're a part of our family. Happy Birthday1

Canada Day

In the morning I got the kids together and dropped Spencer off at the office to study and we headed out the the Legislature Pancake breakfast. It was alright. Pancakes, watermelon, and juice. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have any sausages. But oh well. Maybe next year I'll skip the breakfast and do the Canada Day run instead.

We took in the Silly Summer Parade on Whyte Ave then headed back to a nearby school for a BBQ and games/playground/bouncy houses. The weather was great and the kids had a fun time.

Here we are waiting for the parade to start. The parade was small and mostly associated with all things from strathcona, since that is the Business Association that put it on. My kids are always disappointed with parades in big cities, since no candy is thrown. They loved going to visit grandma and grandpa Burt for the Cardston parade. They didn't even want to go the the Captial EX parade....they immediately asked if there was going to be candy. When I informed them that there wasn't....they said no thanks.

Here is the BBQ that we enjoyed. They of course had free Canada Day Birthday Cake, which all my kids enjoyed.

Aaron loved seeing this Canadian Maple leaf.