Absolutely Agreeably Amusingly Amazing August

We spent the August long weekend (which, incidentally, started in July) heading down to Cochrane for Kim and Sean's wedding. It was a fun event and great to see everyone.

The girls were great travellers!

Across the street from the hotel there was a skate park, so we went over to watch Broc and Uncle Rob.

I thought it was hilarious to see Maddie and Cairo running around, especially since he had no pants on....ha ha!

The wedding was lovely!

Here was our attempt at a family picture, squinting into the sun.

Our drive from Cochrane to Mountain View the next day was beautiful!

Here was the beautiful Bed & Breakfast house that we rented.

Rocky Ridge Country Lodge

Here was the adjacent cottage where Greg, Steph, Noah and our family got to stay.

Sleeping arrangements for Claire are always a little tricky. My mom found this neat mattress for kids that had a ledge to keep her from rolling out. Madeline started out on the bed and Claire was on the mattress. One night we came in to check on them, and found them cuddling together. It was the cutest thing!

On our first day in Waterton, Ryan went golfing and the girls and I took a lake cruise with Mom & Natalie.

The wind was a little chilly on the way to Goat Haunt, Montana, which was the stop on the other side of the lake.

Madeline and I ventured out to sit on the front of the boat and got pretty windblown.

It was much warmer underneath.

Claire loved the experience!

When we made it to the US, we walked along some paths and did a bit of exploring before heading back.

Due to the less intense winds, we all sat on the bow of the boat on the return trip.

We met up with the golfers and had a picnic lunch by the lake and then ventured into the freezing cold water.

It was surprisingly comfy to sit on all those rocks, you just had to wiggle your butt a little bit to make an impression. Claire liked exploring the rocks with her hands.

We got to see Cameron Falls and do a bit of hiking up to the top.

Here we are, at the midway point of the hike.

We even saw some wildlife, up close and personal!

We spent some time at Red Rock Canyon. The entire drive there, Madeline was composing songs about "RED ROCK CANNNNNNYON!" It was hilarious.

This is just before Ryan, Rob, Madeline and I took our trek up the canyon and did some serious exploring. Ryan, Rob and Joel even went back the next day to see if they could get even further along the path and they had a great time exploring and going down some giant waterslides.

Isn't Noah just the cutest baby ever?!

We spent an afternoon at the Waterton reservoir to do some swimming and hang out on the beach.

They started out like this:

And ended up like this:

It was a lovely, windy, Southern Alberta day.

Madeline and I had lots of fun throwing rocks into the water.

We had lots of fun in the house, visiting with family, playing games and exploring all the nooks and crannies.

Our flexible Clairey.

To honour the memory of Grandma Patterson and how she would always include some "culture" in our family reunions, we attended a play at the Cardston Carriage House Theatre. It was based on the TV series "Happy Days," and there were some really good parts. Madeline loved the entire experience. Claire was so relaxed that she fell asleep. :)

Steph and I at the play!

The minute we walked in the door after our trip from Mountain View to Edmonton, Madeline got dressed up like this. She thinks that any type of stripes match any other kind of stripe. She's sporting a tutu that cousin Tori gave her and the flowers that Grandma gave her. Beautiful!

Madeline and I went to run errands one day and she fell asleep in this position!

On our way to Wicked! It was awesome and I'm glad that we went together! Ryan graciously offered to let me take a friend, but I wanted him. :)

Claire is a very creative sleeper. We call this her "lounging on the beach" pose.

We celebrated Cairo's second birthday today and had lots of fun with the fam. These pictures were all taken with Ryan's new phone that he's enjoying!

It's been an incredibly busy month already and it's only...the eighth day. Things will be getting progressively busier as we begin the ascent towards school days again!

Obligatory Holiday Recap Post COMMENCE

We've had a very busy holiday "break." It's never really a break from activity, rather a shift in location and schedule.

We started out by celebrating Rob's birthday. We got to visit in their home and eat some yummy food and play games.

Madeline is helping Daddy make crepes at the party. We had both savoury and sweet crepes and they all turned out really well. Ryan is the crepe master.

Rob & Olivia's house is lovely. Notice Broc and his perfect timing, blocking Rob's face. I wish I were better at photoshop to fix that up.

After cramming in some last minute shopping and trying to leave our house as clean as possible (I hate going away and coming home to a messy house), we headed out to Wetaskiwin on Christmas Eve.

We began the yearly traditions with bowling. It's always a fun time and I think we may have started a trend. It was busier this year than ever before.

We even got bowling shirts this year, courtesy of Jim.

Ryan, subtly flexing.

The manly men, off to fight a war, laser-style.

Claire loves the sounds of bowling and she did really well on her turns!

After our hours at the alley, we headed to my parents' house for a Chinese food dinner, reading the Christmas story and opening our annual Christmas Eve gift of PJs. There was less structure for the night this year, due to some people feeling under the weather, but it was nice to have a low-key evening together.

Enjoying the hot tub.

Grandma and one of Santa's Little Helpers. Mom got both the girls these little aprons and they're very cute!

Yay for pyjama pictures in front of the tree! Ryan got me the softest PJ pants in the world. THE WORLD, I tell you.

The night was a little rough. Madeline and I slept pretty well, but Ryan and Claire did not. I guess they were both too excited. :)

Despite the lack of sleep, Claire was very happy in the morning!

We all got spoiled, as usual.

Madeline and Claire both had a very "Princess-y" Christmas this year!

We got to spend time with both families which is always nice.

Auntie Angela is feeling much better and we're all glad!

We're so lucky to get two Christmases!

We spent a fun day out at Sheila's place for Boxing Day. It's a tradition we really love. I'm sure someone took pictures, but I completely forgot. Let's just say there was a lot of good food, family and visiting. The kids got along very well and had multitudes of tea parties all over the house, much to Uncle Don's chagrin.

All that happened in only our first week of holidays. There was much more to come.

Next came Natalie's birthday!

We had fun at Natalie and Travis' house, where we were introduced to the intoxicating game world of Kinect. Madeline and Broc were the pros!

Then it was Ryan's turn to get older. He turned 30 on December 30th.

While the boys went to a movie, I got to play with the girls and Cairo. It was a fun time. We had a "light party" in Claire's room, where we turned off all the lights and played with all her light-up toys.

The kids got along very well and Madeline really took Cairo under her wing. It was fun to watch. :)

Later that evening we had a Hawaiian party for Ryan. It was nice and cheesy, with fun decorations, Hawaiian name tags, leis and beach music. :)

Because we were so taken by the Kinect at the last birthday party, we had to go cash in some birthday money and gifts cards to get one of our own. It was a big hit at the party.

I found cool sparklers for the cake - 3 - 0.

We also used some Christmas money to cash in on a great deal for new appliances for the kitchen. They were supposed to arrive early on Ryan's birthday, but didn't end up coming until after 930pm! Luckily we had Travis and Natalie to help unpack and install everything.

Now we just need a new microwave to match. :)

Madeline was counting the magnets on the new fridge and she got all the way up to twenty. It's the first time she's done it without help so I asked her, "How do you count so high?!" She replied, "I just go on my tippy toes." :)

Our last round of festivities revolves around New Year's Eve. We spent a nice day out at my family's house, napping, watching movies, eating yummy food, playing games, going in the hot tub, enjoying the fireworks from the neighbours yard and counting down to 2011. It was fun. :)

I love holding Claire while she sleeps. It's pretty much the only time she stays still and you don't have to watch out for flying elbows...haha.

Madeline kept asking Grandma where the "pearls" were. It took a while to figure out she meant "curlers," the little foam ones that you roll up in your hair and then sleep in. She kept them in for about 15 minutes. That's almost a record for hair implements though, so we're making headway.

Dad and Claire enjoying some nice hugs.

Luckily Claire has a patient and talented Grandma and Aunty Natalie who cut her hair when it needs a serious detangling intervention. It usually only takes four people to tame the mane. It started out with Grandma having Claire in a leg lock of sorts, Mommy trying to hold Claire's torso still, Auntie Mel distracting her with balloons and Auntie Natalie doing the cutting in quick spurts. The next day, Grandma cleaned up the edges and styled it a bit. Here's her cute new look!

We had a lovely New Year's Day meal. Ryan was hard at work in the busy Apple Store so we missed him. :(

This picture is for Auntie Val. She gave Madeline a Rice Krispie baking set for Christmas and we have put it to great use. We had a lot of fun making these...and we used a lot of sprinkles. I guess those two things DO go hand in hand.

I can't believe it's back to "real life" tomorrow. Trudging through the snow to get to school, scheduled waking times, getting dressed before 10am, packing lunches, assignments, meetings, etc. etc. I'm sure we'd get sick of holidays after a while but it's sure hard to say goodbye to them sometimes.