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!

Slackerooni

I have been a major blog slacker. This month has been a crazy one. So instead of catching up on housework, I'm doing a blog entry. Here's a recap:

Face squish!



Claire loves to stand and sometimes we can get her to do it for a little while - Ryan got her to dance with him for a few seconds the other day and it was so cute!



Even though we live far away now, our family still pops in for fun visits and to help us with babysitting. Mel stopped by one day and got Maddie all done up in her bandana.


To those who are about to rock, we salute you.



We had a fun date night with Thompsons & Jensens. Usually it's just the boys that go out, but we made a whole production of it this time and included the girls! Yay! We had a yummy Outback dinner and finally saw Harry Potter. It was lots of fun.

Here's Maddie and the Thompson boys enjoying superhero cartoons


I finished up all the dental work I needed done this month. It was nice to get it out of the way, but pretty sucky to get it done.

We've had about 5 furnace quotes this month and have finally settled on one. It's all very confusing with the rebates and the efficiency levels, etc. I've learned a lot from the different quotes though.

We also had James Johnson (a friend from our old ward) come over to do some plumbing work for us. Let me know if you need a good plumber and I'll give you his information!

We had some slave labour (family and friends) come over to help us plant our trees. They look great and hopefully will thrive again in the spring!








We've had lots of fun playing at the park(s) across the street.










We had my brothers and sisters come over for a badminton party but as soon as Ryan finished setting up the net, it poured rain. So we moved inside and had a hair-dying, hair-cutting party courtesy of Natalie!

The most exciting thing to happen this month was Kathy's wedding! It was a great occasion. Being the matron of honour I got to be a part of most everything - rehearsal, decorating, ceremony, pictures, reception. I only took a couple of pictures but you can check out some of the wedding preview pictures on this website - Chicks that Click.

Here's Ryan and I at the reception. We had so much fun dancing together. Kathy and Peter picked great songs.



Auntie Val came back from her trip to Tibet and brought the girls some beautiful dresses and cute T-shirts. It was fun to visit with her again.





Ryan and I are getting settled in our new callings. Primary is crazy in our ward! So many kids compared to our old ward, but it's fun. Ryan's class went well too. He's getting used to dealing with teenagers' attitudes!

Thanks to Greg & Steph's housewarming gift, we got a new swingset for the backyard and it's been a hit!


We went swimming a record number of times this summer with help from Grandma and Shauna and the CNIB arranging things. The downtown YMCA has a really fun pool with lots of natural light and fun toys. It was really a good experience.

Ryan's been officially back at school for the past two days. He's been working unofficially the whole week and is feeling better about getting back into the swing of things. He's a really valued member of his staff and even had to help the tech support guys who did a presentation at PD day!


I am now the secretary of the Malmo Prekindergarten Parent Association. Which basically means a tape recorder could do my job since all I do is take minutes. It's fun to be a part of it though. The whole association is very technical though, with bylaws and motions and official seals, etc. It should be interesting. Our annual general meeting is next week and then preschool starts the following week. I'm so excited for Claire. She's going to have a great year.