Grads and Dads

I've decided that rather than beat myself up about having mostly photo-centred blog entries, that I would embrace it and continue my tradition. Here's a few things we've done lately:

Stephanie graduated from the U of A and came over to take some pictures with us. Madeline was very interested in Stephanie's strange hat.

The traditional "throw up your hat" picture. It took many tries to get it right.

Our celebratory Shirley Temple drinks at Steph's house.

Yummy - I find that visually appealing food seems to taste better. Is it our brains appreciating the taste and aesthetics together that makes it so good? I took a cooking class at BYU and one of the lessons was on presentation (colours/textures/portions)- it's interesting to think about.

This is Madeline's mad face. We seem to see that a lot lately from Miss Temper.
I just had to throw it in the mix.

Here is a picture of Claire enjoying the Pioneer Days parade out in Wetaskiwin.
The wind was really cold but the girls loved it anyway.

Grandma and Madeline with her chattering teeth.

I like this picture - smiles from both!

Intently pondering the floats and wondering why everyone was waving at her.

Cuddled up close to dull the sounds of sirens and horns honking.

We checked out the petting zoo and even saw a wallaby.

We spent Father's Day out in Wetaskiwin so we could celebrate with both families.
Madeline loves her uncle Robbie and always wants to be where he is.

We all love being outside. Here we are enjoying the smells of the BBQ
and swinging with Claire.

Dad - the expert BBQist. The steaks and chicken were great!

Claire always has fun with Grandma.

Greg and Steph live on the first floor of our apartment building, we live on the second and Steph and Mel share a suite on the fourth floor. Zach used to live on the third floor too! It's so nice to have everyone close and we are lucky enough to visit and be visited often. We all moved out to Mom and Dad's for the weekend so it was just like we were in our own building! It's always an adventure figuring out who is sleeping where when we are all visiting. I think we drained the hot water tank a few times on Sunday morning with all the showers.

I picked up a free newspaper today on Whyte Ave when I took the girls for a walk and it lists all the summer activities for each day of June, July and August. I'm busily looking through it and cataloging all the things I want to do throughout the summer. July will be a bust since Ryan will be working for TWP but we're hoping to do lots of fun things in August. I can't believe it's already the later half of June. Time really does fly!

A little bit of everything

This is what comes of leaving my blog for a few weeks - we've had so many things going on that it's impossible to discuss one thing in detail so I'm skimming over our activities and throwing in a dash of photos to go along with it.

One of our trips to the Legislature grounds. This was way back on Victoria Day and they sounded the cannons at noon and then a marching band came and played on the steps of the Leg. The girls absolutely loved it! Here we are enjoying the music.

Auntie Steph stopped by on her way to work to play for a little bit.

Claire loved the sounds of the fountains (once she actually woke up, that is!)

Here are some pictures from Natalie's grad day. She looked so beautiful! We also just enjoyed watching her graduate from seminary as well - with a slightly different hairstyle!

Robbie was holding Claire on the stairs and Madeline climbed up on his lap too. It was really cute!

We attended Robbie's final band concert and here is a picture of him accompanying the band. On mom and dad's camera we captured his and Kyle's AWESOME solo performance that was the best part of the whole concert! The girls really loved the music.

Lately Madeline has been sitting on everyone's laps...including Claire's. Claire was on the couch the other day and Maddie climbed right up and sat next to her. Then she climbed onto Claire and gave her some hugs and kisses. It was so fun to watch them interact - Madeline being pushy but very loving and Claire being so patient and enjoying being close to her sister. It was a really special moment for me to watch.

Madeline disappeared the other day and I found her here in her closet. She had also discovered a previously stashed sippy cup in there for her convenience (don't worry, it was just water!)

Maddie likes to help mommy with the recycling. This pile of boxes kept her busy for a long time. Who needs toys anyway?

On my birthday we went out to Aunt Sheila's house where she generously let us invade her farm and meet all the new baby goats. Jason, Kate, Ben and Brigham Thompson came with us and Jenny and Luke met us there. It was so fun to see all these great kids interacting and having fun. Here is Aunt Sheila entertaining most of the kids with her singing goat toy!

Here is Claire riding one of the mini's. She loved the animals!

Madeline pretty much went crazy seeing all the baby goats. She kept trying to grab their tails. We put her in this tire to keep her from tripping and falling into poop piles. The goats were very curious about her and would come up to eat her coat and sniff her. It was fun!

Here was the handy dandy kid wagon that Claire loved relaxing in.

Besides what's represented in these pictures we've been to lots of CNIB playgroups and had fun building forts in the living room and going for walks to the park. We had another CNIB sensory safari at the museum (but I forgot the camera!) so the girls got to feel animal furs and bones and a live snake and cockroach and scorpion. We got to explore the museum and have lunch at the cafe for free. It was lots of fun. We survived moving FIVE people out and in at the end of May and it was pretty hectic. Ryan is winding down his school year and trying to look ahead to another one in September.

We've acquired yet another doctor in our quest for Claire's diagnosis. Dr. Bolduc is specializing in diagnosing children who have no diagnosis. We met with him last week and had a good talk but after reviewing her files he only has two tests he wants to do and if those are negative then that's probably it. Apparently about 50% of kids like Claire never have an official diagnosis. It's frustrating but we're less fixated on it now. Even with a diagnosis, things can be so different than predicted. It's hard not knowing why this happened or what the chances are of it happening again. We'll just have to take it day by day and enjoy every minute of it.

Congratulations Ryan!

Ryan just signed a teaching contract with Ecole Campbelltown in Sherwood Park for the next school year! I wanted to publicly say how proud I am of him - he stepped into this position with no experience in teaching elementary school or French immersion but he's put a lot of work and time into it and it has paid off for him.

I remember the moment we found out he had got this job - it was last December. I had spent 4 days in the hospital with Claire after getting her G-tube put in and there had been no end to the problems and pain she had to deal with due to an infection. I felt like God had forsaken us and we were on our own - I cried so much watching her feel so awful and not being able to do much besides keep her company and badger the nurses and doctors to figure out what was happening. Ryan got a call on his cell phone about the position and was shocked to be offered it - not that he isn't a good teacher, but he studied to be a junior/high school FSL/computers teacher - not a grade 5 French immersion teacher! We knew it was the right thing to do and it made me feel like maybe we weren't so "forsaken" after all. Now I feel that even more as we have another year of a great job and great hours so we can spend lots of family time together.

Good job Ryan! I love you!