earth day

Glorious!  That pretty much sums up the weather we had today, and there was no better way to spend Earth Day, then spending it outside!  We explored Bragg Creek Provincial Park today....a little hiking, some geocaching, a picnic, and a lot of time spent just hanging out by the river's edge and throwing rocks, soaking up those rays of sunshine.  Perfect!

Bree has a go with the GPS....














The trails in the park were gorgeous, and we will be heading back as many of them were still covered in snow.  Quite a bit I might add, and ice too.   Jusk ask Maelle.  Ouch!

Aidan and Maelle locate the first of two geocaches quite easily, and then spend longer making their trades. 

Brent finds me a treasure to add to my ever expanding collection....nice one too! 

A quiet spot for a little rock poking and "fishing".

Bree and Jenna helped find their "first" cache today and made their own trades.  Way to go girls and welcome to geocaching!  They too are now addicted!

In honour of Earth Day, we planted our first round of peas today in the new veggie garden that we dug last year.  Hopefully this garden will be a little more protected and avoid getting hit by those infamous summer hail storms!  

We have a lot more to plant and getting a jump on the planting has me itching to get the rest of the garden in!  Patience however.  We still could get that dreaded "s" word! 

So all in all, a very busy weekend.  We are heading into the final months of school (always the longest and the hardest), and are so looking forward - already - to the summer break.  There is talk and excitement of this year's camping line up, the possibility of (fingers crossed) purchasing a canoe, and so many more exciting things to do and see that I myself can barely sit still.  Yet another lesson in patience I guess.  Something, sometimes, I am just not good at!  Happy Earth Day friends!

hop to it

I think Easter gets more and more crazy every year!  Holy moly!  From colour coding the eggs (there are four kids don't forget so the Easter Bunny needs to be organized), to having said four children running every which way in the house and me trying my best, camera in hand, to keep up, and then two of said four children escaping to start eating found easter eggs, to controlling the other two from stealing each others.....well, you get the picture.  That may be why when I sat down to take a look at the pictures I did have, most of them were blurry action shots of the kids running, baskets in hands, to search out the prized eggs.  Phew.  I am exhausted just re-telling the story!
Nonetheless, Easter was fun, eventful, and crazy all at the same time.   A good holiday for sure!

The baskets are ready for the morning hunt.

The "two" escapees digging in to their baskets unbeknownst to the others...including myself.

After the early (yes, early!) morning hunt indoors, the Easter Bunny was up to his old tricks and set up another hunt outside for the kids.  Thank goodness all the snow melted.  Earlier in the week, it wasn't looking so good. 

"Quick" was the name of the game outside....each kid had to only find four eggs, but they were tricky! 

Maelle scored a new hoola-hoop and desperately tried all day to master it. 

The little ladies each got new soccer balls.

And, yes....that is a skateboard.   That was Aidan's gift this year and I may have had one or two of those "what was I thinking?" moments, but all in all, he loved it!  And you know what?  After some amazing instruction from teacher extraordinaire (aka Brent) he actually got pretty good!  Now, it's off to the store to pick up some knee pads and elbow pads for my little skater dude! 

All in all a fun, but busy day that was rounded out with a nice dinner with Auntie Ky, Uncle Lindsay and cousin Rory.   Perfect!

look out...

...there's a new biker gang in town!

get your sillies out!

We are at the half way point of our Spring Break in these parts, and today was a day that was needed.  Actually required.  Needed for the kids to get those sillies out and settle down for the remainder of what hopefully will be a quiet week.  Required because even I need a good mountain fix every now and again too!  Now, there is really no better place to get those sillies out, than a day trip into the mountains in search of some snow to burn off that pint sized energy that has been running through the house as of late.  We packed up the sleds, the snowshoes, and a tasty picnic....and....off we went.  To Lake Minnewanka!

Well....we did find snow, and plenty of it at that, but it wasn't the "powder" we were hoping for.  It was, instead, a frozen tundra.  Given how mild it has been lately, the snow wasn't so good for snowshoeing.  Bummer.

So, it was onto Plan B.  Sledding.  What could be better than sliding down frozen snow?  Despite the odd wipe out...

After gallivanting around Lake Minnewanka, our next destination was a round of treats in Banff, in particular, Evelyn's.  A longtime fave coffee shop!  Gotta love the staff at Evelyn's today.  They made the kids special hot chocolates, and topped them off with chocolate (yes,chocolate) whipped cream.  You should have seen their faces!  Literally, both before, and well, after! 

We spent a little time wandering the town, and then it was homeward bound.  A great day, in a great place!  Until next time!

a weekend away

I have just returned from the most fabulous weekend retreat in the mountains.  I spent the last three days hanging out with such a lovely group of ladies....we laughed, we chatted, we scrapbooked!  Oh, it was so nice to get caught up on a few projects that were in great need of attention.  And with views like this how can you not be inspired?

It's always such fun to escape for a few days.  A big thank you to Brent for holding down the fort, cleaning the house (yay!) and for having a fabulous weekend with the kids.  I am a lucky gal indeed!

Happy"3rd" Birthday!

There are a lot of things that make time seem like it's passing us by rather quickly, but this - Bree and Jenna turning three - takes the cake.  Literally.  Three years old.  Wow.  It seems like only yesterday we were struggling with how to feed two babies at the same time.  Or, how to get one asleep while the other was crying. Or, what to do when they both needed a cuddle at the same time.  I tell ya, these have been a busy, busy three years.  But you know what?  I wouldn't change a thing.  Amidst all of the logistical challenges and crazy times that having twins did bring, these two little ladies also filled our lives with so much more.  Laughter.  Excitement. Adventure. And love.  And they continue to do it daily.  Listening to the constant chatter and witnessing the goofy games that these two come up with, really sums up just how much fun having twins can be.  Mind you, with all of that comes "double the trouble", double the tears, and double the fits, but hey, it's all good! 
We celebrated their birthdays all weekend long, with presents, games, cake, and skating, and today we even took them to see "The Muppets", and boy did they have fun!  A great weekend for two very special girls!

Bree and Jenna were all smiles, all day! 

Cupcakes were requested, chocolate (of course) and one with icing...

and one without!

Hopscotch (thanks Auntie Heather & Uncle Ian!) was the preferred activity throughout the day...

And the traditional "birthday bath" (or swim in this case) in mom and dad's big tub capped off a perfect birthday.

So Happy Birthday Bree and Jenna! Thank you for filling our lives and our home with your cheeky grins and your vibrant personalities, and thank you for always making us laugh. 

the Scotties!

When you love curling as much as Aidan does, a little afternoon away from school isn't such a big deal right?  Right. And that's exactly what Brent and Aidan did this past Wednesday.  They made a little trip up to Red Deer and took in the Scotties Women's Curling.  What a fun afternoon!  So nice for Aidan to see everything up close and personal and to totally take in the whole experience in person. 

A long day, but oh so worth it!  Thanks Brent for making the trip with our little curler!

Winterfest in Waterton!

A bit of a drive...yes.  A gorgeous day...yes.  A visit to a beautiful place in winter....absolutely!  And that's just what we did for a day on our Family Day long weekend.  We went to Waterton!  This is the very first time we have ever seen this park in the winter.  We camp here every summer, but to see it in winter was truly unbelievable.  Snowdrifts stretching almost to the roof lines of the shops.  Snow banks that seemed to climb higher and higher.  The main street and shops all boarded up for the winter.  And the lake....well it was frozen too.  We were told by a local, that this year's snowfall was lower than most.  Really?  Now that is unbelievable! 
We spent the day wandering amongst all the winter activities and taking in some of our favourite "summer" sights, and as you can imagine, they all looked just a little different.

A frozen Cameron Falls.

A walk amongst the snowy streets.

The girl's tried their best to have a go at the playground...digging through the snow to have a ride on the slide, only to have it end in a snow drift.

We embarked on a sleigh ride through some of the back streets and were continually amazed at just how different the park looked.

The light snow that was falling set the stage for a perfect day to be down in the park.

A great day?  Well, yes.  Yes, it was.  So much so, that we plan on going down again next year.  This time we are making a weekend out of it!  There is a surprising amount of things to do in Waterton in the winter. That is...if you don't mind a little snow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

in search of snow...

As many of you may know, we have been having a very odd winter out here this year.  Sure there has been snow, it has been cold (oh, yes...it has) but it has also been unseasonably warm this year.  So warm, it has felt a lot like spring.  A little fed up with the craziness of our weather, and our lack of good snow, we decided to go in search of that elusive white stuff.  Thus...a trip to our favourite park was in order!  The truck was packed with sleds, snowshoes, snowtubes, and yummy food, and we embarked on a winter adventure into Peter Lougheed Park - my most favourite (next to Waterton of course) - and had the most fabulous time!

Aidan spent most of the day in snowshoes with me, and I tell you, this little guy has no fear.  He was venturing off the beat and path with not a care in the world as to how deep the snow would be after his next step.

Fantastic...but it often ended up like this...

Maelle hiked along side of us, staying on the path, while the littlest adventurers took a break from hiking, and embarked on a few downhill runs of their own.  The hill was big, and this time Jenna showed no fear.  Maybe it's that mountain air!

Along one of the trails (Penstock to be exact), we were treated with some amazing ice formations from the water pipeline that runs through the area.  Perfect way to keep the kids entertained and an unexpected bonus!

The day was absolutely gorgeous!  We celebrated over cookies in the Village and are already planning our next adventure to these magnificent mountains.

Did we find winter you ask?

Well, yes.  Yes we did!

she shoots....she scores!

Day by day, these ladies are getting more and more comfortable on skates.  Today was the first day that the girls were left on their own without one of us hovering (ok, that would be me hovering) over them.  They wanted sticks.  So...sticks they shall have!

The face off...

Bree shoots...

...and she scores!

A job well done!  Future hockey players?  Maybe.