Summer update

What a wonderful summer!!

I realize that I am again slacking in my updates, but this is because it has been so wonderful and we have been so happily busy, that I have had little time to spend inside on the computer!!
This is the first summer since we moved to Calgary 6 years ago that we have spent the entire summer in (or at least pretty close to!) the city. After all my complaining about the cold, rainy spring, and "never ending" winters we always seem to have being on the wrong side of the mountains, this summer surprised us with "never ending" perfect weather!

I started back at work in July, so we knew we didn't really have any "vacation" time to spare for a long trip anywhere. In addition, both Dave's parents and my parents are currently in the process of moving houses, so we decided to save our annual summer Ontario trip until the fall. Instead, we have been having such a great time "staycationing": enjoying all the fun and family-friendly activities Calgary has to offer, as well as a few weekends in the mountains.

Here are a few of the highlights:

-Stampede!!: for this year's 100th anniversary celebration, we were joined by the Marton family: Dave's sister Tara, her husband Jay and their daughter Chloe. We did our best to experience as much as we could: from several pancake breakfasts, the rodeo, concerts, deep-fried-Oreos, and touring the grounds (really, any excuse to wear our cowboy gear!!). It was a great visit, and while our "Stampede experience" has changed a lot over the past few years (i.e. now that we are more "family-focused"), Stampede week never disappoints: so much fun!! Thanks Tara and Jay!!

-Sikome Lake: we "discovered" this lake early in the summer when the weather was hot enough to send us searching for a beach. We had been in the past, but now with a little toddler who loves the water, Calgary's answer to a "beach" (a man-made lake complex in Fish Creek park) holds a lot more appeal! It is so close to our house, and allows Elise to wade in the water and "play" in the sand, while we can people watch and pretend we are at the ocean. Love it!!

-South Glenmore Spray Park: again, another "necessity" for the hot summer we've been enjoying. Elise is hilarious as she tries to figure out how to navigate around the spray, but she actually prefers climbing on the playground, swinging, and "playing" with rocks!

-Our backyard!: As my parents commented when they saw pictures and videos of Elise playing in our backyard: "Now it actually looks like a kid lives there"! Over the summer, we have accumulated a water table, kiddie pool (our 3rd attempt), swing, slide/climber, and countless balls, water toys, garden/sand tools. Elise loves playing in our backyard, and we love that we can enjoy the great summer weather without having to leave the house.

-Kelly and Trevor's Wedding: My good friend Kelly got married on July 21st at Hotel Arts: I was lucky enough to be in the wedding party, and had such a great time getting to know all of Kelly's close friends and family. Kelly looked radiant, and it was obvious that both she and Trevor are so happy to have found each other. Dave and I were so excited to have a "night out" together while Elise stayed home with a babysitter, and Dave did a great job tearing up the dance floor!! Congrats Kelly and Trevor!

-Camping: after our successful Canada day trip, we tried another camping weekend over the August long weekend, joined by Kim and Rob Budianto (and their cute puppies!). Another great weekend where most of our time was spent setting up or taking down tents and gear. Elise had a blast playing with rocks and sticks.

-Mr. Montana: 2 years ago, the male contingents of many of our couple friends came up with a challenge to see who could grow the best "Montana-style" Mullet. Given the success and entertainment value of this contest, it has been reimagined into this year's version of "Mr. Montana". Some of the events included: "Keg Rodeo", "Beer Ninja" and "Chicken Mitts"--I will leave it up to Dave to answer your inevitable questions, but at the end of the day, he was thrilled to be named "Mr. Montana 2012". In this case, I think a picture is worth a thousand words...

-Invermere: for our last of 3 weekends in a row in the mountains, we headed to Invermere with long-time friends Chad and Maria (and their baby daughter Jacobie), and the Harmans. The boys had a great day of downhill mountain biking, while the moms and kids enjoyed the pools (and waterslides!) at "Panorama Springs".

We have been absolutely loving our times together as a family, as well as appreciating sharing adventures with all of our great friends. We are so blessed and are having so much fun!! Yahoo for a great summer!!

Happy Canada Day!

We celebrated Canada Day in beautiful Kananaskis country; our first overnight in a tent with Elise. It was a great day, and a great reminder of the natural beauty of this amazing country. Happy Canada Day!

Animal noises

Elise has been practising her "animal noises" lately...She is now using her deep "growl" voice ALL the time...pretty cute!

Almost there...

Our little girl is SO close to walking right now--very interested, and getting more confident every day...This video isn't the best representation--she is a little unsure since she is outside, and quite distracted, but it gives you an idea!

Birthday photo shoot

Some photos of our beautiful birthday girl...

Elise's First Birthday Party

I'm sure a lot of people would think we were crazy for making a big deal of a baby's first birthday. Some would argue that no one remembers their first birthday, (or is even aware of the concept of a birthday in the first place) and it is really just about the parents anyway. Some cultures however have grand scale celebrations of their child's first year: perhaps dating back to a time when many babies didn't survive that long, so a year was really a reason to celebrate. For our little family, we have reached many major milestones: getting pregnant successfully was one thing to celebrate, making it through a healthy and relatively uneventful pregnancy was a major reason to celebrate, birthing and meeting our babe one year ago was a huge reason to celebrate, and now here we are one year later with a little human living among us, who is becoming more and more of her own little person every day. From our perspective, we have a lot of reasons to celebrate; so much to be grateful for...And let's face it: I'm on Maternity Leave, I love little projects, and we love parties...Hence: THE FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!! 

Both Dave and I have Winter birthdays, which tends to mean indoor parties. We were so excited to have a June baby: thoughts of barbeques, pool parties, and bonfires. Sadly, June in Calgary tends to be pretty unpredictable, and pretty rainy, so our "summer" party looked very similar to our November and December parties: indoors. Luckily our house accomodates large groups pretty easily with our large open basement, and Dave was still able to BBQ in the rain. It was a great day: Elise is a party girl, and loved having friends over to share her day. Here are a few of the highlights:

Elise enjoys her birthday balloon (June 5th)

Getting ready for her party

Mat leave creativity

Decorate-your-own cupcake bar

Elise poses with 12 months of photos

Granny and Granddad are in town to celebrate with us

Super excited about her party!

Finally gets to taste the icing!

Sharing with Daddy

Waving "bye bye"

It is so amazing to see our little girl growing up. For those of you who were able to join us for Elise's special day, thank you so much for making it so great! For those of you we missed--hope you enjoyed sharing "virtually"

Catching up...

Just wanted to apologize for being so behind in posting the last few months. It seems there are too many types of technology competing for my time and attention, and I was finding uploading to take forever on this site...I recently figured out that it's actually been updated and is now pretty fast (thanks Shannon Fox!) so I'm working on some backdated posts. Please keep checking back over the next few days (weeks?) for older posts. I will try to keep adding photos as I get the chance...

Happy Birthday Elise!

Happy Birthday to our sweet and silly baby girl. She makes us laugh and melts our hearts every day. Can't believe she is already a year old (but can't remember life without her!).

Butterfield Acres

We made our first trip to Butterfield Acres on Friday: a "playdate" with my friend Michelle and her little girl Ella. Elise loves our cat Greyson, and any passing dogs we see, so I figured the "farm" would be a hit and it was!! The "petting zoo" doesn't really work when you're not quite walking yet, but Elise loved looking at and "waving" to all the animals, and especially loved the wagon ride...not sure if you can tell from the video, but she was "dancing" the whole time! 

In the playground

On the wagon

Making friends with a baby goat

Little helper

Elise has been such a good little helper in the garden. (What almost-1 year old doesn't love playing in the dirt and water?)

For some reason, this clip looks like Elise is such a big girl now: helping with the gardening, so much steadier on her feet, so much "intention" in her actions...So sweet, but also bittersweet--our little girl turns 1 this week!! :)