Preschool Christmas Concert

Daniel's first Christmas performance of the season was this evening.  He was very excited to get dressed up and sing for us.  We went early so that we could sit up front.  Daniel appears about 40 seconds in on the video and clearly has firm opinions about where he should stand.  Sophie was a bit upset that we wouldn't let her run up and join him up there, but she did enjoy clapping and saying, "Yay, Daniel!" at the end of every song.

Family photo collage

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The rest of the summer

We certainly had a full summer vacation here.  Still jet lagged from our trip to Bermuda, we headed to the Crowsnest Pass to enjoy a day of the Brouwer Family Reunion.  

 Mid-July was also when Daniel picked out his first pedal bike.  He mastered his balance bike quite awhile ago and was very excited to upgrade to pedals.  This picture is from the first day trying it out- you might notice that we skipped the training wheel stage entirely.  Daniel needed some help from Keith the first number of times out, but now he has no problem pedalling and stopping.  He still needs help getting started, but it won't be long until he is going way faster on his own than I am entirely comfortable with.

Daniel had his first min-golf experience this July.  It looked a bit more like he & Nate were playing hockey, so I guess we might need to work on golf etiquette next time.  

The end of July always brings the Vermilion Fair.  Daniel was excited to go on rides, but his favourite part was "going to work with Grandpa" every morning as my Dad had to go up to oversee the grounds early each morning.

 Sophie is looking forward to going on the rides next summer!

Near the beginning of August, Keith's youngest sister, Breanna, and her family came for a visit.  We had a great time seeing the sites of Southern Alberta with them.

 Our first day trip was out to Fort Macleod's NWMP Fort.  Daniel & Cierra were picked to be the official horse inspectors for the musical ride.  The position paid in lollipops & personal satisfaction.

From there we headed over to the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and took it in from top to bottom.   

The next day we went to the Birds of Prey Centre which was a first for all of us.  Alex and Cierra got to hold this little owl, and Daniel got to pet it.  Later on all the kids helped give a couple of the eagles showers with a garden hose since it was 35 degrees.  We cooled ourselves off with a little trip to Coaldale's awesome spray park afterwards.

As the relatives headed back to BC, we went with them as far as The Saskatoon Farm north of High River.  What an amazing place!  I definitely want to go back and eat lunch there sometime.  The pie was good, but not as good as my Mom's (no surprises there, it's a very high bar).  Sophie was pretty impressed with the saskatoon ice cream and this very old horse ride.

Since then, we've kept busy with family time & visits with friends in the city.  Keith had to head back to work a bit earlier than usual this year since he is at the university, but we still have one foot in summer mode with lots of sunlight after supper to go biking and visit with the neighbours on the street. Our little cul-de-sac neighbourhood enjoyed a block party last weekend.  A potluck supper, games & face painting for the kids, and visiting into the night was a great un-official end to summer.

Still talking about Bermuda

We have had such a full summer that in some ways it feels as though we took this trip quite awhile ago.   I will not be posting all the pics we took, or giving a day by day account- for that you'll have to come over and look at our photobook- but I did want to share a few more highlights from our vacation.

Our main touring group consisted of three adults (Iris, Keith & myself) and five children aged five and under.  Thankfully we all (snugly) fit in the Cundliffe van & Iris knew all the best places to go and see with youngsters.  They were such great hosts to take us everywhere themselves!

Sophie & Trevor are only a couple months apart in age.  They were the littlest travellers, but were easy to keep happy as long as we brought enough snacks.

On the weekend, Chad was able to join us too, so we all took the ferry from Hamilton to The Dockyards together to tour the old fort & see the dolphins.

The bigger kids especially loved climbing up on the old cannons and ramparts.  We all enjoyed the  amazing views in every direction.  After wandering around the historical parts, we watched the trainers work with dolphins and a sea turtle in another part of the facility.

Bermuda Aquarium & Zoo

 One of our very favourite places in Bermuda was the aquarium & zoo in Hamilton.  The giant fish tank entranced us all for quite awhile.  Being able to see into it from two different sides made for quite a bit of running back and forth for Daniel.  The size of some of the creatures was impressive as well as the array of colours and shapes.

 The first day we went to the aquarium, a baby flamingo had just hatched.  If you look carefully, you can see a bit of its fuzzy white body amongst the pink. By the next week when we came again, the little guy was already trying to stand on one skinny leg.

 We were amused to learn that the seals were all Canadians, well ex-pats anyway.  The momma seal (seen in the picture with Sophie) originally came from the Maritimes, but all her babies were born in Bermuda.

 Don't worry, no children or seals were harmed.   Sophie is looking through a very clean glass barrier.  The sign above was on the little ledge at the top of the fence.

Watching the big sea turtles just outside was also impressive.  For such large creatures they are very graceful in the water.  Daniel is sitting on top of the edge of their tank.  Apparently the sea turtles aren't as likely to bite as there was no sign warning us off.  

 I now know the difference between turtles and tortoises.  Can you spot it?  Flippers versus legs.  It was so neat to be this close to all the animals.  There wasn't even a cage between us and the Tamarin monkeys.  I would have taken a picture of that, but I was pretty sure they would attack Sophie for the apple bits on her shirt if I got distracted.  True story.

Bermuda!

We just got back from a fantastic trip to Bermuda.  What a great place to have relatives!  My cousin, Chad, and his family have lived there for over a decade now, but this was our first visit.  They were the best hosts and tour guides we could have asked for.

 The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins whether we were seeing the sights of Bermuda or just hanging out at the Cundliffe home.

 
The aquarium was one of everyone's favourite places to go so we went twice.  The "touch ponds" were particularily memorable.

 Daniel & Rylan liked sitting on the big cannons at the Bermuda Maritime Musuem, or pretty much anywhere else!

Sophie on one of the gorgeous beaches:

 The view from Iris & Chad's deck:

 Captain Daniel taking over for Captain Mark on our glass bottom boat tour:

 These are just a few of my favourite photos from the trip.  Right now I am focussing more on getting a photobook made than blogging, so this will have to do for now!

Easter flashback

Just before Easter, I dressed the kids up in their Easter finery and took them to get their pictures taken.  At the time, Daniel was 3 1/2 years old, and Sophie was 9 months.

Thomas and His Friends

Last Saturday we enjoyed a Day out with Thomas the Train during his visit to Calgary's Heritage Park. Daniel has liked trains for a couple years now.  We got him a train table just after he turned two to try to contain the tracks sprawling across the house.  For the last few moths especially he has been asking if we could go ride on a train, but little did he suspect that his first train ride would be with THE Thomas the train and his best buddy, Nate. 

 The first order of business after we arrived at the park was to go to the train station for our turn.  We had to pre-book the time & date of our ride back in January.  Thankfully, there was no trace left of the rain and snow that had come the weekend before and we had a perfect spring day for our trip.  As we walked from the parking lot to the station the boys sang their repertoire of train songs from Kindermusik & eagerly anticipated seeing Thomas.

I knew that Daniel was going to be over the moon about the day, but for some reason I hadn't expected Sophie's excitement.  She really seemed to love the train ride and the many sites to see.

 After we circled the park three times, our turn was over and we had a chance to pose with Thomas.  Then we waited around to watch him steam off with the next trainload of people.  During this time, the conductor came down to say hi and pose for a picture with his number one fans.

 I have to say, we were really impressed with the friendliness of everyone working at the park.   I think these folks must really love what they do!

 We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Heritage Park, getting a closer look at some of the sites we saw from the train windows, like "Rocky" below.

 It was such a nice day that they even opened some of the amusement park rides.  Daniel loved the boat swings, carousel, and mini-ferris wheel- all first time experiences.

 While Daniel & I were on the carousel for the second time, Thomas came past and Daniel yelled, "Hi Thomas!" and Thomas seemed to reply with a "Toot-toot".  Daniel's eyes were big as he said to me, "Mom, he said hi back to me!  Thomas said, 'Hi Daniel'."  It was so cute!

 Sir Topham Hat was there too, but the line up was very long to visit with him and we were getting hot and tired, so we just waved and continued on our way.

As you can see, we had a fantastic day.  I think this is definitely something we will look forward to doing again next spring!