Remembering (Great) Grandma Mac

Last week, on Remembrance Day, my maternal grandmother passed away. We are currently at my parent's house getting ready for the prayer service today, and the funeral tomorrow morning. Here's a picture from last Christmas stolen from my Mom's computer files.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope this post finds you enjoying a day off (for our fellow Canadians) or at the very least taking some time to think of all you are thankful for. We have so much to give thanks for here- these two videos will give you a glimpse. One is of my two boys having a fit of giggles. The other is of Daniel walking around with Keith practising his trumpet in the background. I initially thought to just film until he stopped walkng, but after 2.5 minutes it clearly wasn't happening, so I just stopped. No one wants to watch a clip longer than that anyway, though the background music helps it to go by a bit faster. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Yet another birthday party

The birthday boys turned 80 and 1- I'll let you figure out which is which.





A quiet moment with Grandma after the party ended.





Daniel's Grandma & Grandpa G came to visit the weekend after his birthday so we celebrated all over again and had a lot of Keith's family over. In all, there were 30 people over for coffee so it's a good thing there were two cakes!

the first steps...

FINALLY, here is a video form Daniel's first days of walking. It's hard to believe that he only started a couple of weeks ago. Now he is confidently walking circles around everyone and picking up speed (I'll get a video this weekend- I promise!). It's also hard to believe that we were all wearing shorts and t-shirts only a couple of weeks ago when it was an unseasonable 35 above, while now snow is laying on the ground outside the window.

Newsflash!

Daniel started walking the day before his first birhtday, and has been gaining in speed and confidence ever since. There is a video of one of his first attempts, and I"ll get it up here just as soon as I can spend more then a couple minutes on the computer. After years of successful preventative measures, I've had a recurrence of corneal tearing so I'm really limiting computer use. I'm healing well already though and hope to get back to normal soon. You'll just have to imagine Daniel toddling around until next week. :)

12 Month/1 year elephant photo

It's gotten increasingly difficult to get Daniel and Dumbo in the same picture. Not sure how long this comparison will continue! Any thoughts?

Daniel encounters a cupcake

We had a quiet night for Daniel's birthday, but he did get to get his fingers into a cupcake after supper.

Why is everyone staring at me?

In his birthday suit...

To celebrate Daniel's 1st birthday today, here are some pictures of the adorable suit his Grandma S. bought him to wear at his Auntie Melissa & Uncle Justin's wedding this past Saturday.







And now for the serious model pose:



and then back to his usual expression:



"I think these will do for dancing."

Back to the vacation photos

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to BC. These were taken out at Babine Lake at a friend's cabin. Even though it rained a bit, it was a great day.

Casualties of the Move

We are all moved in now! Boxes unpacked and recycled, pictures on the walls, cupboards baby-proofed. Just one big problem- no sign of the camera anywhere. I remember putting it in my purse just before the big move, knowing it was too small and important to be tossed into a box. I am certain I pulled it out here at the new house, set it on a counter, thinking we would likely take a picture or two of the moving in process. And yet, it is nowhere to be found. We have searched high and low in places likely and unlikely. To no avail. It has simply disappeared. If I did I have it in my possesion, I would post here pictures of Daniel helping his Dad & Uncle Stephen put together shelves, learning to stick out his tongue, grinning through his four teeth, and dancing with his Dad at the end of the school day. But I don't, and you will just have to imagine. Sorry.

The other thing we lost? Baby nail clippers. Which you probably don't care about nearly as much.

Over the river and through the woods... a lot of woods

We headed into the wilds of Northern BC to visit my husband's parents. They hadn't seen Daniel since he was a month old so it was a treat to see them interact now. They had fun playing with him and getting to see more of his personality. It didn't take long for him to wrap them securely around his little fingers & he was awfully fond of them too.

One of us mooned Mount Robson...

Our little family spent most of July away, but now we're home so I thought (or rather, it has been suggested to me) that I should start blogging again. We'll start with some pics from "on the way there" like these ones from the base of Mount Robson.

Stampede - part 2- The Rodeo

Monday wasn't near so nice a day. It wasn't too cold, but the rain was torrential when it came down, which was often. We watched the big screen from here for awhile, but the area had to be cleared for safety reasons. The rain did let up long enough for the steer wrestling so Keith and I left Daniel with his Grandma and joined Dad & Melissa in our assigned outdoor seats.


Since Justin was a competitor, we had access to a special seating section right on the track, within spitting distance of the infield. They were great seats, but we didn't get to enjoy them for very long.








Here is a textbook dive-off-your-running-horse-onto-a-running-steer manouver executed by Justin. Unfortunately, his horse broke the barrier and he was given a ten second penalty on top of his 3.6 second time. A very expensive speeding ticket.



The rain started up again not long after the steer wrestling so it was back inside to watch it on the televisions.



Daniel had a good old nap during all of this, and wasn't bothered by the rain at all. After he woke up, we waited for another break in the rain to make a run for the other end of the Stampede grounds where we checked out the trade show and then headed for home. And somewhere in there we managed to try out the deep-fried oreos. How could we not?



That's all for now folks. :)

Stampede- part 1- The Rangeland Derby

This past weekend my sister's fiance was competing in the Calgary Stampede steer wrestling event so we took the opportunity to meet up with them and my parents in Cowtown. Sunday evening both Melissa & Justin had the night off from being competitors, so we all went to the Rangeland Derby Chuckwagon Races on the grounds. It didn't start until Daniel's bedtime, but he did remarkably well. With all there was to look at he seemed most interested in Grandpa's cowboy hat and my hoodie strings.




A gorgeous summer night to look at, but there was a bit of a cool wind.






Daniel enjoyed getting reaquainted with his Grandpa.










Every once and awhile he watched the races.




But mostly he just played with my hoodie strings and looked cute.

Daniel's First Canada Day

Canada Day was the first official day of Keith's summer vacation this year. Daniel was so happy to have him around all day! We hung out at home for the morning & then while Daniel had an afternoon nap. Around 4pm we headed to Henderson Lake to take in some of the Canada Day festivities while we went for a walk around the park. For supper we enjoyed a BBQ at a friend's house followed by playing on the lawn. Daniel wasn't sure about the grass at first, but quickly got over it and had a lot of fun. We're now looking forward to the rest of the summer and spending lots of time outside and with friends and family. We'll be busy with visiting in July, and then packing in August. We have offically bought a new house now, and look forward to be in it before the end of summer. For now though, we're just going to enjoy the long days of sunshine. Hope you have a great summer too!