Last days of summer

These ones are from the end of summer. Sophie is three months old and Daniel is a month shy of 3 years old.











Daniel had to get in on the Eeyore comparison.

Oops, I did it again

Wow, am I behind on posting on this blog. You probably aren't even checking it anymore. Sorry! On the upside, we've been busy enjoying a beautiful fall here. But I guess I should finish with how we spent the second half of the summer...


During August we got to spend a week in Banff courtesy of Keith's needing to attend a conference. Thankfully my Mom was able to join us as well so while Keith went to meetings during the day, I had help wandering around the Banff and Canmore area with the two little ones. We went up a day early so that Keith could enjoy a few of the sights too. A big highlight for everyone was going up the Sulpher Mountain Gondola on a beautiful, clear day & hiking to the weather station at the top.




Sophie seemed to enjoy the Gondolas too, but she probably won't remember this trip.



Looking back to the gondola station.




We made it! Daniel even hiked almost the whole way by himself.



Daniel & his Dad are big fans of gondolas. We headed to the Lake Louise one a day later!



This last photo was taken at the Bow Falls down in the Banff townsite.

Fair flashback

Imagine it is July and I am not two months behind on blogging. Daniel had a blast at the hometown fair & has been asking to go back ever since. He was old (& tall) enough to go on a few rides this year and there were almost as many uncles as tractors. He even got to go into some of the really big machines with Grandpa.




Uncle Stephen took some time out from volunteering at fair to walk through the tractors and watch Daniel on the rides.




Daniel figured out pretty quick that his Grandpa could be easily talked into giving him rides around the fairgrounds.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

In the beginning, of summer vacation, there was a trip to the zoo. It involved three adults and four children aged 2 and under. Thankfully, two of them were mostly asleep in strollers or baby carriers which enabled one or more of us to keep up to the other two. We really enjoyed seeing the animals and visiting Jen, Caitlin & Julia.



Daniel liked the animals, but he LOVED the little train. Perhaps Heritage Park should be our next destination?



The night before our trip, as we were talking about what we might see at the zoo the next day, Daniel said he wanted to ride on a lion. We tried to convince him that this wasn't likely to happen. He sure was excited when he got to sit on this one!



Daniel has been really into dinosaurs since friends gave him a bucketful of them this spring. He was so tired already that we almost skipped going to this part of the zoo, but when he saw the sign he perked right up & walked most of the way through on his own. We had packed three of his favourite dinos in his toy backpack for the van that day- T-Rex, triceratops, & stegosaurus. We saw the first two right away and then Daniel was on the hunt for stegosaurus. It was one of the last ones we found and has henceforth been referred to as the "Sneaky Stegosaurus."




He was so in awe of the dinosaurs that he couldn't stop looking at them long enough to get his face in a picture!

Summer daze

Early in the summer we took a drive out in the country to celebrate Uncle Cor's birthday. While we were there, Uncle Cor took time to show all the menfolk present his collection of restored machinery. Daniel had been impressed as soon as we drove onto the yard and he saw an old car he took to be "Stanley" from Cars. He was even more amazed at all the other vehicles he got to see & climb on. Now every time we see an old car or tractor, Daniel says, "It's just like one on Uncle Cor's farm."

Happy birthday, Canada!

Sophie & Eeyore on Canada Day. Sophie would rather be eating.



This year we decided to give the Canada Day festivities down at Fort Whoop Up a try. What a great family event! Daniel especially enjoyed the wagon rides & the animals. He looked for that goat every time we were down looking at a different part of the fort. By the end of the afternoon, we were ready to sit down with a few hot dogs & suddenly the table were turned- the goat came straight for Daniel. At first Daniel was excited the goat was coming over, but when we told him that the goat wanted to eat his hot dog, Daniel replied, "No he doesn't" and gave the goat a frown. Undeterred, the goat went as far as to jump up on the closest bench and reach for Daniel's dog. I had to lead the beast away by the collar & horn repeatedly before Daniel had a chance to finish the rest of his hot dog.










On our way home from the fort, we stopped for ice cream at the Marble Slab & ran into friends. We organized an impromtu Canada Day supper at our house followed by mini-trampoline building. Even thought the photo of Daniel trying out his new trampoline is a bit blurry, I think you can still make out his enormous grin. A good day had by all!

Sophie's Baptism

Two Sundays ago we celebrated Sophie's baptism at St. Augustine's Anglican Church. Sophie slept through most of the service. She opened her eyes to stare at Pastor James when he poured the water over her head, but calmly took it in stride. We were thankful that a number of family & friends were there to witness the baptism and also to join us for lunch afterwards.







I thought some of you might like a close up of the dress. It was adorable!