We love the summer!

So, we have had amazing weather lately here in the Hat and we have been taking advantage of it immensely. We are out in the backyard every morning (before it gets unbearably hot!), playing in the pool, playing frisbee (which Jackson has become strangly very good at; like better than me and I am not bad at it!), playing "ball"(this includes every and any sport you can possibly think of), etc. We even crafted up our own personal waterslide with the garden hose and some duct tape (you can see it in the pics). It works awesome! Jackson couldn't get enough! In these particular pictures, Jackson had his friend Makaya over one morning and they had a blast. I love the picture of her splashing him from the pool as he runs away. Great action shot! They mostly played in the pool and at the water table; I think all kids love water. They got along great except one incident involving the pretend lawn mower!haha. Also, when Avery finally woke up at about 11:00am, she joined them for a short swim in her new bikini! It was good because by that time, the water had been warmed up by the sun and wasn't as cold. Even so, though, she doesn't look too impressed in the picture! She had literally just woke up when I whisked her up, slathered sunscreen all over her, took her outside and put her in the pool! haha. She probably thought I was nuts!

More Trican Party pics

more pics! And I threw one in of a picture Jackson drew recently. He loves caterpillars lately and this is his rendition of his latest one.

Trican Kid's Party

Trican (Jody's work) had a kid's party today (June 24) out at Echodale for all the families (Echodale is a man-made beach/camping area/picnic area, 5 minutes outside of Medicine Hat). It was a blast; really well organized with tons of activities, games and food. They had a bounce house, a dunk tank (sorta- you throw the ball and if you hit the target, a water balloon falls on the person below- Jackson hit the target too and soaked one of the Dads!), face painting (the parents did their own kids mostly - I did Jackson's - he's a tiger), gunny sack races, etc. Also, each kid got a t-shirt (you can see Jackson's in the pictures but Avery's was huge so she isn't wearing it) and at the end, they all won a medal with engraving on the back for a keepsake. Jackson was pretty excited about the medal; he kept saying, "I win, Mommy!"

oops

oops, here's the pics!

Our new home

So, for all of you who don't know, Jody and I have found a condo for the kids and I to live in in Victoria while I go to school. We just went this weekend and we had a blast! The place we found is a condo in an area called Hillside right by the Hillside mall and it is great. It took a little while to get used to how expensive real estate is in Vic compared to Medicine Hat but oh well, at least it's only temporary and I really do love the place. There is a park like not even a block away and a big indoor pool a few blocks away, plus I can walk to school if I want! It also has it's own full size washer and dryer in suite, which is a huge plus with kids, new floors, gas fireplace, walk-in closet and two bathrooms! (wahoo!) It is exactly what we wanted so we are very happy. Plus, it is a good investment because Victoria Real Estate is constantly increasing so we can sell it when I am done and hopefully make a few bucks! If you want to check it out, the web address is:
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=4548428
If that doesn't work, the mls # is 213337.
Unfortunately, I only have pics on here of the outside but the ones on the mls site are pretty good, although they don't do it justice really. I guess you all will just have to come visit me and the kids to see for yourselves! heehee!

Touring Pictures

These are just some pictures of the fun part of the trip once we found a place to live. We did ALOT of walking (seriously, like 8 hours every day) but it was great because we got to see so much of the city that you don't get to see if you drive everywhere. We walked around the area that our place is in and around dowtown, and around the water, and around, and around and around! haha. And Avery was quite content to just sit in the stroller and see the sites and every now and then we would stop and let her out and she was just the happiest baby the whole time. we are really lucky.

Downtime in the hotel

These are a few pictures from our hotel room. Luckily, the weather was beautiful the whole time we were in Victoria so we didn't have to spend too much time in there. We did, of course, with a baby in tow, need to have a little down time once in awhile. Avery has learned recently how to play peek-a-boo and that is what she is doing in the two pictures where she is under the sheets (of course, they never come out in order though so they are pics 1 and 3). She covers her face and waits until you say, "Where's Avery?" and then pulls the sheets down quickly and laughs hysterically. Sometimes, if you don't say anything, she just sort of lowers it a little and peeks out at you with a look that says, "are you playing or not?"

First Plane Ride!

Here are some pictures from Avery's first plane ride on the way to Victoria and the airport bus ride from the airport to our hotel. Avery did so well on the plane both ways. She slept both ways for the most part and when she wasn't sleeping, she was entertaining the lady next to us who was totally loving her! How can you not! Anyway, she even slept through the landing on the way home and that bumpy landing even made me queasy!

Miscellaneous Pictures

Just some cute miscellaneous pics. The last two are in Jackson's room. He has all of his "little people" sets set up on his top bunk and he wanted Avery to come up there and pay with him. He has been waiting until she was big enough to play with him and now she is so he likes that. The pics of him and the pizza are when we made pizzas from scratch. He likes to help me out in the kitchen. The first picture is funny to me because I was trying to get a picture of Avery's new teeth but it was asif she knew that because she wouldn't open-mouth smile. She just pressed her lips together tightly. Oh well, the pictures still turned out cute. Anyway, she has 4 teeth now.

Rollerskating

Jackson is learning how to rollerskate since you can't ice skate in the summer. He bought them with his own money that Jody's mom gave him from pop bottles she picked up. He did really well for his first time; he has no fear. We started him out on the grass and moved to the sidewalk.

Face Painting

Jackson got his face painted at Spectrum this year, as a dog. Good thing it was free because it looks sorta goofy. Oh well, he loved it, of course and was SO mad when he had to have a bath and wash it off. He kept crying and saying, "puppy all gone!" It was heartbreaking. Anyway, he had obviously had a long day because he passed out on the couch when we got home (see pic).

Spectrum 2006

Every year, Medicine Hat had something called Spectrum (those of you from the Hat know it well). It's great for kids and has become even better in the last couple years. They now have a kiddie carnival with rides for toddlers, like a mini ferris wheel (so small you can almost reach the top seat!- it's so cute), bouncy houses, bumper boats, motorcycle rides (little 'power wheels' ones of course), etc. Anyway, it runs all weekend, so we went Friday and Saturday; it was exhausting but fun. Jackson loved the dunk tank (in the third pic you can see the ball in the air as he throws it) and tried 6 times to knock the lady down but didn't succeed. You have to throw it pretty hard and even though he has a really good arm, he was just too little. He loved it though and kept yelling "knock lady in water!" to all the people throwing the balls.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

These are pictures of Jackson's caterpillar. He first found him about 2 weeks ago and kept in a a container for about 3 days. I told right from the beginning that we could only keep him until his Mommy and Daddy wanted him back. So, I started to feel sorry for the thing so I told Jackson that we had to take his buddy back home. We took him over to a tree in the park across the street from our house and sent him "home." Anyway, 2 days later we went to the mall, and I went to open up the stroller to put the kids in and a caterpillar is on top of the canopy when I open it! So, of course I told Jackson that his buddy came back to see him and how culd I not let him keep him. (Luckily Jackson had been carrying the caterpillar's home around with us in grieving!) Anyway, to explain the first picture; if you look ( I know, it's blurry) in the top left hand corner, you can sorta see the webbed-looking cocoon that the caterpillar built for himself. Well, Jackson loves the book called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" ( those of you with kids probably know it), and he knew right away what was happening when I showed him. He says to me, "coboon, momma?" It was so funny that he knew that! Anyway, hopefully it does turn into a caterpillar and doesn't die because Jackson talks about it all the time.

more camping pics

These pictures are from the two places we stopped on our way to go camping. They kinda came up out of order but oh well. Anyway, one place we stopped was Lundbreck Falls, which speaks for itself in the pics. It was really beautiful. The other place we stopped was Frank Slide. Apparently, back in 1903, the coal miners of the town of Frank were asleep in their camp at the bottom of this mountain and early in the morning a enormous chunk of limestone one kilometre wide, 425 metres long and 150 meters deep, broke free from the mountain and slid down the mountain, burying everything and everyone in it's path. Anyway, it was very interesting to see how much rock and debri are still there. They had to rebuild the road and railroad that the slide took out but the rocks across the road from the slide go on for as far as you can see. The pics really don't do it justice.