Christmas Eve

Yes, Santa Claus, these are two very good girls. Enjoy the cookies they decorated and the hot chocolate Alison left you in the thermos.

Merry Christmas!

Sarah's New Skis

Sarah showing off her new GS skis. Don't think Santa can top that!

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah celebrated her 11th birthday this week.


She had a bowling/swimming party with her friends and had lots of fun. Some of those kids were great bowlers!


Sarah opened her birthday presents at home in front of the Christmas tree. She loves when it is Christmas-y for her birthday. Not a pleasure many of us can share!

Happy Birthday!

The last day she's 10

Tomorrow Sarah goes to 11.

Cowboy Day

The girls' school has dress up days which are often the typical "pyjama day" or "crazy hair" things , but this month, they go a little bit Calgary-style creative and kids dressed up in their Western finest. The ladies borrowed our hats and looked mighty fine, I think you'll agree.

Cabin in the Woods

Ski season is quite definitely upon us. Last weekend the Women's World Cup Race was on and almost all the hotel rooms were booked. No room at the Inn for us!

We managed to sneak into the Baker Creek Chalets, a lovely spot that doesn't take dogs and usually requires a minimum 2 night stay. They only had one night available, though, and our neighbours were able to look after Rustle, so we had the pleasure of a little mountain vacation in a beautiful cabin in the woods.


Sarah looking over us from the loft bedroom, complete with Christmas garland.

The antler chandelier. Started lots of conversations, I'll say that much for it.

Alison at the breakfast table.

The little Christmas tree and the wood stove made for a picture-postcard setting. Too bad I was using the laptop camera instead of a real one to really capture the ambience. Bob lit a fire in the wood stove and it heated the place up instantly. So cozy!

Mooke

For followers of Alison's blog, she has finally updated with a JibJab of her own.

Merry Tree Trimming

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Skating

Alison continues with the skating lessons. I was unsuccessful in capturing a lot of "WOW" moments, but I suppose that becoming a good skater requires a lot of skill-building and drills. Here's evidence of Alison getting down to some not-so-exciting work:

Happy 8th Birthday Alison

Alison turned 8 today and celebrated with a sleepover and an old-fashioned party at home. Alison and several friends played lots of games, made a craft, devoured some ice-cream cake, and had a lot of fun together.


Alison was rather excited about the whole birthday thing.


Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Outdoor School

Sarah went with her school to Outdoor School in Kananaskis the last week of October. The weather was lovely, but most of her pictures are blurry. She must have been to busy having fun to focus.

Here's a couple of snaps. I'll see if she wants to share some stories....

Halloween Retrospective

A selection of some of the costumes through the years....

Costumes

This year's Halloween costumes are complete. A sneak-peak, so you won't be afraid should these guys come to your door on Friday night.....

Making cookies

Sarah and her dad are off hiking at Lake Louise today for dryland (not exactly dry!) training. I thought I'd have a nice, relaxing day, but Alison has put me to work.

Job #1 - Make a Bismarck for breakfast. Yummy, yes, but requires lots of Mommy assistance.

Job#2 - Get to work on that Halloween costume. I tried to persuade her that a store-bought costume would not only be less work for me but also cheaper, but she insisted. "Your homemade costumes are better." Sigh. Can't really argue with that one.

Job #3 - Make chocolate chip cookies. And lots of them. So if anyone would like a snack, the chef has prepared a delightful one.....

Rustle's Hat

For anyone who has had an opportunity to play with Rustle over the past year or so, you would know that his favourite toy is an old fleece hat he dug out of the winter clothing basket. He carries this silly purple hat around everywhere. It is even labeled inside because he takes it with him to the kennel. He loves his hat.

Rustle's girls certainly know how much he loves his hat. Lately, they've taken to running about the house, playing keep-away with Rustle and his hat. It really tires him out and produces the kind of giggling that fills my heart with joy.

It also produces new ways to be silly. Here is Rustle subjected to wearing his hat. Being the good, compliant dog he is, the hat remains on his head for at least 10 seconds before he paws it off and tries to find a refuge where he can hold his hat in his mouth in peace.

And so it begins...

Yesterday was Alison's first skating lesson of the year. Sarah has opted out of skating this year; she will be skiing 4 times a week and will just be too tired to skate twice a week as well. So for now, she's doing homework and babysitting at the arena. Not so bad, for one day.

Guitar Hero

Go Flames!

Sarah and Alison went to their first ever hockey game this week. The Flames lost 3-2 to Florida in their first pre-season game, but not because of a lack of support from their sweetest fans.

City Hikers

It's not the whole family who climbs mountains. The rest of us settle for adventures within the city limits.

Yamnuska, revisited

Another guest blogger post:

Sarah and I climbed Yamnuska today, but instead of just going to the top of the ridge that we did last year, we went right to the summit.
It was a beautiful day and the climb was very challenging. It had snowed last week and there was just enough left to make things interesting.
That's the Trans Canada Hwy, about 3000 feet below us on the right. Sarah was awesome. The photo below is where we are sitting, but taken from below. And both of us are afraid of heights.

Bob


(There is actually a rock climber about two-thirds of the way up in a white t-shirt in the photo below)

Happy First Day of School

Isn't it exciting! Another year of school! Alison is happy to be starting taking some English in school, now that she's in Grade 3, and Sarah is glad that her Grade 6 teacher is the same one who knows her from Grade 4.

I'm still not sure how they got to be so old...

The Disney trip

We really did go to Disneyland. I wasn't making that up. We also took a couple of side trips in Southern California, where the weather is significantly better than it is here (although the smog left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean that literally).

The girls who don't really like the rides at the local amusement park tried just about everything there was to try at Disney. We hit Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, Big Thunder, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean, the They did turn down the California Screaming coaster at the California Adventure park, but considering they watched the space-like launch that started it, I wasn't surprised. (the launch goes 0 to 55 mph in 4 seconds, check out that link!) Their parents enjoyed it, though. Probably the most fun coaster I've ever ridden.

The large group with the Mouse himself.

Meeting Winnie-the-Pooh...

and Tigger, too.

We also hit some of Southern California's other attractions. We went to Huntington Beach, the original Surf City, to play in the sand and surf. We also took a drive into Hollywood and walked a bit on the Walk of Fame, where Alison even got to play a bit of dress-up outside the Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

We're going to Disneyland!!!

Why don't they believe me?




As much as I wanted to get their reactions recorded, the girls didn't start squealing until they saw their boarding passes for this morning's flight.

We'll be back on Tuesday.

Vacation Video

A 3 1/2 minute video to capture the moments of fun from our Cape Breton trip. The trendy little summer tune is from the Camp Rock soundtrack, definitely heard a zillion times at our house, courtesy of Sarah.

Enjoy.

Canoeing down the Bow

Our annual adventure on the Bow with the neighbours took on a new twist this year. Instead of renting a raft, we set out on the Bob Special. Sarah was busy playing with her friend Maddy, (who has been off at sleepover camps all summer), and our neighbour's daughter was away at a friend's place, so it was just 6 of us who enjoyed an absolutely glorious summer day floating/paddling down the Bow.


Alison spent a lot of time helping the neighbours manoeuver their raft. That really is her under all that hair.



Pelicans! On the Bow! Those are some impressive beaks. No wonder they were out, though, fish were jumping up out of the water all over the place.

Reece did take a couple of swimming trips between the boats. Alison did it once, too, but Daddy didn't go in at all. Alison wins!