Waterpark

After Marineland, I took the girls to see the Falls at night. It was quite amazing, but I didn't bring my camera. Perhaps Nana can send me a few shots from that night???

We stayed at a hotel with a waterpark. We don't usually do that, because the hotel is usually just a place to dry our ski stuff while we sleep before getting up very early and leaving. But this was fun! There was a big wave pool, several water slides and a hot tub, which I particularly enjoyed!




It was a lot of fun.

Marineland

As part of a whirlwind weekend in Ontario for cousin Angie's wedding, the girls and I flew out and joined Mary and the boys for a jam-packed weekend of stuff. Seriously, we did so much stuff, I have to put the 3 days into 4 posts. Keep tuned!

Day 1 - Marineland

The girls have witnessed approximately 73 zillion commercials for this place and were shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that not only is their Uncle a former sea lion trainer, but their mom also operated as cashier at the Beer Garden, serenaded daily by the Grammy-winning polka master Walter Ostanek. There's a lot of history there!

But really, the animals stole the day. The girls loved every minute. We watched the big top show,





and then went out to the Arctic area and actually got to feed Beluga whales. It was amazing!

Summer Vacation, Part 2: Collingwood

For the second part of our vacation, we flew to Toronto to hang with the family in Collingwood. Most of the time the kids built a fort in the basement of Gramma's house, but I don't have any pictures of that. It did take an incredible amount of time, I can tell you that much. Meanwhile, I zipped through the Stiers Larsson Millenium series.

We did get to spend some time in Mary's pool (fun! and salty!), go to a movie (Despicable Me - light bulb!), go to the beach, and come THISCLOSE to seeing a no-hitter at the SkyDome, pardon me, "Roger's Center" (seriously - it's a dome, call it that!)

Photo evidence:





Mackenzie went swimming in the lake! Woo Hoo!


Bautista at bat...

Brandon Morrow had to settle for a one-hitter when Evan Longoria hit a single up the first baseline with two outs in the 9th. Too bad... it was an EXTREMELY exciting game. Just look at us:

Update

The weather is no longer on fire. Unfortunately, the forecast is still not good.

Summer Vacation Part 1: The Lake

We had an amazing week at Lake of the Woods. The weather was gorgeous, the lake was perfect, and the people were FUN!!!

We did lots of stuff - like hanging out at the dock,


swimming,

relaxing in the hot tub,


wakeboarding, (I still have to get my videos up, this is Julia, age almost 5, ripping it up),

and boat rides (you need a jacket because Uncle Clancy goes fast!).


It was a great family vacation.


Cheers!

How's the weather?

It's on fire!

Sassah!!!

For as long as she can remember, Sarah has had long hair. Last summer, she trimmed off 7 inches, and here's how long it grew:


Not any more!

Time for a change for Sarah. She decided she'd trim off enough that she'd be able to donate some hair to a worthy cause. The salon we frequent donates hair to Kids for Cancer, and they require a minimum donation of 8 inches of hair.


Sarah went bigger. Today she cut off 14 inches of hair - almost half the length of her entire head of hair.





Doesn't she look great? Shorter is sassier - or to adapt her name for herself when she was learning to speak - Sassah-i-er!

Yee-haw

Summer is slipping by quickly. Sarah's camera died and she has no pictures to show from her trip to Mount Hood, Oregon. We have to take her word for it that the skiing was fun and the team had a great time together.

Alison went off to Fairmont for a visit that included cliff-jumping. I'm still waiting on photographic descriptions on that one.

I do have some pictures of Alison at Stampede, though. Sarah went with another friend and her mom, so it was just me and Mook at the grounds. We checked out lots of stuff and Alison even got to milk a fake cow. Fun!

Yahoo!

Stampede has returned!


Alison and I braved the crowds to check out this year's parade. Doesn't she look great?

The parade had a zillion horses and marching bands and floats and the shriners and all the other things that make parades parades. I snapped a photo of the University of Calgary Solar Car because it's really cool.


Afterwards, we walked through downtown Calgary and Alison got a balloon hat to wear on her cowboy hat. Cute.


This is her reaction to hearing how those branding marks got onto the horses behinds. I waited to click the camera until I said, "and then they take the hot iron and burn the mark onto the animal's skin." Yeah, we love the enthusiasm of the Stampede, but really don't support the way the animals are treated.

Canada Day

Happy Canada Day, a little late, everyone! We had to celebrate without Sarah this year while she was at ski camp, so the rest of us went to Prince's Island in downtown Calgary to check out the festivities. Here we are enjoying a picnic lunch.


And check out Alison's fingernails! (Did them myself, I really did!)