Daddy's Home

Usually, the girls are in bed when Bob returns from a business trip to Houston. Not in the middle of July, though! Tonight, Alison has a warm welcome for Daddy.

Stampede Parade

Yes, it's that time again. The annual Calgary Stampede and Exhibition has descended upon town with all the fanfare, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots you can shake a lasso at. Rustle is completely uninterested, and his girls are pretty much only into going to the parade. Free pancake breakfast? No, too early for Sarah and Alison doesn't like pancakes. Rides on the midway? Not big fans. Rodeo? Don't get them started on how mean those cowboys are to those teeny baby cows.

So, the parade it is.

One of the fun floats, with a genuine western theme.


Is this the cutest cowgirl you've ever seen, or what? She's her own stylist, by the way. Her consulting services are a bit pricey.

Canada Day

Alison's friend's family invited us to spend the Canada Day weekend at their home in Fairmont, B.C. We had a fabulous time swimming and boating in Columbia Lake, climbing up a mountain trail to reach a waterfall to swim below, and just having fun with good people.

Here we are at Columbia Lake. It is a glacier-fed lake, but it's really shallow, so it was nice and warm. It was especially enjoyable since the temperature was in the low 30s and we needed a good dip to cool off. We also had lots of fun tubing about the lake, until, of course, Alison had to dump Mommy off the tube...



The waterfall is an offshoot of the hot springs. We climbed a trail to reach the waterfall and then swam in the pools below, which were really warm. It was also pretty busy there, so Alison and Sam went off exploring in the stream below.




We spent Canada Day at the base of Fairmont Ski Hill. Alison and her friends made their own Canada Day t-shirts which turned out rather spectacularly, I must say.

Soccer 08

As manager for Sarah's soccer team this year, I realize that I have no pictures from Alison's games, which occurred on the the same nights (of course!). I also noticed that I took terrible video of Sarah's games which were played on full-sized fields and were pretty fast. My bias may be obvious, but this team was great. The girls learned a lot about being teammates and improved with every play they made. There were a lot of rained-out games, but they still managed to finish with a 9-1-2 record and would have been contenders in the playoffs had more than half the team been around to play in July! The big party at the end was a Dairy Queen extravaganza and a great finish to a great season! Congratulations Sarah!



And Alison, too. This is her medal from her adventures with the Black Holes Soccer team. We spent Canada Day weekend with the soccer coach's family (who is the mom of Alison's friend, Liana) and pictures from that trip will be coming soon.


So if anyone wonders where we were all June, you could always try a soccer field....

We love our Dad!

The girls went all out to make today a special Father's Day for their one and only Daddy. They made a big banner, baked up an EasyBake cake, wrapped presents, made a card and a travel mug, and then set it up to surprise him.

Alison took Daddy for a bike ride and Sarah went with him to the driving range. It was a lovely Father's Day at our house. Here's wishing all the other Dads out there had a wonderful Father's Day, too.

Kace!

It was a big weekend at our house. Rustle got to meet a true dog person and remarkable friend.

Yes, it's true, Karen came to town. Rustle's girls were a bit foggy in their memories of her - it has been almost four years and they were pretty little back then. Rest assured, it didn't take long for the girls to get right into the swing of things. It's a wonder Karen's ears weren't completely talked off!

Here is a group photo, plus a bonus of Kace and her new good buddy, Rustle.

Travel Fair

Besides soccer, soccer all the time, the girls have also been attending school. Sarah was working very hard, researching and writing about China for a huge Travel Fair held at her school. Students worked alone or with a partner (Sarah worked with her friend Mikayla) and then the three grade five classes presented their displays in the gym. Parents were invited because this was a HUGE event. I knew Sarah had done a lot of work, but when I saw the over 40 displays that covered all areas of the globe, complete with costumes and food samples, I was impressed.

Also, as promised, a shot of Alison's haircut...

Big News

Turn your back for a second, and a girl turns into a tiger! I'll have to get a picture of the new haircut, too, if I can get her to slow down long enough...

In other big news, the household mom got herself a new and exciting job for September. It's called an "AISI Learning Leader" but what it means is that I'll be supporting teachers at a few different schools in developing programs to enhance literacy learning using technology. I'm very excited. Since I don't know which particular schools I'll be working at, I can't tell if it is closer to home than my current job, but it's a leadership role and a step in a whole new direction. Big news, indeed!

Photo Booth

The girls have taken some recent portraits.....

Happy Mother's Day