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!