Calaway Park

Lee and I, my mom and Dayna and the kids went to Calaway Park today. Zoë and Jayden had a blast on the rides, the boys on the other hand had fun NOT going on rides.

They have lots of cute rides that the girls can go on by themselves.



Dreyton had fun playing in the balls and the play structures they had around the park

Zoë and Jayden could have lastest alot longer then we did at Calaway, they would go on the same rides over and over again.

I was shocked they had bumper cars they could go on at 3 years of age, even Dreyton would have been able to go on them if he wanted too.

Camping

We just got back from camping in Fort Macleod this weekend. We wanted a campsite around Southern Alberta to go visit Lee's Grandma (who passed away in her sleep on July 30th) and Aunt in the Lethbridge hospital and my Granny in Magrath on Saturday.

It was a nice campground with a pool, games room, free mini golfing and a few other things. Unfortunately the campsite we were at was on the lower level of the campground where it was mosquito infested (100's of them). It was a huge campsite but mosquito's just swarmed the area, especially at dinner time. Next time we go we'd go to the upper campground as we didn't see any mosquito's around there.

It's funny how when you go camping the simplest things will entertain them for the longest time.

Can't go camping without s'mores.


They slept so well in the tent, I was impressed.

Heritage Park

Lee has been SO busy with work this year so far, and hasn't been able to have much downtime. I am excited for this month as he doesn't have CASB and it's not busy season so he will be able to spend some more time with us.

We decided to go to Heritage Park on Saturday, it was alot of fun.

Zoë LOVES rides, she is definetely like me. I have yet to find a ride she won't go on.

Dreyton on the other hand is the complete opposite, he is very cautious and would rather stand on the sidelines waving.



Getting ready for the train to leave, they were so excited to be in the train.

This week

I have been going to the splash park or the lake each day this week, we have had great weather so I wanted to take advantage of it while it was warm.

Dayna and my mom chillin' at the lake. I brought my canopy so we had some shade, a new essential when we go to the lake from now on.

The girls never get sick of the lake.




Dreyton loves to be independent so when he wanted to go upstairs without us to get dressed we let him. When he came downstairs it took us a minute to figure out what was a little off..

He got a shirt and put it on as pants, funny boy.



To celebrate Canada day we had a bbq at Mckenzie Lake, it was SO cold for being July.

Zoë is a nail biter, inherited from her daddy. When her nails are so short she can't bite them she starts to bite her skin to the point it starts to peel off. I have tried the gross tasting nail polish to get her to stop but it hasn't worked. Any suggestions?

Pre-Stampede Party

There was a huge pre-stampede party that we went to this morning, it was a tonne of fun for the kids. There were like 10 different bouncy houses, petting zoo, airbrushing, pancake breakfast, a tot play area, games, and lots of different vendors where we got a bunch of free stuff for the kids.

Brook and Dayna came, and my mom and I with the 4 kids. We got there right when it opened at 9am so we didn't have to wait very long for the pancake breakfast.


They had a little play area for younger kids. Dreyton rode this car many times down the ramp.


Kids had lots of fun petting the animals



Zoë asked to be a rainbow butterfly



Dreyton loves these mascots, always giving them high fives and hugs.

No More Soothers

Dreyton has been attached to soothers since he was a newborn, when we got Zoë off of the soother we put him to just having it at nights.
Well the time has come and gone to get rid of them for good.
We made a big deal and put his soother in an envelope to send it off to another baby and put it in the mailbox (no address and no stamp, the mailman got a weird surprise the next day). Then we went straight to toys-r-us and he got to pick out a puppy (Zoë picked out a puppy when she did so we kept with the tradition).

Lee was in Red Deer during this time so I had the LUCKY night of taking care of him waking up every hour wanting his soother. Well... the next day we decided at last minute to meet Lee in Red Deer so I relinquished and gave him back another of his soothers so we could get him to sleep in a hotel....

Well, after camping this weekend his soother was packed away in the van and we weren't going to unpack till the next day so we told him baby Logan (sorry Wendy, Dreyton might be a little bitter at him for awhile) needed it and he is a big boy and no longer needs it. He went straight to sleep with that answer and has been great ever since. Lee has a little bit of a issue learning to comfort him in the night instead of give him a soother but he's getting better as each day goes on.

Camping

Lee and I were excited to take the kids on their first camping trip, so we decided to go Fathers Day weekend. We invited our friends Cam and Wendy and their two boys to come along with us. Lee got bombarded with work and was working till 10pm each night so I organized and got everything together for the trip. On Friday I packed and loaded up the van (harder than it sounds, there's ALOT of stuff you need for camping) and as soon as Lee got home from work we left to our campsite which was 20 minutes away from our house. The campground is called Nature's Hideaway Campground which was just off the bow river. When we got there and found our site this is what it looked like..

This picture was taken with Lee's phone so not the greatest quality, but it was RAGING. If the kids went anywhere near the water they would have gotten swept away from the current, since it had risen alot with the recent rain. Also, the only patch of grass was right next to the river (I just found out that a 29 year old male went missing in that river as there was a group of them that we saw about to jump in just in front of the campground). Also, the only patch of grass was right next to the river. Needless to say, we switched campsites to a WAY better one. The one we got was meant for a group so it was huge.

Kids roasting marshmallows, they loved being able to make their own food over the fire.
It rained a bit while we were there so I was happy that I had bought the screenhouse to keep everything dry.
Lee with our friends Cam and Wendy.

Kids playing in one of the gopher holes that were around the campsite. Friday night I twisted my ankle in one which made it very difficult to get around.

Carter and Dreyton playing bubbles

The first night of camping I thought was great, had awesome company and the kids went to sleep really good. When we went to bed it had started to rain and got quite cold in the night. I think I had about 2 hours of sleep altogether that night as well as had pain from my foot.

Saturday it was very warm outside and there was a decent park they played at, I only wish they had either a pool or a lake they could have played in. We made tin foil dinners that afternoon which were delicious. We decided to pack up and head home that evening instead of staying overnight as I wanted to get a decent sleep before Lee headed back to work.

I think this time was a good learning experience. We know what we want in a campground and next time we will go when its warmer out at night and try find a different campsite with a lake or a pool.

Red Deer

Lee went to work in Red Deer for the week, so the kids and I met him there and stayed for 2 days. There was a little pool in the hotel so we spent most of the time in it. Dreyton showed a huge improvement in the pool while we were there. At the beginning he wouldn't let go of me, and would only jump off the edge if he was holding my hands. Then at the end he was swimming around with his wings on and even jumped in the pool without me to catch him. The second time we went swimming I didn't even put my bathing suit on and was able to read a magazine while they swam and played.





At the end of the day the kids were so exhausted they were both asleep within 2 minutes of laying down.

June?

This weather needs to start getting good, it's June! Needless to say i've been trying to do lots of indoor crafts that the kids could do while the weather is not so nice.

These are finger paints I had them use with a paint brush, halfway through Zoë figured out she could use her hands and was shocked when I didn't say anything. Surprisingly, Dreyton would not do it with his hands and when I tried to get him to do what Zoë was doing he freaked out saying he was messy.

I got this idea from a friend on facebook, it's just salt and Zoë had SO much fun playing with it. I had Dreyton do it but he didn't got the concept of leaving the salt in the bowl.

Happy cousins