Going Un-Private

In an effort to find the motivation to blog more regularly, this blog is officially open to all readers....but no creeps allowed! :)

San Antonio Trip

In November we were able to tag along with Mike to a conference that he was presenting at in San Antonio. The girls and I went to the zoo one day and spent the rest of the time exploring downtown San Antonio - including the riverwalk, and The Alamo.

Here are some pictures from our day at the zoo:

They're giving the goats hugs :)

My favorite Elaina moments in Utah

Elaina had some of her funniest moments on our trip to Utah last week.

*Before we go on a trip, I lay everything out on my dining room table to make sure that we don't forget anything. When I was about ready to put everything in the suitcases (and hopefully make it all fit!), Elaina came up to me and said, "oh, I just need to get my dress-ups." I told her we wouldn't be bringing any dress ups because there wouldn't be room for them. She was obviously bothered by this. Then she reassured me with a solution: "oh, it's ok Mom, I'll only bring my dress up skirts." As she marched away to the toy room to get all of her dress up skirts, I again told her that we wouldn't be bringing ANY dress ups - including skirts. She assumed that this must mean that Uncle Steve has some dress up clothes at his house that she could wear. When I told her that he did not, then this little drama queen put her hands on her hips, and, with as much attitude as a 4 year old is capable of mustering (which, is alot!) she said to me: "but Mo-om! How can I be a princess if I don't have my dress ups?!?"

*Elaina walked onto the plane in College Station and asked the flight attendant if she was going to drive the plane. She told her no, but let Elaina say hi to the pilot. Elaina continued to try and figure out who this lady was, and so later, as the flight attendant was preparing the plane for take off, Elaina stopped her as she was walking down the aisle and in a very loud voice said, "are you the pilot's special helper?"

*We've been talking about the temple where Uncle Steve and Aunt Ashley are going to get married (the SLC temple). Elaina's been really excited about this because we have a picture of this temple in our church bag (she calls it "the temple that we bring to church"). She also believes that it is a castle. The morning of the wedding I was explaining to Elaina that she wouldn't actually be able to go inside the temple; she would have to wait outside. Of course, she was crushed. She exclaimed: "but then I won't be able to see Ashley and Steve dance!" I told her that she wouldn't miss the dancing since there is no dancing in the temple. This totally shocked her. She asked what the wedding would be like, and when I told her that Ashley and Steve would kiss at the end she exclaimed, "oh!!!!! And then Ashley will get her true love's kiss?!?" Perhaps this girl watches too many princess movies???

*At some point during the day, Elaina must have picked some flowers and been told not to because she marched up to Ashley (who was getting pictures with her pretty bouquet of flowers) and reprimanded her: "Ashley! You're not supposed to pick the flowers!"

*Elaina was so excited when she saw Ashley come out of the temple in her wedding dress. She gasped when she saw her and said, "oh, Ashely looks just like a beautiful princess!" She kept telling her that she looks just like Princess Aurora (despite her dark brown hair). Then, as we walked around Temple Square, Elaina was enamored by all the beautiful brides. She walked up to each one, as they were getting pictures in front of the temple, and in her most polite voice, said to them, "Hello Princess."

Catching up from our Calgary Trip this Summer

It seems like I'm always playing catch up lately! Oh well, better late than never! Enjoy some more fun pictures from our trip to Calgary this summer

Elaina & Erin with Uncle Dave

Erin and my brother David

Sneaking some brownie dough

Happy Girl

The girls in my family have a major shoe fetish. My Mom tops it all with her hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of shoes. She often brings home entire suitcases full of shoes for Erin and Elaina because she can buy them so cheap overseas. So I guess we're passing this shoe fetish along to the next generation. This time, however, she brought shoes for the big girls! I think this is a good new tradition too :)

Erin at the park

A swing built for 3!

My beautiful sister, Heather

My other beautiful sister, Jen, with Erin

Arabian Princess

Elaina's favorite pastime - doing puzzles

My Nana was an Elementary School librarian. She was excited to take Elaina to the library and get some children's books!

Erin is my little monkey. She loves to get up and climb on anything she can!

Hopscotch

This is how we climb the monkey bars

Mike bowling

Calgary Stampede

I LOVE the Calgary Stampede. It is this HUGE city-wide event that lasts 10 days, and the entire city gets into cowboy character. The main event is downtown, where there is a rodeo, chuckwagon races, and fairgrounds. It's huge - the largest outdoor rodeo in the world. The biggest names in Country music are sure to perform at the Stampede each year.

But my favorite part about the Stampede is how festive the whole city is. Everyone - including the business people downtown - get dressed up in their cowboy gear all week long. If you work downtown and normally wear a suit to work, you'd be totally out of place Stampede week if you didn't wear jeans and a cowboy shirt, maybe even boots and a cowboy hat. And it doesn't matter if you're a cowboy or not. Everyone gets decked out. All over the city are free Stampede breakfasts - we attended 5 that week!!! - and all sorts of Stampede activities. I worked as an usher at the rodeo when I was 15 for a short summer job, but I haven't been back to Calgary during Stampede week since then. It worked out great that my entire family was in Calgary the week of the Stampede this year. We all went down to the grounds for one of the days:

My wonderful family

My sister, Jen and her husband Jared, and Erin: Riding the C-Train (light rail transit) to go downtown.

Greeting some Stampede guy

Visiting the animals

Can you tell that my Dad is making "moo-ing" noises to get the cow's attention? The things you find yourself doing for kids!

Me and Mike by the Elbow River, which runs through the fairgrounds

Jared helping Erin get a drink. He had to sit there for a while, waiting for her to finish :)

Watching Elaina on the rides

Mike, me, Heather, Jared (Jen's husband)

Love this girl!

Biker Chic

I love this picture of my Mom and Erin

We couldn't pull Erin away from these rubber ducks! She could have stayed there for hours!!

Elaina loved all the rides!

Merry Go Round with Nana

This is how Elaina traveled most of the day!! Life is so easy when you're a kid

Eating popsicles with Uncle Dave

Mike loved his bratwurst for lunch that day

This was the best treat of the day - it was called Potato On a Stick. It was just a long, fried potato twirl -- on a stick. Very cool. Of course you douse it with vinegar and salt. Incase you aren't aware, the only way to eat french fries (according to any true Canadian) is to sprinkle it with vinegar. Restaurants will always bring you a bottle of vinegar if your order french fries with your meal, and all the fast food chains have vinegar packets available next to the ketchup packets. Mmmm, yummy!!

Checking out a bazooka and other military weapons

They were so excited to see all the animals!

The girls with my parents

I think perhaps having grandkids is a good excuse to buy some cotton candy!

Enjoying the chuck wagon races and grandstand show that evening

My beautiful city of Calgary!!!

At the beginning of the chuckwagon races, of course they sang the national anthem, during which a helicopter flew in front of the crowds with a Canadian flag. It was such a privilege to be able to stand and sing my own anthem, especially since I don't get to do it very often. Of course I got goosebumps and a little teary-eyed because I don't get to sing "O Canada" very often.

I'm also excited because I'm in the process of getting Canadian citizenship for Elaina and Erin so they will be Canadian citizens too. Here is one of my proud little Canadians!