New babysitter!

A few months ago I spoke to our neighbour because I was pretty sure her son and daughter were nearing or in their teens!  And they are ... so between the two of them, we're keeping them busy this summer!!  Their son is mowing our grass while we're away and their daughter is watering my flowers and we had her babysit on Friday night!  She is only 11 years old (turns 12 in January) but she has her babysitters course and is eager to babysit!  It's nice that her parents are just behind us, just in case.  She came over at 5:30.  Cal and I went for a drink and appy's and then to a movie.  In the morning the kids said she was great and she even brought a backpack full of crafts to do with the kids!  Emerson and Reese made 3 different crafts and thought it was so cool that she brought all the supplies with her ;)  Blake chose not to participate in the crafts - I think he felt a bit awkward with her!!  He is nearly as tall as her and only 3 years older ... lol!  He said he just watched his hockey videos on the iPad and read.  He even put himself to bed, said he didn't need her help!  I found this amusing!!  But I am very glad that the kids all had a great evening with her and we will definitely be scheduling her a lot more ... especially once the Oilers season starts and we get our tickets!!  Yay for a new babysitter, who lives within walking distance :)

~Tracy

Long Lake Provincial Park

We headed to Long Lake on July 30th for an extra long weekend of fun with my parents and family friends, the Scott's.  The weather was good for the most part, we had some rain and some wind.  The kids were so excited to be out on the lake on Grandma and Grandpa's boat and had a blast tubing!!  Grandpa pulled them around and around and around again!!  They could stay out there for hours!  They got pretty brave with the 'bumps' and twists and turns and gave me a near heart attack ;)  This was Reese's 1st time on the tube but you wouldn't know it!  Cal even jumped on for a few rides!!  Blake tried water skiing and got up for a few seconds, one time!  He was a champ and very brave!!  The water was getting a bit rough and there was quite a few boats on the lake, which makes it hard to teach someone to water ski.  My Dad and I also got a ski in, which was great!!  Next time I will slalom!  I wasn't sure how much time I'd spend helping Blake and didn't want to wear myself out - it's pretty crazy how in my teen's I could spend all day water skiing and not feel a muscle ... now I ski for a few minutes and my back and arm muscles are screaming!!  Good sign that I should maybe get back into shape ;)  Anyways, Blake wants to try skiing again this summer so hopefully we can get to the lake with my Mom and Dad before school starts.  Emerson would also like to try water skiing!  We also took the kids fishing, which they always enjoy.  No bites this time but Em and Blake are getting good at casting!  Reese's casts are a tad wild ... she almost hooked Grandma on one cast!!  Besides spending time on the boat, we spent some time on the beach and Blake, Cal and Grandpa played catch!  It was great long weekend and we're glad we chose Long Lake, it's an awesome campground!

~Tracy 

the week of Hrdlicka's!!

Following bike camp, the Hrdlicka's and Cameron's headed to Miquelon Lake for a weekend of camping!!!  We had a great week with the Hrdlicka's an's d I really think they should move closer and we should spend every week together.  lol ;)  

During the week of bike camp, Emerson and Presley had a sleepover at Presley's nana's house and Nicholas slept over at our house.  They all had fun and as expected ... the boys caught more zzzz's than the girls ;)  The fun continued at Miquelon Lake! The kids had fun biking, playing baseball, playing at the park and around the campsite and enjoying a few of the park programs.  The adults had fun adult time once the kids were in bed and enjoyed relaxing and visiting!  The weekend was over far too quickly!

Nicholas and Blake on their sleepover at our house!

Some of the small amount of sleeping that Emerson and Presley did on their sleepover ;)

The youngest Hrdlicka and the youngest Cameron - 2 adorable kiddo's!!

Blake, Emerson and Presley, taking in a park program about 'Critters'

Chasing butterflies!

Checking on her spider :)

Carson and his Dad, checking out their catch!

Watching a movie, keeping out of the rain

fireside selfie!

Watercolor painting at the interpretive centre!

Friends for life :)

Pedalheads Bike Camp!

Reese on 2 wheels!!

This week was bike camp week!!  The kids were extremely excited!!  They sure love bike camp!  This week was extra-special because my nephew Connor and our friends the Hrdlicka's were also in bike camp!  This is Blake's 4th year in bike camp, Em's 3rd and Reese's 2nd.

By day 2 Reese was on 2 wheels!!  Cal and Em took her out 2-wheeling the week before and she did pretty good so we were 110% sure that she'd be fully on 2 wheels within the first 2 days of bike camp :)  

Emerson had a blast!  She was so proud to go on a few trail rides and learn hand signals!  She was hesitant about riding her bike at the beginning of the summer but after the week at Ol MacDonalds and a lot of biking with Grandpa and Dad, she was doing great and excited for bike camp!  Nicholas was in her class and they had a lot of fun together!

Blake went on a lot of long distance rides, riding to the Muttart one day!  He has advanced to road riding and learned the rules of the road.  He had a great time and learned a lot and now thinks he should be riding on the road, when we go on family bike rides ;)

Another great week of summer camp, thanks to Pedalheads!  Hopefully we'll be able to fit this camp into our summer, in 2016!

Day 1: Group warm-up, gorgeous day!

Face painting on the last day :)

Connor did so great!!

Hrdlicka's and Cameron's: L to R, Nicholas, Blake, Emerson, Presley and Reese (Carson is actually behind Presley!!)

SK Road Trip

On Friday morning we loaded into the mini-van and headed for Saskatoon, SK!  We had to make a pit stop along the way as I had a phone interview for a position with AHS - more on that if/when I am the successful candidate ;)  We made the pit stop in Vegreville.  The kids and Cal ran into Walmart to buy Cal a pair of swim trunks and look around, while I interviewed from the van!!  When I was done we stopped at Timmie's and then the World's Largest Pysanka! 

The kids enjoyed seeing the egg and we took a quick photo before racing back to the van!  The rest of the trip was uneventful, the kids are such great travellers!  We arrived at our hotel in Saskatoon around 3 pm and quickly headed to the pool!  We don't stay in very many hotels, in fact this was only our 2nd hotel stay as a family of 5, and so the kids were anxious to try out the pool and water slide!!  After a nice swim we went to the Keg for dinner and came back to hotel to visit the Stecyk's for a few minutes before bedtime!

Saturday morning brought another swim, this time with the Stecyk's.  Then a movie in bed after showers, changing into our wedding clothes and we were off to Drake for my cousin Brynn's wedding!  It was a gorgeous ceremony, beautiful dresses and colors, gorgeous farm yard location.  In between the ceremony and reception we visited at my parents trailer.  The reception was great, the girls had fun dancing and it was great to see most of my cousins and my Grandma Marg.  The kids haven't seen their Great Grandma in awhile, so it was really nice to visit with her and we are lucky that she will be visiting here at the beginning of September!  It was a late night, we got back to the hotel just after midnight.  Blake fought falling asleep the entire drive home, just so he could say he stayed up past midnight ;)

We left pretty early on Sunday morning and arrived back in Edmonton just in time for Blake's 3 on 3 hockey game.  It was a fun weekend and we send big thanks to my parents for the use of their hotel points!!

It's hard to believe July is 1/2 over.  We've had such a great summer break up until this point and have so much more summer fun planned!!  

Talk to you soon,

Tracy 

World's largest Pysanka!

Blake and Cal teamed up to create a tsumani in the hotel pool, lol!

Little fish!

Movie and pretzel time :)

Brittany + Brynn

How cute are these 3?!  Reese and Emerson with their cousin, Connor!

Great Grandma Marg with Reese, Blake and Em

We clean up nicely :)

Ol' MacDonalds Resort

This past week was our annual Ol' MacDonalds camping trip!!  When we arrived on Monday, the kids wanted to see the animals right away!  My Mom and Dad were already parked and set up, so Mom took them to the animals.  Lindsay and Jeremy and the boys arrived not long after we did.  

We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.  Tuesday was slightly overcast and not really beach weather, so we took advantage of the weather and did the activities around the campground - train ride, tractor/wagon ride, swing ride and playing at the park and campsite!  Jeremy was super brave and took Connor, Blake and Reese into Stettler for a few things, in the afternoon!  Both Cal and Mom had work to do on Tuesday and were away for most of the day.  Mom in Barrhead on Co-op business and Cal in Stettler and Drumheller.  Day 2 and 3 were in the upper 20's  to lower 30's and were spent at the beach!!  Day 3, we also snuck in a pedal car ride before hitting the beach and said goodbye to the Stecyk's, as they continued on to Drumheller to finish up their camping vacation!  

The beach at Ol' MacDonals is so nice - the sand is raked daily, there's no rocks in the lake, the lake is very shallow and you can walk out forever!  The kids had so much fun in the water!  Grandpa entertained them for hours - tossing them up in to the air and swimming with them!  Over and over and over again!!  They were thrilled :)  I also found it great to go for a swim and play in the water for awhile, it was a much needed reprieve from the heat!!  A few sandcastles were built, Blake played lacrosse with his teammate and then a little baseball game at the diamonds.  We did some biking and the kids did a lot of biking!  Blake and Em joined Cal for the first 5k of one of his runs!  Some friends pulled in to the campground on Thursday evening, so Cal and I joined them at their campfire Thursday night.  A couple of them are Cal's fellow NP'ers and so they met early Friday morning for a workout and #OMC (old man coffee) ... insider lingo that I get to be partial to as I share a bed with an NP'er ... lol!!!  It was a great 5 days and needless to say, the kids didn't want to leave on Friday morning and were asking, "When are we coming back??"  I think we could easily spend 7 days at Ol' MacDonalds!  

Thanks for another great trip to Ol' MacDonalds, Mom, Dad, Lindsay, Jeremy and boys :)

'Smith' cousins

Grandma and Grandpa are the best :)

A tough ride for Blake!!

our water babies :)

Reese loved the rope swing!

waitin' on a train!

True North Strong and Free!

Happy Canada Day, my friends!!  I hope you took some time to celebrate our beautiful, free country :)  Our family spent the majority of the day at the legislature grounds.  Cal headed to the grounds bright and early for his NP workout, which he then followed up with a 15 K race ... can you say rockstar?!  The kids and I dragged our butts out of bed and sped down to catch Cal cross the finish line!!  We then enjoyed a pancake breakfast and all the fun that is Canada Day on the AB Legislature Grounds!!  It was a fabulous morning and afternoon.  We headed home so Cal could change and soak his sore muscles and then went to my parents house in Stony Plain for a BBQ.  It was a fabulous day :)

Posing with Cal @ the finish line!

Proud lil' Canadians!!

Watching the ceremonies on the stairs of the Legislature

Enjoying the CBC Kids performances!

Photo booth fun :)