Merry Christmas ~ 2019

Merry Christmas everyone!! We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our 'Cameron' and 'Smith' families! For the first time ever, Cal's mom stayed with us over the Christmas break! The kids were super excited to have Grandma Bev here!!  We enjoyed having Bev with us on our annual Christmas Eve Church, take out and lights extravaganza ;) We got in our comfy jamies and enjoyed the evening!! I love this tradition and look forward to it every Christmas. The weather was nice enough to walk along Candy Cane Lane this year, which was extra nice. Bev slept in Blake's bed, Blake slept in Em's bed and Em and Reese slept in Reese's bed, it all worked out quite well and I think the kids enjoyed being in the same room on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning we woke up, opened gifts and enjoyed our traditional Christmas morning wife-saver!! Yum yum!! We headed to the Stony Plain Cameron house mid-morning for a delicious brunch and visit. The kids loved Auntie Lesley's homemade waffle bar!! It's always great to get together as our kids are so close in age and get along so well :)

Later that afternoon we left Bev with Gerry & Lesley and headed to my parents in Stony Plain for our Christmas Day celebrations! It was a great afternoon of gifts, cousins, visiting and again, yummy food!! This year Will and Kristy Campbell (and kids) joined us for dinner. It was really nice to see them and their 3 kids got along very well with our 3 and my nephews! 

We had a great Christmas Day and are so blessed to have family close by and time to create these wonderful memories! Boxing Day will be for relaxing and leftovers ;) 

Merry Christmas everyone!! xoxo

November

On the 1st Reese had a fun night a the waterpark with her friend Alexa! It was a fundraiser for Alexa's soccer club. Whenever those two are together, they have a blast!!

Blake started off November with another volleyball tournament. He's really enjoying playing volleyball and we enjoy watching and cheering! He's made new friends on the team which is awesome! Emerson has affiliated with the A team a few more times and is enjoying that :) 

On the 6th was Blake's first ever parent teacher interviews for jr high! They went very well and I left feeling very proud of him and how well he seems to be adjusting to jr high life and school :)

Over the past few months I've been involved in hiring a new minister for our Church. It has been a really intersting process, I am glad I was asked to sit on the committee. I feel bad because we are rarely able to attend Church, it seems every Sunday morning we have ringette. But I am grateful to be involved and we selected a really awesome candidate so hopefully we will make it there soon!! Her convenating service was on the 3rd.

Emerson and I were very excited for her first bus trip with her ringette team but sadly it was cancelled due to the weather :( I am a co-manager on her team so we were sad the trip was cancelled and also sad that all our hard work was cancelled!! We coordinated meals and the bus ride with the other Edmonton 12B team. So instead of getting up at 4 am and riding to Fort Mac for 2 ringette games, we slept in and spent some time at the dog park with the fam!! We love our dog park visits, Quinn has so much fun, you can't help but smile and love the experience!!

On the 11th we paid respect to those who have served and are serving our country. Reese's Girl Guide unit participated in a Remembrance Day ceremony at Greishbach. We were all able to attend and although it was a cold day, we were so glad we could show are thanks and respect by participating in the ceremony.

On the 14th we celebrated my birthday with cake before bed as it was game day for Blake and Emerson!!

On the 15th Reese and I headed to Lacombe for a ringette tournament. We stayed at the hotel in Red Deer with her team on Friday night and drove back home for Saturday night. Sunday the played in final, later in the day so we were able to drive down without leaving Edmonton too early! Reese had so much fun with her team and they played so well!! And this weekend was the debut of their team mascot - a dinosaur!! Some of the older sisters on the team dressed up in one of those blow up dinosaur costumes, it was so funny and awesome!!

Blake began basketball tryouts on the 19th, which more importanly was Reese's 9th birthday!! Luckily, Reese had a field trip to TWOS and Grandma D was able to volunteer :) They had fun and Grandma even brought Reese Subway for a birthday lunch!! 

On the 22nd Reese and 3 of her friends all wore the same outfit for 'Twin' Day at school! There were super cute with their matching tshirts, scrunchies and leggings!! That evening was Reese's 9th birthday party. We attended a movie (Frozen 2 - so good!), had dinner at BP's and then she had two friends sleep over :) They had so much fun, of course little sleep was had!!

On the 24th was the Lancers Christmas Party. They mini-golfed, had a pizza party at a teammates parents pub (Sherlock Holmes in WEM) and exchanged gifts. They did a funky tie and funky sock exchange, which was a lot of fun! Before the party started, the team met at London Drugs to hand in their 'Stocking Stuffers for Seniors' gift bags. Thanks to the Lancers generosity, 17 seniors will have a gift to open on Christmas morning!

On the 27th we got our flu shots - not so fun but necessary IMO :)

On the 28th I volunteered at the book fair at the girls school and they had demo of learning that evening. This is always such a treat to have them show us their classrooms and what they have been working. We always leave so proud of them and the students they are working hard to be.

And that was our November!! We're excited to start decorating for Christmas and really looking forward to the Christmas break!! Talk to ya in December!!

October

October was a great month! It started with Emerson getting her hair streaked :) She's been asking to dye her hair for awhile now and I finally arranged it! A mom of her school friend is a hair stylist so we arranged for a play date/salon date! She's super excited about her streaks and they look great! I find it easier to update in point form, so I'm going to stick to that this month! Here's what we were up to in October:

5th - Reese's team had a blast at Clip n' Climb, followed by a practice!
6th - Celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents house with a delicious turkey dinner
8th-9th - Cal in Calgary for work
11th-13th - Turkey Ring in St. Albert. Reese's team participated and Emerson affiliated to a U12A team!
12th - I had dinner with friends Christa and Audrey! Christa and I met Audrey at St. Albert United Church. We had a nice evening, visiting and shopping. It was a reminder that we need to make time to do this more often!!
17th - Cal took a day trip to Calgary for the day!
17th-19th - Blake had a volleyball tournament in Spruce Grove
18th-19th - Emerson's team competed in the Brass Ring (games in Beaumont and Leduc)
18th- Family Movie Night at the girls school! This is such a fun event! The kids bring blankets and stuffies and enjoy hanging out with friends on the gym floor! The concession is open and the kids have a blast.
19th - Reese's 1st road trip! We took a short trip down the QEII to play Red Deer.
21st - Blake's 1st team training at ATHX. He really enjoyed this and the team has more sessions booked throughout the hockey season.
22nd - Emerson was looking forward to this day for month's! She won an opportunity to attend WE Day at Rogers Place. Typically this event is for grade 6 students in our school but there were a few spots open so the grade 5's were given an opportunity to write an essay to attend. Emerson put a lot of time into her essay and she was chosen to attend. We're so proud of her!! She had a blast at the event!
23rd - Emerson began volleyball practices at school! Her practices are in the mornings before school starts :) She's excited to try a new sport!!
24th - We had a birthday tea and donuts with my Dad before going to practices!!
25th-27th - The Lancers were in Camrose for a tournament. Blake and Cal stayed with the Bucci's on the Friday night, Reese had a game early in the morning on Saturday so after the game Reese and I headed to Camrose and Emerson went with my parents for a sleepover so she didn't have to miss any of her ringette!
31st - Halloween! We love Halloween and our annual date with the Bucci's and Mauro's! Mom and Dad came over for a quick visit and their annual photo and then we headed to the Bucci's for pizza and trick-or-treating! This year Blake chose to wear the same FortNite costume from last year (it fit better this year, last year it was huge!), Reese wore a bunny onesie trick or treating and a huge panda head to school and Emerson was a black cat!

Quinn spent the 26th while we were in Camrose at the kennel and Halloween night. She loves it there, thankfully!!

Emerson is really enjoying her volleyball practices and can't wait for their tournament in December!!

xo

September updates!

September was back to it 'all'!! Hockey, ringette, dance, girl guides, work, school, etc :) Here's some highlights of our month:

1st - Celebrated the end of summer with a visit to Stony Plain! We had lunch at my mom and dad's and dinner at Gerry and Lesley's! Great visit with everyone :)

2nd - KC tryouts started for Blake!

3rd - Back to school and Blake started volleyball tryouts! No time to waste, they started tryouts the first day of school!

7th - Emerson and Reese each had a prep skate before ringette evaluations started and I was invited to my friend Jen's house for her mom's surprise 60th birthday party!

8th - Blake's 1st volleyball tournament at the Saville Community Sports Centre! So fun watching him compete in a new sport!

10th - Cal took a trip to Calgary for work. Back on the 11th! He will be in Calgary a lot more this winter.

11th - ESSMY welcome  back BBQ, KC tryouts and Emerson had a goalie evaluation! Thankfully Cal was back from Calgary in time to take Blake to tryouts while Reese, Em and I headed to the Meadows for her goalie eval :)

12th - Reese's first Girl Guide meeting! She has moved from Brownie's to Girl Guides and her meetings are at Lago Lindo Hall this year. Her bff Alexa is still in her troop and she was so excited to see her!!

19th - Blake had his first PD day on the 20th so he had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's!

20th-22nd - Blake had a few hockey games this weekend ... 6 to be exact! At the last minute they were invited to participate in a tournament in Spruce Grove as a team had dropped out. They had an awesome weekend, bringing home a silver medal! They also had their first game of the Peewee AA EFHL pre season tournament, which they won, which means they advance to round 2!!

25th - Blake competed in the district cross country run!

27th-29th - Reese's 1st Girl Guides camp of the year! It was super cold this weekend but they persevered and tented!! She said she was quite cold but had a lot of fun!

29th - We were invited to attend the Oil Kings game with a friend who's company has a suite! We wondered if this was a good idea, being that Reese would likely be exhausted after a weekend of camp but she persevered and we had fun with some hockey friends!!

Kids are all set on their teams now - Emerson made a U12B team, they've called themselves the Devils! Reese made U10S3, they'll be the Raptors and Blake made the Peewee AA Lancers! They're all excited with where they landed and will have a great season, I anticipate!! I am managing all 3 teams and Cal is an assistant coach on Blake's team. So here we go ... buckle up for a fun and busy winter season!! Looking forward to it :)

xo

1st day of school!

And work ... for me! The kids and I are BACK! And Cal's back to working from home in peace and quiet :)

Reese is in grade 4 this year and has Mme. Melissa as her teacher. Mme. Melissa taught Blake and Emerson in grade 2 and taught Reese for a few months of grade 2 before she took her maternity leave. Reese's class is a grade 3/4 split.

Emerson is in grade 5 this year and has Mme. Khair as her teacher. Mme. Khair taught all 3 kids grade 1 but last school year she moved to teaching grade 5! Em's class is a grade 4/5 split.

And Blake has moved on to jr. high and grade 7! His home room teacher is Mme. Gamester and he has Kyle in his homeroom class. He's gone to school with Kyle from k-gr. 6. His friends Max and Gavin are also at ESSMY, although not in the same homeroom. Blake's already told us he'll be trying out for volleyball this week, so that will be interesting!

We hope everyone has a wonderful first day back to school :)

August at home!

Most of August was spent at home! I sometimes wonder if we should spend more time at home in the summer but I think that as the kids get older we may be forced to spend more time at home in the summer as they might have summer jobs and may not want to be away from home for so long!

The weather has not been great in Edmonton this summer :( Lots of rain!! Thank goodness we got away! But to combat the dreary weather, we spent some time at a few of the indoor play gyms! On the 7th we met the Mauro's and Bucci's at Amazone and I picked up Reese's bestie, Alexa, to join us! On the 13th we met the Bucci's and Mauro's again, this time at Jump n' Play. Jump n' Play was not up my kids alley!! They're not big into stunting and flipping, lol! They like a little jumping but it was not worth the money. But we got out of the house and we all got to visit with friends, so that was good!

Thankfully on the 14th we saw the sun and got to spend the day with the Stecyk's at the Summerside beach club! Lots of fun, we're lucky the Stecyk's can invite us to join them :)

On the 16th Reese spent the night with her bff Alexa and her family at their cabin. By all reports she had a BLAST!! I enjoyed a girls night out at the Melting Pot that same night. Yummmmy!!

Rep conditioning camp started for Blake on the 17th. If it's going to rain, we might as well be in the rink!! Blake's excited to start again and is trying really hard to make the Peewee AA rep team! We think he was a great chance :)

On the 18th the girls and I drove out to Stony Plain to help my mom at the Cowboy Poetry event. Turned out they had more than enough volunteers but it was nice to take in some of the event and we ended up going for breakfast with my Dad!

The kids all had camps the week of the 19th to the 23rd. Blake in a 4 day Quantum power skating camp at the Meadows, which ran in the afternoons and consisted of 1 hr of dryland and 1 hour of on ice and the girls at the University Ringette Camp which was out of Servus Place. Blake enjoys Quantum and the girls love their ringette camp. They spend all day at Servus Place and made new friends, seen some of their teammates and enjoy friends from previous years camps!!

The kids finally had time for a grandparent sleepover at he end of August! A much needed break for Cal and I and some grandma and grandpa time for the kids, which is always awesome :) They stayed for 2 nights and had fun fishing, quadding and spending time together.

On the 29th Blake had his grade 7 orientation at ESSMY! We were both nervous but excited for this new adventure! Blake was assigned his lock and locker, received most of his textbooks, put his supplies in his locker and found all his classrooms. The idea of this orientation is to help the new students feel more comfortable on their first day of school :) 

On the 31st we were invited to what we call 'the Bucci block party'!! Our good friends the Bucci's live in a large crescent that is FULL of young families!! They have a yearly block party and often invite the Mauro's and the Cameron's, as we spend a lot of time there and the kids all know each other :) It's a lot of fun as the kids run around from yard to yard and play basketball and hockey in the crescent while the adults sit around the fire in the driveway and visit, eat and drink! A great way to wrap up summer :)

School's back in soon, summer flew by but it was a great one!!

Summer Vacay 2019

And we're off!!! Here's a re-cap of our awesome summer vacation :)

July 18th we left Edmonton and over-nighted in the casino parking lot just out side of Canmore. Seems to be our usual 1st night stop! Not too exciting but a great spot to stop and break up the trip to BC!!

From the 19th to the 21st we were camped in Vernon. This was our first stop in Vernon but hopefully not the last time we'll visit! We really enjoyed the area! Some of the highlights were Davison Orchards (so fun, tons of fresh fruit, veggies, fudge and treats!), a day hike to a beautiful point of Kalamalka Lake (I need to find a spot on this lake to camp ... or win the lotto and buy a cabin!!), a stop at the Log Barn (you have to see and feed the goats!!) and the Starlight Drive-In (so awesome the kids got to experience a drive-in on a gorgeous summer night!)! SO fun!! Such a gorgeous part of BC. And of course the kids loved the swimming pool at the campground!!

From Vernon we drove the short drive to Wright's Beach in Penticton. Feels like home ;) We love Wright's Beach and that feeling we get as we drive in to the campground reminds me of when we'd drive in to Marean Lake when I was a kid!! We were at Wright's Beach from the 21st to the 27th. We did all our favorites - the float down the channel, multiple visits to Tickleberry's, the Peach for fancy ice cream and milkshakes, dinner at Salty's, a visit to our favorite brewery - the Cannery, lots of beach days at Wright's, the Wibit, dinner out with Auntie Sharon, outdoor movie nights at Wright's, a visit to the dog beach and the catered Sunday dinner at Wright's!! We visited our favorite book store too! I love, love, love this area and hope we get to visit for many more summers to come!! The weather was fabulous and we had the tans (and some sunburns) to prove it :) We also met a really nice family during our last few days at Wright's. They were camped beside us for the last 3 nights of our stay. The girls hit it off with their daughter, who was also named Reese! It was nice for them to have someone to play with for a few days! Cal and I had a great visit with Ryan and Shauna too and even stayed up way too late one night and drank wayyyy too much, lol!! They live in Calgary but are originally from Texas. It was neat to hear about their impressions of Canada and the US! We really hit it off and plan to keep in touch :)

From Penticton we crossed the border at Osoyoos to spend the 28th to August 3rd at Farragut State Park with my parents and the Stecyk's! It was an interesting drive from BC to Farragut ... we trusted Google Maps and it took us on a very round about, kind of  backwoods, route!! But we saw some gorgeous countryside and made it in one piece ;) Farragut State Park is so beautiful and the campground itself is very nice! Nice campsites, shower facilities and all the roads are paved. Somehow I miscalculated when we'd arrive and we had to spend one night in overflow! Thankfully my mom was able to secure us a spot! The next day we moved to our site, next to Lindsay and Jeremy and my parents. Cal had an important work meeting in Vancouver while we were in Idaho, so he flew out of Spokane to Vancouver for a few nights. But we made sure he was home for all the fun!! We spent 2 days at Silverwood and Boulder Beach and a day on Lake Coeur d'alene on a pontoon boat! We had a blast!! The pontoon boat was awesome and the lake is gorgeous! We swam, the kids tubed and somehow the day flew by. It was my favorite day of the holiday!! Of course Silverwood and Boulder Beach are awesome as well! Poor Quinn had to spend most of her days at a local kennel as towards the end of our stay in Penticton she started getting anxious when alone in the trailer and tried to dig her way out ... hence ruining some of the flooring in the trailer :( Poor girl and poor us too, lol. We'll have to repair that at some point and figure out what we'll do with her next summer when we're camping and/or on vacation. While at Farragut State Park we also spent some time at the local beach. It was absolutely gorgeous but the water was so cold!!! The kids complained a bit but got used to it after awhile and had fun floating around on the cool floaties Grandma D bought!! It was a great holiday with my family and I can't wait to visit again, maybe in a few years!

On August 3rd we headed to Fairmont, BC for a few nights to wrap up our summer vacation road trip. We had never been to Fairmont before so wanted to check it out. We try to explore at least one or two new spots every summer! Fairmont was nice, we stayed in a campground that had a pool, which really is all the kids seem to need!! We checked out the hot springs but didn't go in. They looked nice though and maybe next stop we will 'take the plunge' so to speak ;) We enjoyed a hike that took us up and behind the hot springs and then headed home on August 5th. We are so thankful for the beautiful weather we had over the past 18 days. It's been HOT and not a spot of rain!!

Another great summer vacation in the books! I adore these moments and am so thankful we can take this large chunk of time off to spend together. So many great memories to hold on to for life!