Trip to the Wiggles

This trip was not really supposed to be a trip in the first place. Let me explain. The Wiggles were coming to Calgary on Friday but that was the day my sweet nephew Michael was going to get baptized. I talked with my frother (friend+brother) and we dicussed that we could make a trip out of going to see the Wiggles in Edmonton (3 hours away). Of couse we had to add a million other activites to the list :-) On the way up to Edmonton we stopped halfway in Red Deer and took the kids to a wave pool. They had a great time, then we hopped back in the car, chlorine and all, and headed to the concert. Here is Austin and Carter before the concert started. Austin was amazed by the Wiggles. He has been talking about it ever since!
Toot Toot chugga chugga big red car!

After the concert we headed over to West Edmonton Mall, which by the way is the biggest mall in North America. Sorry Mall of America you are not the biggest. This mall has a waterpark, ice skating rink, indoor theme park, submarine, sea lion show and the list goes on. We met the big boy cousins at the Theme Park and they all wanted to ride the carousel of all things. Silly boys! We went to the arcade, got a bite to eat and then played mini golf. After the kiddos went to bed the adults hung out in the hotel lobby and played games. The fun never seems to end when my brother is around.

The next day we headed over to Denny's. Needless to say we did not get much sleep. Hans gets a little delirious without sleep.

Not enough sleep didn't seem to affect these boys.

The group! We had such a great time. Horray for the Wiggles!

Life Lately

Ok this picture just makes me laugh
Austin loves building forts in the front room with daddy.

I had 16 people over at my house for Canadian Thanksgiving! It was fun though. I did the turkey this year and I was having paranoia about it. Thank goodness we have a chef in the family! I think I called Mark about 20 times to make sure I was doing the turkey right. It turned out really well...horray!

Austin and his cousin Carter are BFF. When they are together they do not leave eachother's side. They rarely fight....but they do cause a lot of mischief. Grandpa Mark gave them some fudge and they loved it :-)

I had everyone come early for dinner so the kids could make a Thanksgiving hat. Okay trying to take a picture of 6 little kids all looking at the camera is impossible!

I love this picture of Landon. What a cutie!

Austin has started preschool this year. I have gotten together with a bunch of girls in the ward and we switch off who's house preschool is at each week. We are doing the letters of the alphabet. Austin loves wearing his backpack to "school". I am amazed at how much he has already learned.

Preschool at our house.

A week in Waterton and Heritage Park

This really has been an awesome summer. I really love living back in Calgary with all my family and my BFF around. This summer my Aunt Kathy called and asked if I wanted to use our summer cabin for a week. Yes of course I said! So my bestie Mel and I decided to make it a girls week and we had such a good time. Melanie is someone that just "gets" me. We always have a great time when we are together. Here we are with are cute kiddos in front of Cameron Falls.
We decided we would be brave and hike our kids up a mountain. Austin did pretty good and hiked most of the way up. Then he slept ALL the way down and was like dead weight on my back. It was VERY tiring but it was worth the experience.

Here we are at the top. Isn't it beautiful? It looks like we are taking a picture in front of a backdrop. Waterton is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

When the kiddos were sleeping we would sit on the lawn and read, eat snacks and heckle the people who walked by.

We rented a surrey and drove around. Austin loved it!

Austin and Auntie Mel bonding time.

Another fun thing we did this summer was go to Heritage Park. I was surprised at how many rides Austin was able to go on. Here he is on a boat swing with my friend Janae's little boy Preston.

Austin LOVED his older (second) cousin Seth. Seth held Austin's hand the whole time and helped him on the rides. Too cute :-)

Here they are getting on the ferris wheel. I love Austin's face in this one. He is looking at the attendant like "are you really strapping me into this thing?"

Cute little Austin's face peering over the edge.

This was Austin's first experience on a real "choo choo". He was thrilled to say the least. We have had a great summer and are excited for the fall. Swim lessons, preschool and the list goes on. Never a dull moment around here.