What we've been up to this summer

Wow! We have had a busy summer. Here is a little catch-up on what we have been doing since our Dino camping trip last June.

First, Scott graduated from his medical residency. He is finally officially and completely done with school! He recieved word that he passed his final licensing exam and is allowed his very own prescription pad. So now you all know where to go to get the good drugs (that's a joke by the way - he doesn't give out drugs to just anyone). As a side note - he finally let me get rid of his med school binders. I know it was hard as they represented years and years of hard work. Way to go babe - I know first hand that you have earned the title "Dr".

Secondly, Scott turned 30! Happy birthday old man! He for sure finished school before he turned 30 (even if it was by less than a week). He just wanted to make sure he could say that he was done with his education before he got really old!

I made him the yummiest carrot cake cheesecake - just like the kind we had in New York City. We even bought the restaurant's own cookbook so I could make sure it was the same. It took me 3 days to bake it! No joke - 3 days. You have to make each layer separately and let it cool in between before stacking it together into a delicious tower of a cake! It turned out great and now I am afraid I might have to make that same cake every year!

After the birthday celebrations we went on another camping trip to Idaho where we met my family for some fun times in Coeur D'Alene. We went hiking, played at the lake, and had some good times around the campfire. Check out the pictures by clicking here. Or click here to watch the slide-show!

After Coeur D'Alene it was time for us to move. Scott started work in the Claresholm hospital and clinic on July 5th, and we moved out to join him July 10th. We love our new house (even if it is a little weird to be renting again) and the community seems great. There are a lot of really old people in the little town of Claresholm, population aprox. 3500. It is a common occurrence to see people driving their mobility scooters or walking through downtown with their walkers. But there are some young people too, and I think we will make lots of good friends here.

As soon as we were settled, it was time for pioneer day celebrations with Scott's family in Glenwood. They have so many traditions for the 24th weekend there. It is the same every year - and it is always fun! The festivities start with softball games Friday night. Families put in teams for a just for fun/bragging rights tournament. Then there is a family dance. This year there was a live band. And Moses made a little friend. They spent almost the entire night dancing together! SO CUTE!

Glow sticks are a MUST at the dance!

I think my personal favorite are the fireworks. I have never seen fireworks as good as the ones in little Glenwood, Alberta. Not even at Thanksgiving Point in Utah - which are supposed to be really good. I think part of it is that you get to be so close - probably too close for safety! It makes them so much cooler when they are going off literally right over your head! I tried to take some pictures of them this year to prove how spectacular they really are, but they didn't turn out as good as I hoped. I need more practice - maybe next year.

 

The next morning starts off early with a pancake breakfast in the park, followed by a good-old-fashion parade where the kids always get lots of candy. Then there is the picnic in the park for lunch. After lunch they have races for every age. That afternoon they finish the ball tournament. By the end of the day, everyone is so exhausted but it was all so much fun that we can't wait to do it again next year!

 

Along with moving, celebrating, graduating, and being 8 months pregnant....we decided to renovate our old house so we could rent it out. This included painting, redoing some fixtures, and replacing the linoleum. It was a lot of work, and long hours....and we will never do it again. :) We would travel from Claresholm to Lethbridge (about an hour drive each way) a couple times a week to work on the house. We got Scott's sister to watch the boys for the painting, but most of the time they came with us. They were good sports, and even a little bit of help!

The last thing we did before the end of summer and the arrival of Berlyn is a trip to Tie Lake with Scott's family. We spent an entire week relaxing by the shore and enjoying the water. I love time at the lake and I know Scott and the boys loved it too!

Proof that I did enter the water at least once! I was worried I wouldn't float so well - being 36 weeks pregnant and all - so I took 2 noodles!

I just think this kid is so cute!

Both boys took a solo spin on the knee board! At age 4 and 2!

I had a feeling this would turn out badly... And it did. But then he did it again two seconds later!

Dino Camping

Scott has some time off, so of course we had to do some camping! We decided to go to Drumheller, Alberta, home of everything dinosaur. We had a great time there - Moses still loves Dinosaurs more than anything else and Kael likes them too, so they both had a good time. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so all of these pictures were taken on my iphone. I know... Scott told me about a billion times.... What is the point of taking a photography class if you don't bring your camera with you when it really matters?!!!!!

Moses called that stick his pet elephant and informed us that it wasn't very smart, because it had a little brain. There was a small part on the top of the stick that looked somewhat brain-like and it was actually very small.

Scott is rigging up a trap to catch a chipmunk...and yes in that second picture there is a very frightened chipmunk under that green box!

 Having boys can be lots of fun!

Lots of love for the Dinos! XOXO

Even the scary T-Rex was fun! The T-Rex in the second picture was pretty cool. It would move and growl and even blink its eyes! The funny thing was when Kael first saw it, he got a serious look on his face, turned around and ran, didn't cry or anything....just ran! As you can tell, Scott was a huge fan of it. He couldn't stop looking at it even without the boys!

The boys got to dig for fossils. They found a bunch - and got to keep one each. Kael got a prehistoric shark tooth and Moses got an Ammonite fossil (click here if you want to see what that is). Moses was super excited about his and held it the entire drive home. He kept talking about how there were pictures of Ammonite in his book and he was going to show us when we got home.  Just after we got home, before we even went into the house, Moses tripped on our walk, fell, and chipped a piece off of his fossil. He was so upset! He threw the fossil away because it was broken (we started teaching him about getting rid of broken things when we got tired of taping up his Christmas crafts...in June!). I tried to tell him it was still good, but he was convinced otherwise. So sad for little Moses. :(

Petting Zoo

So my girlfriend and I were going to take our kids to a new petting zoo we had just heard about, when her husband phoned and said that he had just heard about a free petting zoo at the UFA (United Farmers Association). It was their customer appreciation day and you didn't actually have to be a customer to appreciate it - perfect for us! 

So we took our kids there instead. It turned out to be a good move, because the petting zoo we were originally going to take our kids to was the one at this event. They had half their animals there instead back at the farm where we would have had to pay!

The bunnies were the definite favorite! You could hold them after all! And the baby chicks were at that really ugly stage where they have half down and half feathers... so the boys weren't too interested in them.

Kael is always making this funny face. I think he is chewing on his cheek or something. Too cute!

They also had a inflatable bouncer/slide which Kael obviously didn't like (too many big kids) and free cotton candy.

It tastes so much better when it's free! OK... I admit it. I really am super cheap. I usually try to hide it or blame it on Scott, but it really seems to be coming out in this post. A penny saved is a penny earned!!!!!

Photography Class

I took a 5 week photography class and learned so much! I finally feel like a know how to use my DSLR (only a full year after I first bought it!). I am obviously not an expert yet, but I have learned a lot and am looking forward to learning more. I even bought a photography magazine last time I was at the grocery store. Looks like I might have a new hobby!

Here are some photographs from my very last assignment. They are just random things from around my house. And these are barely photoshopped at all... that's actually saying a lot for me.

Baby Berlyn

It is for sure a girl! Those are the exact words the ultrasound tech said to me and we paid her lots of money so she better be right! I had to find out for sure, so we went to Calgary to have a 3D ultrasound. I know that technically they are called 4D, but really that's just a technicality and it seems to confuse a lot of people so I have sort of boycotted the whole 4D thing!

We didn't get a lot of really good pictures, but here are 3 of my favorites.

Really, I am glad I didn't get a good look at her face. I like there to be some surprises when she finally comes!

(I just loved the detail on the foot there. Look at those long toes! And the second toe looks bigger than the first...poor girl is going to have my feet!)

So yes, she really is a girl. We really are going to name her Berlyn. And we can hardly wait until the beginning of September!

Happy Birthday to Kael!

Kael turned 2! Actually, her turned 2 about a month and a half ago (I know...such a bad blogger!). He is such a funny toddler. He has the best sense of humor and loves to make us all laugh. He isn't shy at all, and will often talk to complete strangers. He loves music and dancing and picking on his brother. He is very much a boy's boy and enjoys his cars, trucks, motorcycles, tractors, and every other transportation toy. He likes guns and swords way more than I would like, but I am learning there isn't much I can do about that. The other day in the grocery store he took the cucumber from the cart, held it like a gun, and kept yelling, "Pow. Pow. Your dead mom!" very loudly as I went up and down the isles. This kid would turn anything into a gun! Although he is so "manly" he definitely is still in touch with his "feminine side" and loves hugs and kisses, will dress up in my shoes, and will often tell me something looks "cute" - all of that makes the sociologist in me very proud. At least I know I am not totally nurturing him into a socially determined gender role! Now that I am expecting again, I find myself thinking of my ultrasound while I was pregnant with Kael. I wanted Kael to be a girl.; I must have been crazy! I can't imagine my life without this little guy.

To celebrate his birthday we had a few friends over during the day, then Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner. He got to blow out candles a total of 3 times! Once on his pancakes for breakfast, then twice on his cake! (a small note about the cake... I did not mean for it to be quite so feminine... even with my background in sociology! I told them purple and green like Buzz Lightyear. Apparently the decorator does not have boys, because it is definitely more Tinker Bell than Space Ranger! Kael didn't really notice though.)

 

 

Yes, Scott does have two darts from Kael's new dart gun stuck to his head!

Scott and I got Kael a little motorcycle riding toy. It was perfect for him! It took about two seconds before he figured out to make it pop wheelies. It's what he rides whenever Moses wants to go on a bike ride. The poor kid has to work harder to make that motorcycle go than he would a real bike, but he loves every second of it!

New York, New York!

We went to New York awhile ago - it was an amazing trip! We had so much we wanted to see and do that we were busy almost the entire time. It was a totally different vacation from those where you sit on the beach and read a book. We took a tour bus ride, went to 3 different Broadway plays, went to the Metropolitan Museum twice (once turned out to not be enough!), went to the statue of liberty, roamed the Ellis Island museum, rode the subway during rush hour, shopped in China town, went to the temple, and roamed through Central Park. And that was just the big things!

There was so much history and national pride there that I couldn`t help but tell Scott how proud I was to be an American! (As a side note he insists our next vacation be to a spot of Canadian pride) America truly is a great country. The freedom and liberty it offered at such an early period in history is amazing - even if Americans can be arrogant and ignorant today. I`m sure that God had a hand in founding the United States and I am proud and grateful for all the men and women who have fought to make it and keep it free.

New York was such a great experience. I can`t wait to go back! I loved the city with all the bustle and the excitement you could feel in the air, but I have to admit, when we got back and drove through the openness of the prairie to pick up our boys I was glad to be home. And the air definitely smelt fresher!

You can see even more pictures from our trip by clicking HERE.

Happy Easter!!!

Hunting for treats!

Dividing the spoils! (I love how Moses' tongue is hanging out in this pic!)

All 14 cousins!

One Last Time

We have been going to Medicine Hat every couple of months for almost two years now. This was our last time. So sad because we really started to feel at home at the Holiday Inn Express. :) So glad because that means that Scott only has 8 weeks left and he his done with school forever!!

We had a great trip this time. Scott's neice, Jaycee, came with us to help tend the kids. We played on the slide, went bowling, and did some shopping. It was great having someone to help - I wish Jaycee could always come with us when we head out of town.Scott and I even left them one evening and went to a movie!

The only downside to the entire trip was due to my lack of planning. When Jaycee and I checked the forecast it was calling for relatively warm spring weather. So of course I only packed flip flops. It snowed! And it was so windy! It was so cold the entire time I'm surprised I didn't loose some toes!