New Years Eve

Fireworks in our driveway. Not a whole lot, but the kids had fun.

My backyard

This is what we can do in Texas at Christmas time. No need to worry about snow, or freezing to death. And the fire is just to get rid of the trees knocked down by Hurricane Ike, not to keep us warm.

Cleaning the Boat

Chad decided to clean his new boat, and all the kids wanted to get in on the action. You know, before they had to do any work, then they'd rather ride the jeep. Between complaining about the cold.

Christmas Day

Santa was able to find us in Texas without any problems. We opened presents at home and then headed over to Chad's house for even more presents. We got so much stuff we had to leave some of it in Texas. But at least we will be home soon to be with it.

Christmas Eve

We went ahead and opened a few presents on Christmas eve. We wanted to be able to head over to Chad's house as early as we could on Christmas day.

Grant's Christmas Concert

We attended Grant's annual Christmas concert tonight. The kids all did a great job and Grant even had a special part. Mason wanted to participate so bad. Although his version of Jingle Bells is "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Old McDonald and Mr. Ride just love to hold the sleigh, Hay!" I've tried to tell him, but he will have none of it!

And here are some videos of the performance.

From Video

From Video

Mason's Christmas Party

Mason had his Christmas party this morning. Everyone had a great time. They had a magician, and then the big man himself showed up. Santa brought everyone a present.

And if you think it looks like any school back home take a look at the map on the wall and the windows. Not something you see everyday back home.

If you click on these they will take you to the videos.

From videos

Juggling

From videos

Mason Juggling

From videos

Mason and Santa

Tyler's Birthday

We didn't do much for Tyler's birthday, but here is his cake. He insisted on an ice cream cake even though it was -10 F outside that weekend.

Snowboarding

We took the kids out snowboarding today, since we finally had some snow. I found a new place that is smaller, so I feel more comfortable just letting the kids go, without paying for lessons. It didn't turn out so well though. The chair lift wasn't open yet, and Grant didn't really have a great time on the t-bar. But he did make it up at least once. It was also quite cold, about 0 F, with a major wind chill around -15 F. Particularly when the boys made it to the top of hill. We didn't last very long, but as you can see we almost had the place to our self. It was pretty nice. We will try this place again, when it has more snow, and its warmer.

Snow!

UPDATE 2: Turns out officially we had 16 cm of snow on Friday, and another 7 cm of snow on Saturday. It measures 15 inches in the yard, but that includes all the snow that blew off the roofs. It was the worst snow storm Edmonton has seen in 6 years.




This is for all of those in Houston excited about the snow. This is the snow we got, on the very same day. Before yesterday there was some snow on the grass, but you could still see the grass. And there was no snow on the sidewalks and driveways. Also these pictures were taken Saturday morning. After we had shoveled our snow 3 times the day before. Look at how deep it is just over night.

UPDATE: We had so much snow cars keep getting stuck on our road. The city doesn't plow residential streets like ours. Everyone is out shoveling the road! Seriously, who ever knew people would shovel the road.

Halloween Night

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins today. Tyler decided he was too old to participate, so he didn't do one this year. Then we decided to have a little get together for the kids before trick or treating tonight. Tyler and Grant had some friends come over and eat dinner before everyone headed out. We even had someone take out Mason for us, but he was home in about 45 min. I guess that's all the trick or treating he can handle. Even in Canada he was all sweaty when he got out of his costume. Mason is having a blast handing out candy while he is without his costume.

The big boys are all still out. Coming back with tons of candy I'm sure. Just what we need in our house.

And if you look out the door in the last couple of pictures you will see our smoked filled bubbles. They are definitely a big hit! We also have a strobe light with haunted noises. Its been a big night at our house.

2nd Annual Halloween Party

Eleanor held her Halloween Party last night. Again, lots of great costumes, food and fun. Unfortunately, Grant has strep throat again and he wasn't able to attend. He had to stay home. But he has his costume all ready for next Saturday.

This year we recycled a costume for Mason. He found a costume in Grant's room and just loved it, so we let him wear it this year. He's the same age as Grant was when he wore it. I decided to go with the theme and dressed as his counterpart. We couldn't get anyone else in on it though. Would have been great to have a Mike too. OH, and Mason should wear the costume the whole time trick or treating, as its not likely he will get hot outside in Canada.

And I totally missed getting a pic of Ragedy Ann and Andy! They looked great too.

Royal Alberta Museum

This past Thanksgiving Monday we headed out to the Royal Alberta Museum. Its similar to the Houston Natural History Museum. They have a new exhibit called Much more Munsch. Robert Munsch, auther of I'll Love you Forever, is one of Grant's favorite authors, so we wanted to see the new exhibit. He has some really great, funny books and has been living in Canada for most of his adult life, so he is really popular up here.

And on another note, its been snowing here all week. Yes we are covered in snow in October! Luckily it will all melt today and tomorrow. And hopefully it will not come back for quite some time.

Someone check the date for me...

Its January right? Or maybe February? Because this is what it looks like outside right now. And its not getting above freezing all weekend. This long, Thanksgiving day weekend. Thanksgiving being on Monday.

Construction Class

Tyler is taking construction class again this year. Both years the class is only 1/3 of a school year. He took it at the end of the year last year and it happens to be at the beginning of the year this year.


This is the clock that Tyler finished this week. But don't worry, that beveled edge you see, he didn't do that. The teacher says that tool is too dangerous. Hard to imagine after he used the band saw, table saw, and drill press.


These are two of his projects from last year. A candy dish and a piggy bank, or penquin bank.

Firsts

He is trying to show off his Cars backpack, but we couldn't quite get both him and his backpack in the same shot.


Well, I haven't done a very good job of updating lately. These pics are from Mason's first day of school on Sept 10. He was attending a "playschool" Tuesday and Thursday mornings. He loves school. He asks to go every day. He skips all the way into school singing "I'm gonna have some fu-un, I'm gonna have some fu-un." But unfortunatley yesterday was his last day. He will be starting a new school next week. I have found a part-time job and we needed somewhere he could stay for the whole day. So starting Monday he will go to his new school, where he is even excited about taking a nap. We'll see how that goes though.

We did go to a festival recently. It was Edmonton's Earth Day festival. And if you are thinking Earth Day is supposed to be in April, you are right. It got cancelled because of snow in April. They held it this past weekend instead. The had some entertainment, and it was right next door to the farmer's market, so we did some shopping too. They also had a local play house open for tours so we got to see backstage and the dressing rooms and lighting equipment and all kids of fun stuff. And of course I left the camera at home, so no pics of any of it.

And today Grant is home sick. Not the swine flu! I think its strep, but we have to wait 2 days to get the test results before we can get any medicine. At least its Friday, but since Monday is my first real day of work he better be better! Today was the Terry Fox Run at his school, and he has to miss it, and I was supposed to help out as well. Grant's always sick on school fun days! Last year he was sick for the pajama/hot chocolate day right before Christmas break.

Edmonton Symphony

Today we went out to the Symphony Under the Sky performance at Hawrelak park. It was a special family production. Turned out it wasn't even really the symphony, but a musical children's production. They had 4 player. Not what we were expecting, but Mason had fun. It was raining when it was over so all of the after events were closed. We've been to this park before for a winter festival. It was so different when everything was green and the lake wasn't frozen. I meant to take a picture so I could compare it to the snow ones, but with the rain I forgot.

No pictures of the big boys, but they did go with us. They enjoyed betting on which color balloon would be lost next.

Grain Elevators and Trains

Today we took a trip to the north of Edmonton, to a little suburb and went to the St. Albert Grain Elevator park and the Alberta Railway Museum. When we were in Montana Mason kept saying the round metal grain elevators were rocket ships. I kept trying to explain, but it never really worked out so well. So when I saw tours of a grain elevator being offered we jumped up and went. Of course, everything around closes next weekend, so its not like we have much time anyway. We sure learned alot, and we even had some fun. The Grain Elevator Park was having a festival so they had several extra things for the kids.

Corn Maze and Spray Park

Today we went out to the Edmonton Corn Maze, as pictured here from the sky. 15 acres of corn crops, 3 miles of trails, and 85 decision points. We completed the whole maze in just about an hour. They had some pedal carts and a few animals to see as well. We had started the world's largest maze at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii but it was rainy and muddy so we didn't get to finish it. The boys were quite disappointed so I thought this would be fun. The kids start back to school on September 2nd, so I thought we could get in a little more fun before school.

After that we headed out to the local spray park. I've never really thought it was quite warm enough, but today the weather is fairly warm so we gave it a try. We were not properly dressed so the older boys wouldn't participate, but Mason had fun. Even though he doesn't like to have water sprayed down on him.

Buffalo Jump

On Sunday we made the trip home. The drive took 8 hours. We took the scenic way home and then stopped at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump on the way home. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy, so most of the scenic views were just views of the clouds. The mountains looked as if they were very tall. We were driving along Glacier National Park, but since we have already seen the largest glacier we didn't bother stopping.

Head smashed in Buffalo Jump is a place where natives lured buffalo and then caused a stampede making the buffalo jump off a cliff. Several tribes would be involved and they would kill an entire herd of buffalo, saving up enough food for the entire winter. There is evidence of human activity in this area for 11,000 years and this buffalo site was used for 6000 years.

And you may think the name came from the obvious, but the legend has it that a young brave wanted to watch the buffalo. He stood under a ledge and watched the buffalo pile up from the fall. However, there were more buffalo than usual and he became trapped between the buffalo and the cliff. When he was found his skull had been crushed. So now you know something you didn't before.

The Dinosaur Trail

Along I-2, and a few other roads, crossing Montana are several dinosaur stops. There have been many findings along this area. We were near two of the stops and decided to make the trip on Saturday. Turns out the ones we were near were not that big. But we had fun taking a look anyway. Some of the other stops are much bigger, but they were too far away.

And we had some great food while in Montana. Who knew Montana would have Mexican food? We at at two Mexican restaurants while we were there. Both were good. We also went to a steak place where Frank got a buffalo steak. It was very yummy. And Montana has no sales tax, so shopping turned out even better than expected.

Great Falls, Montana

We went shopping Friday morning and then headed out to see the sights. It got pretty rainy so some of the falls were seen on Saturday.

Great Falls got its name from the water falls in the Missouri River. When Lewis and Clark took their expedition to find a water passage from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean they were the first anglo people to veiw the falls. We saw several of the falls while we were there, and went to the Lewis and Clark Interpetive Center. We have been to St. Louis and have seen several of the things they have there on Lewis and Clark, so this was just further down the line. In fact, this was pretty much the end of the line. The Missouri river begins near this area.

Montana

Well, It took us 8 hours to get to Montana, but we had some pool time before dinner. It was a little cool that day, and the pool room was hot and humid, so the camera was a little fogged up for these pics.

Back in America

Well, we are in Montana.  Headed down for a few days to do some shopping and see the sights of Great Falls, Montana.  The sites are waterfalls and dams.  Hope to see some dinosaur museums tomorrow, and then back to Canada.  I will update with pics then.

House in Hawaii

These are the pictures of the house we stayed in in Hawaii. Posted by special request, taken from the website VRBO. We enjoyed the house, but wish it would have had central AC, but the AC in the bedroom worked pretty well, even on the whole house.

Panoramic Images

Here are some pics I made into panoramic pics

Days 7 and 8

Our last two days in paradise. We had a lot of fun and are now home and very tired. The high in Canada today was 63 degrees which is a welcome change from the 90+ temps in Hawaii with tons of humidity. But we had a great time. Maybe our favorite vacation ever.

Day 6

Day 5

Day 3

Here is day 3.

Day 4

I know I skipped day 3, but I just had to get the surfing pictures posted. Even Mason got in a little wave time. The boys did great and got up on their feet the first time out. They say its way easier than snow boarding.

We had a full day again today and the rest of our trip. I think we may be starting to get tired. We make the long trip home on Saturday, but don't get home until Sunday. We will definitely need a break after all of this fun.

Hawaii Day 2

Yesterday evening we drove over to Honolulu and stopped at some look out points along the way. It was a little cloudy so the pictures aren't great. Today we got up early and went to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling. It was so pretty but lots of current so a little hard to snorkel. Then we drove up the coast and stopped at some lookout points. We saw the blow hole, which wasn't blowing very high today. Then we went on to Sea Life Park. Another big day planned for tomorrow.

Aloha

These pictures weren't blurry until I uploaded them. I will have to work on that later.










Today is our first day in Hawaii. The house is great. We got in late last night. Woke up this morning and went swimming. Then went to the beach and went swimming, then came home and went swimming. Catch a theme here? Mason is napping now so we are taking a break. Later we will be going for a drive. These are a few pics taken this morning. We were at the beach by 7:30 am, nothing like getting used to a 5 hour time difference.

Feeding the Ducks

Before we left Houston we took the kids out to feed the ducks by the zoo. The kids had a ton of fun, and you can see how feeding the ducks works in Houston. You know, the ducks actually come to the food.

Unbirthday Party

Since Mason didn't have much of a birthday party, and he didn't get to go to Kennedy's, we had an Unbirthday party today. Cooper, Kennedy and Mason all got presents with cake and candles. They spent some time in the pool beforehand. We were done just before the storms rolled in.

Yesterday we made it out to the lake finally. Everyone had a great time, and no major sunburns. But no pictures. It was raining when we got there, but it cleared up. We hope to make it out to the lake again tomorrow, if the weather holds up.

Taking care of business

We've been busy this week with lots of doctor and dentist appointments. Shopping and various running around. Today we had a chance to take it easy, while doing a weeks worth of laundry. We did have the chance to take the kids to the park this evening. Tomorrow we are finally off to the lake for the day, with a full weekend planned.

Galveston Trip

Today we headed on down to Galveston for some seafood and a little beach time. We drove through Bolivar and Gilcrest and all the way through. Lots to see.

Canada Day night

We headed out to the Canada day celebrations last night. We went over to the place we went last year, rode the rides, ate dinner, and then we still had 3 hours to wait. Fireworks won't start until 11, so instead of hanging out we decided to head over to the downtown celebration. They turn on the waterfall on the bridge only on certain occasions, and I hadn't seen it yet. We never actually made it to the celebration. I just couldn't cross the bridge with the cars. The cars had open metal planks to drive on, I had to walk on old wooden planks and you could see all the way down to the water. I did get to see the waterfall though.

We found a nice spot and sat and waited for the fireworks. The kids ran around and played, while I froze. I mean its July, seriously its more like waiting for New Years eve fireworks. It was 57 degrees when we got home. And of course we are all sniffly after spending most of the night outside. You know the plants think its spring time, so lots of stuff floating around in the air. We had fun though.

And there are a ton of fireworks pictures. I was playing with the fireworks setting on my new camera. I did delete a bunch of them.

This is Mason dancing at the first "party." There was live music, but I'm not sure you can really here it, we were pretty far away.

Canada Day

Grant, Mason, and I headed out to the Silly Summer parade to celebrate Canada Day (Like our July 4th.) Frank had to work, and Tyler is a teenager and can't be bothered with that kind of thing, so they didn't come. We had a good time. The parade lasted about 30 min and then they had an area with hamburgers, free birthday cake, and some activities for the kids. Mason said it wasn't birthday cake, because who blew out the candles? So he just had regular cake.

Field Day

Mason and I went to watch Grant's field day today, but Mason got to do lots more than watch! Mason kept up with the big kids the whole time. He had so much fun and is totally wiped out now. Luckily this field day is only an hour long. It was quite windy today, but otherwise the weather was good.

Go carts

We decided to head out for some fun this evening. Went to this place with go carts and some kiddie rides. Turns out the age limits were a little crazy for all of it. Grant couldn't drive the go carts, Mason couldn't ride anything but one ride, and the big kids had to drive the slow go carts. But we had a little fun anyway. We took Sam (Samantha) with us. She is one of our Scottish friends.

Rugby Again

Here are some new rugby pictures from today. Mostly its just me playing with my new camera, but these are also edited. And how do you like the new big pictures? Much easier to see.



And there are more pictures of Tyler because they are easier to get. We have to sit behind the endzone for Grant, so its harder to get good pictures.

Swimming Graduation

Mason had his last lesson today. I'm not sure that they learned anything about swimming, but he certainly had a ton of fun.






Now its time to jump. Mason won't jump without having hold of the instructors hand.

But he has fun.

Here he kind of fell in to the side and nearly knocked the other kid in.

He finally does it! Although, if you look close, he still has his hand on the kid next to him. I guess its baby steps.

We may just sign up for the next round of classes too. And for those who don't know. This background is in honor of our upcoming trip to Hawaii. We are all very excited. Mason has been wanting to go to the beach since there was snow on the ground.

Eskimos Game

The whole family went to a football game this evening. The Edmonton Eskimos were playing the Saskatchewan Rough Riders in a pre-season game. The stands hold about 61,000 people and about 35,000 people were in attendance. The largest gathering of Canadians we have ever seen. (The hockey stadium only hold 16,000.) And to top it all off I got a new camera this weekend, so this was my first chance to test some of the limits! So there are lots of strange pictures and lots of commentary regarding the pictures so make them full size by clicking on the slide show window to take a look.

And this video is for Kennedy. A whole lot of pink. A cheerleading group age 4 to 50 presented the half time show. They were so cute!






Tomorrow Mason has swimming lessons for the last time. We'll have new pics then.

Mason's week

I guess its finally summer in Canada. At least there are Dandelions everywhere. I had another really great picture including flowers and blury backgrounds (I'm quite impressed with myself), but I accidentally deleted it instead of closing the window. And I know its still in there somewhere, I just can't get to it.

Mason had his next to the last swimming lesson this week, and today it was warm enough to go out in shorts before 3 pm! So we headed out to the playground. You can see Mason's favorite part is playing in the sand. He will be so happy when we make it to the beach this summer. He did stop several times to point to the planes flying overhead and ask if that was the plane to the beach.