Emma's Second Birthday

Both sides of our families are getting too big to hold joint venues at someones house, so in keeping with tradition, we decided to host Emma's birthday at a park again. This year we tried our luck with Riley Park now that Emma and most of her cousins are old enough to enjoy the wading pool they have there. The weather could have been a bit nicer, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves despite being a bit chilly.

The kids couldn't be kept out of the water, even though their bodies were shivering and their chins were rattling the teeth out of their heads. We managed to get them to take a few warm-up breaks when we would notice that their lips looked a little blue, but those breaks never lasted long.

Like I said, our families are getting pretty big, even though only half of the people in our families have started having families of their own. I think we had 34 people in total, not including the 2 zygotes and a dog. We brought all the fixens to make bun sandwiches and others brought salads and desserts. It must have looked like the circus was in town. We were missing the elephants, but all the clowns were there.

Out of those 34 people we had 14 kids, most of which are 3 and under. I couldn't believe we got them all to sit still long enough to take a picture. The only fellow missing from this picture was baby Max, who was eating at the time, but I guess we could have thrown Kimberly and Sam in there too.

It started raining after we ate, and just as we started opening presents, so we packed up and most everyone headed up to our church building to finish the presents and for some cake and ice cream. Emma had lots of help opening her presents and came away with way too much cool stuff. One of her immediate favorites was a backpack that looks just like the one Dora wears. It came full of games and as soon as she put it on she yelled "Vamanos!" and ran out of the room and down the hallway. She loves all the gifts she received and if she could remember to thank everyone who gave them to her, she would.

I think the Grandparents favorite gift was the little t-shirt that she got that said "Big Sister" on it. My brother Trevor was the only one who knew that we were expecting before that point, so it came as a nice surprise for everyone else there.

It was a full day for our little toddler, and a happy one too. Thanks to everyone who came and for all the gifts you gave, and happy birthday Emma!

Exactly Two

This video was taken when Emma turned exactly two years old - June 19th 2007, 11:23am. It was a lot harder to get than last years picture, now that she can (and does) run away every time we need her to stand still for two seconds. It's a good thing she got stuck up on those bars, so Mom could capture the moment.

She's such a big girl now, and so funny lately. Tammy keeps a book of all the hilarious things she comes up with, and all the new tricks she learns each day, and the entries just keep getting more and more entertaining.

We measured how tall she was that day because height experts say that you are half your adult height at age two. She came in at 34 3/4", which means she'll be about 5'-9 1/2" by the time she's done growing. That seems tall for a girl, but it's still not as tall as her Auntie Sam.

Later that night we took her out for some pizza at BP's and she got to share in the biggest dessert her eyes have ever seen. It was only the second or third time she's ever had ice cream, but she hasn't stopped requesting it for supper every night since.

We sure love our little girl, and can't wait for her to become a big sister in February.

Father's Day 2007

This past Father's Day was my third one as a Father, and Emma didn't turn two until this past Tuesday. Weird math, but she was born on Father's Day 2005, so I get an extra one thrown in there. I'm only going to let her use that as her gift to me for a couple more years though. Once she's 5 years old and working part-time, I'm expecting some serious bling, and by bling I mean socks and embarrassing neckties. This comic is for my Dad, because it reminds me of him. Happy Father's Day!

Belated Birthday Blog

Tammy's been meaning to make mention of her 31st birthday on this blog for a while now, but hasn't found the time to do it, so I'm acting as a proxy and doing it for her.

We went to Chili's for a special birthday dinner, but discovered that Chili's doesn't do anything special for birthdays, so from an outsiders point of view, it was a very regular dinner. All that really means is no free dessert, but we split a pretty hefty dose of chocolate cake and ice cream between the three of us anyways.

Emma made her Mom a nice birthday card and gave her a copy of "Cinderella" on DVD and I surprised her with the best of the first 5 seasons of her favorite kids show "Sesame Street", also on DVD. Emma's real gift was wishing Mom a happy birthday about 700 times that day and giving her a big hug each time she did. She kept that up for about a week or so, but Tammy never seemed to get tired of it, and I don't blame her.

Here's one more Birthday wish for the prettiest girl in my world, Happy Birthday Tammy!

Free Tickets

I like free tickets, I rarely turn them down. In fact, a lot of the entries I've made on this blog have centered around having free tickets to something. The past 2 weekends were no exception.

Last Saturday, Jodie and Aaron gave us a couple free tickets to Calaway Park, so we drove out there that morning and made a day of it. Here are some of the pictures we took:

I think the boats are Emma's favorite ride, just look at how happy she looks. It wasn't too busy at the park when we got there, so we managed to hit a lot of rides with little or no waiting, but Emma had to fly solo most of the time since her cousins weren't coming until later that afternoon. I think the boats are her favorite because there are no real surprises involved, but she really didn't like the part where you have to get off and let other kids have a turn.

The carousel sure looked inviting, but Emma got a little scared once it started up and she kept her hand over one eye the entire time. She warmed up to this ride later in the day and named this horse "Whitey".

We unexpectedly ran into Alison and the kids who were there for a birthday party, so Jillian joined us for a ride in the cloud cages and I took Cy on the cosmic spin. The cosmic spin just about ruined my weekend, but it was the spinning strawberries that we went on immediately after that finished me off.

We ran into these two bunnies all over the park, and every time we did, Emma wanted to give them each a high five and a hug. After about the ninth time, they started avoiding us.

We eventually met up with Jodie and Aaron, so Emma and Madison hit a couple more rides together and then it was time for us to go. Emma was getting pretty tired, but she managed to stay conscious long enough to finish off a strawberry ice cream cone before we left.

Alison had told us about a football practice at McMahon stadium that Cy was going to be a part of later that day, so after we left the park we went down to the stadium just in time to see it end. We all decided to head to Peter's Drive-in for some chow, and we waited in line for about an hour to get it, but it was still nice out and the food was worth it.

This past Friday, my Mom called my brother at work and told him she had some free tickets to the Stampeders/Eskimos game that night. Trevor wasn't interested, so Tammy and I decided to tag along with Gramma and Grampa and bring Emma to her first football game. Emma's a bit sensitive to loud noises, so the first time the crowd cheered and the fireworks went off when the Stampeders made a touchdown, she cried. There was no consoling her either, until Grampa gave her some binoculars to look through, and then she was fine the rest of the night.

We left the game a bit early to avoid the rush and the rain, but not before the fellow in front of us gave Emma a little football that he'd caught when they launched them into the crowd. It was the highlight of her night.

We had two great weekend events thanks to the generosity of good folks on both sides of the family, so a thank you to the Dykes and Gramma and Grampa Bourne for thinking of us when you got them free tickets.

Bouncy Castles

Last month we had the opportunity to play on a few bouncy castles with Emma. The first time was at Cardel Place at a drop-in gym for tots. Emma and I were feeling a little bored that day, and knowing how much Emma loves to run around in a gym, I decided to take her on a walk to Cardel to play with other kids. They had all sorts of fun stuff - slides, parachutes, balls, gymnastics equipment, and of course, the ever-popular bouncy castle. It had little basketball hoops on the inside, and a slide for a graceful exit. Emma had a blast.

About a week later, Heather and Tyler invited us all out to Cochrane to play on the biggest bouncy castle I've ever seen. It took up the whole gym at the church out there, and this time there was way more "big kids" than "little kids". It was kind of like an obstacle course built inside of a bouncy castle, so we were able to have relay races through it. It was so much fun! They also had a few Sumo wrestling suits for those who wished to jump on other people after bouncing in the castle, but Emma and I didn't watch any of the Sumo matches due to her being completely terrified of the suits. Even when Mike suited up, she was shaking so much I had to take her out of the gym to reassure her. All in all, we had a great time, and we're grateful to the Williamsons for making each of our trips out to Cochrane a blog-worthy adventure.

Masters of Marriage

It takes six years to earn most Masters degrees, and June 2nd was our sixth anniversary as a married couple, so you may now consider us "Masters of Marriage" (insert echo effect).

The traditional anniversary gift for your sixth year is supposed to be something iron, and steak is high in iron, so we celebrated with a dinner at The Keg thanks to a $50 gift certificate I won at a work Christmas party. $50 doesn't really cover a dinner for two at The Keg, but it put a big enough dent in the bill to keep us from washing dishes all night. Neither of us had been there before, so we were total Keg "neophytes" as D would say, but our waiter was a good sport and we both ended up with meals we were very satisfied with.

Despite having six years under our belts, I think we're still marriage "neophytes" as well, and I'm sure we have a long way to go before we're the masters of anything, but like an education, I look at our marriage as an investment that only appreciates in value. I appreciate and love my wife more and more every day, and I'm glad to be a "neophyte" if that means many many more years together.

In the News

CTV News came around to our neighbourhood a while back to get some reactions to the new school list that the city put out. They managed to catch Tammy and Emma at the park, and after some convincing, they managed to get a comment out of Tammy. She was a little hesitant to go on camera as she wasn't wearing any make-up that day, and she didn't think she had much to say about the topic anyways, but it turned out better than she thought. Watch for Emma trying unsuccessfully to steal some kids bike.

In other news, Kelly and Dan are engaged with a wedding date set for August 17th, my brother is working with me at Modus for the summer, and Sam graduated high school last week. Congratulations to all of them!

Lake Minnewanka

Here's some pictures from the hike the young men and the young men's presidency did last weekend out at Lake Minnewanka. We stayed overnight at Two Jack campground, ate a pancake breakfast (with syrup this time), and then spent the rest of the day on about an 18km hike. The weather was perfect and we got to see plenty of wildlife along the trail. We actually planned to make it all the way to the lookout, which would have been about a 21km hike, but some mountain bikers warned us that they saw a grizzly bear digging just off the trail up ahead, so we decided to turn back. The pictures tell the story better...

This is Isaiah supervising the deacons setting up the only tent you can see from space. It's a 9 man tent divided into 2 compartments. The smaller compartment might sleep 2 full size young men's leaders, and probably only one full size high priest group leader, but the four deacons we had there all crammed themselves in, leaving Isaiah alone in the larger compartment. They claimed that they did it for warmth, but I think the warning signs posted all over the camp with pictures of bears on them had something to do with it too.

The trail on the way to the lookout. You get a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains if you ignore the burnt out trees.

We stopped for lunch on this beach. There were spiders. We started walking back along the beach, thinking it would be flatter and therefore easier going, but the rocks were too big and loose to navigate very well, so a couple of us found our way back on to the trail before it got too high off the water level.

The rest made their way along the beach to this spring and then climbed the near vertical mountain side up to the trail where I was standing with my camera. I was impressed that they all made it, and relieved that we didn't have to call for a life boat, and happy that they brought me up some spring water.

After spotting some big horn sheep and some deer a ways off the trail, we came upon a herd of mountain goats on the trail. They were a bit slow to move to the side, but we eventually got through. A lot of them hung around to watch us go by, but that ended when someones dog came around the corner and chased them up the mountain.

Some of the younger boys were a bit hesitant to cross the path of an untamed mountain goat. Joey is actually walking backwards in this picture, and he's holding a knife.

The hike ended with a game of camouflage on the side of the trail. I think some of the other hikers were a bit bewildered when they heard AJ yell "camouflage" and suddenly 10 kids appeared as if from nowhere and pushed him over while he tried to count down from 30.

Despite how out of shape I feel, the only real suffering I endured were a couple blisters the size of Werthers Originals on my big toes when I got home. I have a picture of them too, but that's the sort of thing you don't let people see for free.