Weekend away!

My girlfriend, Meg called me early last week to invite me to her place in Palm Springs for the weekend. Her husband was sending us on his plane, so I didn't have to worry about airfare. Of course I said "YES"!

Friday morning we drove to the airport and this is what was waiting for us.

It seems a bit excessive and over-the-top for just the two of us. But I enjoyed every minute of it. I was completely spoiled.

Meg and I boarding the aircraft.

Our catered breakfast of fine cheese, fruit and crackers.



On our way out to dinner.

The view from Meg's pool. It was a good 35 degrees the whole weekend! HOT! We just laid by the pool the whole day then went out to eat at night. We caught a movie and ate a ton of "Golden Spoon" with dried bananas. Yummmmm.

One last look at our transportation. What a great weekend! I could get use to that lifestyle for sure!

Fall stuff

Last week when the weather was so great, we tried to get a couple shots of all four of us together. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get Ash and Charlie to sit still. It was "too bright"! Arghhh. Anyway, I snapped a couple of everyone else.


This is as close as Charlie will allow Ashley to get to him.

Then we headed out to the Calgary Corn Maze. Laura and Chris and the girls were out there too. It was a lot of fun. Charlie really enjoyed the maze. He and his buddies took off and somehow ended up getting out before us.

These were the prettiest birds. You cant tell here, but they had red markings on them. They kept taking off and settling in the corn fields. It was really pretty.

On another note, I'm having difficulty changing my template here. For some reason I can't change from the classic template button to the layout button. Does that make sense? I may have to start again with a whole new blog, but I don't want to. I need help! Does anybody have any ideas on how I can get this going?

Summer ends! Start of school!

Above is a photo I took of Ashley during Stampede week. I really love how it turned out.

Somebody doesn't want their photo taken.

Peter and I got Charlie all of his hockey equipment for Timbits hockey. He was quite excited to put it all on. Just after this photo was taken he begged us to take it all off. He said it was too "heavy". I think our hockey hopes might be set a little too high!

*we got him the "Maple Leafs" jersey because it's a just great lookin jersey, that's all. It was time to take a break from the "Flames" & "Team Canada" ones that he's been wearing religiously.

Charlie's first day of school. It kind of breaks my heart a little to see him go.


Ashley had one of her little friends, Anna, over for a play date. They sat on her princess bed and read books the whole time. It was great.

High "5" for Charlie!

Happy Birthday Charlie!!!

It's hard to believe he's already 5.

We spent the weekend out at the cabin, so we had a little celebration there. We painted faces and had a little cake. It was great.

Charlie was so excited to have is "friends" (he calls his cousins his friends) out there. Colton and Hunter are so much fun to be around and Charlie idolizes them both. They spent the whole weekend playing with their guns and trying to get away from the "Monster" (Ashley).

My little outlaw. He is obsessed with guns right now. We have a rule that he's not suppose to point them at anyone directly. I have a lot of friends who are totally against them, and I can see their point. But Charlie will end up making a gun out of pretty much anything, anyway. I have to say that I loved the fact that he was on an adventure the whole weekend, just being a boy!

This is a photo of Angie after learning how to wakeboard. We were laughing so hard, because we gave her this really old wetsuit to put on and when she sat down on the edge of the dock, we heard this big "riiiiippppp". The whole seat of suit completely gave out.

Painted faces

My big joker!

Stompin' Good Fun!

Here are some pictures from the 2008 Stampede Parade. Susie brought Brooklyn and we had a terrific morning. Ashley and Brooklyn got along great and they loved the parade. Thanks again to Mom and Dad who got there and 5:45am (yup, their crazy). Mom, I'm so glad that you could make it. It wouldn't have been the same without you.

They ate so much junk food. I shouldn't have brought so much. We started the mornin with about 40 timbits. Ye-Haw!!!!!

The age gap between Ashley and Brooklyn is closing in and they are starting to play really well together. They held hands and walked up and down the street.

My cool little dude! Karyn will not be happy about his "howdy doodie" hat, but he insisted. The whistle was the clincher.

Brooklyn and Ashley were very interested in this officer, but would not smile.

This was the funniest. We got all excited cause we thought this guy was handing Canadia flags out, so we asked for one for all of the kids. When we unrolled them, they all had messages like the one above! All the kids were waving their flags through the whole parade.

Brooklyn was entertaining our section with a little cowgirl jig! She was so fun.

A week, or two in review!

We had a great weekend out at the cabin. It was a short one, but awesome. The weather was perfect. I don't think I've been in the lake this early without freezing my butt off.

Craig, Angie and the boys came out too. It's so much fun having them out there with us. Charlie was beside himself when Colton and Hunter got out of the car with cap guns. Poor Hunter, Charlie never left his side the whole weekend. It was by far the funnest Canada celebration we've had out there. They had the best fireworks display. They were shooting them off right across the bay from us. It was so cool.

Peter takes his daily apple and banana down to the dock first thing in the morning. The kids and Ruby follow.

So, on the way home, there was a massive accident that closed the highway for 6 hours. So we stopped in Sparwood, BC. To take a look at the worlds largest dump truck. That little red speck at the bottom of the tire is Charlie.

The kids were so good, considering the situation. We hung out in Sparwood for quite some time then got in our cars to wait. We didn't end up getting home till about 3:00 am. It was a long trip. But the weekend we had at the cabin was worth it! We'll do it again for the August long weekend.

Also, we just moved Ashley into a "big girl bed". Don't ask me why. She was sleeping so great in her crib, but she always wanted to go into Charlie's bed, or my bed. So, we got her into her own. Needless to say, she's not sleeping as well. Before, we could just put her down in her crib, say goodnight and leave her to fall asleep on her own. Now, she wants us to stay with her longer and she likes to get out and come find us. .....Not so great! She's coming around though and she does love her new bed!

This is one of the last shots of her in her crib. One of her favorite things to do is make this face along with a "hmphhh"! sound.

She looks so grown up to me in this picture

Tennis anyone? Peter just bought Charlie and Ashley their own tennis rackets. He takes them to the glencoe to play and they love it. It's so cute to see them in their tennis whites.

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