Going Camping!

We're headed out to Kananaskis to go camping tomorrow. This is the last long weekend of the summer so I'm sure it will be a big camping weekend. Hopefully that will keep the bears away! Everyone laughs at me b/c I worry about the bears. We're going camping with 3 other couples, their dogs & our kids.

We're borrowing a tent trailer from one of my coworkers. They're trying to sell it so we're trying it out to see if we might want to buy it. I think we'll really like it. I want to start camping more but I don't know how well it would go if we had to stay in a tent. At least with the tent trailer we're off the ground and have a place to sit if it rains. It's not the Hyatt but it beats a leaky tent any day!

I'll post some pictures of our grand adventure when we get back. Hopefully there won't be any bear pictures! There will be cute kid pictures, though!

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In Training

This week our cat Gracy has been sick. Unfortunately this means that she's taken to vomiting EVERYWHERE. It is so not cool! I realize she's sick but it's hard not to get frustrated. Dewey (being oh so helpful) just tells me that I'm in training for kids (better known as barf machines). Yea me! Gracy only has to take her medicine until Friday so hopefully that means that she will be all better & we'll be through this lovely stage of pet parenting. Probably too much info but it's been ruling our week this week.

But on a useful note....we found a great new carpet stain product. It has mostly gotten all the stains out of our very, very light carpet. It's called Woolite OxyDeep 2X Pet. If you're having carpet issues like us....it's your product. :)

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Cool Pictures

Mostly I take pictures to record events but I really like taking pictures of flowers, animals, etc too. They don't usually make it to the blog though b/c there's never really a story to go with them. Here's a few that were taken during our trip. The cool cloud pics were taken by Dewey....all the rest are mine.

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The Vacation House

Sorry I'm a few days late posting.....just didn't get around to it.

We arrived at the Kokanee Beach house and were very pleased with our rental. We were actually supposed to spend our holiday in Kelowna but our rental got cancelled. In the end, I'm glad that we had to change. I think think we enjoyed ourselves much more than we would have in Kelowna. The house is a full time residence (instead of just a holiday home). The owners were renting it out for the two weeks they were on holidays. We didn't get to meet the owners but we figured out that they were pretty interesting people by looking at all of the decorations in their house.

The house is right on the lake so most mornings we walked down to the beach. Nana & I would lay out with a good book to try to get a tan while the kids played in the water & sand. My Mom spent most of the time looking for rocks to bring home. I think her suitcase weighed twice as much going home b/c of all the rocks she took back with her. Dewey spent most of his time in Papa Don's boat or learning how to windsurf. We would watch him surf away getting smaller and smaller and wonder if we would have to go "save" him if the wind died down. He managed to always get back without needing saving.

We spent most of the week close to "home". Nana and I brought loads of food so we ate most meals at home. Luckily Nana didn't take a vacation from cooking so we ate like kings (as usual when she's around). We did head into Nelson on Wednesday because it was our one rainy day. Dewey took the kids and my mom & I went shopping. I ended up buying two pieces of art from The Mermaid Gallery. I'm really happy with the art....now I just have to figure out where to put it in the condo (plenty of walls to choose from since no pictures have been hung yet).

On Saturday we went to see the Kokanee Salmon spawning in Kokanee Creek. These salmon turn bright red as they absorb their scales for the extra nutrients they need to travel from the lake up the creek to spawn. We loved watching them fight each other & try to get further up the creek. We had no idea we would get to see this while we were in Nelson so it was a great surprise. After, we went to the Visitor's Centre. Will especially liked the visitor centre b/c his favorite animal lately is the wolverine (we've taken to calling him "Willverine") & there's a stuffed one in the visitor center. We didn't tell him about it so he was pretty surprised. We spent an hour or so there looking at the animals and talking with the staff member that told us all kinds of facts about the area.

Will and Nicole seemed to love the trip. They got to spend quality time with Daddy & got to play in the sand every day. What more could you want? I had a great time but it seemed really short.

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Coming Tomorrow.....

Our rental house and our fun week! See you tomorrow!

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Riding the Ferry

To get from Revelstoke to our rental house outside of Nelson we had to ride the ferry. There are quite a few in the area to choose from but we crossed on the Galena Bay Ferry. Luckily we got there just a few minutes before we got to drive aboard. I think this was the first ferry the kids had ever been on. Dewey asked the captain if we could go up to the bridge with the kids He was nice enough to say we can so up we went. It was great to have a birds eye view of the crossing. We also got to snap a few picks and get some information about the local area.


After the ferry crossing we had another 3 1/2 hours of driving. Unfortunately the last 20 or 30 kilometers were very curvy so mom & Nicole started feeling a bit carsick. Thankfully we made it to the house without any "accidents"!

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Traveling to Nelson

My mom arrived in Calgary late Friday night. By the time she arrived we had already picked up the kiddles and packed almost everything. We woke up on Sunday morning, packed the car and hit the road. We decided to buy a portable DVD player to keep the kids entertained. Best purchase EVER!!! We decided to split the drive into two days. Straight through it takes about 8 hours so we figured two shorter days would be easier on everyone.

Dewey decided to show us Mount 7 in Golden, BC since I've never been there. Mount 7 is where he flew his paraglider most often before he moved to Texas. We drove up the mountain to launch. Even though he says the road has improved over the years, we still thought it was pretty rough. It seemed to take forever! I will say, though, that the view was great at the top. Dewey go to see the memorial plaque that has been added for Chris Muller (one of the guys he used to fly with that was killed hanggliding). I think Dewey really liked showing us where he used to launch. Unfortunately the weather was kind of iffy so we didn't get to see anyone fly while we were there. Will, Nicole & Dewey did get to throw some rocks off a mountain though. :)

We headed to Revelstoke to stay the night. The first day was pretty uneventful (other than Mount 7). We would be up early the next morning to drive the rest of the way to Nelson.

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We're Baaaack!

Well, we made it back from our weeklong vacation at Kootenay Lake. It was absolutely wonderful! Our rental house was right on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. The water was really, really cold but the kids still played in it (not me, though!).

I'm headed to bed now but I promise to chronicle our journey starting tomorrow. For now I will leave you with a few pics from our trip.

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New Books

I'm trying to buy all of the things we have determined that we "need" before our new trip while Dewey is away. This works well b/c Dewey doesn't have to shop & we won't have as bad of a paniced race around town on Friday night before we leave. I knew that Canadian Tire had what I needed but I felt the need to check at Costco first. I should have known better!!!! I went in trying to save a few dollars but it went really, really wrong. Costco didn't have of the things I needed (life jacket for Will, cooler & inflatable boat thingee) & I walked out of there $115 poorer......HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?????????

I got sucked in, I'll admit it. It also doesn't help that I bought 3 new books. I love to buy books at Costco (I know, I know, I should just go to the library!). Their books are around 1/2 the price of the bookstore. I got Life of Pi, Hitching Rides With Buddha - A Journey Across Japan and Goodnight Nobody. I will review all of them after I read them on my Book Blog. Check them out there.

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All by myself.....

....all by myse-l-f....Okay I'll stop singing now. I get to spend a quiet week all by myself in Calgary. Dewey flew out this morning (missing his holiday Monday) to spend the week in Fort McMurray. Fort McMurray is where all the oilsands work is being done in Alberta. Dewey is unpacking the first shipment of the control system on the project he's working on.

We're heading to British Columbia next week for a well deserved week of vacation. We're renting a house on Kootney Lake. We were supposed to be renting a condo in Kelowna but it is having some subsidance problems & might fall in the lake. Just our luck! Thankfully we were able to find another rental this late in the summer. It should be good fun. Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to post from our holiday as soon as we get back!

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Greatest Photographer......Ever!

Mark Shannon, a local Calgary photographer, is great! He came out to the Walk to End Breast Cancer and took pictures of all the walkers. Instead of gouging all the walkers to buy pictures, he posted all the pics to his website and allowed them to be downloaded for free. If anyone wants high res images, we can buy them from him and all proceeds go to his walk next year. Too Cool! Here are my favorites among the images he took. Roll over the pics to see who/what they are.

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Canyon with Nicole

I decided to take Nicole out to the mountains on Thursday of her visit. Since I've been out to Banff 3 times in the last month, I decided we should change it up a bit. Dewey suggested that we hike in Johnston Canyon. Hike is a bit of an overstatement since it is very accesible with paved paths and walkways but it is a beautiful place. Yet again, all the animals were hiding out so the biggest creature we saw was a raven. I hope that Nicole will come back to Calgary with her soon to be husband, Matt, this winter to ski!

On Friday, we had to be at signup for the walk relatively early so we didn't want to go far from Calgary. We decided to visit Devonian Gardens downtown. This is a cool botanical garden that is completely inside the buildings downtown. That way you have a pretty garden to visit even in the dead of winter. Cool!

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Great Family!

The kids visited this weekend while I walked in the 60k. I wish I had been around a bit more to get to see them. Dewey brought them out onto the course to cheer us on. Such a great family!!!!! Here are some pictures that Dewey took while they were cheering us on.

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