Fun in the Sun!!

So while trying to figure out ways to pass the time this summer, Hadley came up with the idea to go on a bug hunt! She just got a bug catcher from the $ store and wanted to try it out. So off we went to the river bottom to see what we could find. The hunt turned up pretty uneventful except for this.



Seriously I didn't know that caterpillars could even be this big! I of course made sure that no one touched it with their hands. Who knows if it was poisonous or not? She did enjoy carrying it around while we threw rocks into the river, attempted a group picture of all of the kids and played at the playground. She was a little disappointed to have to let it go in the end, but I really did not want that thing anywhere near my house!! I am sure that we will have plenty of more adventures looking for bigger and better bugs, but for now I think it was a great start!








We also finished our first session of swimming lessons for the summer and both Hadley and Rawley moved on to the next level!! This was big for Rawley, considering he had to take the last level 4 times before passing. I think he may have finally figured it out! Yeah!!

Now it's time for the fun to begin. August will be busy for us, because this is the month we have planned all of our family trips including a family reunion, a trip to the Tyrell Museum and a week at the condo. More to come on all of those fun things when they happen! Other than that the countdown is on only 5 weeks till school starts!

A visit from my sister.

So things around here are finally back to normal. My sister had been visiting with us since Canada day and we had a great time. Not only did we get to do some fun things with the kids it was nice to be able to spend time with her since we only see each other a couple of times a year. Where oh where to begin. You have already heard about all of the Canada day excitement, so this is what else took up our time while she was here.


Not only did I take advantage of having a babysitter which allowed me to get to the grocery store alone a few time, I also got to see what it would be like to be a mom of 2 year old twins. Since my nephew is also 2. They were remarkably good playing together for the most part, but I do recall numerous mine's coming from each of their mouths as they tried keep a toy from one another. It was also nice being able to snuggle with her 3 month old and see what kind of reaction I would get from Emmy considering in 10 weeks she will no longer be the baby. So far so good is all I can say. She wanted to hold him all of the time and so did Hadley. I think she was a great little mommy for my sister. Even offering to change the poopy diapers!



We hit the spray park a couple of times. It took a while for Emmy to warm up to the idea of water spraying her, but we went on a good day so there were hardly any other kids around which helped.





We also made it to the Birds of Prey center. I have never been before and it was really fun. I think the ducks were a little intimidating for Emmy when we were feeding them since they completely surrounded her trying to get the food out of her hands. We also got to pet a Burrowing Owl and see the brand new babies. I didn't know they had a Bald Eagle as well as a couple of other owls, hawks, falcons even a turkey vulture.


Brand new babies.


Posing for the camera.
Lincoln the Bald Eagle.


This is the only picture you will get of me pregnant so enjoy! My sister was obviously in charge of the camera otherwise this would have been erased!!



There was even a flying demonstration in the new flying field facility. We were able to watch JR fly from perch to perch to get his food.


We had a great visit but now she is back home celebrating the graduation of her husband from BYU Idaho. Congrats Matt!!

Now it's back to the same old routine, but at least we have some beautiful weather to enjoy it with!

Happy Canada Day!

A little parade and a lot of play!

We had a fun time this year for Canada Day, it usually begins with a trip to Raymond to watch the parade! We love this because Grandpa and Grandma have the best spot picked out and saved for us each year pretty close to the beginning. This means of course a lot of candy for the kids to collect! I don't think that they care all that much for the parade itself only for the candy they throw! Mind you they did have one band that Rawley sure enjoyed and busted out a few moves for! We also had a yummy lunch and visited with everyone that came out for the festivities! My older brother Trevor also turned us onto geocaching. Ever heard of it??? Me either! It was fun! We followed a set of directions using a hand held GPS in search of treasure! Well not real treasure but it was fun trying to find what had been hidden and to add our names to the list! Apparently there were 5 to find in Raymond and close to 500 in Lethbridge. We may tackle some of those on a later date! We had dinner plans at Grandma and Papa's so that took care of the cooking for the day! It was so nice to get a break! But opted out of the fireworks because 11pm is just too late in my books for a 2 year old to be up till. The festivities did not end there for us because the next day we headed back to Raymond! Grandma had rented the brand new pool for an hour for all of us to go swimming! I am terrible because I of course had my camera but left it in the car. It was really fun! Can't wait to go back, but think that the best time to use it is if it has been reserved for just a few! I can only imagine how crowded it gets during public swim. Rawley also finished his speech group that he has been attending for the last 7 weeks and my sister is here for 2 weeks visiting! Now the only problem I am having is figuring out how to get everything done during the day and still get to have some play time! Hopefully it won't be that hard considering that we now have something filling up our backyard!

The End

I still cannot believe that this school year has ended. We have obviously been quite busy hence the lateness of this post. But I still could not leave this out of the past year. Hadley loved Grade 1. She has grown so much and learned so much from her amazing teacher! I remember the start of the year she seemed like such a little girl to be going to school full time.



By the end of the year she must have aged 2 years in my head. She seemed so grown up. Reading on her own and very well for that matter, loving all of the subjects that she studied and turned into quite the artist. We will really miss Mrs. Payne and how wonderful she was. But now on to Grade 2 after the chaos of summer. Hopefully she will be just as excited for it as she was for Grade 1.

Here she is with her fabulous teachers





For our teachers this year we made these


Fabric magnets! I think they are wonderful plus pretty easy and not too expensive. Besides who doesn't need more magnets??? I know I could use about a hundred on my fridge some days!