Saturday, January 12, 2013

Calgary's Coming's and Going's Before Christmas

Our adventures in Calgary were many. I'm so glad we had the time, but it still wasn't near enough. We got to visit with many friends and family, which is so special considering we don't know the next time we will be venturing up to Calgary, especially with all my siblings married and all.
Vienna and papa got to go on many sleigh rides together with the doggies, while the weather was warm enough anyway. I'm pretty sure her favorite part was jumping on the trampoline afterward though. 


Visiting with one of my long, long time buddies Aarika and 4 adorable kiddos was so much fun. I wish we were closer but of course this is what makes our dinners out and afternoon play dates so incredibly special.
Lincoln playing with Little Emmalene.
Left: Carolyn and her little girl Brielle, Aarika with her 4 9Levi, Lucy, Abbigail and Emmlene) Julianne, and us. 3 of us have been freinds since elementary school and all 4 of us sincejunior high school and every time I go back we get together for a visit and dinner. It is such a special tradition that I cherish. It is so neat to see all the different places we are in life but to reminiscence(?) about all the silly things we did.
Mema and vienna enjoying a fire
uncle Danger working on those uncle skills, preparing to be a Daddy soon...right???
Papa and Vienna loving the fresh air.
I love this picture, its so cute and candid. Look at Linc's teething cheeks. Poor little man.

We had time to squeeze in a snow day with Aarika's family. The kids loved jumping on all the trampolines at my folks house and the sleigh rides. Not to mention the amazing Coffee Crisp & After Eight Hot Chocolate Aarika brought, that made it into all of our homes shortly after. Oh how we love Coffee Crisp hot chocolate.
Vienna and Abbigail had a blast together (they are about the same age)
One of my best buddies ever! I love you Aar!
It's so funny how it looks like Levi is standing on Lucy's head.
Mike and my Dad sure worked up sweats taking this kids all over. 
We had such a nice time and can't wait to do it again!

Of course games and a newer version of consequence...Wizard was a blast.
Our poor Sarah had to run out to the tramps in her bare feet and jump for 30secs. Brrrrrr Cold!!!
Vienna fell in love with Nan and they became best buddies. I would realize I hadn't seen Vienna in a while and I knew she was down there doing some fun thing. This picture captures it all. So sweet!
We went to visit Grandad downtown and that was so special to see him. We share the same Birthday and he is now 88. It was so fun to see how happy he was to see everyone. It was his first time meeting Lincoln and he loved watching him crawl around all over. We sang Christmas carols and he got so emotional. I sure love him dearly and sure hope I get another chance to see him again.
Nan was so happy to visit with him, too bad it was too short. I know she'd LOVE to be with him ALWAYS and she deserves that more than anything in life.


Mike was very excited to go snow shoeing with my Dad and they had a great day! I sure wish we could have gone snowboarding, oh how I miss my Rocky Mountains!

We had a great time visiting with the Orton's and even though we missed Brady we had Shanna there.  It was so cute to watch Vienna and Lincoln with Cooper. And Vienna kept Uncle Steve on his toes and hid Auntie Pam's lizards around the house. It was so nice and much too short.
In this picture Vienna is holding a casette tape that was her "camera' She found it in the drawer behind her and Shanna let her have it. That was so thoughful of you Shanna (love your sweater btw)
Too bad this is blurry, but Pammy and Steve are SO ready to have little kiddos of their own to call Grand children....


Sometimes when I'd go downstairs to find Vienna I'd come down to this...curlers in her hair, or drinking chocolate milk, or making a craft or playing with Tibby. Always an adventure. I'm so glad Vienna got to spend so much time with her.


EDMONTON
My parents were kind enough to let us take the jetta up to Edmonton for a few days to visit with my sisters up there and our bestest buddies the SIMMONDS! 
They had us over for dinner, which was so delicious and sonia pointed out how that was the first time she had ever had us over for dinner. How sad. That's what distance does.
Dorothy, Josephine and Vienna
These girls got along so well and it was so adorable to watch. I wish they could play together more often.
So fancy Sonia, look at those dishes. What a hostess...with the mostest.
Lincoln loved their sparkly ornaments on the tree. What a little boy he is. and Oh so cute!
Sonia surprised me with an early 3-0 Birthday cake. It was absolutely delicious. It is called a tuxedo cake. Thanks for thinking so far ahead Sonia!
Playing for hours in all their dress-up clothes. They were inseparable.
Sonia is a gift giver and boy or boy did Vienna reap the benefits of that. She wanted to play with her princess craft set right then. It was so cute. 
The next day we went over for breakfast and Joel made these huge pancakes with oats in them that were so good. In fact I want the recipe sometime. Then plans had to change a few times but we finally made it to...
WEst Edmonton Waterpark!
These are the girls trekking through the mall after a long day of playing their hearts out in the water. All holding hands and looking like drowned rats, but it was adorable and tragically the last time these girls would see each other as other plans changed as well. The other thing is Sonia and I never got a picture together??? which is horrible!!! How does that happen??? Two, too busy Mom's with busy/working Dad's that weren't there to remind us. It' s so sad :( Either way we got to see each other quite a bit considering the lack of time and other family demands. I'm so glad!


Vienna hanging out with Nan...again!

So we decided all together as a family that we didn't want to do gifts for everyone or draw names. We are all older, married and I'm the only one with kids so we could do it this way. Anyway, we decided to each buy a board game, play it over the holidays and then on Christmas each draw a game and take that one home. We each made 1 meal as a couple and just spent quality time together. I LOVED it this way!!!
Ben and Chubbs brough Bang! and ended up keeping it. I'd love to own this one, it was great. Tricky at first to figure out but so much fun once you got the hang of it.
Dane and Sarah brough 5 Second rule (or something like that) It was fun too and really put your brain on the spot. BTW way who is the weirdo stuck in the 80's in the back ground???

This little man is well loved by his big sister and they are both so adorable. (I'm the biased Mom I know)


Going for sleigh rides with Vienna was a blast and quite the workout for my man.

As soon as I got off he started running and fast. Nice toque Mikey!

Too bad we dont have pics of these few things...I had the chance to get together with my good friend Kimmy for a few hours which was so nice to catch up. Vienna still asks about her friend Kyla. (Kim's daughter)
Mike and I went to Wonton King for his Birthday Dinner and it was DELICIOUS!!! Mike did take a picture but its on his phone.
The next post will be CHRISTMAS!!

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