Traci's rose...

...just a nice closeup picture of a rose in Traci's birthday bouquet.

Traci's Birthday month came to a close with another celebration at G&G's house. We had a (think fancy) *Sunday High Tea*. It was great. Gramma and Grampa did a great job duplicating some of the fanciest little sandwiches and we had 3 kinds of tea! Gramma also did a fantastic job of home made scones.

I just realized Andrew has now (in his first 21 months) has been to THREE high teas! One in Victoria, one in Okotoks and now one a Gramma's. I am 35 and have been to three as well. Ohh la la, fancy dancy eh!

We had Traci and Andrew blow out candles.

Gamma, Nicki, Greg and Dean were here.

As well as Grampa, Sophie (Andrews best friend - an older lady!) and Mary Jo!

We are still dealing with cold and snow, but that hasn't stopped the snow from having fun on Andrew's slide, even if Andrew can't be out there! We are hoping for spring any day now as we are only 17 days away from the first Camping weekend. Brrrrr...

Guest Bloggin'...

I don't get much involved with the blog except help provide the stories that go into it, but since I had a FABULOUS birthday I wanted to say a few words. I am SPOILED! Neil knows me quite well and he knows that as far as my birthday is concerned 'low key' suits me just fine. So, in keeping with my simple request from year to year, we spent a quiet relaxing day at home on Friday (my birthday).

The day started at 7 a.m., we all came downstairs and I was showered with birthday cards from my boys and presented with a great pair of running sunglasses from my sweet baby boy.

(Neil gave me his gift a couple weeks ago, a Garmin 405 Forerunner, AWWWESOME!). Neil had a few meetings/errands to run in the morning, so shortly after serving pancakes to me and Andrew he got ready and headed out. Since I had taken the day off from work (which included shutting the ringer off on my work phone) I enjoyed a day of playing/ reading/ napping with Andrew, it was glorious!. Andrew and I awoke from our nap (2 hours later) and Neil arrived home shortly thereafter with a gorgeous flower arrangement

(again, I am SPOILED) and yummy crablegs for dinner

....Oh and yes, I can't forget my Birthday Cake!

Let's just say YUM!

Chocolate cake with white icing! Dinner was amazing, cake was delicious, company was priceless! I LOVED MY BIRTHDAY!

I LOVE my boys and am the luckiest woman on the face of the earth!

Fitness...

So... I speak a lot about fitness these days, and how it has changed our lives. Well here are the first really good before and after pictures that I have ever posted of us. The before's are pretty embarrassing and not pictures we would normally share, but they illustrate why we are so proud of ourselves and why we constantly talk about these changes!

We Rock!

A new hike pack...

Sitting at home this morning, with Andrew going a little stir crazy, we call up Gramma and tell her Andrew is coming for a visit. She, of course, is ok with that, and Traci and I take a rare day to ourselves. Let's hike.

We drop of Andrew and head out to buy a good day bag for hiking. Trying to squeeze pennies I ask Traci if we should look at Canadian Tire or Walmart. She sort of looks at me, I dunno, but shouldn't we get a good one? Well... yeah. So we head down to Mountain Equipment Co-op. We haven't been there since we lived in our 2nd Condo in Calgary about 10 years ago. It is full of people that are uber fit and very outdoorsy, neither of which we used to be. HOWever, we are now fit and jeez it was sure fun to be in there and belong! MEC has very highend outdoor equipment, clothing and accessories and man could you spend a whole lot of money there.

We bought a MEC Daypack with a hydration pack and off we go. We head down to Eau Claire, park the car, pay the $2 for parking and forget to put the slip on the dash and bingo, when we get back a $45 ticket is waiting. The hike was nice. More of a walk than a hike, but it was our first one with the pack so it was a hike.

This was a pretty significant hike as it was Traci's first time ever on Prince's Island. Significant because it is a very prominent park in downtown, where Traci has worked for 10 years and in the city we have lived in for 11, and yet she never entered the park. Well that can be crossed off the ol' life list now too. I on the other hand was in the park once about 6 years ago for a few minutes. woo.

It was pretty cold and a little rainy/snowy, but we dressed for it and really enjoyed the hour or so that we puddled around, people watching and nature watching and the birds were very active. ALSO, hehe, there were these red feathers floating around the park, all over the place, we thought there might have been a rare bird around. There was a rare bird, in fact there were dozens... of RED hat ladies! must have been a convention. we found it pretty funny as these feathers from their hats and boas were spread out like breadcrumbs leading the way in and out of the park.

We spent some time in the Eau Claire mall, and enjoyed the ambiance (it actually had ambiance, which is something pretty new for this place). It had turned pretty cold and rainy outside so we buggered off on a bit of a drive, picked up some groceries and headed back to G&G's to pick up Andrew. He woke up form his nap very grumpy shortly after we arrived there, and was inconsolable. As much as Gramma wanted to 'fix' whatever problem he was having, there was no fix but a good cry and tantrum. Oh the trials and tribulations of a 21 month old.

We got home around 4pm made a nice supper and watched another weird snow storm come in. Andrew is so busy these days, he hits the pillow at 8pm and is out for a full 11-12 hours! Nice for mom and dad, that's for sure. Oh, here is the birthday supper picture I promised, and woowoo were those Crablegs ever delicious!

Special day...

Andrew turns 21 months today... and ...... Traci turns 3x years today!

Happy Birthday Honey! We woke up at 7am and Traci had 3 cards from Andrew 2 cards from me and a card from the Dogs and 1 from the cat. Happy birthday from your whole crew!


The dogs card was funny, it said "we made you a gift this year"... "it's out in the yard"... so true.


Andrew also got Traci a really cool pair of Oakley 'half jacket' running sunglasses. She looks faster just putting them on! woowoo. About 3 weeks ago, the little runner lady also got an early birthday present, a Garmin 405 running GPS. Lucky lady.

On Sunday we are going to G&G's house for appys and Cake to celebrate, but tonight we are having rosemary/butter/garlic marinated Steak, Alaskan King Crablegs with drawn butter, baked potatos, big solid french baguette bread with 'Neil's famous' beer cheese dipping sauce. I'll put teaser pictures up later...

Sometimes I don't have words...

Grrr.... Calgary weather...

Really, Global warming 'they' say... 'They' haven't been to Calgary lately. Just yesterday, Andrew was playing outside in shorts and t-shirt. The poor little guy is so jacked up for outside play and this ridiculous weather is supposed to last the rest of the week. And to think our first camping long weekend is May 15th. It seems like a hundred years from now. Oh well. It has to turn around sooner or later, let's hope it's not later.

Hey, wait. Ok, so the groundhog comes out on Feb 15th? and says 6 more weeks of winter. That is up to now, right? So what if he comes out and seems his shadow again, like he could have yesterday? back in the hole you little varmint, 6 more weeks....

NOOOOOOOOOO.....

Traci ROCKS! a new personal record.

She ran 5k today.

Awesome!

Traci, Andrew and Myself set out around the neighborhood with a strategy, full bottles of water and a great attitude! Andrew really seems to like the jogging stroller, which is a good thing... as we jog now... so... suck it up little man. hehe.

Traci did great! In run club they say you should finish every run, upright and smiling! Well she was and she was. She ran steady and in control, and she is really proud of herself and she should be!

Yay for you sweetheart! You deserve every good thing that comes your way!

A Funday Sunday!

Andrew got a new play structure. We looked around at used play-thingy-slide-huts, and everyone wanted $75.00 for the same unit. I went to a garage sale yesterday morning as Traci saw one while she was running, but it was really beat up and they wanted $75.00. We hummed and hawed for the day until I asked Traci, 'how much are these things new?'

She went on the Toys-r-us page and they have the newest, latest, greatest on sale for $100.00.

Done deal.

uh.....huh.

what...?

by the way...

... so far out of the 2 replies I received on the hair options, 100% of respondents think the hat David Archuletas dad is wearing would work for me. huh, didn't see that coming.

Rare occurance...

I have to snap pictures like crazy to try and get a good one of Gramma, as she tends to look around and not focus on the task at hand. Andrew is sort of the same way, although he doesn't have the same aversion to the camera as Gramma, it still is a bit of a 'take twenty to get 1 good one' chance.

Well, Jupiter's moons aligned, the gods smiled and the Easter Bunny saw fit to allow this photo...

A really REALLY good picture of them together! nice.

Easter!

Andrew still isn't feeling all that well, but he felt the need to make sure he got through his Easter Basket and the few new toys he received. It's his little way of making sure everyone enjoys the day.

Is this really for me??

Mommy, you get me the BEST singing cards... I LOVE YOU!

After all that Easter Basket excitement, it's time for some breakfast and a little bit of Toopy and Binoo on the tube.

After a light lunch and a nice 2 hour nap, Grampa and Gramma came over with 'Meals on Wheels' we were supposed to go over there, but with Andrew's temp going up and down, they offered to bring Easter dinner to us! So it was Ham, Cabbage rolls, Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Corn, Devilled Eggs, Hot Cross Buns and pineapple slice dessert. Yum, boy was it tasty.

Andrew, of course, was happy to see G and G had another basket of goodies! yay! He got a really cool Cat truck that sort of runs on it's own schedule, neat.

After dinner, Andrew gathered up his new travelling bucket, his trail bottle and was on his way. 'blowing kisses' and saying bye. What a nice day.

oh no...

... it has recently come to my attention....

that...

I...

have the MONKEYBUTT!!!

ok ok ok ok... don't panic... let's slow down a bit... think this through... must be a solution.

Ok

What are the options...

- combover?

- bearded combover?

- Shaggy hippie baldy do?

- shaved?

- bic'd? heck then I could be a BLUE MAN! woowoo!

Oh but wait, thousands of men rely on late night television! Yeah, let's see... at 1am is hair club for men, at 2am is spray on hair, at 3am is wigs international... geez, they never give prices... uh I suppose it's because our hair is priceless! they got us those buggers.

AHA, solution!... remember David Achulettas Dad on American idol? the simplest solution of all. A HAT!

Damn you genetics.... DAMN YOU!!

Knee deep geocaching...

Andrew isn't feeling that well, so we decided to keep our geocaching close to the road with no hiking required. We hopped in the car around noon, got some Mc'ds for lunch and off we went. We ended up on highway 1 east of town. The GPS coordinates had me on the opposite side of the freeway in a ditch next to an old log. Well, sure, there was the first find. I was a little worried that passersby that saw me all squatted down in the ditch next to a log thought I may be pooping or something... but whatever... I don't know them... hehe.

Andrew had fallen asleep by then, but woke up once we stopped and was awake enough for us to try one more before we hit the road for a nap trip of an hour or so. We ended up (again) finding the cache on the opposite side of the highway. We got close with the car and I got out to go locate the treasure. I took about 4 steps into what looked like a little bit of snow and *wooomp* sunk in the snow up to my knees.

I looked back and Traci was laughing like a goon at me. She said it looked so funny walking on top of the snow then straight down I went. She said she would have been up to her waist! We found the cache, and the cool part is we found it for the first time this year. There has been too much snow to find it until now, yay for us!

apparently the official sign of a found geocache is 'thumbs up'

We then got in the car, got gas and ended up driving out to Rockyford (just to see it, and I can cross that off my life list now) then back toward Calgary via Bieseker so Andrew could get a nice long nap.

Our next coordinates had us driving into Delacour. Our GPS got us to within 10 feet in the car and it was an easy find for Traci and Andrew! it was a micro cache as there aren't many places to hide anything around Delacour.

Unfortunately Andrew had quite a blowout in his diaper, so we had to change him on a handy picnic table, then we were content to let him run around for a half hour in the 16deg afternoon.

We got back in the car to head home and decided to try one more if we could get one in our general direction. We had one programmed that was right in line, so off we went. It's pretty funny when you are driving past on the highway and the compass arrow on the GPS all of a sudden swings right around backwards, we obviously passed it and figured that we were to get off the freeway and go into Chestermere.

A little sidenote. Geocachers are held to a code that says we are to *find* as steathily as possible so that 'muggles' (non-geocachers, bystanders, general public) don't get suspicious as to what we are up to, as we don't want them finding our stuff by accident or because we are too clumsy.

Well this was the first one we had to wait for passersby to go search. A little kid on a bike went by, so I hopped out of the car and whoops, there is a couple walking up the pathway, so back in the car I go. We sit and wait, just like the FBI would on stakeout. We felt a little weird as we were just barely pulled off the road. Well, the couple gets to our target location and she stops to scratch her knee... for like... 3 minutes. what the heck? anyway, after they move on, I go and start searching around. I can't find it anywhere. I am walking around looking like a blind idiot when I finally spot it. Very nicely camouflaged!

notice the thumbs up?

I open it up, fill out the log and... yikes here comes that kid again from the other way. I sit down with the cache sort of hidden in my hands and... the kid stops right in front of me. Come on now....what is this place, the Bermuda triangle of pathways? So I am sitting there all weird like, while Traci and Andrew are sitting in the car 30 feet away looking at me, and this kid is sorting out his candy he just bought. He finally moved on and I was able to replace the cache without being detected (i hope) and that finished our day of Geo-caching. fun stuff.