Boys day out…

I got home from the garden show downtown around 1:45 this afternoon, got changed, took care of a couple things and then Andrew and I took off. I didn’t know where we were going, but I know we were going to have fun.

We ended up at Calgary International Airport. Why is YYC fun you ask? well, for one, they have spaceport. Spaceport is a super fun and interactive area of YYC that give kids and adults a place to play at the airport. It has a 1/3 scale replica of the space shuttle hanging from the ceiling, a full size single engine airplane you can climb into and pretend to pilot, all sorts of simulator rides (F1 race car, F-16 jet fighters that have full motion, even upside down) and a bunch of other cool stuff to do with space travel. Andrew really liked the area and we spent quite some time in there.

Just outside spaceport is one of the food courts at the airport. So for the next 1/2 hour Andrew learned how to use chopsticks while eating a 3 item combination from Manchu Wok. He did pretty good, as the rice would stick to the chopsticks. I would pinch a pea or piece of ginger beef for him and he would grab the 2 chops and (most of the time) make it to his mouth. When we were done, we walked about 35 feet over to the dairy queen for a cone. Andrew loves his cones, but he stole my spoon (I was having a sundae) and used it to scoop out the ice cream from his cone. Looks like we know now how he will want to eat his cone from now on. Mommy, just so you know… spoon.

We played on the elevators. They have these glass elevators that are exposed on all sides. We were sitting a few feet from one when 3 guys got on and disappeared down to the floor below. Andrew says “OH NOOOOO. What HAPPENED?”…. … … ‘Andrew try?’ hehe, yeah, Andrew can try.

Down on the main floor they have the best airport gift shop ever. We spent a good half hour in there checking it out and trying it out. It has the largest collection of scale aircraft and Aircraft toys I have ever seen. Andrew came out with a motorized “warthog” fighter jet and a rubber band powered balsa plane. Looks like I know what we will be doing in the park tomorrow.

We spent quite a bit of time walking around. It is amazing how cool the airport can be when you are not actually travelling. Obviously the people watching is super fun, but it is a really fun place, with an amazing amount of activities to keep your mind (and a 2 year old) occupied.

We were leaving the parkade and Andrew says ‘go back in dere Daddy’ pointing to the airport… hehe… maybe another day son…

We drove the half hour ride home, singing songs and pointing out ‘macs’ (big rigs, think ‘cars’ the movie) and busses. He started to complain that he was getting tired, but I didn't want him to go to sleep. I said, ?want to go to the coffee shop?” YEah Coffeeee Chop!!!! he says… so he was excited for the coffee shop the whole way home. We were chatting the entire way until just as we pulled up to the Good Earth Cafe in Cranston, I looked back and his head just bobbed over… whew, we made it without him falling asleep.

It’s always fun in the coffee shop with Andrew, he understands it to be a place to relax, and he relaxes. At one point he was laying down on the soft chair with his feet up on the window, just enjoying his day…

Needless to say he was pretty pooped out by the time beddybye came around and he was out pretty quick.

All in all, a pretty perfect day…

Picture of the day, not from today as my camera phone has cacked out on me, but a good one from another day nonetheless… “CHEESE!”

Top Notch Picture Thursday…

I am a day late for Wordless Wednesday. This photo is taken near Fairmont Hot Springs in the Columbia Valley of South Eastern British Columbia.

Geo-caching Sunday!

We were out there for 7 hours, and drove 178kms, never more than 40km from Calgary. we saw some of the most breathtaking sights and were on roads we never knew existed. I will post a full report in the next couple days, but for now, here is the link to the Google map I created that shows all the highlights.

A few photo teasers for you as well…

Jewellerypallooza!

Traci had a Hen’s party today. The theme was jewellery and she had her good friend Marie-Noel come over and present a Custom Made Jewellery party for some of Tracis’ friends. I showed up at the end, Andrew and I were at Poppop’s house for a sausage party of our own (we went to Home Depot for no particular reason, we are crazy like that!), while we were banished from our house.

Looks like it was pretty fun as most of the food was ate up by the time I was able to graze through the leftovers. 

Marie-Noel makes all her own creations. They look really nice and she had a LOT of stuff to display. Her company is called Skye Jewels and you can see her stuff at www.skyejewels.com or you can see her blog at www.skyejewels.blogspot.com.

Here is some of the items she brought with her. 

If I was a girl, i would probably like this one…  She makes cool bookmarks too…

Here is Marie-Noel obliging my request for a photo…

Looks like fun, glad I wasnt here… haha… now let’s go see how much money was spent!

Basement project update…

Poppop has been working feverishly in the basement for us, and I have even added my handyman touch to some of the project too. I have installed most of the lighting, completed some of the woodwork you see below, and I even took my turn spraying the texture on the ceiling! The project is coming along, there is alot of woodwork to finish yet, but honestly it’s the most fun for us, as our family history is all about fine woodworking. All the pine wood you see is going to be stained a dark walnut color… and there is a lot of pine in this project, so it is going to look amazing when it’s done.

Looking across the room into the future home theater room.  

From the home theater room back into the Rumpus Room.

The stairs… there was a major change here, can you spot what we did?

Traci and Andrews’ Craft Kitchen area…  

I figure another month and we should be laying the carpet… yay finished!!

Visitor # 5000

We just had our 5000th visitor since I started keeping track on April 20, 2009.

Congratulations to this blog reader! Thanks for reading. Your prize of good will and good luck is in the cyber mail and will arrive shortly! Enjoy!

Exciting stuff!! woohoo!

Wordless Wednesday…

Family Day Long Weekend…

…yes, we have Family Day when America is having dead presidents day. So what should we do? Traci took Andrew downstairs and let me sleep in for an extra hour. That was a REALLY good start to the day. Thanks sweetie. When Traci came up to wake me she said there were all kinds of free Family Day activities all over Calgary and area. There were things to do in Banff, Canmore, Ft Mcleod, Calgary, High River and Drumheller. We decided to go to Drumheller because it was close (130kms) and the Royal Tyrell Museum was free today. We were in no hurry, but we had to get started sooner than later as Tim’s only serves breakfast until 11am on weekdays. (I have an idea for Tim Horton’s new Ad campaign, “Every road trip starts at Tim’s!”). Sounds good hmmm?

So I had a Breakfast Sandwich with Sausage and 2 hashbrowns, Traci had a multigrain bagel with Herb and Garlic cream cheese, and Andrew had a plain bagel with Herb and Garlic cream cheese. Traci had a French Vanilla Cappuccino, I had an Extra Large Double Double, and Andrew had Apple Juice. We also got 10 timbits to share. Yumm…

It was actually raining when we left, which is highly unusual for Calgary this time of year but we were on the road for only about 20 minutes when it stopped and the sun started to fight through the clouds. We were only on the road a few minutes and I said, ‘hey honey, get your camera ready because we were about to drive past my foggy tree site from a few blogs ago. Remember this? See what it looks like in real life? Fog is awesome!

Back on the road we went. Andrew played with a car he brought with him for most of the trip. He such a happy guy, we are so blessed. About 20 minutes before we reached our destination in Drumheller we stopped at Horseshoe Canyon. Horseshoe Canyon is about 200 feet from the main road, but you can’t see it until you are in the parking lot at the lookout. People would drive right by not knowing what they are missing by not stopping. 

Right after these photos were taken the SD card cacked out on us, so we had to stop in at Wal-mart in Drum to pick  up a new one. We ended up taking our time, got some tasty snacks from the in-store McD’s and then headed out to the Museum. The last time we were there, I was underwhelmed. This time though I was really impressed. I figure it was because Andrew enjoyed it and I enjoyed it along with him.

He didn’t like it at all when we first went it, as it’s quite dark and there are LOTS of giant heads with LOTS of giant teeth in there. I picked him up and consoled him for a while, all the time telling him how much fun it was to see this stuff, and calling little dinosaurs puppies and kitties. hehe, it didn’t take him long to warm up to the place and soon enough he was running all over, checking everything out.

Mighty T-Rex!

These next two are outside before you go in, they are very well done and pretty cool to see as you go inside!

Here’s where Andrew sort of freaked out.. Can’t really blame him can you?

The museum is really amazing, it has a lot of everything, and just when you think you have seen the whole place, you walk into another huge area with more big stuff!

I ended up very impressed with the place, as it held the attention of one little 2.5 year old boy, the whole way round the place! here is a (opposite of waterfall) bubble-rise.

They have these globes in each area, it shows where the continents were positioned during the era that they were displaying in this particular part of the museum. Andrew loved to spin them.

Andrew gets up close and personal with science!

Andrew gets up close and personal with a twizzler.

What the heck is that up there??

Awwww… the baby is sooooo cute! 

Andrew and daddy watching a whatchamacallitasaurus eating!

Even the gift shop held Andrews attention at the end of the tour… he came home with some toy dinosaurs, imagine that… hehe.

When we came out of the museum, it was really nice outside, so we just took a walk. We ended up in the badlands! how nice for us. Andrew just adores stomping in the snow and had a great time running free in the wild… well, close enough to us, but still free enough…

We stopped for an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen on the way out of town and had a very uneventful and relaxing ride home. Andrew conked out about 5 minutes into the ride and slept the entire 1.5 hrs it took us to get home. For the record, Traci conked out 20 minutes into the ride as the sun was beaming in on her side...

Picture of the day… Our backyard in the height of summer. The nice weather today had me wishing for long warm days…