~Summer Road Trip with Friends!~

This past weekend, Sept long, we jumped in a truck with our friends, Trudy and Wes Dombroskie and headed off North.  Our destination?  Liard River Hot Springs and anything in-between!

It was a lot of driving to get there, we went the first day to Fort Nelson and that was our main base for the weekend.  We got in early in the evening and went for dinner and then called it an early night.  The next morning after a fantastic free continental breakfast we hit the Alaska Highway and went further North than any of us had every been before! 

Right out of Fort Nelson the scenery turned to gorgeous foothills and then eventually mountains.  It took us almost 4 hours to reach the hot springs but we were stopping all the time!  We saw lots of wildlife on the trip: elk, goats, bears, a fox, ravens, and an owl.  We were hoping the see a grizzly but that didn’t pan out, we saw 2 black bears instead. 

All in all we had a great time and the springs were very nice, not at all commercialized like in Radium or Miette.  Still natural and not concrete!

Here are some pictures from the trip!  These ones were taken right outside of Fort Nelson, maybe 50kms away.

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I was so excited that we got to stop at Muncho Lake!  I had heard that it was gorgeous there and I was not let down.  The water is jade green from the stone below leaching I think copper into it.  It was so clear, clean and just as gorgeous green as you see in the pictures!

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Liard River Hot Springs.  It is a short 5 min walk through the woods to get to the springs but as you can see it is as natural as you can get!  The only man made stuff are the walkways and a small waterfall you can see in the top right picture that also dams the hot springs to the top pool.  There are 3 separate pools to these springs but you can only go into these two.  The other one is apparently 34 feet deep and upwards of 70 degrees Celsius! I’m pretty sure I’m okay with not jumping in there!

Randy did the “Rite of passage” at the springs though.  He was told about it by some guys at work.  Apparently you take a small rock from near the man made waterfall and walk it to the other end and see if you can make it all the way to the end to place the rock on the ledge above the hot spring itself.  Well he did it!  He said the last couple of steps felt like boiling water pouring on his legs though!  I couldn’t go in them as much as I wanted since I was pregnant and had to be careful so I stuck to the lower pool where the river starts and the water is like bath water temperature.  It is so amazing that these sorts of things exist!

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		The Wildlife VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It was a fun trip, something I can see us doing again!  We talked about some possibilities for the next trip but nothing solid of course.  Randy and I will be grounded at home for most of next year with our new little one so sneaking off without kids will prove to be a bit more difficult!

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~

What a wonderful vacation we had this summer!  We made it to the LAKE!  We enjoyed a great visit with my best friend of almost 20 years, Melissa and her son Caleb for the first week.  It was a busy, active week and we crammed in a lot of activities.

We got to the campground on the Sunday night and got all settled in and had a campfire.  On Monday we went into the nearby town of Chetwynd and checked out the visitor centre, wood carvings and had lunch from a food truck called “Everybody Loves Raymond”.  The remainder of our day was filled with walking around the lake, playing at the park and relaxing at the campsite.

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On Tuesday we headed to Tumbler Ridge, the place of dinosaurs and waterfalls!  We ended up doing a 2km hike in the rain to see the dinosaur tracks…it was not fun for pregnant, out of shape me.  Ethan looked so cute putting his hands into the dinosaur prints in the creek bed!

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~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We stopped at Gwillim Lake on our way back to our lake…it was really nice and we took some pictures with the kids there.

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Melissa and the boys had evenings of playing catch while we were there.  We had stopped at Value Village in Grande Prairie before heading out and bought a ball glove for Melissa so she could play with Caleb.  While we were there I found one almost the perfect size for Ethan so I grabbed it for him.  Apparently my son is a natural at playing catch.  To my knowledge he has never worn a ball glove before.  He put it on and knew what to do like he was on old pro though!  These pictures don’t do justice to how cute he was playing catch with them!

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On Wednesday we headed to the WAC Bennett Dam.  Randy, Ethan and I had been the year before so we knew what to expect.  However we heard that the spillway was open and were so excited to see that!  It has only been open 9 times in the last almost 50 years and we were going to get to see it!  I was so excited!

WAC Bennett Dam VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The Spillway VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It’s hard to grasp how big that spill waterfall is from the pictures…it was enormous!  We ended up coming back up the following weekend to the dam with Randy just so he could see it…it truly was something to remember!

The week with Melissa and Caleb drew to a close on Thursday when they left to spend the night at our house in GP.  Caleb had to be in St Paul, AB on Friday for provincial soccer tournaments.  They decided to break their trip up as it was a long drive there.

After they left Ethan and I didn’t have a vehicle to tour anywhere…which I was very happy about!  I was tired out from all the running and just wanted to relax at the campsite.  So Ethan and I played in the lake, went to the play park, relaxed at the RV and just generally chilled out.  Randy came up on the weekend to join us and our friends Trudy, Wes and their daughter Sydney came on Saturday with Trudy’s parents. 

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On Sunday we headed home for Grande Prairie as we had to take Randy back to work on Monday.  We went via the Dam and through Fort St John so we could stop for some Vietnamese food at our favourite restaurant there.  It’s a beautiful drive with some very scenic river views on the way to Fort St John.  These pictures are from one of our favourite look out spots on the drive.  The day was kind of hazy but you get the idea…the canola crops are bright yellow and there are fields of wildflowers everywhere!

~Summer Vacation 2012–Week 1~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ethan and I stayed in Grande Prairie until Tuesday before heading back to the lake.  We relaxed on our last week…other than going to the pool we stayed close to the campsite and just played and read books.  I was happy to have read like 9 books in the two weeks!

Keep posted for Part 2 of our Vacation!

~Spring Break 2012~

What a whirlwind break!  I didn’t even take any pictures other than the Easter ones!  We had a busy week unfortunately…I had planned for an easy week at home hanging with Ethan.  I ended up with multiple appointments that week…some personal ones for haircut etc but most were with the OBGYN for appts., bloodwork, ultrasound…I felt like I ran every day!  But we still had some fun!

I got to spend a couple of days doing almost sweet tweet all sitting on my butt playing online while Ethan watched TV or played around me.  I got most of the prep done for Ethan’s birthday party and got most of the invites out.  I printed out a whole whack of menu plans and got everything prepared to make them…just never got a chance to cook, LOL! 

I found so many great ideas/recipes/gardening tips on Pinterest too!  What an addicting site!!!  Ethan and I made it to the park a couple of times and went swimming.  We ate lots of ice cream and broke every single schedule we could!  It was great!

On Thursday we took off for Edmonton and got to spend the weekend in Vegreville with Grandma Grounds.  On Friday we went to Edmonton and picked out all the tile for our kitchen backsplash and main bathroom shower stall and backsplash.  I’m so excited about our choices, I can’t wait to see it complete!!!

On Saturday I took off on my own and had a great day visiting with some friends.  I had breakfast with Chantel in the morning in Ft Saskatchewan and got some great book recommendations!  Then I hit the road for St. Albert and had a visit and lunch with Mike.  I whizzed into Edmonton after that and picked up Melissa and spent the rest of the day shopping!  I ended up deciding to spend the night in Edmonton because it was snowing like crazy and so I got a hotel room for Melissa and I.  We shopped until the malls all closed that day.  I finally found a rolling briefcase for work and also managed to get a new pair of runners and a new coat.  I didn’t have much I was looking for but I managed to get all on my list!

On Sunday morning Melissa headed for home and I decided to join Mike for church.  After church we went to Vi’s for Pies and had a really nice lunch.  I of course couldn’t resist the cakes there…so yummy!  So I picked out four different types to take back to Vegreville to share.  I did some birthday shopping for Ethan after lunch and then hit the road for Vegreville.  We had a quiet night and watched some movies and ate pizza.  It was nice to just chill out!

Monday morning we hit the road for home!  We had to make a few stops in Edmonton (had to pick up our tile!!!) and then took off for home.  We got home around 5pm and by the time the truck was unloaded we were all completely worn out.  We decided to eat out one last time and went to our favorite Thai restaurant for supper.  It was good but I really don’t remember much after that…I crashed at 9pm last night!

I kept Ethan home from school today but I’m heading for work this afternoon…I have to teach Orientation till 10pm for the next 2 nights.

It was nice to spend time with Randy and Ethan and see so many friends!  We are blessed to have such support in our lives that helps us to celebrate when things are good and give a solid hug when things aren’t the easiest. 

~Wordless Wednesday~

~Wordless Wednesday~

~Where in AB is Ethan?~

I wanted to take pics like this all over on our trip and do a fun game while we were gone…it didn’t happen…oh well.  But I did get these pictures….where is Ethan?  Can anyone guess?

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Put it in the comments and lets see who can come the closest!

~Holidays Week One~

Well so far our holidays can be described as lazy days! We've done nothing but visit, eat, visit, eat, visit and sleep. While it's been fun to laze around I hate the feeling that I could be doing more with my time off. Leave it to me to have a need to keep busy during our holidays! I'm squashing that urge though and extending our trip away from home for another week! We will stay with Mom until Wednesday and then head to Hanna to visit Melissa and Mike. It so happens that their boys are in Hardisty this week and need a ride home on Wednesday so we're giving them a lift on our way. The plan is to hang out there on Wednesday and half the day on Thursday before heading to Calgary to visit our friend Jess there.

We are staying in Calgary for two days and going to hit IKEA, a specialty shoe store, my favorite Vietnamese Sub shop and maybe Liquidation World. Jess has to do homework while we visit but we aren't fussy about what we do for time! Heading back to Melissa's house on Saturday Morning and spending the day and night with them again. Then back to Mom's house in Hardisty on Sunday for the day. Heading back home to Grande Prairie on Monday!

I booked a photographer to take a family shoot with us for sometime in August. I can't nail down a date yet until I know when I'm leaving for training. I'm excited though, I love her edgy style and angled shots. I can't wait to have some different pics for our walls and for my office! Here is their website Heaton Photography I have a few ideas of what I would like for a location but I'm going to talk to Randy and see what he thinks too! Thoughtful of me, eh?

What else do I know? I can't wait to go down to the lake a play in the water with Ethan! We're waiting for the rodeo to be over so that the beach isn't so packed. Planning on heading there probably Tuesday.

I'm loving the pics my niece Leslie did of my nieces' wedding! Here are a few shots that I'm loving right now!






I would totally get my niece to do our pictures but there is too much travel involved to do them. One day I will though I promise! And if any of my Edmonton friends would like her contact info let me know! I will hook you up!

Well that's enough of me blabbing for the day! Will update again when I have something funner to talk about!

~Holiday Schedule~

Yup, anal ole me has a schedule for my holidays!  My first day of holidays is Tuesday and I am dropping Ethan off at my friend Leanne’s house for the day while I head to Slave Lake to do audits.  On my way back I’ll stop there for a campfire supper with the kids then Leanne and I are heading to a Tupperware BINGO!  So excited to go to that! 

Wednesday little man and I are hitting the road for Fort Saskatchewan to spend the afternoon and night with our friends, The Grismers.  Not sure what the afternoon there looks like but I’m hoping it involves alot of gabbing and perhaps a Strawberry Daquiri…or two.

Thursday morning we are again hitting the road for Grandma Rogers’ house in Hardisty.  The plan is to veg out, go to the lake and play in the water, visit with Grandma and some Aunties and plain old relax!  On Saturday Grandma is heading for an all day music festival so Ethan and I will head to Grandma Grounds’ house for the day to visit with her and the puppies.

Monday morning we are heading back home to Grande Prairie.  The plan for the week is to tame the garden, get organized for a garage sale and get my scrapbook room cleaned up.  I should get my first scrapbook kit while I’m on holidays too! 

We are going to the splash park with our friends The Smiths one day during the week too.  Ethan has never been to it and I think he will find it is a riot!  I want one day to just not get dressed, eat junk and play on my computer all day.  Plus I want to work on some craft projects that I have everything for but haven’t had the time or energy to complete.

Garage Sale on Friday and Saturday, time to clear out some junk!!!  Hopefully Randy can run the bottles to the depot this weekend too and then I will have a clean shed and garage!

So lots planned to do during our holidays, hope I can get at least half of it done!  5 more sleeps and it starts!

~Heading for Edmonton Today!~

Well we hit the road for Edmonton soon to take Randy to his first year of trade school.  While we are excited and proud of him we are going to miss him lots.  He’ll be home for Christmas and then back again till the end of January.  Since it is the holiday season I know that the time will fly by.

We are doing some shopping in Edmonton, I can’t wait!!!  I’m on the hunt for a new pair of good shoes for work and a new wool coat for this winter.  I found one I like at work but a little birdie told me to check out Old Navy because they have some cute ones and they may be on sale this weekend! 

Other then shopping we are meeting up with some friends from Grande Prairie for supper at the Olive Garden tonight and then hanging out with Mike the rest of the time.  Ethan and I will drive home on Monday.  The roads look good and the weather is supposed to be fabulous so it is a great weekend to travel.

Hope you all have a great weekend, that’s all I’ve got for now!

~New Family Pictures!~

Wow we had such a beautiful day out last weekend. I'm savoring it to last me through the next few weeks of hard work!

We stopped in at a little off the beaten path park and took some new summer family pics. Perfect setting there and we got some good ones! So let me know what you think!

~Appointment Update~

Well we had a good trip to Edmonton last week. We were able to combine the appointment with some fun time and had a great time with some old friends. We drove up to Edmonton on Wednesday and hit West Edmonton Mall for some Vietnamese Food (shocker eh?) We went to Walmart to pick up a few things I needed for Ethan and then headed to Ft Saskatchewan to stay with Chantel, Cory & kids for the night. We had such a great time and it was so nice to have time to visit without a deadline of needing to go somewhere. We sat around and visited with Chantel until Cory came home and after a bit he BBQ'd us up some burgers and we had a yummy supper.

After supper it was bedtime for all the kids...haha as if Ethan was going to sleep!!! He ended up going to bed around 9:30pm the little sneak. Anyhow we sat around shooting the breeze and at 9:30pm Randy, Cory and Coby went with the neighbours to watch the fireworks, it was Canada Day after all. Chantel and I lasted until 11pm visiting and despite neither of us wanting to end the great conversation we were having we knew we needed to get to bed. She was starting her daycare the next morning and we had Ethans' appt.

In the morning we got up and headed to the University Hospital for the first part of our tests. It was a clinical test were she simply observed Ethan eating. He was hungry so he ate like a little trooper for us. He didn't have any problems while she watched so it was a little discouraging since she didn't see what we normally deal with. She did however make observations and asked sooo many questions that I really felt that she understood and legitimatized our concerns.

We had time for Randy and I to have a quick bite of lunch before the next part of the test. This was an MRI where they laced his food with barium and I fed it to him (while wearing this massively heavy and hot lead apron!) We had the same specialist in the room with us as well as a couple of radiologists. Randy got to sit in the room with the monitors and watch as Ethan's food went down.

Ethan was a trooper though and did so well on that test as well. I didn't have high hopes going into it based on the set up. They have a little chair seated next to the machine and the Xray thingy comes up beside him. It had stickers all over it and they wanted Ethan to look straight forward...I was like, then why did you cover that thing with stickers. So we had a few minutes of convincing him to look forward but in the end he did really well and they got the views they needed.

So the long and the short of the whole experience is that he does have a problem with the muscles of his esophagus. They don't move food as quickly as they should. Also liquids are pooling at the top of his throat and when there gets to be too much they go into his airways. So there is nothing they can do medically for it. It is what it is. So we are just to feed him slowly and keep his food minced for him until he gets teeth and can break it down himself. As for liquids the bottles are gone and he has to drink from a sippy cup. I'm still trying to figure out how to wean him off the nighttime bottle though (if you can help, let me know, I'm ready to go around the bend!!!) A bottle is a continuous flow and he can't have that because it doesn't go down fast enough and it overflows into his airways. So now we know why he was coughing and choking so much at bedtime. It also explains all the little colds, the ear infection...

So he is on a sippy cup now most of the time and if he still has problems with that then he will need to drink thickened liquids. This would be as thick as honey. Mmmmm sounds thirst quenching doesn't it? So we're hoping (and so is the specialist) that it doesn't come to that.

I'm guessing that we will have a follow up here with our Neonatologist specialist and he may order more tests based on the esophagus not moving food very well but we don't know.

After all the tests etc. we decided that since Ethan had been so good we would take him to Toys R Us and Chapters and get him a toy and book. We got him a sorting puzzle and a wooden block train that he can tear apart and put back together. He also got a great new peekaboo book for bedtime.

We headed to Grandma Maxines' in Vegreville after the bookstore and went for supper and had a visit. It was a short visit but she was sure happy to see Ethan and so surprised at how big he's grown. Ethan got to sit on a horse for the first time at Grandmas' and he wasn't too thrilled about it. He got really scared and freaked out. Poor little man.

Anyhow we didn't get many pictures of our trip because someone forgot to charge the battery on the camera and didn't bring the charger...oops. But I did get a couple of really nice ones of Randy and Ethan at the acreage.






Kizzy the horse did very well being patient while Ethan pitched a fit on her back...

So thanks for the emails and thoughts and prayers while we went through this latest hurdle. We are thankful that it isn't more serious and that it is something that we as a family can deal with. We got some great news in the last couple of days so wait for an update in a week or so as to what it is!

----no I am not pregnant----

~Vaca at Moms!~

Absent? no!; Busy? Yes! We've been running steady since we left home for Moms. We got to spend time in St Albert with Mike for a couple of days and enjoyed a day of shopping and had a nice dinner at Olive Garden. Lots of great conversation as usual and a great time. We trekked out to Ft Saskatchewan to see my friend Chantel and kids. We got to see their new house that they just moved into and hear about the future plans they have for it. Great time! Of course we didn't pull out the camera though...

From St Albert we headed to Grandmas' house in Hardisty. Ethan got to hang out with his Auntie Helen and his cousins Geana and McKenzie who were visiting from Calgary. We had a couple of days hanging out with them before they headed home. Then on Thursday my sister Christine and her boyfriend Dwayne came to town for a few days from Ft McMurray. Dwayne was curling in the Oilmens Bonspiel so they kept busy with that but we did sneak in a quick visit. Thursday night my best friend Melissa came to town for a visit. She was such a sweetheart that she took a vacation day on Friday from work to come visit with us. It was such a GREAT visit. She left her boys home with Mike and her and I just visited nonstop. We spent the time in Moms living room gabbing and gabbing. Saturday we headed to Vegreville to see Grandma Grounds for a few days. She was excited to see Ethan and how much he's grown. She wanted to spoil him rotten of course but I told her to wait until his birthday! She had a houseful of puppies again of course. She has 5 Shihtzu puppies and one Poodle-Shihtzu cross puppy for sale. If you are interested in a dog send me a msg and I'll hook you up! Anyhow we stayed there until Monday afternoon then came back to Hardisty. My sister Christine was still here so we snuck in another visit.

Let's see, what else have we done? Oh yeah, I almost forgot!!! I got to cuddle a new baby! My niece Kristin had a baby boy, Zachary James the day before I got here. So I went over a cuddled him for a few hours the other day. I got a little crazy and said something about wanting another myself....but we aren't going there today!

That pretty much brings us to today. We've done other things of course but that is the highlights of the trip thus far. My sister Mary is on her way here today with Cole for a weekend visit.

Anyhow, love my new phone! I didn't even bring my camera, I'm just using the camera on my phone this trip. I also figured out that I can play Youtube videos on my phone. Why do you care, you might ask? Well...Ethan is addicted to Baby Einstein Beethoven movies...so I can play them on my phone for him! Let me tell you how handy that is! If you've ever seen a kid watching those movies you'll know that they generally sit still and stare...so it's useful in many situations where there is patience needed. Priceless I tell you!

Of course this post wouldn't be complete without pictures...

The first ones are of Ethan and his second cousin Paige playing at Grandmas' Paige just turned 1 on the 20th so she's only a couple of months older then Ethan. But she is double his size! They had fun playing and it was fun for me to see because it's the first time Ethan has interacted with any kids his age.

Also there are pics of Ethan cuddling with me on the couch, snuggling with Grandma on the couch and sleeping with one of Grandmas's stuffies in the playpen. The giant alligator came from Ikea...the first stuffie that I bought Ethan. So cute I tell you!

~Fun~

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Yes, that is the longggg boring drive that Randy and I will be taking on Sunday and turning around and coming back on Monday! Only, you know, almost 11 hours into the bush. I guess I'll look at it as a holiday since it's all expenses paid! LOL!

In case you missed it, I'm headed to do a Husky audit in Rainbow Lake. When I took the contract they said it would be 3 times a year. Now it sounds like they won't be doing it again after this trip. That would be awesome!!! It's not bad now because I'm not working but when I start working a full time job it will be hard to fit that in!

Ethan will be staying with Auntie Mary and then heading to daycare on Monday. It will be the longest we've ever been apart....that's all I'm saying...

Then next Thursday I take this trip:


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I'll be in St. Albert at Mikes' house on Thursday and Friday and headed to Hardisty on Saturday. My plan is to meet up with Chantel on Friday (need to get in touch about this one chicky!!!). Other then that I'm hoping for a trip to the Olive Garden and Ikea! I'm sure Mike would be happy to deliver on those two!

I'm staying at Mom's house for around 3 weeks, coming home the weekend of the 28th. So hopefully I get a good visit in while I'm there! I'll be calling Melissa to come for a visit and I'll meet up with Curtis on my way back home. The lucky bugger will be in Mexico next week! Today is his Birthday by the way! Happy Birthday Curtis!!!

Well that' all I know for now. Just thought I would share how I'm going from one end of the province to the other in one short week!