Hello? Is there anyone still reading this?

Cameron

 Cameron is 6 months old today and turning into a monster (in a good way). You can just tell that as soon as his masters the getting around that he will be into EVERYTHING!!  He can army crawl/roll and wiggle a fair distance now and enjoys throwing and then chasing after his toys. If we had carpets I think he would be crawling everywhere, but the slippery hard wood makes it hard to get traction and is (thankfully) slowing Cam down.

Teething, crawling/rolling, growing and discovering his own wills and desires means that what ever schedule we did have has now gone right out the window.  Some days he sleeps a pretty much the whole day but others hardly at all.  We have had a few nights of being up for hours on end - something that didn't even happen when he was little.  Needless to say Paul and I are feeling a bit more tired ourselves these days, hopefully with some tweaking to our own schedules and the fast approaching end of my school term things will mellow out a bit.

Fast asleep in the backpack

 

 Jolly-jumper baby

Cam just loves his jolly-jumper!  We set it low and he can practice standing and moving in it.  Surprisingly he doesn't actually do that much jumping.  He can however walk himself into a position where he can see himself in the mirror while in it, which he really seems to like. 

 

This is a really old one, but I really wanted to get it up here.  We had such and amazing day paddling in the Weaslehead with my dad, perfect weather and we even got to play in the little rapids for a while. 

Going potty standing up

Cam has turned into a major wiggler while pottying and so having him stand on the counter while he pees is pretty much the only thing that keeps him from trying to jump out of our arms. 

Ice Climbing King Creek

This past weekend Paul, Clay and myself escaped to the mountains for some hiking and a little bit of early season ice climbing. 

We are going to have to invest in some new ropes... these ones are no longer water resistant and quickly become sopping, frozen messes - not good!

 

 Clayton

 We were sure feeling out of shape, but its good to be out on the ice again!! Hopefully we will have many more days of climbing this season.

Paul putting the ropes up on a 50mish pitch of ice.  Conditions were less than ideal - lots of snow on the ice that had to be cleared away before you could make your next move and ice that shattered and plated off, but otherwise an beautiful day to be out!  It was snow gently all day, the wind was calmed in the canyon and the amazing smells and sights of winter where strongly present.

 Doug!

Urban Chicken Farmers Update

 Cam showing off all the eggs our hens have been laying! 

We haven't had to buy eggs since midsummer!! YAY!!

Our hens are doing great!  Healthy, happy and thankfully less noisy!  We just finished winterizing their coop and getting a heat lamp set up for them.  So far we have been managing to keep the temp in their coop around 10 degrees, however it been pretty nice in the city anf we will have to see how things go once it really starts getting cold!

Bike Rides, Rocky Horror, Ice Cream and Flat Tires

 Bowmount Park and the Bow River Pathway Bike Ride

 We have been so lucky here in Calgary to have had a wonderful, hot summer and an even better start to fall.   Still hitting the high 20's, you can't help but want to get outside and enjoy it while it lasts! And that is exactly what we did!  The last day of September was a scoarching 28 degrees and so Dad, Cam, myself and Patty (a friend in town for just a few days) hit the bike pathways and took in the fall glory. 

Pee break!

The Bow River and Mountains beyond

Nothing like sunbathing nude at the end of September

Fall colors in the city

 We biked from our house, down the Edworthy hill and then went west up the Bow River Pathway system.  The whole river valley is a sea of gold, reds and oranges as all the fall colors have come out in full.  It is amazingly beautiful and it hardly feels like you are in the city at all as you cruse down the pathway.

Kayakers on the Bow River and a train going over the bridge

Cam just loves being outdoors!

A great thinker to-be

Rocky Horror

Front Row Centre - a volunteer based community theater is currently presenting the Rocky Horror Picture Show!  They put on a outstanding interpretation of the cult classic and it is really a must see if you can catch it before the show closes!  Not wanting to miss out myself, I rounded up the roomates, we all got dressed up,slathered on the makeup, I had Dad come watch Cam and then we were off to the Midnight showing!  Paul met us there as soon as he got off from work and it was a damn good time!

Dressed to kill ; Kelsey, Patty, Shy and Clayton

 

Shy, Clay, Patty, Frank (audience member), Kelsey

Its been about a year and a half since I wore makeup, at least 6 months since I had shaved my legs last and even longer since I could even try fitting into anything sexy - but you cant half-ass for Rocky Horror!  My face felt raw for the next few days from all the makeup and I was surprised to find that I actually fit into my corset and garder belt.  All very well worth it!  Again, go see this show!!

Reserviour Bike Ride

The first day that Kelsey's friend Patty was in town the three of us (and Cam) biked from our place to the elbow river path way (near sandy beach) and around the reserviour! It was another amazing day here in the city and so we packed a picnic and set off to show Patty the city - or at least the parts worth seeing...

Kelsey and me checking out some rad graffiti

A sail boat on the reserviour

Nothing like peeing with a view!

Cam and Me in the sunset glow

Three lovely ladies on a bridge with... wine?!

After watching the sunset over the reserviour over a picnic dinner oof cheese, crackers and wine we were off biking again into the early evening.  On our way home we found oursevles at My Favorite Ice Cream Shop and couldn't help but finish the evening off with a scoop of gelato!!

Little did we know... the evening still had something up it's sleeve for us....

In the ice cream shop

Kelsey showing off the goods

After finishing up our desert we jumped back on our bikes and I immediately realized that my back tire was FLAT!!! I must have the worst luck with bike tires... but this time I was *more* prepared - I had brought a tire pump!! Unfortunately after a few minutes of pumping uselessly we found the head of a roofing nail nestled in my treads... just as we were brain storming what our coarse of action would be another patron of the ice cream shop saw our predicament.  She kindly offered Me, Cam and our bikes a ride home in her truck!  No pushing a bike for endless kilometers this time!!  From now on though I am carrying a complete bike repair kit...

Photo spew!

Well, since so many of you are here to see photos of the little one, I will start with those first!  

Cam has been doing amazing the past month!  He seems like he is getting bigger and stronger by the day;  He has recently learnt to roll over and is starting to lift his upper body off the grown by pushing against the ground with his arms.  He is also starting to reach for things (and then put them in his mouth) and has even licked a few carrots and some spaghetti squash - we're keeping him as a exclusively breast feed baby for as long as possible though!

So serious!  Tummy time is hard work.

Story time! So much lovin' from the tios!

Impromptu Family Day

Mom and Tommy had us over the other day for Breakfast and we ended up staying all day!  It was a great chance to visit and for the grandparents to get some baby time as well as something that hasn't happened in a long time!

Mom and Cam

I look unimpressed for some reason - but Cam is stoked to be playing with Dad!

Cameron sleeping away our family day

Visit with Emma!

A good friend of mine just had a baby of her own!  Emma is about 6 weeks younger then Cam and is such a sweetie!

Emma

The typical sleeping pose : The Spread Eagle

The little ones together!

 Baby Group!

All of the ladies from the Prenatal Baby group that I was attending finally got together for a Mexican themed pot luck to socialize and show off our babies.  All of our little ones were born in (or very close to) June, so they are all within a few weeks old of eachother.  There are 4 girls and 4 boys and all of them are adorable.

Baby group photo (one baby didn't make it)

Urban Chicken Farming

Our hens are doing awesome and are now laying eggs for us!  I would love to post all of our egg photos however, we seem to have misplaced the cameras battery charger and can not up load photos from the camera right now... As soon as we find it, I will post them up here, but for now, here are some silky chicken photos!

Nelson petting Thing 1

Christolla and Thing 2

Olympic Summit Hike

At the end of August Paul, my Dad (Randy), Tommy, Cam and me headed to Kananaskis Country for a (long) day hike.  Our objective was to hike the Centennial trail up past Olympic Summit and summit on Mt. Allen.  The Centennial Trail boasts being highest hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies.  With a elevation gain of 1400m, over 11km of horizontal travel, and a max elevation of 2819m  it wasn't going to be just another walk in the park! 

Tommy, Shy (Cameron) and Paul just a few meters of elevation gain to go before we hit tree line.

Water break

Ribbon Mountain

Randy and Olympic Summit (the grassy peak on the right)

Tommy

Visiting Canada from New York State, this hike was Tommy's first outdoorsey experience in the Canadian Rockies!  He told me when we were first planing a trip out that he wanted something challenging- well, I would have to guess he got more then he could of ever anticipated; An up close look at the (questionable) venue of the 1988 winter Olympics, a spectacular view of the Kananaskis, a unrelenting upwards grind - and the wind! Oh the wind!! Nakiska is known for having some of the highest wind readings, but to experience it first hand is pretty humbing;  There were several times were we all hit the deck as the wind threatend to blow us right off the ridge.

It has been a late summer and usually we would not find such an amazing show of alpine flowers this time of year, but what a show it was!

An alpine family photo

Lunch break at Olympic Summit

After munching down on lunch hiding in a spot protected from the gale force (literally) winds, we made the call to turn around and head back down the mountain.  The winds were not subsiding, but rather getting more and more forceful and even just standing upright was not possible on the Olympic Summit - the wind would actually push you off your feet.  Knowing we had another 400m of elevation gain to go, it was only bound to get more extreme the further up we went.  Unfortunately, this meant we did the hardest part of the hike only to turn around before the far easier and far more scenic section.  We'll have to go back one of these day and finish it off!

My hair hardly gives justice to how windy it really was up there.

 I just look pregnant gain with Cam bundled up against my chest!

Tommy and Paul looking down over Kananaskis Village

The view up Ribbon Creek

Rock bluffs

Tommy did great! Welcome to the Rockies Tommy!

Mi amor

Dad and I descending down the trail

The parking lot was deceptively calm and hot. 

Despite not reaching true summit, the day was a great success!  It was a wonderful day out in the Mountains, a great challenge (our first hard hike with Cam) and we had excellent company.  No matter how many times I visit Kananaskis, I am continually impressed by its beauty- We are so lucky to have the Rockies in our backyard! 

Olympic Summit is the rounded out peak at the very top of the ski runs.