XC skiing, Riding and Kitten photos

Since the last post we have been pretty busy (as always)...

We made a good attempt to make it out to see Paul's brother and his partner in Sicamous, however we were turned around in Golden as the highway was closed due to avalanche control.  We made the best of it though! We spent a good part of the afternoon in Golden cross country skiing up at the Dawn Mountain Lodge - a cute club member owned establishment that had that everyone-knows-each-other, small town feel.  It was raining softly and it brought back good memories of skiing on the Island.  Then after some debate as to whether or not we should stick around in the Golden area, we decided that the forecast for more snow meant we should get out of there while we still could.  We came back as far as Canmore and spent the night at our good friend Mary's apartment.  It was a great excuse for a visit and then we were able to head up to the Nordic Centre the next day for another cross country skiing adventure.  It snowed heavy overnight and big fat flaked continued to come down on us all afternoon while we skied.  It was a ton of work to pull Cam in the sled behind us!

It didn't take Cam long to figure out climbing - he can mantle his way out of the bath, attempts to climb his way over the baby gate at the stairs, makes his way on and off the bed, pulls himself up on the kitchen shelving and uses whatever he can to reach things normally out of his reach...

Trouble I say.

.. and he hasn't even started to walk yet...

 

 This is Cam's new "I'm unhappy" face.

Teething tears.

Cam wont let us look into his mouth or feel his gums to see if there is anything teeth actually pushing through the gums yet, but he certainly seems to be working on it!

Sink Bath!!

Who needs a dishwasher when you have kids... right??

Powder Day at Norquay!!!

 Neither Paul or I had ever rode at Norquay before, but we sure picked an awesome day to try the hill out; They had been closed the day before because of avalanche danger and had 55cm of fresh snow over the last 24hrs... We couldn't of been luckier.

 We were also fortunate to repeatedly find ourselves finding and being one of the first down just opened runs all morning.  Perfect timing every chair lift we took!    

 Now, I would love to show you some shots of us riding the thigh deep pow however, we were too busying riding it to take the time to stop, dig out the camera and capture the moment.  So, instead here are some of us riding what was left of the snow by the end of the day. 

 Not too pounded out considering all of Banff was at the hill was us that day!

 Still finding pockets of freshies!

We got worked, but had an awesome day.

One of the best days of riding in a long time for both of us!

Finally - A new post!!!

Alright, I know its been quite a long time... but I am hoping I can make up for it by posting as many photos as I can find (not too many, but a few!). Enjoy!!

 

 Cam at 7 months, pushing around a milk crate in the living room!

We'll start with some older ones....

A lot of these are going to go back a ways, but 

 

Cam with his Grammy!

 

I can't believe that he looks so young in this shot... 

the date on it says Nov 26th - they really do grow up fast!

 This is such a great photo of Cam and his Uncle Brandon!!

 Cam and I with Grandpa T

 Swimming on his own under water!!

 ... but not terribly excited about his aquatic adventures

 

 Cam and Tommy seem to really enjoy each others company!

This is from Christmas time...
more xmas photos to come once I figure out how to unlock the USB key...

Aunty Jen and Cam

Swimming with Aina

 

Every Wednesday afternoon Cam and I get together with Aina and her mom Naoko at the Killarney swimming pool.  Both babies really seem to love the water and have a great time playing together.   Cam is actually quite attached to Aina and gets upset when its time for her to go home.   Aina is 2 weeks older  (Born May 29th) then Cam and is such a sweet little girl; we always look forward to our swimming day with her and her mommy!

Fun times in the hot tub!

 Nom Nom Nom - starfish

Cam is working hard at floating all by himself - he has done it for short period of time now, but he really like to fold his little hand behind his head while on his back which make floating a bit more challenging. 

8 Months Old

Its hard to believe (I know) that Cam is already 8 months old.  He has crawling perfected and is working on walking.   There are many moments when he will simply let go and stand on his own.  On of his favorite games now is to walk and push laundry baskets or boxes around - its truly not going to be long till he is taking those first steps on his own!

 We have started to do some signing with Cam and he is picking it up fast!  He is definately showing that he recognize and understands the meaning behind several signs like potty, food, more, daddy, mommy, puppy, uncle and bye.  He is also making many of these signs himself, though not always in context yet!

 

 Big bum baby! (takes after his mom)

Cam and Daddy!

Mountains!!!

 

This is a photo from a back country ski trip that  Paul took with his work to the Elk Lake Hut.  Amazing beautiful, I am sure once he has a chance to got through them there will be more photos of this to come!
We are very lucky that we are getting lots of days out in the mountains snowboarding at Sunshine (thanks to free passes through Paul's work) which has been amazing.  I really feel like my riding has improved a lot already this season!  Paul and I have also been doing lots of Yoga, Biking, Running/Walking!  

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!