Driving me Crazy

It has been an adventurous week for Abby as we've celebrate her 14 years of living.  

Last Friday she had a waffle party with some of her friends.   They made Belgian Waffles, Donut Waffles (glazed donuts pressed in a waffle iron) and Cookie Dough Waffles (same idea).   It's amazing how much noise a gaggle of girls can make when doped up on waffles and sugary toppings.

It also amazed me how attached youth this age are to their phones and how even when we declare this a Girls Only party, boys still manage to be present via Live Instagram feeds.   Ugh.   

I'm not ready for this!

Abby waited anxiously all weekend long for Monday to come, in hopes that I would let her take the test that would qualify her to get her "Learners Permit."  I hummed and hawed about this and threatened to never let her take it, and part of me was so serious.  I'm not ready for this!!  

In the end, she sent me a text from school and simply told me that she would meet me there after school.  

Um.....ok?

  

I complied, mostly because I had no solid reason not too, and we went down to the local registry office as soon as school got out.   I was half hoping she'd fail the test but in true Abby fashion - she passed with flying colors.   Abby was thrilled.   I wanted to cry.  

I've often heard stories of friends of mine who let their kids drive home for the first time right from the registry office.   For the life of me, I couldn't picture Abby maneuvering our busy downtown streets (sarcasm intended) and so I instead drove her to the largest parking lot that I know of in town and (after a quick rundown of everything she needed to know) I let her go.

She was doing fine.  Sure, she pretended to be freaking out and all, but really she was doing just fine.  She was happy as a lark and as I watched her peruse around the parking lot for a good 15 or 20 minutes, I thought to my naive self - "Sure...she's ready to drive us home.  No problem!" 

She took it nice and slow, I mean real slow, .... painfully slow!

She stopped miles ahead of each yield sign, drove 10km/hour through the school zone and once even stopped in the middle of a street because she saw kids playing on a front lawn.  To say this girl was being cautious would be an understatement.   

Which is what makes the next part of my story so darn confusing, because I still don't understand why (after all that painfully cautious driving) after driving all across town, and just as we were seconds away from being home, why she chose to make the last corner without even slowing down.  

But she did. 

As we turned the corner to approach our house I noticed that she was turning awfully fast and really wide.   I could sense that any minute we'd lose control and easily be in the oncoming lane.   I didn't panic or yell (though she might say I did;) as I calmly cautioned, "Abby Slow!  Sharp."

Well.

She apparently took "Sharp" to mean "FASTER!" and naturally she stepped on the gas, which sent us headed straight for a parked vehicle across the street.  At this point I did yell, "Abby!  BRAKE!!!!"   

Her response was to take both hands of the wheel and scream, "Ahhh!  I don't know where the break is, I don't know what to do!"   

All of this happened so fast and was over in mere seconds.   The runaway van we were trapped in simply jumped the curb and stopped abruptly, high centred on a giant mound of ice on a neighbors front lawn.  I turned to Abby and (CALMLY) asked, "What.the.heck.was.that?"  

Her response:  "Momit'snotmyfaultyousaidsharperandthatmeansfasterandyoushouldn'thaveletmedriveinthefirstplaceandI'mneverdrivingagain!"

So, here we were.  

Stuck in this awful, nasty, embarrassing, no good situation and all I could think was how John would be passing by any moment on his way home from work and he'd surely have to save the day and then all would know that John was the better parent then I.

Sigh.....

Luckily, the husband of one of my favorite former neighbors (it helps to move around a lot, you meet a lot of people;) passed by just at that moment.   It was obvious our van was not going anywhere with out being pulled away and luckily he had all the necessary gear to do that.   It took probably two minutes before we were pulled out and on our way again. 

Of course I made Abby get in the drivers seat and circle around to re do that very corner.  It gave her the chance to get back up on the proverbial horse and try again and it gave me a chance to stall a bit more before going home to face John.

In the end John was a champ about it (he always is) and didn't rub my nose in the fact that he would have done a better job at teaching Abby how to drive, than I.   Perhaps he just felt confident that some things don't need to be said out loud? 

At any rate, all is well that ends well, right?   

We've lived to tell the tale (and even laugh about it), there was no damage to the van (that we know of), and Abby has been able to just get her one and only driving mishap out of the way right, off the bat!

Have I mentioned I'm not ready for this?!

14 Candles

This darling friend turned 14 over the weekend which means that I spent many hours deep in existential thought wondering how to possibly parent a kid this old. It's a vulnerable feeling - this business of letting your child grow up and experience whatever it is they are meant to experience. If i could give her a fast pass right on by this stage of life, I'm sure I would. Abby, on the other hand, is all excitement and enthusiasm. (She's adorable like that;)

#whatidontknowscaresme

#practicingtrust

#rootsandwings

What February brings...

February brought with it one of the snowiest months we've had in years; we even got a snow day out of it!!!  There is nothing better than being shut down due to a snow storm.   

(Coziest, most unexpected gift of time ever!)

Just before the storm hit, Jessica and I dashed out to Waterton for a lunch date and some photo taking.  Even though it was nice in town, weather had already turned fierce in the mountains.  We pretty much risked life and limb for a hot dog from Wieners of Waterton.   

All of that snow gave Nate the chance to get creative with his snowman making!

Valentines snuck up on us fast!   Abby and Sam are too cool for school these days and insist that nobody their age gives Valentines anymore, which is unfortunate because, well...how fun is all this?

Just a side note that is super duper worth remembering forever and all time - John SHOCKED me and actually remembered that it was Valentines day.  Not only that, he got me a gift and it was so perfect.  He registered us in a 17 class Massage Course!  It's been super super fun to learn!!

Jessica had a great birthday.  She's 10 now (which isn't great but apparently can't be stopped) and I can't believe what a darling 10 year old she is!   

Get this, she originally suggested not having a friend party and instead going out to Waterton with me on a date.  What kid wants to hang out with their Mom more than have a smashing Birthday Party?!!  This kid - that's who!!!  

Of course, I let her have both.   

Her and I drove out together and ate together at Vimys and then drove around town and took photos of her blowing away in the wind.   Five days later she invited five girlfriends over for supper and a movie down at the local Theatre.   I've decided that is the only kind of Birthday Party that I want to host from this point on.  It's crazy expensive but so worth the lack of effort;)   

We just finished off a week long break from work/school, yet another beautiful thing that February brings;)   I can't express how much I love it when our whole family gets to holiday together.   

We relaxed a lot, played board games, babysat cousins, fixed this house up a bit in preparation to move and even went skiing at Castle Mountain one last time.   On the warmest day of the week we ventured out to St. Mary's reservoir for our first Fossil Hunt of the year.   (As you can see, our warmest day wasn't really that warm;)

We are SO ready for SPRING!!!

Sister Reeves and such

This past Friday I attended a tri-stake Fireside in which Sister Linda S. Reeves from the General Relief Society came to speak to us.   It was incredible and uplifting and edifying and everything else in between.   It was interesting to watch her speak.  She had come prepared with a video and photos to share, but minutes into her presentation she acknowledged that she was feeling as though she needed to switch gears.   Instead of talking about her original topic which was "Loving as Christ Loves" she instead spoke to us about Testimony.  

It was interactive and informative and inspiring and (yup) everything in between!

Because we have a cousin who works as a secretary to the General RS presidency, Jewel was able to play that card beautifully and snag a picture with her after wards.  She's lovely and graceful.   

 I, on the other hand, looked awfully chubby  grubby in this photo.  I'm pretty sure I had pizza sauce on my skirt too.  (Some of us don't get to be as graceful in life, I suppose;)

A neighbor who lives down the street made a skating rink in his backyard.  He's obviously an optimist and decided to take advantage of the -30 degree temps.  (ie; when life hands you lemons;)

Anyways, he told John to bring the fam down any time they wanted to skate.   It made for a pretty fabulous Friday afternoon as we found some sticks and a puck and played a game of hockey together.    

Nate especially enjoyed it and skated until the sun was almost down.  He was most thrilled to share with us the technique he apparently mastered for stealing some one's puck (which involves using his own stick to lift someone else's off the ground.)

Nate came home that evening and declared with a smile that skating is so much easier when done outdoors. 

How very Canadian of him!

Second Week of Holidays...

Oh Boo-hoo, woe is me.... school starts tomorrow!   

Obviously it's hard to consider work/school tomorrow seeing has we've just had the most fabulous Christmas vacation ever!!

It was just P.E.R.F.E.C.T!

Nate got sick with a brutal cold - which is exactly what I wanted to happen. (Better now then when school is in.)  

We had family come visit - which is always nice.

Enjoyed a Calgary vacation with my family - thanks to my Brother's fun surprise.

We watched lots of movies - can you say "couch potatoes?"

We ate yummy snacks non stop - that's what New Years resolutions are for.

Went on dates, played board games, and read more then we have all year - which still isn't much, but still.  

This past week, we made sure to cram into our very busy holiday schedule a couple of more fun days before real life sets in again.   

On Monday we all travelled to Castle Mountain for some downhill skiing!   This is our third year taking the kids and we enjoyed it just as much as ever, despite the -28 degree temperature.
Yup!  -28 degrees!!!  Our kids were real troopers.  

Abby continued to improve and enjoy skiing.   She went from the hill to the lodge, entirely on her own.   We pretty much just trusted that she was alive and well and not curled up in a broken ball somewhere at the bottom of the hill.   

Sam and Jess surprised me the most.   Our family has not ventured far beyond the Bunny Hill (in case anyone was starting to be impressed or anything) but these two kids sure do love SPEED!!!   They were often spotted whipping around a corner or racing down the hill, one after the other.   They reminded me of two Super Mario Kart racers.   

 Nate sure impressed us too.   He would have been content to spend the day sitting in the warm lodge eating Doritos and hot dogs and playing Candyland with me but he really did spend most of his time on the hill with Dad.   He's really getting confident and for the most part, can do an entire run all by himself.  

For the second year in a row, I managed to roll down the mountain and live to tell about it.  I caught on faster this year though and felt a little more comfortable venturing places on my own.   I did throw a little tantrum (when I fell down and couldn't get up) - but only once.    

 I also hit a tree, but again - only once;)  

The Gladdings (dear sweet friends of ours from our former 5th ward days) invited us all to watch the movie MOANA with them.   Their grandson in law had a role in the production of the movie and so they were excited to show it to us.   We stayed until the very end of the credits to find his name as well as his daughters name.   Did you know that if any employee has a baby while working on a movie that baby gets a spot in the credits.   True story.  There is a section in the credits just for "Production Babies."    Anyways, we found little Sariah's name and LOVED the movie tonnes!   Moana is a new favorite of mine.  I could relate to her as I too feel as though the ocean is calling to me.  haha. 

  I really must go someday. 

As the week neared an end, we knew we had to get out to Waterton for a bit of X country skiing.   Of course, it was another balmy -15 degrees out (actually it did feel balmy compared to our ski trip earlier in the week.)     The trail was unusually quiet on this particular day and for most of the time, we were pretty much alone.  

Akimina Rd (the road up to Cameron Lake) has been closed for over a year.  This past summer NOBODY was allowed up there due to construction, so I was super excited to be able to ski in now.   I was very surprised by all the changes.   First thing I noticed as I approached the parking lot was that they had clear cut a large portion of the forest to make room for a larger parking lot (cue Joni Mitchells song "Paved Paradise) but that is not all.   They also tore down the visitor center (the one that had the large telescope where you could look out to the far end of the lake with)   In it's place they have built two smaller buildings.   Along the outer edge of the entire gargantuan parking lot they have built an additional four or five buildings, each one consisting of four bathrooms.   

I'm sure from a park admin perspective, building 16+ bathrooms makes perfect sense (and I may even appreciate this once the busy summer rush sets in) but I don't love change and it all just seemed a little too "Lorax-y."     I'm not sure why nobody asked my opinion about this though? ;) haha    

Anyways, we skied through the barren wasteland  parking lot to the lake where we officially rang in the New Year with sparklers.  

We lingered for about 5 more seconds before turning around and heading back towards the van.   We were all COOOOOOLD!!!!!

Poor Nate was particularly cold.  And hungry.  And exhausted. 

He cried the whole way back to the van, except for the moments where he paused long enough to tell me that he "hates Waterton" and "Why do we always have to come to Waterton?" and that he is "NEVER coming to Waterton again!"   

It was a really special day;)

As I mentioned earlier, we all go back to school tomorrow.  

I'm already looking forward to our February break.  Soon after that, we'll enjoy our Easter break in April. Then May long weekend.   And then school is basically done.

So really- Summer is almost here.

Whoop Whoop!

First week off....

After our AMAZING Christmas celebration, we have spent the past week enjoying lots and lots of family time.   Some of our post Christmas Highlights include:

Late nights watching movies and sleeping in forts.  There have been a couple of nights where we have ALL (John, the kids and I) hauled our foam mattresses out into the living room and slept together on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.    Other nights, when John and I prefer actually sleeping comfortably, the kids sleep in their self made forts or under the pool table.    

 It's made for lots of late night giggles and silliness!

I've spent a few days practicing black and white photography.
I call this random one "Shoulder Angel."  haha.  (PS:  Sam is a clown)

This photo absolutely melts my heart.  This hear is ma baby!   I can't stand it.  

 John and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this past week.  John was sweet and bought me 15 roses, one for every year we've been married.   To be honest, he did this because I demanded asked him to (I LOVE fresh flowers) but I kinda think that makes it even sweeter of him, you know, that he would cater to such an entitled request and all.   Fifteen years hardly seems like any time at all.  

We are a couple of babies still, the two of us.   

Each year, at some point after Christmas and before New Years Eve, our little "shelf elf" hides all the Christmas decorations and covers the tree with New Years goodies.   Nothing major, just some party hats, balloons, streamers, and noise makers.   It always provides a nice face lift for the tree and it gives us a few more days enjoying the pretty lights!

Our family was introduced to the Whirley Pop this week (thanks to Aunt Rachel!;) and as a result we have eaten an exorbitant amount of popcorn and spent an equally ridiculous amount of time watching movies together.   This week marks our 6th annual Lord of the Rings marathon, so the ol' Whirley Pop couldn't have come at a better time!  

On Friday we joined the rest of our family at my brothers house.  Chad was hosting our pre-New Years get together, only little did our kids know, he was cooking up something BIG!   We arrived around noon, John and I made a can-cooker lunch for all of my siblings and their fams, and then Chad let everyone know that he had booked FIVE ROOMS at the Sheraton Cavalier in Calgary, AB.  

EEEEEKKK!!!!!!

Growing up, this was a favorite place for my family to come.   Dad brought us kids here on several different occasions, one even being New Years Eve years and years ago!!!!

The kids were elated.   We hadn't even been at the hotel for ten minutes before they were in their swim suits and in search of the pool and water slides!

They swam and played together for hours, stopping only when we had to eat or sleep;)

Chad surprised everyone (again) with an amazing pizza party style supper.   

The cousins stayed up as late as they could (some made it to midnight) playing games and visiting together.   

On our final morning there, they all donned party hats and rang in the New Year (a few hours early) with noisemakers!  It is at this moment, I believe  that they sang a song they'd written the night before;  something about how "everybody wishes they were part of our family...."  haha

It was a wonderful time together.  Relaxing, entertaining....and pretty darn near perfect!!!

There's no better way to ring in the New Year then with a good ol' Hotel TRASH AND DASH!!!

Christmas Celebrations....

There is just too too much that has happened in the past couple of weeks!  It has been a perfect blend of work, fun, family and Christmas preparations!   

I'll try to be brief in my recap, but no promises.  

(God bless whoever sticks it out to the end of this entry;)

1.  Junior High Fundraiser: 

 Every year the Junior High does a fundraiser to help students/families in our community and also to contribute to future "WE" initiatives.    This year Abby had the idea to run a "camp-a-thon" of sorts.  She suggested to the school council that they ask both the principal and the vice principle to camp out on the front lawn of the school if they managed to earn $1000.   IF, by some far off chance they were able to earn $2000, then the P and VP would agree to camp outside for 2 nights!     There were a couple of added catches.   Once $500 was raised, their steak dinner would be downgraded to wieners and beans.  If they raised $1500, then their large tent was taken away and they'd have to sleep in a teeny two man tent.   It seems a little backwards that a fundraiser would be based on trying to impose discomfort on the school admin (I worried if Abby was barking up the wrong tree with this angle) but it worked like a charm!!

They ended up earning over $2000 in less then 24 hours!  

Oh, and our brave VP and P were champs to the max and camped as promised (in -25 degree temps!) broadcasting their success and struggles all along the way.  It was fun to see what a party it turned into as community members, students, families - so many stopped by from 3pm-11:30pm to visit, roast marshmallows, and of course- drop off money.   So funny!!!

2.  School Dress up days:   

The last week of school consisted of lots of dress up days for all of us.  Pajama days, crazy sock days and more!   Sadly, I only managed to capture some of my favorites.

The Junior High held a "favorite Book character day."    Abby dressed up as Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Sam dressed up as Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings!    Please note the hairy feet and the gold ring that really does have the phrase "one ring to rule them all" engraved on the inside!    Sam played this part to a T - walking around barefoot all day!   At one point I asked him to carry his backpack to the closet and he responded by saying:

"I may not be able to carry my back pack - but I CAN CARRY YOU!!!"  

They went all out for Ugly sweater day too, though Sam went for a more effortless, "I barely cared about this" kind of a look.   

These two snots are perfect!  I mean - look at those dimples of Jessica's and that sly sideways smile of Nate's.  I'm obsessed!

3. Visits from Family:

Our Nephew Caleb and his friend Oliver stopped in for a few minutes on their way through town.  It was tonnes of fun to see him and to realize how OLD he has gotten.   Note: The first time I met Caleb, he was just a few years old.  What the heck?!

Rachel and Brent stopped by on Dec 23rd or a few hours.  It was great fun to see the kids!  Viv is 1 now and perfectly content to walk herself around a room, holding on to anything she can, eating paper as she goes;)

4.  Christmas Treats:
Rach, baked some KILLER Christmas cookies while here and luckily - she left them all behind!

SCORE!!!!

Speaking of Christmas treats - nothing, and I mean nothing is better than a delicious box of homemade chocolates, and John's Aunt makes the VERY BEST!!!

I photographed these and then hid them.

Then I only pulled them out when I was feeling extra generous.

Then I hid the remaining few.

Hmmmm....mmmmmmmm!!!!

5. Cello Success!

I've been so super proud of Sam this past month.  He's been doing his part, practicing both his piano AND his cello and improving on both!   On the Thursday before Christmas, we attended his first ever Cello recital.   He did a piano duet titled, "O Come little Children."   He got a couple of compliments after wards about the strength of his fingering and the beautiful tone that he has achieved.  He ALSO received 1st place in the practice competition among all of the students.  This first half of the year, he led the way with 107 practice minutes logged!   Woohoo cello man:)

6. Christmas "Adam"

Two days before Christmas (the day John refers to as Christmas Adam, because "Adam came before Eve") we hosted a dinner for a dear couple in town, the Gladdings.  We came to love them while we lived in the 5th ward and they have continued to be so special to us.   After dinner and some visiting, the kids performed their annual reenactment of the Christmas Story as we read in Luke 2.   

It's a different performance every year.  (That's the kindest thing I can say about it;)  haha

7.  Christmas Eve

And now for the most magical part of our week - Christmas Eve!!!

The fun didn't really begin until Grandpa arrived with more seafood then you can imagine!!!!

Naturally, the kids had to play with the seafood a bit first.  They like to name each animal, carry them around gingerly, try to convince us to let them have one for a pet....

and then we COOK THEM!!!!

\\

We dined on BBQ steak and mushroom sauce, potato wedges, french onion soup, baguettes, fruit, and of course (thanks to Grandpa) mussels, clams, Lobster and Crab.   We were stuffed like crazy and I am pretty sure that to my kids - food is the true meaning of Christmas!

I tried to make some Grinch juice for all to enjoy while playing a mean game of scrabble. 

(May have been one of those pinterest fails;)

After we could not eat anymore, we settled down for a brief musical concert.  

Nate played "Old MacDonald" on the piano, Sam played Silent night and Abby and Jess performed a song titled, "Send me someone to Lava" on the ukulele.   It was awesome!

Grandpa joined us for a drive around town to look at Christmas lights and then we returned home to watch Polar Express, set out some milk and cookies (and a letter to Santa) and go to bed!

One of the best parts of being a parent is getting to stuff stockings and set out gifts each year.  

8.  Christmas Day

Santa was good to us for sure!  I tried not to be too lavish with the kids' gifts and thankfully, they all seemed perfectly content.  Our favorite gifts this year was the two burner Camp Chef that I got John and a camp storage cook/table (also made by camp Chef) that Dave and Sarah gave us.  We are SO ready to go camping!!!!!    In fact, we are planning to spend a week in Banff AND a week on the BC coast this summer and we are suddenly feeling as though that isn't going to be enough;)

We attended church with Grandpa tonight because we wanted to get that out of the way liked the 10:00 meeting time much better;)   It allowed us to squeeze in our annual Christmas Day drive to Waterton in the afternoon.   It was blustery cold, but we did manage to see some wildlife.   We saw a wolf in the distance (which, upon closer inspection we realized was just a really fat deer) as well as a Moose resting in the afternoon sun just outside of the park (which Grandpa later informed us was just an Elk).

So really, we didn't see any cool wildlife at all,  but we had a great time nonetheless!

We are looking forward to touring and visiting a few new Canadian parks this coming summer, but Waterton will always be our Christmas Day destination!

We are settling in for a couple of weeks of vacation now and couldn't be more excited!

We hope our family and loved ones are feeling equally blessed.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!