Over the Weekend.

The weekend just gone was the first weekend we've had in our home since we arrived in Canada. Husband included. He arrived in January. We took possession of the house in March. So it's been a long time coming to just relax, and by relax I mean, do 3 trillion jobs around the house and take care of two small children. It rained most of the weekend and blessed us with a lovely 3 degrees. Oh how I love the weather in this place. Nevertheless, we took the opportunity to have a really lovely weekend anyway.

There was lots of mess making.

And eating of yummy toasties and sweet potato chips.

And staring at this sweet face whilst practicing with my 50mm lens (Christmas pres from the hubs).

Look at those eyelashes. SO wasted on a boy. 

And cleaning of the hot tub.

 And then using of the hot tub.

And as always there was plenty of this.

(Thanks darling for taking these lovely pictures)


And watching these little critters.

A Blue Jay and Red Squirrel enjoying the peanuts. 

And checking out the Rio Rapido (any Dora fans anyone?) behind our house.

And building forts.

Just wanted to add these pictures of our yard. Needs work. Since the snow melt, it has become a weed paradise. Ah, next weekend's project. 

And then on Sunday afternoon we took a little drive out to Jarvis Lake. Naturally, the kids fell asleep about ten minutes before we arrived so that killed any plans at the lake. We did, what any good parent would do and left them asleep in the running car while we ducked out for a quick photo opportunity. Such a pretty spot. Definitely must return, with awake kids. We love to drive, driving to us, at the moment, feels like the only chance Jonno and I get to talk and have some adult conversation, just the 2 of us. Holding hands, chatting and driving, it's just so lovely. The little things right? There's always a little around and at night after they're asleep, he works, often until the wee hours.

A little way down the road at Gregg Lake, the kids were awake, so we tried our hand at Geocaching. This is a more sophisticated form of treasure hunting. Google it. So to any 3 year old (who loves pirates) this is perfect. My inner nerd embraced it and actually had a good time. The rain set in again, so we sat in the car feeding one baby with breastmilk and the other with chocolate. A happy weekend was had by all.

Totally appropriate footwear for bushwacking. 

Kids, totally unaffected by the rain, this face was because he couldn't go on the playground. In the freezing, pouring rain. Love it. 

Weekend in Lake Louise.

The weekend just gone we took the 630km round trip to Lake Louise. Most people are familiar with this spectacular lake as the one that's always seen in the Canadian travel brochures you pick up from the travel agent or on the T.V, when they advertise trafalgar tours and the like. We met my sister-in-law Caitlin and her partner Glenn there for some fun bear spotting. (Lake Louise is well renowned for spotting Grizzly's in the Summer). Caitlin and Glenn now live in Calgary, so we are very lucky to have the boy's Aunty and Uncle living so close (a 6 hour drive away, but hey, it's closer than Australia, right?). Whilst we didn't spot any Grizzly's, we had a really fun weekend anyway, just checking out the town and being together as an extended family.


In the Summer months the Lake Louise Ski Resort turns into a Grizzly haven and the chairlift to the top of the mountain was a highlight, especially for a certain little 3 year old. Spring had only just broken in Lake Louise and we found ourselves very much in a frozen little corner of Canada.

The family at the bottom of the slopes.

Chairlift time. 

Little E getting briefed on the chairlift ride.

It's all too tiring for a little guy. 

There was still quite alot of snow at the top of the chairlift, so the most appropriate thing to do was THROW IT AT EACH OTHER!

Showing E the snow.

RUN! Dad's got snow!

 

Ever trying to capture the perfect family shot, realising that the less than "perfect" shots are best and that they're always the one's that make me smile the most.

Buddy and his beautiful Aunty Caitlin.

Lake Louise was still actually in all it's frozen glory and was a little different to when I visited back in 2007.

2007.

2013.

So, I've realised trying to get a lovely picture of my son/s and I is near impossible. See below where I asked Bud to have a picture with me, as I'm completely lame and we were both in red jackets. He's so blissfully unaware of his sitting on my knees, whilst I kneel is not happenning! Ah, what do they say? Never work with kids or animals. Correct. 

I did however, manage to steal this pic. Love that kid. 

We left the freezing Lake Louise and decided a lovely walk around the Bow River circuit would do us nicely and I will always snap up the opportunity to take some photos of the kids/life/us/whatever. 

E enjoyed the walk as snug as a bug and Bud as always, loved the adventure.

Get your Cougar sticks ready. 

Rock throwing in the river time. Ain't nuttin' better.

This little guy makes my heart sing. He is my little ray of sunshine.

And he's done. 

The weekend was brought to an awesome finish when on the drive out of Lake Louise (go figure, we went there to spot bears). We saw a Mumma Grizzly and her two cubs. Right there, beside us on the road. I could've reached out and touched them. This is what we imagined Canada to be and she really showed us what she's made of.

Thank you guys for a wonderful weekend, we loved, as always catching up with you and feel so very happy you are in Canada with us.

And sorry about the relentless room to room phone calls you received from your nephew.