Summer fun

An update has been much needed! We've been a little busy the past little bit with travelling to BC and back. 
We went to Vancouver Island for a week but were gone for almost two.  We took 3 days to get there, spent 2 in Abbotsford with my sister and then took 3 days to get home.  Travelling with 2 small children is quite stressful!  And busy!  I'm glad to be home.   We did have a good trip but it's always nice to come home again.
So I'm just going to throw up a bunch of pictures.  I don't have pictures of everything as we both had a kid in our arms for most of the trip, but I do have a few. 
My Mom got married while we were in BC so I will eventually post pictures of that too, just waiting for her to email me her favourites.
Anyways, here goes...

Keiran at pit stop number 1 on the way to Kamloops.  Picture face strikes again! 

Mommy and Keiran at the same pit stop.  I love the mountains.

Daddy feeding Evan at said pit stop.

Giving the toddler tape to play with didn't go over as well as I was hoping.  He didn't quite get it, oh well!!!

We stopped at the Enchanted Forest on our way to Kamloops.  I've been wanting to stop there since I was a kid and was totally stoked that we finally did it!  What a weird place!!!  Anyways, this is Daddy and Keiran both saying "Cheese"

I thought this was pretty funny.

This was also funny.  Not completely politically correct but funny.

The troll under the bridge.  He's a little creepy!  Most of the things in the forest were creepy, they were also quite old. 

I don't even know what to say about this.

The front of the castle.

Still on day 1 of travel.  This is how you prop up a 3 month old to go long distances.  Plug in the bottle and surround it with lots of blankets so that it's propped up and hope that everything stays the way you put it!

Keirans side of the car with the portable DVD player.  Best. Invention. Ever.

How to entertain your child while waiting a long time for the ferry.  Let him take pictures.  We had fun.

I only put this one in because his face was sooo funny!  Still waiting for the ferry.  A piece of advice: always pre-book the ferry!  Oi!!!

Keirans first time on a ferry, he liked being on the water.

Evans first time on the ferry.  He won't remember it.  LOL

At one point, Daddy had both boys, I'm not quite sure how this happened.  I think Keiran was tired of me.  We were all tired and snippy by the time we got to the ferry.

My water boy!  He loved, loved, loved the ocean!  I'm so happy about that!

Big brother at the Vancouver zoo.  It was stupidly hot that day, +35.  Gross.  We didn't last very long.

Gratuitous cute picture of Evan

Family pics

Here's a smattering of pictures from our recent photo session at Sears.  Boy did the boys do well!!!  We got a picture CD so we can share the pics with everyone.  These are the unedited versions of course but they are still super cute!!!

Cute boy picture update

Ok, I'm over the credit card thing.  Now I will post cute pictures of all the men in my life!  We went to the zoo on saturday and had a great time with some friends.  They were walking the elephant around and the tigers were going crazy!!!  I took a picture of one of the tigers jumping up on the glass partition trying to get to the elephant. 

And now some cute boy pics:

Poor little dude!  I don't know why he was upset but he sure looks cute in his big brothers Dude hat (from when he was a small dude)

Nap time at our house!

Big brother hanging out at the zoo.  I think this is his new favourite t-shirt.  He loves the Canada flag!

Daddy carrying Evan in the Ergo.  Happiness is an Ergo carrier!!!

Credit card woes

So a few weeks ago we were about to leave to go to Calgary for Brian to work at the Stampede.  Before we left he went to the store to pick up cat food and litter.  As he tries to pay, the credit card gets declined.  Odd.  He goes for gas on the way home, credit card declined.  Oh oh.  He gets home and calls Mastercard and it looks like someone stole our credit card number and has been putting charges on it.  They tried to buy a $1000 computer from Apple, they put almost $1000 on paypal, couple hundred from Telus, couple hundred from Playstation, and even a donation to the Cancer society.  Nice.  So, the card was cancelled and we're in the middle of waiting for a new card while they figure out what happened. 
Last week I received a package in the mail.  It wasn't addressed to me specifically but had been re-routed to me.  It started with the buyer information being my name with an email address that wasn't mine and a shipping address that was my old Winnipeg address.  The actual shipping label was made out from an address in Ottawa to an address in Gatineau.  No actual names attached.  I don't know how it made it to me other than they must have tried to send it to Winnipeg and then it got resent here. 
I thought about refusing it since I didn't recognize the sender and wasn't expecting anything but then thought maybe it was related to my credit card so I took it home and we opened it up. 
Well, it was the weirdest package ever!  Inside was: some weird red sunglass type things, a flyer for a real estate company in Quebec, a pair of old shoes, an opened container of crackers and a half drunk bottle of water. 
What the???
And so, I took pictures!  We called Mastercard to see what we should do and they said to call the police so we'll be doing that sometime soon.  I hate whoever stole my credit card number!

Ok so the water bottle is missing from this picture but you get the idea.  How weird is that?!  Stupid jerks.

Gardens

I'm not much of a gardener but I've been more interested in it since I started having to be a grown up and owning our own houses.  Our house here in Edmonton had a nasty looking front garden when we moved in, I wish I had pictures.  There was this awful low pine bush thing (I think it's a mung pine?) placed in an awkward spot and then there was a purple bush against the front window that the previous owners had mangled all up by improper pruning.  Brian cut the pine down and we tore out the bush and left it in the front for about a month and then the weeds took over and boy it looked terrible.  Embarrassing!  And of course with a newborn in the house we had no time or energy to do anything about it, until yesterday!  Both boys were sleeping yesterday afternoon and I finally got out there and did something about it! There's still more to do but for now, I'm happy and not embarrassed anymore!

Still a bit left to do but trust me, this is a thousand times better than it was!!!

Same thing, different angle.  You can see my reflection in the window holding baby!  lol

Farther away.

I've done a bit in the backyard too.  This year I have a water plant and a strawberry plant on the deck.  I had fish in the water plant but they all died.  I think it got too murky for them.  I'm going to try again with a beta fish and keep it a bit cleaner!

Can't wait for the strawberries to be ready!

Last summer when we moved in, Mom came out and put in the back garden for me and tidied up the shade garden.  The only bad thing was that we did this in August and chose flowers that were blooming at the time and so the garden was looking a little dreary!  I added a few more perennials that bloom earlier and a number of annuals and it looks a bit better.  But, then we had massive storms while we were gone in Calgary and more than half my new plants look like they drowned!  I hope they haven't but they look pathetic!  I think my poor sunflowers are dead though, very disappointing.  The storms also snapped my Delphiniums :(  Oh well, looks way better than it used to! 

Shade garden, don't look at the weeks against the fence, still have to get out there.

More shade garden.   Need to add a bit of mulch and clean up those weeds.

Back garden view 1 - the Grandma memorial side.  Grandma used to love growing her rose bushes and so I have put in 4 in her honour, also there is some lavender and random annuals and perennials whose names I forget.

Some of the flowers in the Grandma memorial side.

See how the storms have snapped my delphiniums and killed off the poor sunflowers :(

Back garden view 2 - the Nana memorial side.  My Nana had lots of Hydrangeas in her yard so this half of the garden is the memorial to her, 3 white hydrangeas and assorted other plants.  I threw some bee balm in there and marigolds and of course others I can't name.  The hydrangeas are just starting to get flowers now, they will look good in a few weeks!

Some of the plants on the Nana side.  I'm looking forward to all the clematis I planted taking over the dreadful fence the neighbours put up last year. 

Summer?!

Well, it's been a busy July so far!  We headed to Calgary at the beginning of the month to visit family while Brian worked at the Stampede and Spruce Meadows.  Grandpa and I took Keiran to the Stampede Parade to watch Daddy march with the band while Grandma stayed home with Evan.  It was pretty fun but sooo long.  Poor Keiran wanted to leave about half way through and had a few freak outs but overall was really good.  It was also his first chance to ride a city bus and take a Ctrain.  He really enjoyed it and so did Mommy!  Evan then got to stay at home again a couple of days later while I took Keiran to the zoo with Auntie Karen and Uncle Mike.  We then visited with Sabrina and her girls and had a good time playing!  Overall a great trip! 
Then we came home and had a visit from my friend Christine from Winnipeg.  They just left this morning to carry on their journey to BC.  Good times!  I even managed to get some time in in the garden.
Now there are only 4 days left until Brian starts summer leave!  We are staying here for the first few weeks and then heading to BC for Mom and Daves wedding!  Looking forward to the trip and introducing the boys to the ocean.
And now for the picture update!

This is about as close as I can get Keiran to holding Evan.  He loves his brother but has no interest in holding him, which really isn't a bad thing!

Mommy and squishy face!

Keiran hanging out in the stands at the Stampede Parade.  Auntie Julie scored us sweet seats so we didn't have to be downtown at 6am trying to find a spot!!!

Riding the little train at the Calgary zoo.  This kid loves to ride trains!

Riding the carousel at the Calgary zoo with Auntie Karen.  He had a blast!

After the ride, what a cute face!  Uncle Mike bought him that sweater, he was "very chilly mommy".

Baby Evan hanging out on the couch at Grandma and Grandpas

Baby Evan had enough of hanging out on the couch at Grandma and Grandpas

Monkey man tolerating Mommy

What Mommy does while she feeds Baby Evan.  I love the Kindle on my IPhone!

Daddy coaxing smiles out of Evan!