In the Swimming Pool

Last month we took Max swimming for the first time and he loved it. He has always loved the tub and we bought him a floating crab while we were down in Montana so we tried it out in the pool to see how he would like it. Lucy enjoyed splashing and playing with her Auntie Janeen too. She's tall enough to walk around in the pool for the most part and is sure to let everyone know that. She had a few slips but recovered quickly. We took Max into the baby pool and he could touch the ground in there too, and decided to motor around as much as he could. He has so much fun whenever he is on the move. Sitting still is a major bore.

Montanarama

Our family vacation this year was a trip down to Echo Lake Montana with Tyler's immediate family and his Aunt and Uncle and their kids. I was a bit nervous to make the trip with a 5 month old boy who doesn't like being in his car-seat long enough to make a 10 minute trip into town, let alone a 6 hour trip across the border. We ended up leaving a day later than everyone else because Max came down with a cold. The trip ended up being fabulous and we had a great time hanging out, boating, and spending time with family. Max was happier and slept better at the cabin than he ever has at home...which made me even more nervous about coming home than I was about going! Lucy loves sitting in her Papa's boat and has spent much time sitting in there with him while he worked on it. Well, it turns out that she only loves sitting in the boat when it is stationary. As soon as it was on the water, she was not too pleased to be sitting in it anymore. The rocking back and forth made her nervous. She misinterpreted the right words to use, so she kept telling us that she was a little 'brave'...but she really meant a little 'scared'. We finally convinced her to go on a tube ride, which didn't last very long.

Headbanz and Best Friends

A few weeks ago we introduced Lucy to a new family game called "headbanz". It's a fairly old game, so I'm sure most people have heard of it. It's definitely a different game when you play it with a two year old though. We had to search through the cards to help find characters and objects that Lucy would know...and then instead of her asking us questions to narrow down the results, we gave her clues. She enjoyed being a Mermaid, a Sports Car, a Bubble Bath, and a Belly Button. She was able to guess them fairly quickly, and even helped mom guess hers very quickly too. When it was my turn, I had a card on my head that said "Bowling Pin" and Lucy right away whispered, "Mom, think bowling!" She got tired of the game pretty quickly though, as we had too many people playing and so her turn didn't come around often enough to keep her attention.

Now onto the subject of Best Friends. Lucy, Tyler and I have always told each other we were best buddies, even before Lucy could talk...and she picked up on the statement pretty quickly once she could talk. It's fun to see her developing a friendship with a new best buddy now...her brother Max. The two of them are like peas in a pod. Hard to separate. Whenever Lucy is in the room, Max wants to be able to see her. If she is running around, then he wants to be standing up and he kicks his legs just wanting to be running with her. If she's laughing, then he's laughing. They like to lay in Lucy's bed in the morning and cuddle before breakfast. She is constantly telling him she loves him and that he's her best buddy, and I think in his screeching and grunting, he is trying to tell her the same thing. I hope they are always as good of friends as they are now. Even when Max is crying a lot, Lucy will laugh and say, "Max! You're driving me crazy!" But right away she will go to him and stroke his cheek and say, "It's ok Max. I'm here." It doesn't calm him down, but it usually calms me down. I think the must have been pretty good friends in the pre-existence and are so excited to be reunited here on earth. I can remember while I was pregnant that Lucy would talk to my belly and tell Max all the fun things they were going to do when he came out. She liked to give him a hug every day. One time, she yelled at my belly, "Max! Do you wanna play cards?" I'm sure he'd love to play cards with you soon sweetie.

Slip N' Slide

Today we decided to take a little reprieve from the hot sun by setting up a slip n' slide on Grandma and Papa's front lawn. We laid out a large piece of poly on the hill and then set up two sprinklers and covered the thing in dish soap..it made for a great (and clean) slide. Everyone took a turn sliding down the slide...with Tyler, Matt, and Papa showing off their manliness by doing rolls, spins, and dives. (Word to the wise...diving only works well in a pool...not so much on a slip n' slide). It reminded us of a certain polysporin commercial..."Dad, Dad, Dad!" Suddenly it occurs to you, maybe now would be a good time to pick up some more polysporin!
Lucy enjoyed the festivities very much but got cold a few times, so we created a makeshift tub for her out of a rubbermaid container. She would take a break in her pool every few minutes, and then be ready to go for a few more slides.
Max even took a few rides with Papa down the hill. It went something like this:
Ride #1: total shock...what just happened?
Ride #2: hmmm? This is interesting, but I'm not sure what's going on.
As Papa sat down in preparation for ride #3, he had caught on and decided he really didn't like it. Ride #3 never happened. Instead he hung out with Grandma and made funny faces.
We ended the evening by having a delicious steak dinner and playing GuitarHero on Playstation.

This is what summers are all about.

Trevor x 2

Happy Birthday Trevor G and Trevor B. We celebrated by going over to mom and dad's on Sunday evening for a delicious steak dinner. We tried calling Trevor Ganchar on their cell phone as they are on holidays in California right now, but we were unable to get through. Lucy and Emma had a great time playing together and enjoying a tubbie in Grandma's 'coozie' tub. At one point Lucy walked up to Emma and put her hands on her head and said, "I'm going to pick you up by your brain, Emma." Everyone laughed at such a silly statement from such a small girl...she picks up a lot from her dad!
The girls enjoyed sitting across from each other at the dinner table, and spent most of their time being silly and making each other laugh rather than eating. Check out the video to see some of their antics.
We had ice-cream sandwiches for dessert and decided to undress the girls to avoid a mess. But it was a quick trip to the tub as soon as they were done as the mess didn't avoid their hair, faces or hands.

Johnston's Canyon

We spent holiday Monday up in the Rockies. We had been promising Lucy a trip to the Mountains for a few months now and thought today would be the ideal day. We packed up at 10am and headed to Johnston's Canyon for the day.








We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch along side some Big-Horn Sheep, and then hiked the 1.5 mile trail up to the upper falls of Johnston's.





At the lower falls, we went through the tunnel to view the waterfall and Lucy kept telling everyone it was raining over there, because of the amazing spray coming off the falls. On the way out to Banff, the two fo us created a list of all the possible animals we might see in the mountains and were able to check off: Deer, Birds, a hawk, Big-Horn Sheep, a Duck, Ants, a Bee, a Chipmunk, Elk and a Moose. Unfortunately the moose was lying on the side of the highway as we were leaving Banff...but we explained to Lucy that he was just sleeping. We didn't get home until 7:30pm and our kids were quite tuckered out.

It was a fabulous day, and I'm sure my muscles will remember it for a few days. It was excited to tell Lucy that Bumpa (Grandpa Bourne) designed the bridge at the beginning of the park.

Patriotism and Parties

It's been a while since I posted anything here, so i thought I'd cover all the major events of the past month. Lucy's uncle Jason is getting married in just a little over a month, and Lucy gets to be one of the flower girls. We've attempted putting curlers in her hair a few times to see if we can come up with a hairstyle that will work for the wedding.
She looks like a little old lady (minus the housecoat and wrinkles) with the curlers in, and unfortunately the hair doesn't look much better when the curlers come out. A little too boufant for me. We'll keep trying.

Max celebrated his 3rd month birthday as well. The chub in the legs and face indicate that he is healthy...and the silly grin indicates he's happy.

A few weeks ago the whole family was able to head over to Riley park to celebrate Emma's 2nd birthday. It was a bit of a chilly day, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying time in the wadding pool. We had fun watching the kids play, eating lunch and watching Emma quickly open a few presents before the downpour was upon us. The best surprise of all was when Mike and Tammy announced that they were pregnant again by showing everyone a t-shirt for Emma that said, "I'm a big sister". Tears and hugs were enjoyed by all. We got a picture of all the kids at the party and I had told Lucy that she wasn't allowed to have a cupcake until after the picture...as you can see from the photo, Saydee Walker had a cupcake and Lucy couldn't manage to keep her eyes off of it long enough to smile for the camera.
This past weekend I spent Thursday and Thursday nigh at girls camp, while Tyler watched the kids solo. My first night away from my kids in a year. It was fun to go out and spend time with my girls and goof around. The weather was only so-so, but we enjoyed playing games in the "river house" and eating some most excellent food. i can't share too many details unfortunately, because we agreed that what happens at girls camp, stays at girls camp.

On Canada Day Sunday, our family wore our patriotic red and white to church and enjoyed singing all the verses of O Canada in Sacrament Meeting...a rare treat. Even more rare is the singing of the national anthem with out a puck drop at the end!
It's been a pretty great month.