A Canadian Milestone

Imagine this: a beautiful, crisp winter day. Temperatures above freezing. A frozen slough, in the river valley just begging to be skated on. Oh! You don't even have to imagine...just take a look!

Beautiful, isn't it? This is the hamlet of Rosebud. It's very near and dear to my heart. It's where I got married and where we go to church every Sunday. And now to add to that list? The place where we first took Braden skating!

He was just overjoyed to be going skating! He's been talking about it all winter and we've just been waiting for the time to do it, and I'm glad that we did wait!


Braden was so excited and he loved it. Like LOVED it! This is just making me beam because I grew up on the ice, in an arena. I used to competitively figure skate and also teach skating, so I am so happy about Braden reaching this milestone - he's not even 3 yet!

It didn't take him long at all to find his balance. He can stand still and stand on his own and he can even get up when he falls down. By the end of his first little session, he could hold on to the hockey stick while Jay pulled him around. He fell straight onto his knees and on his bum many times, but he never cried. Not even once. He just had a big smile on his face and kept getting up and trying again. Wow.

We also brought the dog and even let her go off leash...we all had a wonderful family afternoon!

I know what you might be thinking, or at least what I know my mom is thinking, it was really nice out and Ethan was boiling in his little Winnie the Pooh suit and even his head was warm! In fact, he had the biggest blow out of his little life shortly after that picture - oh the memories!

My New Camera's Debut!

Well I finally busted out the brand new camera the other day! I was having a high-on-life, feeling very creatively inspired day after I spent the evening watching the farming movie, as Braden calls it, so I went over to the farm with Braden and this is my first "session" with the new T3i!

What farm is complete without a border collie? Really? We were going to walk through the pasture down to the field where Papa and Travis were combining canola...but it was too far, so we turned around and drove back instead!

This was Braden's first combine ride of the year with Papa, and I think Papa is pretty happy that Braden gets so excited about all things farming. I really hope that he keeps up his passion, he has a career waiting for him if he so chooses it like his daddy did before him.

Braden just loves Travis. Well, he loves the idea of going to go and see him and sit in the truck with Travis, anyway! Travis has been wonderful to Braden! So we got a bucket from Travis and it was Braden's job to take the bucket to Papa so we could take a sample of the canola back to the farm to test it (for moisture & temperature - very important for storing it).

It was my job to go and spot for Jay, driving the swather down the road. It takes up the whole road with lots of blind spots, so Braden and I headed over to meet him and guide him safely back to the farm.

Here's some scenery along the way. This is God's country! Or, as my mother-in-law has said, it's all God's country...He just spent a little extra time here!




Then we met Daddy back at the farm, Braden started swathing a new field of wheat with him, so we snapped a few pics and headed back to the farm for supper!

Definitely my new favorite picture of these two!

Overall I am super super happy with the new camera. I still have lots of things to learn about tweaking my manual settings, but for my first round out with it, I'm super happpy! It is quite the upgrade and I am LOVING all the little features that I didn't think I would appreciate, like the flip out LCD screen. It made it super easy to take my own maternity pictures and I think it will be absolutely amazing to take my own pictures with my kids and even do our Christmas card pictures all by myself. I got this steal of a deal off Kijiji for only $500 brand new. BRAND NEW. They retail brand new for $630+ so I'm really happy with that savings. Definitely my last purchase for a long time, as I am no longer receiving an income until Squishy is born. It also has a built in HD video camera that is nice to have along, one of my goals is to be able to put together short videos together, I need my brother to teach me!

All I can think with this picture about myself is "MOVE, HEAD! MOVE!" What a huge noggin' I have!

Happy Harvest! Happy Fall! Happy Autumn!

P.S. Braden finally "loves doze boots!" And he is officially 3 feet tall today...he's grown 1/2" since the end of July! Growth spurt! 

Our BC Summer Vacation Part 3

This is the last BC post! I will always attest that this blog is for me and my family. I don't write to appease to anyone...but at the same time I don't want to bore my readers with every.single.detail of everything we do. So this is our last day in BC, which was 1 week ago today. We spent it at Parker Cover on the Okanagan Lake. This is where Jay's grandparents retired to and he spent 6 weeks there every summer. I'm happy we can share this with Braden!


The weather was beautiful, there was lots of shade provided by the big, beautiful trees if we needed it...and Braden and Jay enjoyed floating around the lake in the dingy and building sandcastles on the little beach.

Even the doggy had a great time on our vacation. I don't know if she really appreciates coming, after all...she is just a dog! But it sure beats a week in the kennel, at least we figure so!

 

Then that little thief stole my chair as I got up to take those pictures of him and the dog. Braden moves a LOT faster than Mommy these days!



Then it was back to the lake. He loved to pull the boat down to the water "all by 'yself!"

 

And was very proud of his sandcastle that he built with Daddy!

I loved this vacation so much! I aspire to bring my mom, meet up with Nelsons, my in-laws if they can make it too, and have Ben, Jess, & Abby there at the same time next year. These kids are going to have a great time growing up together, I want to do big family vacations and make lots and lots of memories together. Family is just so important and I cherish mine every day. We are stronger now than ever!