Glenmore Reservoir in the Fall

Here is the Glenmore Reservoir this morning, looking West from Heritage Park. It is quite a view, and you can usually count on the ships being out if there is any wind at all...

Railroad Days

This weekend it was the 'Railroad Days' at Heritage Park. As you can imagine, we have been building up to this for some time! There were lots of fun train things to do, including watching a steam train go around on the turntable. They were running a freight train as well as the passenger train (sometimes with two locomotives) all day long. We went with the Rosses, Allison, Rogan and Lily (Matt was out of town this weekend). I got my fill of fall photos, and enjoyed riding the trains, too. CP put on a spike driving contest, and the local club had a model train that the boys enjoyed. They were pretty laid back, and let the kids stand over the track as 'tunnels'.

We finally left around 3:00, a record for keeping the boys awake at Heritage Park (I'm not counting Lily or Max in the records yet!).

The weather was beautiful. Stay tuned for a Panoramic of the reservoir, ships and mountains.

Sam with Darcy early in the day:

Sam, kicking leaves:

Max (on our lawn):
Ali and Lily:
Rogan playing in the leaves. He didn't stop roaming all day long...

Making tunnels:

Andrew laying in the leaves:

Walk with Claire, Eric, Molly and the Hyndman's

We had a nice chance to get together with the Hyndmans tonight. We bombarded their house with 5 kids, but first had a nice walk along the river with the kids. It is really getting into fall in Alberta:

Here are the three sisters walking along. They are laughing after Claire and Ali told Darcy the following story: Ali arrived after the rest of us so Claire and Ali were walking towards each other along the path. Claire was saying "I can't see you Ali, just follow the lady in the green shirt carrying the baby", Ali was saying "I can't see her. Oh wait - that's me!"

Full time Dad for a day

Today I got a taste of my 'fly-to-Vegas-for-6-days-and-leave-the-kids-with-Mom' medicine. Darcy went to help Dawn in the morning, and met with Claire in the afternoon, while Ali left after lunch for a soccer game. This left me with Max, Rogan and Sam. Max was the best performer, putting in a solid 3 hour nap. Rogan was second, and Sam dead last, sleeping only 1 hour and 15 minutes. It went fine, we had fun, laughed a little, cried a little and met the girls (including Claire and Molly) at the Hyndman's.

In the morning, I got a nice chance to take some pictures of Max and Sam together. We went through some Sam pictures last night, and couldn't believe how much they look alike at the same age, but also how much bigger Sam was physically.


Sam was nice enough to let Max roll on him. I managed to catch him before he rolled right off the couch (it wasn't THAT close!):

Sam and Max laughing at each other:

Lily wears Sam's p.j.'s

Lily looked cute tonight on her Auntie. She was dressed up in Sam's old pyjamas:

Sam is proud of his new found ability to do up buckles, from Lucy's leash to the high chair:

When I arrived home from work today, Sam greeted me with "Daddy change Sammy poopy bum"... Luckily he didn't really have a surprise in store for me! Whatever happened to 'Hi Daddy'?

Rogan at park

Not sure if I posted this one before. Here is a cute one of Rogan at the park near their music lessons. Fall is upon us - I expect to get some fall photos this weekend before the leaves are gone!

Back from Vegas

Well, I'm back from Las Vegas. Once again the annual ASIS trade show fell on the day of Allison's birthday, so I have no photos of my own to share with you. Here are a few from the day before I left, that I have finally pulled off the camera. I don't have Vegas photos to show as I left the camera behind so Darcy could take some with my camera (which didn't happen). Hopefully Ryan has some to pass on.

Here is Sam playing with a remote controlled car:

Here is Rogan getting precious little of the chocolate bar actually into his mouth:

Here is Max smiling at his Dad this evening:

Sammy on morning walk

Here is Sam on his bike this week, while his Mom and Max were away. We had a good time, although he was a little sick this week. I took Tuesday off work, and had lots of help from Dawn and Allison on Monday and Wednesday, so I could get some work in. Thanks!

3 kids in Calgary

Sam "sharing" with Rogan ;)
Rogan looking cute:
Lily, with a slight hint of a smile - something I have now seen her do!

And for a final update - Max now has a tooth!

Skull at Ghost Dam

Mommy ride big plane

We were sad to see Darcy and Max go to Victoria yesterday. Here is Max, ready to go to the airport:

Couple more from Ghost Dam

I couldn't upload more than 5 pictures at once, so here are a couple more:

Sam and Andrew coming in for dinner:



Around the farm house, starting to feel like fall these days:

Sam and Andrew playing:

Day trip to Ghost Dam

It wasn't meant to be a day trip, but it turned out that way... Darcy and Max have headed out to Victoria today, to surprise Paola who is heading to Aussie for a year (hopefully she knows by now!). That left Sam and me in Calgary for 5 days. Dawn and Ryan asked us it we wanted to join them for a night with Ryan's family on a farm near the Ghost Dam, 15km West of Cochrane.

It is pretty close to Calgary, so we left around 3:30pm and headed up for the night. Sam and Andrew had fun checking out the barns, finding the resident cat, and rearranging the rocks in the driveway. The Ross family cooked up a nice dinner for us all, but after dinner we realized there were too many to stay in the house. So, we jumped in the car after dinner and made it back to Calgary for the night.

The farm itself was in a really beautiful spot, and the weather was clear, save for the smoke rolling down the valley from Banff. Still not sure what that was from. Here is Sam looking through one of the many fences:

Running and jumping:

Looking thoughtful:
Sam riding Andrew's 'horse-y' near sunset:
The hills around:

Sam and Max fix

Just to make sure both my boys are front and centre on the blog, here are Sam and Max and bedtime last night. Happily, Sam and Max both went down easily tonight, and have barely stirred in their beds.

Fun with Chocolate

Here are Rogan and Sam after enjoying some chocolate:

9.5

...is the number of hours Max slept last night!

Summer is ending...

Snow in the mountains already! Ships were out on the Glenmore Reservoir today:

Mother and son at Heritage Park:

Sam in front of the CP Snow Plow:

Max, smiling as usual:

It was a fun filled day at Heritage Park. It is getting close to the end of the season, so we wanted to get in a few more days. We met up with Dawn, Ryan, Andrew and Daniel, and saw the sights. We had a nice snack in the field and watched the trains go by. After 'lunch' we checked out the roundhouse, and the various trains.

Sam and Andrew playing on the tracks behind the roundhouse:

The Rosses on the Ferris Wheel:

The much anticipated train:

Big Sky Garden Railway

Well, I am back from a week in Fresno. I just missed Dad and Grandpa in Fresno yesterday as they drove through, helping Sherrie and John drive their stuff to Portland. Good luck guys!

Ryan and I took Sam and Andrew for a drive down to Nanton, AB. They sell garden gauge trains, and for a small fee you can go see their 'garden' layout. It is huge! They also have a huge collection of screwed down Thomas track and trains. Sam and Andrew loved it. We had two crying boys on our hands when we left...

Thomas track area #1:
Thomas track area #2: