Dallas Part 1

The beginning of our month long stay in Texas began in Dallas. We stayed the first few days with Chris, Heather, Aiden and Haylie. We woke up early and caught our flight to see, "Hay Hay" and "Deeky", Olivia's cousins.

Checking out the planes during our layover in Denver

Playing in the sandbox with Haylie and Aiden (notice how Olivia is wearing a sweater...her Mommy was not used to dressing for Texas!)

Rachelle finally got to meet Olivia

Catching a ride from Cousin Delia

Happy Birthday Emery!!

While her cousins enjoy a fun inflatable water slide, she is content with a pot of water and a cup

Enjoying the Texas heat!

Our Backyard

We love our new backyard (and the 70 degree weather to enjoy it in). There is only a 4 foot fence which allows us to check out all the action of the trail and lake behind our house. Olivia and I have spent a whole lot of time back there the past couple of days in the evening waiting for Mike to get home from work.

Playing on the neighbors' slide

Home Depot Tub

We have been hitting the Home Depot a lot lately getting settled into the house. Last time we went, Olivia found a bath tub and REFUSED to get out. She screamed as we carried her away to check out, "BATH TUB, BATH TUB, BATH TUUUUUUUB". I think we might just skip that section next time we go!

Our View

We scrambled to find a house in Edmonton and found a house that is not exactly the house of our dreams. It is fine with its linoleum and formica :) It is new and clean and will work for the 15-18 months we are here. The best thing about the house is the view. Our main floor has many large windows that overlook the man made lake behind our house. Olivia has a great view while enjoying her meals. There is also a great walking trail around the lake. The ducks and geese are highlights of not only Olivia's day, but also of Maya's.

GYMBO!!!

Olivia is a HUGE fan of Gymbo the clown from Gymboree. She talks about him all week long. Thankfully, Edmonton also has a Gymboree to continue her love affair. I was so glad there was a least a little bit of congruency between Edmonton and Calgary for her. The Gymboree in Calgary was very conscience about germs and didn't allow the kids to touch Gymbo. Apparently the Edmonton Gyboree folks aren't as strict and leave Gymbos just lying around for the kids to play with. Olivia couldn't believe her luck. She didn't let him go the entire time we were there! So cute!

Baby Proofing!

Our landlord in Edmonton is not at all understanding about baby proofing. She didn't want any holes in any non-sheetrock surface. I can understand the concern, but that would mean no baby gates on the stairs. So, the Engineer devised a way to babyproof the stairs without a single hole to her precious banister! He wrapped the posts in wood, secured by huge bolts in order to get a wood surface to screw the gate into. Yeah Michael!!


Thankfully, the walls of the stairs leading to the basement are sheetrock and didn't need some crazy engineering feat. Olivia still needed to oversee Daddy's work.

Science Center

We stayed in a hotel in downtown Calgary during the move, once our house was packed up. We had such a great time doing all of the fun things downtown Calgary has to offer for little ones.

We went to the Science Center on the suggestion of my friend Erin. Rowan and Olivia had a blast running around and exploring every inch. Olivia and I will definitely miss fun days like this with our friends, Erin and Rowan.

Up in the nest

Fun water table

Music room was a fav. Step on the shape and different sounds play to make music.

Fun "circles"

Entering in the bear cave

Moving Day

Thankfully, Michael's company sends out movers to pack up the entire house. Without that, I think I would lose my mind; moving is hard enough. Olivia was not a huge fan of the movers packing up her toys. The biggest protest was when her shopping cart got packed. She couldn't wait to get to the "new house" where I told her all of her toys were going.

Aunt Murf!

Aunt Murf got in a visit right before we move to Edmonton. Calgary is only an hour away from the mountains and Edmonton is about 3. So, this was the place to visit. We had a ball while she was here. We stayed at the Rimrock Resort in Banff. It was beautiful. It is on the side of a mountain, seemingly in the middle of nothing but trees, mountain and snow. We actually had to take the elevator down to get to our floor from the lobby because of the whole side of the mountain concept.

Hiking in Johnston Canyon

Partly frozen waterfall

Champagne on ice (or snow)

We got a babysitter one night and had an adult only meal in the town of Banff. It was delicious with lots of really yummy wine!

Lake Louise

Hitching a ride

This was all of our first times to snow shoe. It was really fun. It was pretty much just "fancy snow gear hiking", but really cool.

Olivia was not happy starting about 3/4 the way up. She was "COLD!", poor thing. Being exhausted and not wanting to nap in the backpack didn't make matters any better!

She finally gave in and fell asleep on the way down.

The view from our hotel balcony

Brave Aunt Murf took a snowboarding lesson!!

A trip to Calgary is never complete without a trip to the awesome zoo!



Thanks for everything, Aunt Murf! We can't wait to see you in Edmonton and do Jasper!!

Finally a house!

Over a month ago, we found a house to rent in Edmonton that was beautiful. We really liked it and the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the owner sold it and it was no longer available to rent. We scrambled last weekend with super high stress levels and went back to Edmonton to look for a house. Thankfully, we found something. It isn't in the most desirable neighborhood for our taste (it is really cookie cutter, suburbia), but it will do for 15-18 months. Our house in Calgary is amazing with a finished basement. While we loved it, it made us quite picky on our house hunt in Edmonton.
The new house is 4 bedrooms and looks out onto a man-made lake that has a walking trail around it. They told us there are lots of ducks and geese in the warmer months and Olivia will love that. The movers come Wednesday to pack and then we move into the Sheraton downtown for 5 days, which will be fun. Then we are off to Edmonton! Here is the new place: