Nature Walk

Last week we plunged from 32 degrees on Monday - Wednesday to about 12 degrees on Thursday! Most people were pretty bummed about this ... I, on the other hand, look forward to fall's crisp sunny days. I thought it would be the perfect day to hit the Provincial Park (with my two sidekicks of course) and let them explore on one of the trails. Here are a few shots of the 'nature lovers' :)






Ainsley mostly wanted to run down the path as fast as she could ... Olivia preferred stopping to eat leaves, and listen to birds. They both enjoyed me hiding behind trees and jumping out at them : )

After our walk on the trail, we headed back closer to the playground. First we checked out the Peace Grove - which is a little monument to - you guessed it - peacekeeping : )




From there, we hit the playground! My brave daughter will now climb up the stairs, across the bridge, up onto the big platform and up to the big yellow slides and go down by herself!! She doesn't even care if I am there to catch her ... which, I did care about, so I made sure I was there to catch her anyway!! She is one determined little girl .... wonder who she takes after ?? ; )



Incidentally, I didn't get very many shots of actual playtime while at the park .. I was too busy chasing the girls around - mostly Ainsley - to make sure she didn't try and do something she couldn't handle!

Team PM & Ainsley

Pigtail-y cuteness

Ainsley sporting two pigtails and looking super cute : ) She is wearing a shirt my Mom bought for her because apparently she thinks I'm cute!



And for those of you who think Cold Lake is frigid year round, I just want to point out that when we were outside the other morning, it was only about 11 degrees out, but by the afternoon the outfit was changed because it got up to 25!


I wish I could capture Ainsley saying all of her words, but apparently when the camera is turned on, she chooses not to say them! She loves to say puppy (buh-peeeee), and everything furry is a puppy; shoes (shuse?), this word also applies to socks; ball (ba-h?), always said as a question; baby (bah-bee?), so cute how she repeats it! Her vocabulary is being added to daily it seems so I'll keep trying to capture some of it so I can post to share with all of you!

Team PM & Ainsley

The fence that Peter built

It would be an understatement to say that we've spent a lot of our summer working on our yard ... it seems that the work never ends! The fence was the one thing we were really anxious to finish up ... and its finally done! Ok, well not really - but we're all closed in at least. Peter still has a lot of finishing touches to do, including adding the lattice work on top of the fence, trimming the fence posts and adding the fence post caps. BUT - at least we can put Fletch and/or Ainsley out there to play and know that they can't wander off. Here are a few shots of the fence and yard, including our new canopy on the deck.







And a few pictures of Peter hard at work - he did most of the fence all by himself! I did help to screw in several of the boards, but he did all the planning, measuring, sawing and more! I knew I married him for a reason ; )



Aside from the grass we haven't done too much landscaping yet this year, but I do have a few things planted including an ash tree in the front yard, and a very tiny maple tree in the back.


Now don't go and get the idea that Peter has been working away all summer and I've just been sitting around watching! I've done some painting and I think the living room and kitchen are pretty much done being decorated now .. maybe a few more finishing touches to come - but here's the paint job.





We knew from past experience that having a house is a lot of work ... but having a brand new house is even more work! We're hoping to get our driveway done next year and then hopefully have a couple years to enjoy all of our efforts before we have to move on!

Team PM & Ainsley

Peter & I always complain that our least favorite part of living in Cold Lake is the lack of cultural activities. And, by 'cultural activities', I don't mean Buck-offs, Bull-a-ramas or Rodeos - because there are plenty of those to go to! Though we are surrounded by First Nations Reserves, we also live in an area that was largely settled by Ukrainian immigrants in the early 20th century. So ... there continues to be a strong presence of that culture in Alberta today - as we found out on Saturday when we attended the Glendon Perogy Festival! In its 18th year, the Glendon Perogy Festival celebrates Ukrainian culture with music, dancing, lots of perogies to eat and of course - a perogy eating contest. We drove down for lunch on Saturday afternoon and for $6 got a plate of perogies, sausage and onions.
'Good' does not describe how tasty these perogies were! Ainsley looks a little funny in the picture because she was mid-bite, but she loved the perogies too!



Glendon is a very small town, with only one restaurant and a main street that pretty much makes up their village. They do boast Perogy Park, the Perogy Café & Perogy Drive which is the main street through town. In 1993, the town unveiled its roadside tribute to the perogy. The giant perogy complete with fork, is 25 feet tall and is one of the 'Giants of the Prairies', which are a series of over-sized roadside attractions that dot highways throughout areas that were settled by Ukrainian immigrants. To read a list of all the giant attractions visit this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_of_the_Prairies.




As an aside, I have to point out that there are many spellings of the word perogy ... I've always spelled it with an 'e', and apparently in Glendon they spell it with a 'y'.

After we ate lunch, we went over to the little play ground so Ainsley could go on the swings. There was some local musicians entertaining the crowd, so after Ainsley was done her swinging, off she went to dance around! She certainly was the center of attention!!





It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. After we came home, we finished working on our fence and got it all closed in. We still have to finish the lattice work on top and a few other finishing touches. Pictures to follow soon!

Team PM & Ainsley

Dancing Queens!

I posted this video on Facebook also, so I apologize if any of you are 'double viewers'! Though, once you see it you may want to watch it again because it is too darn funny!! I laughed the whole time I filmed them ... what a pair! And, as I said on Facebook ... I promise that all they'd had to drink that day was milk and water : )
Enjoy! (If I haven't already mentioned this before - Ainsley LOVES to dance!)

AETE Family Day

Yesterday AETE hosted family day in their hangar on base. (AETE: Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment is where Peter works). They started out the day with a pancake breakfast and had all kinds of things planned for kids. Also, there were helicopter rides running all day for immediate family members. My flight was scheduled for 4:40 pm, but something went wrong with the helicopter around 3:30, so I never did make it up - I guess I'll have to wait until next year! Either way, we had lots of fun, mostly Ainsley who most of the activities were geared towards : )

Here she is in the kids play area.





Heading to the slide - military style ; ) Ainsley was not super excited about this slide ... it was a bit long for her to go down by herself; I was at the bottom to catch her, but she was still pretty uncertain about the whole thing. Two rides down was enough for her!





Peter took Ainsley in the bouncy castle ... another activity she was not too sure about! The funniest thing was that they had to wear socks inside the castle .. neither of them had socks on, but there was a basket of clean socks for people to use just outside the castle. Well, I came back from the washroom and saw Peter putting these enormous socks on Ainsley and just cracked up!! They looked so funny on her, and Peter looked so funny trying to get them on!! Little did he know that she had a pair of tiny socks in the diaper bag ; )






I took Ainsley on a little ride in a very tiny fire truck. As you can see, I was a little large for it, which is why my head is bent in that weird way! We just didn't think she would have liked going on her own ... even though there were seatbelts.


Ainsley was also lucky enough to have her face painted! When we walked over to the table to have it done, Peter said to the girl 'Want a challenge?' She just smiled and I'm sure she was thinking, 'Oh, it can't be that bad'; well, it wasn't actually, but Ainsley did jerk her head a few times ... it still turned out pretty good!





Ainsley & I also got to go and sit in the F-18. That was very exciting for her ... there were lots of buttons and gadgets to look at and push : )




Finally, we were able to go up and see where Peter's desk is in 'cubicle jungle' as he calls is. And, lucky us - Peter showed us the 'messiest desk in NATO'!! Ha ha ... and no, it wasn't his!


The helicopter I was supposed to ride in ...


A very busy and fun day : )

Team PM & Ainsley