Scott is another year older. We had a wonderful day celebrating with him. He took the day off work and spent the day with the family.
My mother was in town this morning so we all had breakfast together and then stopped over to see my sister, Laurie, and her family. After a nice visit, we packed up the kids and headed to the mountains.
We managed to get there shortly after lunch and headed over to Lake Minnewanka for a family hike. Connie wasn’t quite up for hiking so I carried her but Dougie walked for most of the trek.
Connie loved the entire trip. She was constantly looking around, watching the scenery and her brother.
It was a fabulous day. I think it was over 70 degrees but there was still snow on the mountain and most of the lake was still quite frozen.
Since it was Monday, there weren’t a lot of people on the trail but we did find one who tried to take a family picture for us.
The kids both really enjoyed having a special day with their dad.
Tomorrow we go back to normal, but were so happy to be able to share a very special day celebrating Scott.
Today, we took the kids to the model train show. It was a huge hit with Dougie – Connie was not as enthralled but she couldn’t see much from where she was.
Though I’m sure the model train enthusiast wish we were there for them, we were in fact there for one guy – Thomas.
We started off in the back of the show because that’s where the stroller entrance was. Almost right off the bat, Dougie got to try driving a model train.
He didn’t totally “get” what he was doing or why. He mostly wanted to pick up the various cars, trains and other things on the table. After a short discussion about what we could and couldn’t touch, we made our way to the Lego table. It was amazing! Unfortunately, our pictures just did not turn out, so we continued on to the Lego/Thomas play area. Dougie got right into it.
It took a bit of convincing but we did manage to get Dougie away from the trains and onto some of the other areas of the show. There were some very impressive displays! One really caught Dougie’s eye though.
The guy running it was so friendly and good with the kids. He asked Dougie which character he’d like to see and then he loaded him up and put him on the track for him. Dougie could have stayed there all day.
(Notice Dougie is holding his own Thomas)
All in all, a fabulous morning. Of course, Dougie is even more interested in Thomas now than he was previously.
Dougie thinks special time with his sister is important. He gets very into their time and has to make it just right.
There, we can just hangout here, like this
Sadly, this particular “family moment” was quickly ended by mum as I felt the pillow may smother Connie – but it was so nice that he wanted to share a special moment with her.
As you may have noticed, many of our recent pictures of Dougie have had him less than completely dressed. We have been working on potty training – again.
Unfortunately, we’re still not having any luck. We keep reminding ourselves that this is not our milestone. Regardless, we still want it for him (okay, and a little for us). We’re trying a more relaxed approach now and hoping at some point, he’s going to get this.
As those who have lived gluten free for any length of time understand, the holy grail really is bread. We’ve been lucky to find a palatable bread after only trying a few brands. Though the bread “works” it really has to be toasted and at almost $7 for a half loaf – well, we felt there had to be another option. So, we decided that we would trying baking our own bread. We found a fabulous recipe and gave it a whirl.
Testing the water temperature for the yeast
Stirring the yeast so it can proof
Prepare the dry ingredients
Stir stir stir
This is NOT what properly proofed yeast looks like (more on that later)
Pushing Daddy Away, “Dougie’s turn!”
Dough – we could have shaped this better
The final product
The first shot at the bread was a tad disappointing. It was VERY yeasty tasting.
We tried again, this time, we got the yeast proofing right.
Still too yeasty.
We read online that sometimes the yeast isn’t given enough of a chance to rise so we thought we’d try to use the bread machine to make it (allowing it to do part of the stirring)… still too yeasty.
Anyone have a tip on what to try next? Everyone raves at how great the bread is but it just isn’t working for us.
Scott said, rolling over didn’t really count until you could do a full revolution.
Well, our Connie can roll.
Ready?
Here we go!
This is her new method for moving around the room. She starts on her playmat and, assuming she doesn’t get stuck on one of the posts, she just rolls from one side of the room to the other.
