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Happy Halloween!

Connie, Dougie No Comments

What an exciting Halloween! Our neighbourhood was the perfect place for trick-or-treating! A combination of lots of houses that are close together makes a perfect place for little legs to go to get treats.

For the first year, in a while, Dougie was not Clifford. He didn’t express any opinion on what he should wear so it was perfect when Auntie Lou offered to loan us one of Molly’s old costumes. Dougie fell in love with it. He wanted to wear it to the grocery store in the middle of the month. He decided he was a bumble bee (“bungle bee”). Now, those entomologists in the reading audience may recognize this costume is not a bumble bee – but sometimes, those arguments are just not worth having.

Connie’s costume lends itself to less debate. She clearly is an elephant. Oh wait, no – a flower. :)

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Dougie inspecting Connie before they leave
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Okay, let’s go!
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One more picture with Dad before heading out the door.
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This year went really well for Dougie. He didn’t try to go into anyone’s house and he actually selected candies that he liked if he was given that option. He said thank you at almost everyone house too. It went perfectly until the second to last house. That house had someone who was trying to scare the kids as they came up. Clearly, not realizing that Dougie was 3, he jumped out and yelled as Dougie waited at the door. Scott said Dougie’s screamed so loudly that the neighbour came out to see what was wrong. The next house had some scary sounds and lights so Dougie decided they were done. In fact, they were so done that Scott had to carry him home.

Overall, a great day though and the kids both had a great time!

Wilcox Pass

Connie, Dougie No Comments

One of the best things about living in Calgary is how close we are to the mountains. So, when we’re trying to find a hike for the weekend – there are lots of beautiful places to go. Wilcox Pass has to be one of the most picturesque though. We had read about this hike for a while and had wanted to try it. So, after a busy August, we packed up our crew and headed up there.

We took the Bow Valley Parkway again because it increases our chance of seeing some wildlife on the way. We weren’t on the road 5 minutes before we saw several elk.

This guy was right beside the road (no idea what is on his head)
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We were glad to see that there weren’t too many cars in the parking lot when we got to the trail. One of the main complaints we had heard about this trail was that it can be very crowded. We got the gang out of the car and started up. The first part of the walk was nondescript just going through the woods but after about 30 minutes, we could start to see the glacier.

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Unfortunately, one of the downsides of hiking near a glacier is that it is COLD. We didn’t expect it to be as cold as it was because it was pretty warm in Calgary but the wind coming off the icefield and glacier. We had dressed as warmly as we thought was necessary but we could have done better. Dougie decided he wanted to go in the backpack for a lot of the walk which meant he wasn’t as active as we had planned and so he was a lot colder than any of us wanted.

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Regardless, we did make it to the pass. It was a fantastic hike and we will definitely try it again in the middle of the summer when it’s more likely to be a bit warmer.

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Sharabura Clan in Calgary, Summer Edition

Connie, Dougie No Comments

Auntie Suz had a bit of vacation time before starting a new job, and decided to see Calgary in a non-frozen month.  She flew to Vancouver, picked up Grandma and Grandpa, and went on a great drive through the Rockies.   After a long drive, the three of them finally rolled into Calgary.  Who knew, it was actually warm and nice for their stay!

Grandpa and the kiddies, surfing the Web

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Dougie and Auntie Suz hangin’ out

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Grandma demonstrating the wonders of digital cameras (both Dougie and Auntie Suz look enthralled!)

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Sharabura girls rock!

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Higher, Grandpa, higher!
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Future winners of the Daddy Daughter Dance competition

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“This is how you do it, Auntie Suz!”

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Lake Louise

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And we’re off to the mountains again. Mom and Dad have never been to Lake Louise and that seemed like a shame. So, we took a day trip out there so they could see how spectacular it was in person. We started with a stop at Lake Louise.

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It was a beautiful day and a great day to visit.

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From Lake Louise, we headed over to Moraine Lake. I’ve learned that is the correct order to see these two areas. Mom and Dad agreed.

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We didn’t have a lot of time at Moraine Lake but Mom got a few good pictures while Dad wandered around checking the prices of renting a canoe. The kids and I waited.

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We were back in the car and headed back in time for the kids to catch a little nap. It was a long trip but we were all glad that we took a bit of time to go out there for the day.

Hoodoos with Grandma and Grandpa

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We continue to tour Grandma and Grandpa around Alberta. Today, we took them to see the hoodoos.

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Connie was a lot more into the experience this time.

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My parents really enjoyed the experience. It is definitely different than anything in Mississauga!

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From the hoodoos, we went into Drumheller. The last time we came out as a family, we wanted to go to the museum there but we ran out of time. Fortunately, this time, we made the time. We expected that Dougie would love it. They have lots of dinosaurs and we thought he would be thrilled. We were wrong. Very very wrong.

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You can see the fear. This trip started the mantra of “but it’s not going to eat Dougie.”

Overall, it was a fun day trip but it will be a while before we go back to the museum.

Troll Falls Hike

Connie, Dougie No Comments

My parents came out for a visit. We were very excited to show them the Alberta that we are starting to love so we took them out to Kananaskis for a small hike. Troll Falls is a lovely short hike without too much elevation gain so we figured it would be good for everyone. The scenery is quite nice too so it made for a nice day.

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You don’t stay on this path for long before you head off into the woods and on a bit rougher path. That mountain ahead is a ski hill called Nakiska.

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Dougie walked quite a bit of this himself. We’ve learned that if we give him a stick to hold, he’s happy to walk on his own for quite a while. It didn’t take too long for us to make it to the falls. There was another family there having a picnic so we got them to take our picture.

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Mom and I hiked a bit up the falls so I could show her why it was called Troll Falls.

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Look, a troll!

We headed back to the car and went into Canmore for lunch. Then, since we were so close, we decided to take my parents up to see some nice mountain views. This location also happens to be the site of our Mountain nemesis, Ha Ling Peak (more on that another time). There is a spectacular lake at the bottom of the mountain where we stopped for a few pictures.

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Daddy and Dougie stopped to skip a few stones.

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It was a great day in one of our favourite parts of Alberta.

Stampede!!!

Connie, Dougie No Comments

It’s Stampeded time in Calgary and that means the entire city channels their inner cowboy and celebrates living in the West. We decided that, as new Calgarians, it was our obligation to attend the parade with the kids. Scott had the day off work (yes, parade day is a holiday) so we headed downtown.

I was fortunate enough to be able to buy tickets for the bleachers so we didn’t need to get downtown too early though I didn’t realize that they were at the end of the parade route which meant an extra 45 minutes of waiting for the parade to start. I’ll know better next year. There were lots of folks that came through to entertain the waiting masses though so at least we weren’t staring at an empty street the whole time.

Connie in her best cowboy outfit
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She is just mastering clapping so she took every opportunity to give it a try.

The kids were so excited to be there
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Finally, the parade started. The grand marshals were Jet and Cord from the Amazing Race. These guys were, by far, my favourite Amazing Race team ever – so it was pretty exciting to see them.

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Wow, an entire float dedicated to me? What an honour. :)

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After a while, this came along.

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I thought this was just brilliant! They decorated street cleaning truck and then sent it down the road to clean up after anything the horses may have left. Dougie did not like this. I think it may have been the noise but he shrieked every time they came down the street. In an hour and a half parade, that was a lot more often than we were happy about.

Look, there’s another one.

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Hmm, he’s a little out of place here in Calgary, in the summer
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Connie just took the whole thing in.

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Nothing really scared her once the people stopped yelling “Ya hoo” as she was trying to nap.

Overall, we had a great time! We’d go again but we’d be sure to get seats closer to the start of the parade route.

A Day at the Park

Connie, Dougie No Comments

Living next to a park sure has some advantages, we’re never more than putting shoes on away from a little trip over there.

Dougie loves the swing! He sometimes will use his legs to keep going but for the most part, he likes to be pushed.

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Connie is content to hang out in the stroller

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Dougie is also a huge fan of the slide

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No matter what else he does, it always comes back to the slide

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This last trip to the park, we decided to try Connie in the swing, and then Dougie decided to help

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We love how much they love each other!

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Another Year Older

Connie, Dougie 1 Comment

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.

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Connie loved the entire trip. She was constantly looking around, watching the scenery and her brother.

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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.

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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.

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The kids both really enjoyed having a special day with their dad.

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Tomorrow we go back to normal, but were so happy to be able to share a very special day celebrating Scott.

Train of Thought

Dougie No Comments

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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.