Speech Update

Not to long ago, our speech therapist (who is no longer leaving the city!) was over for what we thought was her final visit with us before she move out east. We've been seeing her since February and the boys have become quite attached to her. Usually about 2 weeks after her visit Grady asks when R is coming back to play. He gets that she is here to help Cooper talk but she always includes Grady which means he loves her to. Just before she left on her last visit Grady asked R if she wanted to see him ride his bike. She of course said yes and we went outside as she was leaving so Grady could show off. She said all the right things. As Grady biked away I thanked her for watching him as that is obviously not a part of the job description and she told me she loved kids and that is why she does what she does. Couldn't ask for a better person to come to our home and work with Cooper.

The good news is that next time Grady asks when R is coming back we'll have to tell him that she won't be back for a while.  Her next visit will be in 3-6 months, but most likely right after his third birthday.  Our little man has been dismissed from regular visit and we couldn't be happier.

Over the last few months his speech has exploded. Not only with new words, but with sentences.  Because he started talking late he already had all the comprehension he needed to take off. 

Here are some of the little sentences that he says that make me smile.

Grady bugging me (To which I usually reply 'He's bugging me to')
Those girl shoes (when I showed him my pretty new flowered shoes)

New coat mommy?

When daddy home?

What his name?
Cooper go bike ride
two minutes mom, two minutes (when we tell him it is bed time
Jasmin, supper ready!
Mommy, lay with me. (Every night before bed)
Mom - Poop! (Music to my ears still)

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I love that we see improvement all the time and that we can take a break from our monthly (or more) sessions with R.  We love her to pieces and she did such a great job with Cooper that we hope our future sessions with her are numbered.

Good work Cooper! 

My love and hate of my new shoes

A few weeks back while running an errand, I happened to walk by Nine West and they were havin g a 40% off sale.  How could I not stop?  Since returning to work after Cooper was born I have become a shoe-aholic.  I used to be a brown or black kind of girl. If you were wearing black you wore black shoes, if you were wearing brown or navy you wore brown shoes. Life was simple back then.... Now my shoe collection was growing but was missing a certain color that I had been admiring.

I dragged (not really, she came pretty willingly, or a lot actually) a coworker with me specifically to try on a pair of emerald green shoes that I had been coveting all summer.  They were $120 regular price.  Working close to the mall, I have learned to never pay full price.  For anything.  This particular day, all the sale shoes were an additional 40% off.   

Here are the shoes that I ended up going for and buying


oh how I love you emerald green shoes that I adored all summer

They are a perfect patch to my emerald green sweater that I bought with friend back in the spring. 

She bought emerald green flats that day to match the sweater and I thought it would look great and so started my search for the green pump.  Have you worn the green flats yet?  Yes Stacey, I'm talking to YOU!

While I was there I noticed these floral shoes.  I wasn't sure about them but they were the exact same style as the green ones so I said to bring them out to if they didn't have the green ones in my size.  She misunderstood and brought them both out.  I loved them, like LOVED them.  I knew I wouldn't get as much wear out of them but I could wear them for years to come.  So I added them to my purchases.

The next day I wore them to work with my new pink pants.  You can't tell in the picture but they are fuchsia, but not an over the top fuchsia.  I think i could even pull them off in the winter.  I plan to anyway.

And just so you can see how pretty the shoes are here is a close up.

eeeeek!  Aren't they pretty

In the end, I walked out of the shoe store with 2 pairs of shoes for $100, less than the cost of 1 pair regular price.  Now that is why I don't buy anything full price!

I wonder if my boys (or their wives) will read this down the way and be so embarrassed by my wardrobe choices.  Maybe even I will be embarrassed by my choices when I read it in 20 years!  Ha!

Anyhow, you can obviously see where the 'love' part of this post comes from.  Now on to the 'hate'.

I happily wore my flowered shoes the first day as I seriously thought they were the cutest thing ever.  While I was walking from my car to work, my heal kept slipping out.  Like on every step.  To the point where I had to keep my toes curled to keep my shoes on.  Had I purchased the wrong size?  I couldn't have as they are very snug at the ball of my foot.  Could I possibly have overlooked that although they were snug at the bottom of my foot that the shoe was in fact too long? 

I couldn't even walk from my office to the drug store to by insoles for them. I had to slip on the flip flops I keep under my desk in the event that I have to walk all the way to Winners or Sport Chek at lunch. Ha!  I bought some insoles and it made it better but almost made them too small.  Still not 100% happy about the fit which means I am likely to not wear them as much.  They are a final sale so I will muster up the courage to wear them occasionally, remember, they are seriously cute shoes :)

The worst part is that the 2 pairs of shoes are exactly the same fit meaning I have the same issue in the green shoes to.  I loaded them up with insoles as well but they just aren't comfy like the rest of my heels.

So as much as I LOVE the way my new shoes look, I kind of HATE the way they fit.   I have not given up on them quite yet.  I visited a shoe maker today and they have some great insoles that may help more then the Shopper's Drug Mart version.   Fingers Crossed.

Summer Soccer

This is Grady's third summer of Sportball soccer. The first 2 summers were full of gorgeous sunny evening of playing soccer. The first year was parented so I got to run on the field with him, the past 2 seasons I,ve gotten to sit on the sidelines and watch him play... or catch up with my friends whose kids are also playing.

This year I convinced 2 friends that they should put their kids in soccer so we can catch up watch our kids play weekly together.  I told them all about the sunshine, the heat, the smiles, and they were all in. 

Then the season started.

It literally rained every week Monday at 5pm.  Every week.  The first week of Soccer my friend texted me and asked if it would be cancelled because of rain and I texted back it had never rained in my 2 previous years of playing.  We all arrived at the field and the soccer went on as planned.  The kids didn't care after all.

There was one Monday in particular where it was actually raining.  Pouring really.  But since it wasn't lightening, the game went on.  We had rain jackets, umbrellas, and lots of smiles.  From the kids.  Our blankets got wet and the adults and younger kids were cold.  Those older kids, they ran around the field with smiles on their faces.  Now that is a true soccer Mom.

While I don't have pictures of the rain we endured week after week. I do have pictures from one of our drier days where it was safe to take the camera to the field.

Grady is number 18 in the photos. Ha!  He is also the one with blue socks and bright blue shoes.

The sportball programs are great.  We've had our kids in the outdoor and indoor sessions and the coaches are always full of energy. Even in the rain. 

 

Grady always has an active cheering squad facing the wrong direction.  This particular day we had to put our blankets on the pavement as there was a massive ant hill in front of us.  I've never felt anything like it when all the ants started crawling across my feet. Gross.

I love that they run for essentially the entire hour and then play even more at the park after.  Not to mention that Grady gets to 'catch up' with his friends all week during the summer where it tends to be harder to get together on weekends. 

Cooper likes that there is a 'forest' beside the field that he can run through, because let's face it, watching your older brother play soccer is kind of boring. 

 

Today is Grady's last 'game' of the season and we are hoping that the skies don't open up unexpectedly at 5pm!

Can you find a trendy outfit at Sears?

We have had a little bit of drama around the purchase and subsequent return of the bouncy castle we bought for Grady's birthday.  The first one had a hole in it.  So we went through the hassle of returning it and reordering it only to have the second one have a hole in it to.  We ended up keeping it with a good discount and plan to duck tape where the leak is.  Anyhow, in all the trips to and from the Sears store catalogue section (where we ordered it from) I picked up a Sears catalogue.

Now I grew up with the Sears catalogues piled up at my house.  My mom used to order a lot of stuff from Sears for her and the kids.  She still orders lots from the Sears catalogue.  I remember being so excited when the wish book came out and I would circle all the things I wanted for Christmas.    I will still pick up a wish book if I happen to see one to bring home to my kids so they can circle what they want for Christmas.  I come by it honestly, my Mom still circles the items in the flyers that she is going to buy.

So while I was flipping through the fall catalogue, I came across this outfit. 


I LOVE everything about this outfit.  I love the blazer (and remember I usually don't like blazers) because it is shaped and collarless.  I realize now that being colorless is key me liking a blazer.  I LOVE the color of the red skirt - it is that perfect fall shade of red, like leaves that fall off the tree....  I also love the pattern mixing.  I'd really like to do more of this but I am a little unsure of what patterns to mix.

So in true Christy fashion, I order the entire outfit.  I waited a week and went to pick it up from the local laundromat, the closest Sears pickup outlet.  I couldn't wait to get it home and try it on so I could blog me in it.  Nothing fit.  Nothing.  I ordered my usual size and apparently Sears sizing is way off, like WAY off.

The blazer was too big for me to even judge if I liked it, I did like the skirt but was unsure about whether it would stretch and wrinkle, and the shirt was all sorts of WRONG.    So I headed back to the lap top and ordered everything in a size or two smaller. I again waited, and a week later brought the first bag back to return and pick up the new bag.

The blazer still was the wrong fit and just didn't look like it did on the model. Surprise, surprise.  I went back and forth on the skirt as it was a good deal, BUT I didn't love it enough to keep it.

So I had a challenge, to find a lined cotton or wool pencil skirt in either a color or a print.  Something bold.  Very Christy-like.  Then it went 40% off at Banana Republic and I found this skirt.  I ordered it in the 'New Vermillion' which looks like a coral because it was 40% off the sale price and I scored it for $40.  I love the royal blue, but alas, it was not on sale.

I had hoped to show you a picture of me in my outfit looking at least half of good as the model.  But I failed.  Hopefully the one I ordered will fit the bill for the pencil skirt I need want.

Potty Training - Take 2

This past weekend was dedicated to potty training our young Cooper. He was at exactly the same age as Grady was when we potty trained him so we cleared the schedule and planned to stay home while we hoped to get rid of Cooper's diapers once and for all. While we used the 3 day potty training to a tee with Grady, we loosely based Cooper's training on it. We still went out. We still used diapers at night. We still hoped he would be trained in 3 - 7 days. Fingers crossed.

If you've been reading for a while... you'll remember that Grady did not exactly 'train' easily. While the pee thing seemed to go well, the poop thing did not. We crossed our fingers, our toes, and even our eyes in hopes that Cooper would not have the same issues.

 We started talking about the diaper fairy about a month ago. Not much at first, but as the date approached we talked about it more and more. The diaper fairy would come and take away all the diapers and Cooper would have to wear underwear and pee and poop in the potty. 

Friday night I had to go to the mall and do a return and we brought the kids. We decided since there was no way we were going into the disney store without buying something that we would let them each buy a 'prize' and that they would get to open when Cooper got 10 stickers on his potty chart. We told Grady that he had to help Cooper and encourage him to pee on potty and cheer for him when he did. 1 sticker for pee and 2 stickers for poop. Grady obviously got it, but Cooper not so much.

 That night Cooper cried countless times while we were putting him to bed because he wanted to open his toy. The kid was just not getting it and I regretted buying it. Couldn't go back now. Cooper did pee on the potty before bed so we let him add a sticker to his chart. That didn't really help as he again wanted to open his toy. Live and learn I guess.

Day 1

Saturday morning Cooper woke up and we put his underwear on before we even went downstairs.  All was going well.  We managed to catch his first pee AND poop!  The day was off to a great start. Then.... we missed the next 4.

He seemed to be getting it though.  He would start to pee, stop, and call for me.  Well technically he just started crying and looking down.  I ran him to the toilet and he finished his pee there.  I though that was a good start for day 1!

The first pair of underwear he chose to wear were these 'race car' ones.

The rest of the day was spent watching for Cooper to pee just a little and running him to the bathroom to finish his business.  We even got brave and headed to the park.  We decided peeing on a tree was just like peeing in the toilet.

I packed up a bag of 3 spare outfits and a couple pull ups.  Just in case.   We did water one tree.  It was hard to stay inside all weekend in August compared to March when we trained Grady.  Especially since it was the first nice day we've had in what feels like weeks.

Backyard fun in his coordinating undies.  

We actually spent most of our day playing in the backyard and with the little potty at our side. Even Grady used it a time or to.....

Oh and we decided for night to use a full fledged diaper.  We weren't confident that a pull up would hold the amount of pee that this kid puts out at night. Especially after a day where we forced him to drink all day - more fluid means more practice!

Eyeing up his prize that he couldn't wait to open.

Day 2

We woke up this morning and promptly put C in his underwear.  James really wanted to leave the house. I was hesitant.  We were supposed to be potty training and it is really hard to do when there isn't a bathroom close by.....  We decided to go to the spray park and hope for the best.  How many nice summer weekend do we get? Not many.

Drink up!  More fluids means more practice!

 We did OK.  We caught one pee in the potty and missed a poop.  I get really stressed about the poops in the underwear as it brings back horrible memories of 10 long months with Grady.  In the end, I wished we had just stayed home.  Live and learn.



Was so happy to finally get his 10 stickers! 

In the end, Day 2 was kind of a repeat of day 1. He would pee a little (or a lot) I would pick him up and haul him to the bathroom and he would finish the job.  Maybe day 3 will be the break through day?

Once the 10th sticker was reached the potty chart was retired. They didn't even bother to put the last sticker on.

Day 3

It was near impossible to stay home on Day 3.  I only have Mondays off to get things done and on this particular Monday it was a trip to the doctors.  We went to the bathroom before we left and then again when we arrived.  No one had to go when we left so we chanced it.

Happy boy!

When we got home I set the kids up on the couch with a show and made a phone call to my friend Sara.  While I was on the phone he told me had to me pee .  Told me.  Then it happened, he told me he had to POOP.  The kid pooped in the potty, not once but THREE time.  Sara can attest to all the times I had to stop chatting to help him with the potty.   She was able to share in my joy.  Any Mom totally gets how exciting it is that moment your kid asks to pee.

And just like that, the kid seems to get it.  Sine the first time he asked to go to the bathroom (which is still sitting in our family room) he hasn't had an accident.  Not to say that he won't, but holy moly, could he actually have been potty trained in the three days???

 

I hope so.

Day 4 to 10

Overall, things have gone great.  Cooper has been telling us he has to pee and has had very few accidents.  We bring him in public, we went on a road trip, and all was good.  Then there was the poop.  We thought we had him, we really did. After the day he went 5 times in one day ALL IN THE TOILET I thought we got it.    Then Wednesday he went in his underwear.  I thought it was a fluke. No big deal he had an accident.

Then it happened again on Thursday.  And I panicked.

For the weekend you could tell he didn't want to poop in the toilet.  He paced, he circled it, we all knew he had to poop but he would not sit on it and do his thing.

Although we didn't have success at getting him to poop on the potty this weekend.  He did poop on the ground at the park.  In 2 years of Grady being trained we have never had to poop at the park.  Well after only week Cooper put me to the test because of course we were out on our own.

I knew he had to poop so we pulled down his pants and I leaned him back because of course he didn't know how to squat like normal people who poop in the bush.  The first time (yes first time) it happened we did a good job of getting it all out.  I used some tree burlap on the ground to pick up the dog child poop and put in the garbage, then it happened again.

This time we got it everywhere. In the process of trying to get his pants down we ended up with poop everywhere and had to go home.   I will never forget the bag with wipes in it again when we go to park.  Never.

I hope that gave you a good laugh on this Tuesday morning!  Please send good vibes our way as I don't think I can handle another 10 months of poopy underwear.

Another Birthday

Saturday was James' birthday. Husband, not brother.  Yes, it is odd that my brother and husband have the same name and birthdays 3 days apart.  Not to mention that me and his brother are one day apart.  4 siblings and birthdays all within 2 weeks.  Weird.

Anyhow.... since James' birthday was a Saturday this year we decided to spend the day in the mountains and attempt our first family hike.

I took about 6 pictures of the my three boys and didn't get a single one with both James and Grady's eyes open. Cooper on the other hand looked cute awake in all of them.  I guess he takes after me in the picture department because his brother sure doesn't.  This is the best I could do for a birthday shot.

Our traditional birthday hat photo

We literally started the day with present opening.  Someone may have slipped a few weeks back in telling James what he was getting for his birthday so he wanted to open it first thing and find out exactly which espresso machine he was getting.  The kids were all over helping him.

They were extra impressed in the Cars wrapping paper.

After presents we ate Land of Nod cinnamon buns.  The best. cinnamon. buns. EVER.  If you haven't tried them, you should.  And to top it off they are super duper easy.

However, I don't recommend putting candles in it when it is hot.  Our candles literally melted in the bun.  It ended up being quite colorful.

Look at how much cinnamon bun is there and we ate the entire thing over the course of 1.5 days.  It is that yummy!

Again the kids helped Dad with the candles.  You know, because he wasn't capable of doing it himself.

After breakfast James insisted on making a latte on his new machine so we were delayed about an hour while James read the instruction book and got the machine up and running.  We finally left for the mountains just before 10.

We decided to do the Johnston Canyan hike just past banff.  James and I did a few times years ago and remembered it being easy and paved with waterfalls.  So we thought we could bring a stroller for Cooper and just take our time.   Thankfully, Grady decided to walk and he did a great job by the way.

What we didn't remember was how narrow most of it was and how many people were there.  I don't think we'll be doing that hike again anytime soon.  Although the scenery was beautiful, I didn't get to enjoy any of it as I was too busy trying to maneuver Cooper's stroller and keep it as far to the right as possible as not to annoy to many people. I'm pretty sure that was NOT accomplished.  I would not advise bringing a stroller on this hike.

My second complaint was that there were so many people you weren't able to stop and enjoy the view without holding others up.  Grady wanted to stop and climb a few rocks and Cooper and I had to continue on as the stroller was partially blocking the path.

Next time I would look for an easy hike that was less populated so we could take our time and enjoy the wilderness and let the kids stop to play along the way.  Live and learn. We still enjoyed our first family hike - especially Grady.  He loved the waterfall at the end.

We waited in line to go through the cave and look at it up close.  Grady was amazed by the mist from the waterfall that made your face wet and the rocks wet.  

The best part of the hike is that there is ice cream shop at the bottom.

Since the hike literally took us about 30 minutes return we werent' sure what to do with the rest of the day.  I certainly didn't want to go home yet.  So we stopped in Canmore at Quarry Lake park.  It was my favorite part of the day.

We walked up expecting to skip a few rocks and we found a bunch of people in their bathing suits swimming in the lake.  Don't get me wrong, it was cold water but bearable.

Grady asked to go in immediately so we took the kids pants off.

Eventually, we had 2 almost naked kids running around.

I could have watched them all day.  They were having so much fun.  They splashed around jumped in the puddles.  We left because it was getting late and James and I had supper plans, certainly not because the kids wanted to.  We will for sure be going back there in the future. 

We rushed back home, got cleaned up, and went for dinner just the 2 of us.  We snapped this selfie just before we went to bed.  We did the one where you can flip and see yourself in the camera.  I am laughing so hard at James odd expression in the photo.  I already that he isn't photogenic... right?

All in all it was a great day with a mix of family time and alone time.  I hope James enjoyed the day as much as I did!

Big Boy Bed

Before we left on vacation we decided it was time to buy Cooper a mattress for his bed. It was time. As much as both him and I loved him sleeping in the crib, we were also getting ready to potty train and it seemed crazy to keep him in the crib and longer.

So one Sunday afternoon Grady and I headed to the mattress store to pick one out. It was supposed to be a family affair but Cooper was having the tantrum of a life time so we went with out him. In no time at all we ordered the mattress and it was supposed to come in while we were on vacation. That was perfect so we could arrange delivery the week we were home.

On our long drive home, James and I decided that we would spend the day on Sunday converting Cooper's crib into a double bed. James was leaving for the week and we didn't want the mattress to arrive and not have a place to put it. We bought the crib 5 years ago and along with it, a conversion kit so that we could easily convert the crib to a double. Surprisingly we remembered where everything was. I'm actually kind of proud of us for putting it in the first place we looked 5 years later, the baby purchases folder!

With a trip to Rona for a missing piece,James had the thing converted pretty quickly. The new question became where was cooper going to sleep while we waited for the mattress to arrive. Short answer, his crib mattress on the floor.



Finally... freedom from the crib!



He actually transitioned to his 'bed' really well. There was one night that he followed me into my room after I tucked him in to see what I was doing, and another night that he and I essentially went to bed at the same time, but other than that, he has been napping and sleeping in his bed without incident.

Except the first night.

The first night of his interim bed on the floor, there was a bad storm that set the house alarm off. While James charged downstairs to turn the alarm off, I rushed to Cooper who woke up from the loud noise. He asked me to lay with him. I'm thinking that there is no way Cooper and I are both going to fit on his tiny little crib mattress, so I laid on the floor beside him. Usually I just have to lay with him for a few minutes but he seemed to be scared of the lightning and thunder which resulted in my laying on the floor for close to 30 minutes!

We waited and waited, I called a few times, and there was still no mattress more than a week after its estimated date.  In the end, the mattress was delivered exactly 2 weeks after it was supposed to arrive in the warehouse.  It was also the day that we left for the long weekend which meant he didn't even get a chance to sleep in it before we left.  He was very excited to show me his new bed when I got home from work.

Here is young Cooper the first night he actually got to sleep in his new bed. Someone was really excited!

Now let's take a little trip down memory lane.... here is the freshly painted bedroom in April 2008. 

Then in May 2008, John and James assembled the crib and moved the dresser in. 

 

And just this month it went from a baby's room to a preschooler room.

Notice that I really only moved the furniture around and changed nothing on the wall.  That would require extra work we just didn't want to do. I am really happy with how it turned out and to think it started out as my exercise and clothing room when we moved in nearly 10 years ago.... 

Truthfully, I was sad to see the crib go. It really says that we don't have a baby in the house. I know, I know, we haven't had a baby in the house for a long time, but this made it a little more final.

I must also admit that I find comfort in knowing that Cooper is kind of still sleeping in the crib, well, in a different form. Both my babies slept in that thing from the day they were born (not as much as I would have liked at first!)

With any luck, that crib bed will be around for many years to come and I'm happy about that!  I don't know if my heart could have let the crib leave the house.  For the most part, I am a purger, but when it comes to purging the kids stuff, it is much MUCH harder.

Today is my little brother's birthday

 Happy Birthday James! (brother, not husband)

Over the long weekend it came to my attention that James wanted me to blog about him.  I was interested to hear this as I generally don't blog about anyone else because I don't know their thoughts on their lives being shared on the Internet.  

What a great day to tell you all about my brother, his birthday.  He may regret telling me to blog about him more after this little walk down memory lane.

In honor of his 32nd birthday, I am here to tell you a few of my favorite stories about my annoying, but lovable, little bro.

He totally went for pics as Sears with his BFF.

When we were young, we always used to fight over the front seat, so one day when Mom picked us up from daycare and I had beat him to the car, he picked up a big rock up and threw it at my head.  I was 5 but I still remember that there was blood oozing from my head.  

We often stayed at my Grandma's when my mom needed a vacation from us (can't say I blame her).  One time we were at the lake fighting as usual and she told us we were going to have a fighting match.  She gave us oven gloves and told us to put them on.  There were a few rules, no hitting, no biting, no kicking.  Then she yelled GO!  We just stood there baffled by how we could fight with essentially no touching!

Evidence of permed mullet

My little bro had some wicked hair styles. See above photo.  He had race tracks shaved on the side of his head, he had a mullet with a perm, and even bleached his hair.  I have never seen a guy have so much variety with their hair!

If you look closely, I think this is a modified mullet with spikes in the front

When we were young, James always got caught when he had a party when Mom was out of town.  One time he even organized a party and decided to call off the party last minute and we all had to hide in the house with the lights off while kids came to the door.  Somehow, I never got caught :)

Such cuties

 One time my Grandma also locked us out of her house in the winter.  Well... sort of.  She took the time to get us all bundled up so we could play outside like we asked.  Within 5 minutes we were asking to come back in and she told us we had to stay out longer after all the work it took to get us dressed. 

Nice outfit

One time when James and I were fighting while on a road trip Mom got so mad at us that she pulled over and said we couldn't get back in until we did 10 jumping jacks.  She meant business.  We were laughing so hard by the time we got back in the car that we forgot we were even fighting.  I plan to use this little trick with my kids in the future. 

my mom made those shorts

 One time when I was about 10 I left my diary in the living room wide open for James to read cover to cover. I was so embarrassed that I threw the diary away after.  When we were older he went as far as going through my garbage to read the notes (how old school is that) that I wrote to my friends.  I got him back by reading the notes from his first girlfriend that he hid in his room.  Zing!

I remember biking to school with him almost every day.  One time he got winded as we were biking up a hill and I had to stop and call my mom from a strangers house while crying since I thought he couldn't breathe.

yet another mullet

 Coming from a single parent home, we often ganged up on Mom.  She would get so mad at us and tell us she was going for a walk and we would happily wave to her from the window.  As a parent now, I understand how infuriating that would be!

another pose, I hope just to show his newly lost teeth

My brother was a star performer, and still is really (as we saw the night before his wedding.  You are lucky that I didn't ask Kolby for that video - I'm not that mean though!). My favorites by far were his performances to Baby Got Back and Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.  I wish they had iphones back then.....

Nice bow tie.  I'm guessing mom picked this outfit

As we got older, our relationship changed. While we spent a semester living in Saskatoon going to university, I had him and his roommate over every Monday for a home cooked meal.  They were quick to tell me if they liked it or not.  Nothing like an honest critic.

 

And as we got older, although we didn't live as close as I would have liked, we remained close.  I was only a phone call away if he needed girl advice (and he did call), when he found out he was having a baby, or when he finally got engaged!  I love how we have that bond that only siblings can have.  We can go months without seeing each other but we are both excited to share our news with each other first.

Now with texting we are able to keep in touch on a more regular basis as my bro is NOT a phone guy.  Really, what guy is?  My brother and I are very different but yet the same.  I love that I got to share my childhood with this guy.

Happy Birthday James!

Aug Long - Part 2

On to what we actually did once we arrived at our destination.  This will always be remembered as the trip where Grady learned to swim.

It stared in the hot tub on Friday night.  While we were in Kelowna, G started willingly putting his head in.  He just dipped the front in and would tolerate going under the water if he jumped in.  When he was in the hot tub on Friday he actually submerged his head.  Multiple times.  I think he is more confident in the hot tub since he can touch the ground and feels safe.  He did this a few times and everyone cheered - I was his biggest cheerleader - so so proud of him for getting over the fear.

We spent Saturday visiting Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Lorne who happen to have a great pool in their backyard.  We hoped for good weather and we got it!

I really hoped that Grady would continue with putting his head under.  He wanted to go to the hot tub to 'practice' but I convinced him to try in the pool.  The water in the shallow end was to his chest so he could take his water wings off.  After a few times of dipping his head in he got the confidence he needed to just take off swimming under water!! 

I use the term swimming loosely. He obviously wasn't swimming laps but he went under water and did the swimming motion.  We even had him going under our legs and diving for rings and such.  It was seriously night and day from our trip to Kelowna.  He just decided it was time to swim.  You could tell that he understood the whole holding your breath and keeping your mouth closed which he just didn't seem to understand before.  It was so great to share this moment with my family.  

We all know G's obsession with water slides and my Dad happens to have a slide at the pool.  I remember going down it all the time as a kid so it was so neat to see him learn to go down.  He started off watching Grandpa go down, then went down holding Grandma's hand, then he got caught in a net (shown below) and finally on his own.  The paparazzi was all over capturing the star :)

Cooper spent some time in the pool, but especially loves the hot tub.  He even took a 2 hour nap that afternoon so the rest of us could enjoy the sun and go for a bike ride.  Some of us (ahem James) enjoyed the sun a little too much and ended up burning.

All in all we had a great day playing in the pool and enjoying the sun we haven't seen much of this summer.  We can't wait to make a trip back out to visit next summer!

For the record, when we left my Dad's, Grady not only asked if we could get a dog, but a pool to....

Sunday was our day to spend with my Mom and John.  We had a nice day at the lake planned when this happened:

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Believe it or not, I have NEVER gotten a flat tire before, let alone on the highway with kids in tow.  I was so impressed with how quickly James and John got the tire changed all while we kept the kids strapped in the car.  We were literally pulled over on the side of the highway with no where to go.

I took this picture to show the boat we pulled up behind.  It also had a flat tire.  There were 2 young adults in the back of the boat in their bathing suits sunning and on their phones.  It wasn't until after we pulled away that we realized the boat wasn't hooked up to a truck and that it was gone to get the spare.  I guess they were just guarding the boat!

Since they only had a temporary tire we figured it was best to head back into town ad I suggested we go to the water slides.  Grady immediately asked what water slide?  We have not told him that my home town does in fact have an outdoor water slide park for good reason - we'll always have to go!  But after seeing how much fun it was, I would go back in a heart beat!

In my opinion, the water park is better than the one in Vernon and 1/3 of the cost.  Seriously.  My biggest complaint about the one in Vernon is there is no pool and nothing for the little kids to do.  This one was fully equipped with a play ground, a tot pool and slide, a regular pool, a kid slide, 2 regular slides and a tube slide.  Grady was able to go on all of it!

Cooper went on the big slides excitedly until he went down with Grandma.  Grandma was going to fast and ended up going under, with Cooper.  

This was right before they went under 

John and I were right there and didn't even have time to react she came up so quickly. In her mind it was forever and she couldn't figure out why we weren't moving.  Cooper cried but got over it.  It took him a few hours to forget about it but he did go back on the big slides, but not with Grandma!!! Ha!

Grandma even took a picture of me going down the slide.  Notice that I am sitting up and going very slow.  I like it that way!  My favorite slide was the tube one for the record.

Cooper stuck to the tot slide once he finally started going down on his own. I'm telling you this place had something for everyone.

 

We had such a great time at the water slides.  The funny thing is that since it was the long weekend, half the city was at the lake and the water slides weren't busy at all.  There were no lines and the pools weren't that full.  We spent almost 5 hours at the water slides and had to drag the kids out of the pool to leave.  We got them out in the nick of time as Grady started to go down hill right as we departed when we had to tell him that he couldn't go down the tot slide on his belly.  It was obviously time to go....

The great thing was that he continued to go under water. He did it on purpose at the end of each water slide.  I had to watch him closely to make sure he wasn't drowning as his swimming isn't exactly swimming.... I was so happy to see that he didn't revert back after  doing so well the day before.

The kids had such a great time that they asked to move there. Music to Grandma's ears but not so much to mom and dad's. HA!

We were so lucky to have such great weather and to get to do so many fun things with our families.  I can't say enough how much fun we had on this little get away.  The only problem I had with it was it was too short.

The kids won't soon forget the weekend that they got to spend visiting all their grandparent.  And I won't either!

Thanks for a great visit!