Sylvan Lake, School, and September

I have been meaning to post for a long time about our holiday to Sylvan Lake at the beginning of September. But since it has taken me so long, I will also have to include the activities of the rest of the month as well. So here goes, a hopefully not-too-wordy post, with lots of pictures of the month's events.

We enjoyed a wonderful 5 nights at a cottage in Sylvan Lake at the beginning of this month. The weather was nice the first couple of days and then ended up being a little cool, but it was nice to get away as a family and spend some quality time together. Matt would have been able to do a lot more if he was not still on his crutches, but still enjoyed the get-away. The cabin was really cute, and the bunk beds were possibly the highlight of the whole experience for Jaina. She also loved exploring and playing at the beach. Here are some pictures:

Jaina started preschool this week. She is going 2 mornings a week. She's only been two days, and always claims to "forget" what they did all morning (we're sure it's because they have been going to the jungle gym for the last half hour and it's so exciting that it's all she can think about). She will tell us with a little prompting. It's interesting to be the parent and not the teacher, and be hearing our rambunctious little girl described as being "very quiet" at school. But we can tell she loves it because she has been playing school for the past few days, lining up all her imaginary students to explain rules to them and take them to the jungle gym. Here are some pictures of her this first week:

The first day of school:
Ready to go:
At school:
New school dress:
Here are some other pictures from the past week or so.

Cool clouds that came in one night before a rainstorm:Jaina and the "big mountain" at the Zoo:
Using the homemade "binoculars" at the Zoo (Devun is in the background):

Lewis Turns One

Well, officially he's no longer a baby, but a "toddler". Although this would be a better label for one who already toddles, so it gives me a good reason to call him my baby for a little while longer. Lewis turned 1 year old on August 31. Already. How fast a year can fly by, and how much a child can change in that time! We celebrated his birthday on September 1, with some family members (those that didn't live too far away!). It was so much fun to see everyone, Lewis and Jaina had a blast, and even the weather cooperated for the BBQ (the only uninvited guests were the bugs...). Lewis caught on pretty quickly to the gift-opening, thanks to/despite all the "help" from Jaina. And thank goodness for grandparents - the party never would have gone off without them since Matt was still unable to do much being on crutches. It was a great day and we enjoyed the company of all the guests very much. Here are two photo collages, one of the birthday boy doing his thing, and the other some of the pictures of the guests.

Lewis is now enjoying playing with all his new toys. (I, however, am slightly less enjoying cleaning them up daily...) It kind of surprised me how happy he was to have some "boy's" toys, like fire trucks and cars, to play with. Or maybe it's just that they are his, or new. One of his other new favourite things are books, which he loves to crawl over to and look at (and empty from all the bins), often bringing us one to read to him. It's so cute and we're glad he is interested in them. He has started to crawl in his own weird way (seems both our children didn't want to crawl in the conventional manner - Jaina bounced around on her bottom and really never crawled). He uses his arms to pull himself and one leg, dragging the other one underneath him. I tease Matt that it must be from watching him use only one leg all the time!


He has changed soooo much over the past month. He is so interested in everything and much more active. He is always noticing things and pointing to them with his questioning "umh?" sound or his "oooh" sound that sounds like he is trying to say that he both noticed something and is super curious about it. Seeing more of his personality and seeing him more active makes me wonder what he could be thinking so much of the time now. For example, he is in love with Jaina's play kitchen (and we all know he loves to eat...). He will go over there and open all the doors and empty drawers. When he gets his hands on the play utensils, he puts them in his mouth as if he's trying each one to see if there will be any food on it. He sometimes tries them in the play bowls too. It's very cute. But now that he can move his favourite game is, as my friend Kim puts it, "crawl and dump". Which is very tiring for me always cleaning up! We are again amazed by the changes that take place over that first year, and know that this next year is also a whirlwind time of growth, changes and new accomplishments. And I don't want to miss a minute of it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (and some happy ones too)

One of the reasons I haven't posted for a while is that the past month has been a little, well... crazy. Lots of not so good things have happened, and I wasn't going to post about them because I don't like to be negative. But then my friend Kim and I were discussing how when people blog and post pics on Facebook it's usually good and then everyone's lives look picture perfect and all rosy when really we've all got our ups and downs. And let's face it, the downs do make us stronger and to appreciate all that we do have, I think. So let me try to sum up the past month, and don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom, there have been some fantastic events as well. It really has been a month of high highs and low lows. It's life over the past month:

In the middle of July, we were upset to find out that my mom had a cancerous tumor in her colon. She receives really good care in Lethbridge and the doctors were quick to schedule surgery for the end of the month. Her surgery went well and they were able to remove the tumor completely by just removing a small section and she is recovering well from her surgery. She had some scary moments being taken to the ICU with irregular heart rhythms following surgery but got that all straightened out. Scans did show however that she has some cancerous spots or lesions on her liver as well. So she will be starting chemo next week for that, we've been told this treatment will be ongoing for 6 months. We are all very optimistic about it, because my mom is otherwise healthy and a very strong person, and she continues to have such a positive attitude which can do nothing but good for her.

So, while the kids and I were staying in Lethbridge, so I could visit my mom in hospital post-surgery, I get a phone call from Matt (who's living the bachelor life in Calgary while he works for 4 days). He's in the hospital because he had gone out for a walk late one night, decided to jog through a "park"/field to get home, and has fallen and broken his ankle. The poor guy rolled it, then fell on top of it, then tried to stand up on it, and then dragged himself to the curb where he waited 3 hours for someone to stop and help him. (I guess 6'5" guys don't feel nervous enough to take their cell phones with them when out walking in the dark...) He had to have surgery on it - 6 pins and a plate. So I left the kids with my in-laws (thank goodness for them!), hopped in the car and drove back to Calgary. Matt spent the night in the hospital, and after sleeping off the anesthetic and pain meds, and some lessons on using his crutches, we were in the car headed back to Lethbridge (his aunt and uncle were visiting from BC and he wanted to visit, and he wanted to see the kids that night). He now has an air cast (but still crutches) and is back at work for a few hours a day. We've been driving him and picking him up downtown because he can't drive or take transit. (From our house to downtown, 2 round trips a day, and they're only letting him work 4 hours. You do the math - it's not pretty). But we are glad he's ok and it wasn't any worse. On the bright side, we've spent lots of time together as a family this month. Here's a picture of Matt at his parent's house a couple of days after surgery:
Back at home. Cheesecake made 'specially for the patient:

Matt with the new air cast:

Anyways, it was the day after Matt broke his ankle that our very first nephew was born!! Oscar Philip Olfert was born August 3 in New York. Congratulations to Jason and Michaelia! Michaelia was 10 days overdue and was finally induced. Oscar was born by C-section after a long labor and had some water in his lungs, and somehow ended up having Strep B virus. So he had to stay in the NICU for 10 days for his antibiotic treatment. (This, just to add to the series of unfortunate events, we find out via cell phone call as I am driving hop-along back down to Lethbridge, shortly after he was discharged from hospital). But we are very happy and thankful that Oscar is healthy, and he has been home for a few weeks now. The new mom and dad are enjoying their little boy very much. We are excited to be a real Auntie and Uncle and we can't wait to meet him - not until they visit at Christmas though. Here's a picture of Oscar. He's so cute:

So we have a couple weeks at home to get our heads on straight, and a nice visit to Taber to spend a few days with my mom at home. (Right before we arrived, my Granny's close friend Joe passed away which was very sad for her as they spent a lot of time together. But my Granny was there with him, and he had been unwell for a while.) Last weekend we went to Wetaskiwin for a Mayer family reunion (my dad's side). It was a nice visit with family that we do not get to see very often. I did miss my dad, and thought how he would have enjoyed it too. I was so busy visiting (and keeping up with my kids) that I did not even take any pictures. I should have given the camera to Matt while he was sitting there with his foot up! We got home Sunday, and to my surprise Wednesday get a message from my cousin that my Auntie Marg had suffered a heart attack Sunday night in Edmonton. Last I heard though she was due to come home from the hospital and to take it easy at home, so fortunately she is alright.

So, our family and friends are in our thoughts and we hope that the rest of you are safe and sound and well. I am also very glad at the moment that I decided to stay home from work this year too, I can't imagine my state of mind if I had just had to start back teaching too. On a positive note, this weekend we celebrated Lewis' first birthday with a BBQ at our house, with lots of family. I will post the pictures when I get them off my camera. I can't believe a whole year has gone by already and how much he has changed. We are so fortunate to have such a healthy happy little boy (and for Jaina too, who is a wonderful sister).

We are off this week for a vacation to Sylvan Lake. We had booked it a while ago and Matt decided he still wanted to go (that it was actually better than riding in to work every day for 4 hrs), and that we could use a little R&R. So when we get back hopefully I have some nice pictures to post from that too.