When we got home from Alberta, I sent a text to our friends, inviting them to hang out as much as we can before we move. There were several days in which we had many buddies over, sometimes up to 11 kids playing in the backyard together.
On other days, we enjoyed a fabulously hot and dry summer doing other outdoor activities, which had to include a couple perfect beach days.
We happily accepted any invitation from Cindy to use her Mom's pool. My boys actually call her Mom "Gammy", because that's what Teddy calls her and they love her too.
I registered Callum and Max is a couple summer camps, the first being a BMX camp. I put Simon into a camp at the same time at the Rec centre, but he wanted nothing to do with it, so we just hung out together and watched his big brothers.
When the boys tried washing the van, they did get one side kind of clean, before they got distracted...
Cindy and I took Teddy and my boys to Splashdown waterpark for an awesome day. We got there before noon and it wasn't until 5:00pm that Simon agreed to finally try a waterslide, then he loved them! We stayed until the place closed for the night, which was great because then there were no more lineups to deal with for the last couple hours.
Jeff sometimes took the boys to the climbing gym at the Richmond oval and I came along one time.
There were a couple visits to Science World too, of course.
And there were lazy days of just messing around, of course.
Despite having grown up not too far away in Edmonton, my parents obviously didn't think
that either the Stampede in Calgary or the Royal Tyrrell museum in Drumheller were worthwhile
things to do with children since they never bothered to take me. Well, maybe I started out being disappointed with the Stampede parade, but I was very impressed with everything about Drumheller and the Dinosaur museum.
There was an informative "Science-Session" where I actually learned a few things myself, and a super-cool playground beside the museum that the boys enjoyed
The landscape surrounding the museum apparently made for perfect prairie dog habitat.
We decided to come back after dinner and glad we did, since we pretty much had the museum to ourselves until closing.
Of course, the boys had to climb the "world's largest dinosaur" (you can see them in it's mouth)
We decided it would be adventurous to sleep in a teepee for a night, but in the end I'm glad it was just for 1 night since it started raining and teepees have a big hole in the middle at the top (and guess who was sleeping under it!).
The next day was explored the area by hiking in Horse Thief Canyon, but not before stopping for breakfast at Whif's FlapJack House. Here's a pic just to serve as a reminder of how much "fun" restaurants can be with little boys. This is Simon's activity breaking apart styrofoam cups and sticking pieces of it to the condensation on his cup of water.
Here's a very bad picture of us in the Badlands.
So, after Drumheller we drove back to Calgary and stayed at Krista's place for 2 nights. We had to do the Stampede again so Max could get to see the Rodeo and we also saw the cool BMX/Motocross show.
In the meantime, during our Alberta explorations, of course Jeff is back home dealing with selling our house After a variety of e-mails and calls, Jeff informs me that we can come home because the house is sold. Done deal. Huh. I admit I felt strangely confused about it, homeless, but only temporarily since Jeff also found us a townhouse to rent in North Vancouver until we find a house to buy.
So the boys and I packed up and headed home, but not without stopping for a night in Canmore to visit my old friend Stephanie, her hubbie Chris and their new gorgeous baby Claire. [Unfortunately, it seems that I managed to lose all photos from my phone from those 2 days, (except I posted a couple on Instagram before losing them)]. After a night with Steph, we made a quick stop in Yoho Park to check out Takakkaw Falls (with Wapta Mtn nearby).
I am so proud of how well my boys behaved on the drive home, especially considering they only watched 1 movie on the iPad and I can remember making only 1 pit-stop in Kamloops (though, come to think of it, we must have had lunch before then somewhere). Anyway, I guess chair-dancing and car-games and napping were sufficient for the time to go by.
Back home and with the house sold and possession not until September 2nd, it meant we had the whole rest of the summer to enjoy it.
