Do I really have to get back to normal now?

We had a relatively quiet day getting Georgia ready to leave...it was pretty cool that we managed to get her upgraded to business class on the way home - here is a photo of her just before checking in..

We figure people will think she is in business class because she's  a national athlete of some sort - nonetheless, I'm pretty sure she will enjoy the attention!

We got a little bit of shopping done before she left and had a last visit to Dairy Queen,  I'm starting my diet again, I've put on too much weight with these last couple of visits! I really don't want to get back to normal, maybe it's time to think about retiring (I just need to find a nest egg to retire on!)

My popular demand, I'm including the next two whitewater rafting photo's...everyone looks great, but I look like I'm about to die...which is exactly how I felt :)

More whitewater than raft

I've done the whitewater rafting thing a few times - usually when the kids come over - this time we went out to somewhere just beyond Lake Louise on some river or other...the water was incredibly cold (5C), and there was a LOT of it - that said, there is less water now, because I swallowed and inhaled about half of it.  Georgia was braver than me - she jumped in and even swam a little - she's crazy.

I'm cheating a little with these photo's, I obviously didn't take them - Georgia and I are in the very front, and in the first photo we are blissfully unaware of what was about to happen - in the second photo Georgia still has her head above water (she is way more observant than me)  I, however, am still smiling under the water - I've chosen not to include the photo showing me gasping for air when I surface again - it's not a good look on me!

On they way home we stopped at Joey Tomatoes for a well earned dinner and delicious dessert!

Living my life vicariously through Georgia

One of the great things about having Georgia here  is that she does the things that I wish I had the courage to do - and I can take photo's, which makes me feel like I'm almost brave!  Today's big event was the zip line off of the 90 meter ski jump at the Canada Olympic Park...a 500 meter zip line reaching speeds of up to 140km ph - crazy.  Georgia, of course, took it in her stride...

Then our exercise for the day was going up to the Banff Gondola and walking to the top of the mountain - the views are incredible.

Calgary Temple - stonework has started!

It's been almost a month since the last temple blog, but I had to show this....

They have started the stonework around the base - it's really coming along nicely now - doesn't this look lovely!

A nice relaxing day

..and surprisingly not too expensive!  Georgia and I went to Chinook, met Lolly and Alyson for lunch and then wandered around the shops - I think we were actually quite reserved about our purchases, but we have another few days, I'm sure we can make up for it!

Then we went to Trystan's Sportchek and bought ourselves a new pair of Asics each - well worth it with the discount he gave us.  After that we went to the Phoenix Grill (where Lolly works) and had dinner with Alyson, Matthew, Lolly and Trystan....lovely:

and then I lost Georgia for the night...the kids went to the movies and Georgia stayed over at the Williams - oh how they grow up!

Waiting for a call from BBC Wildlife

WE SAW TWO BEARS TODAY!!  At last the zoom lens is paying off - we saw one on the way to the Columbia Icefield, but it was just a glimpse and a little disappointing - but then in a similar place on the way back we had an awesome view....

as much as we searched and searched during the whole journey, clearly the best way to spot wildlife is to look for cars parked on the side of the road, they are way easier to spot!

Georgia took about a hundred scenery photo's - this is one of my favourites, look at the colour of that lake - just amazing.

And finally, here she is at the Columbia glacier - this glacier is deeper than the height of the Eiffel Tower - and the water running off is as fresh as it comes, I wish we'd taken a bottle or two, it was delicious.

and the magic continues

You can take the kids out of Disneyland, but you can't take Disneyland out of the kids.

I must admit we got a lot of amusing looks and comments about the Mickey slippers - and put a lot of smiles on the faces of complete strangers.

I love flying with WestJet, and even though flight attendants were not as fun as they normally are, I realized for the first time that the ground crew wave to the plane as it leaves - this happened at both ends and I swear it made my day both times!

Magic, Dreams and Yellow Slippers

We made the most of our day at Disneyland, I can't remember how many rides we went on, but enough to keep us all busy all day and evening.  We got to the park at lunch time ish, and left at 10pm ish, after the fireworks.  My feet are killing me.

I braved most of the rides, but I let Trystan and Georgia do the most scary ones on their own (including the "death drop" - seriously, surely they don't expect any self respecting middle aged woman to go on a ride called the "death drop"!

We didn't see many characters, but did get a photo op with a storm trooper...

We did a little bit of shopping, but the best part was the slippers....priceless (well, actually they had a price, but they were SO worth it....

I knew I'd make it to Hollywood

We flew from Calgary to Anaheim this morning, I can't remember if I already mentioned that Trystan decided to come with us (or rather Alyson decided he might like it) - he is an absolute delight on the trip - and will have way more energy than me when it comes to wandering around Disneyland, so I can spend the afternoon with a long cool lemonade while the kids wear themselves out - perfect.

Day one of our quick trip was in Hollywood - we took a bus tour to have a nose around stars homes - the highpoint was driving down Rodeo Drive...I wish we had stopped to shop for a bit :)

...and then bumping into a real live paparazzi, it occurs to me that the paparazzi job is similar to surfing, you just hang around for ages for a brief moment of glory.  This guy was sitting at the end of the street where Tom Cruise lives, just waiting for the slim chance of anything interesting happening - the rare photo's must be worth a fair bit to make it worth his while lolligagging on the side walk for hours.

Talking about Tom Cruise, we went to the Chinese theater, and they had "characters" hanging around outside, this one really did look like Tom Cruise in Top Gun - delightful

Finally a movie at one of the most famous movie theatres in the world - we made friends with the concessions guys - always useful if you want free drinks and popcorn :)

National Geographic

Georgia's luggage finally arrived this morning, then we headed to the zoo - this is a great place for photo's - somehow I don't think I'll make it as a nature photographer, but it sure beats the run of the mill photo's that I normally take...

The Meerkat, which strangely reminds me of Jake, when he was about 3 or 4 he used to do an awesome imitation of a meerkat!

The long necked giraffe

The spotted butterfly

The long legged Georgia

After the zoo we stopped at LIC's for a frozen yogurt (of course) and then went to buy some jeans for Georgia at Lammlies and then came home to get ready for the exciting California trip tomorrow.

BFF

So, Georgia technically arrived today - she came through immigration at about 12.30am....unfortunately her luggage was still in Minneapolis, so hopefully we'll get that tomorrow!

After Church I took Georgia to the Williams' - she has been long distance friends with the Williams kids since she was practically a toddler - every time we take photo's, one of these days I'll get copies of photo's from years gone by to see how they've grown...I guess they're not kids anymore, but every time they meet it's like they've always lived close by, it makes me happy to see how well they get along.

Georgia and Jake

Georgia and Lolly

Rules are rules

So my favourite photo today was of Georgia coming into the arrivals area at the airport...but technically that didn't happen until tomorrow, because she came through at 12.40am....so that photo will have to wait!

Driving home from grocery shopping I saw this huge bird, with a huge wingspan, I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure Arlan will tell me when I show it to him - probably a hawk would be my guess...anyway, he was nice enough to sit still on a lamp post so I could take a photo - I wish I'd had my good camera with the zoom lens, but alas this was just with the old camera.

This evening I went to the movies with Kris - we went to see "The Help"  a brilliant movie - we laughed, we cried, we ate popcorn.  I'm including the photo even though it's a horrible one of me...I really should have washed my hair today :)

Bookends of the day

Every now and then there is a fog over the valley - it's kind of cool to watch it roll through and to be above the clouds.  This was the view as I left home this morning at sunrise:

...And then this evening we had the most gorgeous sunset behind the mountains...this is the view from our living room window.  Now I remember why I live in Calgary!

Georgia arrives tomorrow...so excited for the visit; we're going to Disneyland and then we'll go to Alyson's house by the lake; I can hardly wait!

Pool party

Who knew that anyone had an outdoor pool in our neighbourhood?  Well apparently Kathleen and her family have one!  Relief Society gathered at her home for our summer party - but for some strange reason the weather didn't cooperate!

We endured the outdoors until it really got to cold...and we went inside just before the rain and hail hit...and I have to say, I'm pretty sure I saw some snow as well - how can that be??!! Here is the view over the pool...

...and then when the heavens opened...there are 3 seasons in this one photo :)

Weather aside...it was an absolutely delightful evening!

'tis the Season

...for weddings.  Another bridal shower tonight.  Joelle Barfuss had her shower at Marcie's house (same place as Loredana's).  I don't know Joelle very well, but decided to go because I was concerned that maybe not many people knew her in Calgary, so I was concerned that there wouldn't be many people there...not sure why I should worry - these young kids have WAY more friends than I do!!  Lots of people showed up and it was a lovely evening.  Joelle sure seems like a nice young lady.

Here she is with her shower hat....

..and while it was impossible to upstage the bride-to-be, baby Walker Nielsen gave it a good shot, he is such a cute baby!!

Beautiful Day

The day started well, I drank lots of water and didn't eat much....had the usual chilli for lunch, and then it went downhill after work - Arlan called and suggested we go out for dinner.  So we went to the Green Chilli and had too much Indian food.

Tomorrow is another day.

Another beautiful sunset tonight, and this fountain in a neighbouring community caught the light just perfectly!

Memories of home

One of the great things about meeting with family is that they bring stuff that reminds me of home.....Paul and Fo over-achieved on the Orbit chewing gum:

I may not finish these this week:)

A day of rest

I didn't do a whole heck of a lot today, except take a long time to get home from New York, not sure why I booked to come home via Phoenix! - but nonetheless I left the hotel just after 5am (that's 3am on my body clock!) - and got home just after 3pm and then crashed for the rest of the day.  I hate missing Church, but at least I saw a little bit of the Grand Canyon on the way back:

Happy 19th birthday Georgia!!

The sights of the Big Apple

We did all the touristy things today - after breakfast in a local diner we headed to the Rockefeller centre; lovely views.  Then we caught one of those open top buses and headed to the Empire State Building, again, lovely views - we were a little ripped off by the guy who sold us a ticket for the ride in a simulator that apparently would enable us to skip all the lines for the Empire State Building - it was pure fabrication, we still had to wait just as long as everyone else!

Then on to Ground Zero - they will be opening the memorial on 9/11 this year - it will be worth coming back to visit that.  It was interesting that Lauren is too young to even know what 9/11 is all about - it's hard to believe there are people that don't know much about it.

After that, we waited ages to get back onto the tour bus, but they were all too full, so we ended up all squeezing into a cab (I'm sure that's illegal) - and finally we finished the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  All in all, a great day!

The first couple of photo's are Lauren and Georgia on the red steps at Times Square:

..and my favourite building in New York:

The squishing into the cab....

...and a pooped Lauren at the end of the day:

A perfect day!

New York, New York

Georgia didn't arrive until this evening, so we had to figure out what to do all day...what a dilemma!

We spent over an hour in Abercrombie and Fitch, so now I am the proud owner of a few A&F tops :)  Then at 8.25 this evening, our guest of honour arrived...these aren't great photo's, but they capture the reunion with Fo, and then the realization that Auntie Jeni and Dad and Lauren were also there! With out-of-character hugs all round!

SURPRISE!!!

So, I've kept this quiet on line, so that my niece didn't find out....but we had planned to see Georgia for her 19th birthday.  She was planning to meet Auntie Fo, but her dad, sister and I were a surprise part of the trip.  So I had a delightful weekend in New York!

Day one - I flew to Newark, and felt like a regular New Yorker making my own way to the hotel, I caught the NJ Transit train to Penn Station and then walked to the hotel.  I felt like such a traveler!

Lauren didn't know I was coming, and she was almost asleep when I got there, but awake enough to appreciate the surprise!