Stones Throw Away

Next to playing with cars and trucks and trains, throwing stones into the water is their new found passion.  

First you have to find a good rock.

And examine it a little.

Then you set it free to into the river.  

Pretty good way to spend an hour of the day...although they could've done this allllll day long!

A First For Everything

It was a weekend of firsts for the season.  

First bike ride into town...

First time wearing shorts...(Mexico doesn't count)

Liam attempting to put his foot back into his shoe...so cute and funny to watch.

First time out on the Frisbee golf course...

...the "first's" of many more to come this spring/summer!  Loving this weather!

Spring in the Mountains

Well it is now the middle of April and I'm still not sure if spring has officially sprung.  Spring time in the mountains can really play with your emotions.  Just when you think it's here to stay the next day a blizzard roles through town and spring is nowhere to be found. 

It can look a little something like this one day...

And back to this the next...

I suppose it's a small price to pay to live in paradise...so I won't complain too much.

One place I am always drawn to this time of year is what Rob and I refer to as "Lupin Land".  It's on the sunny side of the valley so it always feels a little warmer there.  It's a beautiful place for a hike and to let Jack run free.  Lately boys have been giving our backs a bit of a break and have been enjoying hiking with their own two feet.

Casey & Liam ...looks like a good spot for a break/photo shoot...

Liam & Casey

Happy Spring!

Our Easter Sunday

Well I sort of slacked off a little on Easter this year but it was still a great day.  I meant to dye eggs using natural dying methods (but that didn't happen) and I really wanted to make these little chocolate birds nest treats (but that didn't happen either).  I only got as far as buying the supplies.  The good intentions were there but the time and energy were not.  Oh well!

They boys could care less about naturally dyed eggs anyway.  They sure liked the plastic kind filled with treats though! They caught onto the whole concept of an Easter egg hunt pretty quickly.  We would sometimes have to point them in the right direction, but they knew exactly how to crack that egg open to get the goods inside once they found it.

The Easter bunny also left some eggs for all of the neighbourhood kids at the park down the street, so we headed out for a walk to find some more goodies.   

Hope everyone had a good Easter and is enjoying the start of spring!

Tree Swing Redemption

I just came across these pictures on my camera and can't believe I forgot to blog about this little adventure...  

Last fall my friend Amanda and I (along with the boys) went on a mission to find a big tree swing, that was said to be somewhere on the mountain slope of muleshoe trail just outside of Banff...we searched high and low for the darn thing to no avail.  It was sad.  But recently I had gotten some beta on yet another tree swing also in Banff at Johnson Lake.  And so my mission continued.  This time my friends Manny, Elaine and Cody came along for the ride with me and the two boys.

Liam out cold...no pun intended :)

It ended up being a bit more than we bargained for since I got the directions mixed up and we went the long way around.  But Manny and Elaine were real troopers.  We trudged along and found ourselves up on the high trail over looking the mountains and Johnson Lake.  

Someones home. :)

And as if that view wasn't reward enough, I finally found my tree swing!  There it was, in all it's glory...

It wasn't exactly the thrill ride I was hoping for... but it's a tree swing in the middle of the mountains and how cool is that?

Mission complete!