Hayden Lake, Idaho

So we took a week long trip to Hayden Lake, Idaho the last week of August. It was great! It was the first time we have been to the USA as a family, and the first time in many years for me and Ben. We went with 5 of my brothers and sisters and their families. We stayed in a nice 4 bedroom cabin with lots of extra floor space to accommodate everyone! We rented a boat from Calgary and brought it down with us. We went tubing wake boarding every day. Our cabin had a nice hot tub on the second level balcony and so it was so nice to go in that and have a beautiful view of the lake.

The shopping was great too! I had never been to Target before, but had heard all of the awesome things about it, and needless to say, I was not disappointed! I love the Carter's brand and the Circo brand of stuff that is sold there. It was the perfect timing as we were preparing for the girls to go to school. I also loved shopping at Kohl's. They were having a huge sale, and I saved 70-90% on everything I bought there, no joke! Everything seemed a lot cheaper. We could fill our van with gas for only $40! A gallon of milk was under $2. They had 2.5 L of pop for $1.00. Anyway, a lot of money was saved!

It was fun to go in the grocery store and see all of the "new" products of food they had. We saw Strawberry Milkshake Oreos, white chocolate Kit Kat bars, vanilla A+W Root beer, Chocolate Cheerios, graham cracker Goldfish, and Cherry 7 Up. We only bought and tried the Oreos and the 7 Up, and they were both very delicious!

We took SO many pictures, and since it is such a pain to upload photos on a blog, I have only added a few. Uploading photos to Facebook is so much easier and so if you want, you can go onto facebook to look at all of them. But here are a few of our memories of our trip to Idaho!

Family photo on the boat:



The whole group except Mike at dinner on the last night:

Picturesque sunsets every night:

Brayden, Robbie, and Izzy going for a tube ride:

Jodi kayaking with Braxton and Chloe:

Ben kayaking with the three older girls:

Edmonton High Level Street Car

My family loves to ride the Edmonton High Level Streetcar. We also call it the trolley car. We try to do it almost every summer. The girls love it so much. When we went up to Edmonton the other week, we took a ride on the trolley. We invited Izzy's best friend from Kindergarten to come along.

They have a trolley from Japan, Australia, and Germany, and take turns running each one. This year the Japan one was in operation. Here we all are after the ride in front of it:

Every time we rode we tried to take photos. Here are some photos from the very first time we ever rode it. It was in 2003 and Izzy was about 4 months old:

This one was not on the trolley, but before we left for it. I just had to throw it in there because she was so cute.

Here we are a couple of years later in 2005 in front of the trolley from Germany. Lily was about 4 months old and Izzy was about 2 years.

Here we are in 2006:

In 2007, Chloe was about 6 months. This trolley was from Australia:

2008:

Here are some photos of the trolley ride this year:

Beautiful views:

This was in the tunnel. I love Lily's face in the background, and the size of Isabelle's eyes:

The tracks over the High Level Bridge:

All the little girls:

She loved hanging from those things:

Blowing "wishes" after

The Last 12 Months...

Here she was on her birth day, last August. So precious...

2 weeks old

1 month

2 months

3 months. Getting chubbier...

4 months, her first Christmas

5 months

6 months, so smiley and starting to roll around

7 months, sitting well

8 months

9 months and crawling

10 months, wanting to walk

11 months

and now, 12 months.

She is such a blessing in our lives! Lately she will:

-take 1 or 2 steps on her own, even though she could take more

-say "ball", "doggy", "mama", "dada", "suzu"(soother), "ba ba" (balloon)

-can nod "yes" and shake her head "no" when appropriate

-make a blowing sound if I say something is hot

-dance whenever she hears any kind of music by bouncing up and down

-want to eat whatever we are eating, no more baby puree

-love the swings, slides, and going outside

-point out birdies and dogs, and any animal she can see

-climb onto her little bike, ride on it, and climb off all by herself

She has 7 teeth, and I suspect more on the way. As a result, she is currently not sleeping through the night. She goes for her immunizations on Thursday, and so I will see how much she weighs then. We all love having her in our home. The last year has flown by!

Happy Birthday Dear Olivia

Its like she's thinking, "Hey that's my soother."

"Here Daddy, you try."

We got her a swing for the backyard swingset. The photos are a little blurry, but you get the general idea that she loves it.

The dress is currently being soaked in Oxyclean....

Other gifts from Nana and Grandpa and Great Nana. Thank you so much she loved them!