Emptying the phone!

Today's blog is brought to you by me needing more phone storage! I have over 2,000 pictures on my phone so I need to get them off and make room for this summer. The last week and a half has been a whirlwind! I was really missing my sister and Quinn so I thought really hard about going home for a few days, but when I looked at my calendar, I just knew I couldn't leave Chris with everything going on! Here goes:)

The days are super long again around here. Last year when we moved in (yes...over a year ago now which is unbelievable!) the kids didn't have school so it didn't really matter that much what time they went to bed. This year was tough with making them go to bed when the sun was still very high! Last Saturday on the 2nd longest day of the year we had a neighbor's birthday party. Chris took the girls home early, but Max and I stayed until almost 10:55pm and there was still light out to the west.

Max finished soccer this last week! It was a really good season and they had a great team. I'm pretty sure they only lost once, maybe twice. The weather turned out great...they played every Tuesday and Thursday evening and only missed one game. He enjoyed it and got better as the year progressed. Ivy spent most of the soccer games playing at the park or rolling down the hill! Mya played at the park a lot too, but also got really interested in soccer and wants to try it next year!

We found an awesome babysitter for the summer and are trying to use her as much as possible before she goes back to school mid-August. Chris and I went to the USA World Cup game last Monday and had the best time ever. It was a combination of being in the stadium around that energy, the fact that the USA dominated the game or the fact that we were out on a beautiful evening by ourselves! We dug out some USA gear and realized we definitely need more! When I put on my USA shirt, the girls decided they wanted to match:)

Max got his expander out last week and then this week got his retainer. It will hold everything in place until the next step which will take place in March. Operation fix Max's mouth/teeth/jaw is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. Thankfully, he is super good about everything and never complains. He is pretty happy that he can chew gum and eat popcorn again! At least for now:)

Max and Mya's last two weeks of school were pretty much all fun! They had multiple field trips, field day, sprinkler day, bubble gum day, buddy day, etc. etc. I ended up absolutely loving their school. It took me a little bit to adjust to a more laid back style as far as curriculum, time in the classroom, homework, etc. but by the end of the year I was sold that it was the way to go for these kiddos. Pretty sure there aren't too many schools in the states where the kids can get sunburned at recess because they are out so much of the day. We're going to have to hit the books a little bit this summer and catch up on some things they missed, but I'm feeling much more relaxed about it than I was earlier in the year. They both had fabulous teachers and made some awesome friends.

On Friday, Mya had her last day of gymnastics for this season as well. She was in the Super Achievers group and had an awesome coach. Allison was the perfect person for both Mya and me. She was laid back, super kind, patient with both Mya and me (when I had absolutely no clue what was going on) and extremely helpful. Mya grew to love gymnastics this year and is excited to keep improving. This summer Alberta is switching to the USA Junior Olympic system so everything is changing and she will have a new coach next year.

So, summer is officially here in more ways than one! It has been so hot the last 3 days. Our house is roasting...last night at 7pm it was 28C which is 82.4F! And that was on our main floor. The upstairs was at least 5 degrees hotter than that, so it was not easy sleeping. The kids have been super good about it and I think we'll get some reprieve this next week. Our 4 year old, $30 pool from Wal-Mart has been a lifesaver:)

Only 27 more days until I see this cutie...C.A.N.N.O.T wait:)

Rachel visits!

My friend Rachel came a week and a half ago for a visit! She and I met on the first day of college in the fall of 1998 and have been friends ever since. We played tennis together for 4 years and then lived together in the twin cities for a year after college. It was so awesome to see her and spend 5 days together! Ivy and I picked her up at the airport and when she got into our car Ivy said, "My grandma lives here too!" (as in at the airport!) We picked the kids up from school, dropped Mya off at gymnastics, met Chris at the house to switch cars and we hit the road! We spent two nights in Banff and despite it being freeeeeeezing, we had an awesome time and got to see some cool stuff. Here are a few highlights!

Instead of going straight from Banff back to Edmonton, we drove the Banff/Jasper highway also known as the Colombia Ice Fields Highway. It was so beautiful and something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but with kids in tow, it makes it tough. It's about 3.5 hours out of the way and it always seems after a weekend away, we don't have the energy to spend that much time in the car with restless kiddos! It was totally worth it even though the weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked,  (it even snowed for a tiny portion of our trip!) it was totally worth it.

We got back to Edmonton Sunday evening and just hung out the rest of the night and Monday. Monday night we cooked out and played bean-boozled with the kids. I have a love/hate relationship with that game, but the kids loved it. They were laughing so hard and spitting jelly beans out left and right. Chris did a little trampoline jumping/flipping with the kiddos and we watched the Bachelorette together which was so fun!

Tuesday afternoon Chris came home early and we hit up a Fifa World Cup game! We caught the 2nd half of Cameroon/Switzerland and the first half of Australia/Sweden. We were not dressed appropriately (it was sunny and hot when we left home and cool and raining when we got to the game!) but had a great time. We are so glad Auntie Rach came and spent some time with us!

So much to blog about!

I have been looking at my list of things to do and seeing "blog" on there for a few weeks! Today it's rainy and my tennis lesson got cancelled so I thought it would be the perfect time to dig in and get going on this!

3 weeks ago, my brother, Amanda and their kiddos flew up here for the week! We were counting down the days for a month and my kids were so excited about them coming. Max and Mya got out to the car 5 minutes quicker than usual because they knew their cousins would be waiting for them! Over the next 6 days, I took around 300 pictures so I'm going to do my best to blog about what we did in a condensed version!

On June 4th, we celebrated Brian's birthday. The kids are always happy to celebrate anyone's birthday because they know it means cake for them! The girls helped with the prep and we got about half the cupcakes than usual because of all the batter eaters:) We fed the kids dinner, did the cupcake thing and then enjoyed a nice adult dinner after the kids were settled in for a movie or asleep!

Friday morning we got up bright and early and got all packed up and headed to the mountains! We stayed for 2 nights and did about as much as humanly possible with 6 kids in tow! The hotel had a great pool with a super fast slide and the weather cooperated perfectly for us. When we got to town, our hotel wasn't quite ready so we headed into Banff and enjoyed some ice cream and took in the view at Bow Falls and the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Afterwards, we headed to the hotel to swim and ordered some pizza before calling it a night!

Saturday we got up and drove to Johnston Canyon. We enjoyed the hike to the lower falls with all the kids. Chris and Max went to the Upper Falls alone while the rest of us had a little picnic back at the bottom. The highlight of this trip was on our way to the Canyon, we saw a black bear on the side of the road! It was the first bear I've seen outside of captivity and it was 5 feet away from me. We slowed down and the kids got to see it as well.

After Johnston Canyon we went to Lake Louise and battled the major crowds and tired/napping kiddos. It was such a beautiful day so it was totally worth it. The kids loved playing on the rocks and touching the cold, cold water! Grace woke up and joined in a little later. We had one whole group pic while we were there and right before the pic, I accidentally bonked Grace on the head with my cell phone so that's why she's not looking in the picture.

After Lake Louise we headed down the mountain and across the road to the Lake Louise ski area. We got some treats, watched the "watch out for bears" video, threw away our treats and headed up the gondola! There was still snow up there and the kids were able to play a bit and get some good pics and take in the view of the lake. We were all pretty wiped and headed back to town for some ice cream, a quick stop at the grocery store and back to the hotel for swimming and bed!

Sunday morning we woke up, swam, cleaned up, got lunch and headed up to Mount Norquay to eat it and headed back home. The trip home was a little louder than I was anticipating, but we made it and then spent the next few hours unpacking and filling up the washing machine!

Monday,my kids went to school. It ended up working out fine because we picked them up for lunch and went to a park and then after I took Olivia, Grace and Ivy to the gymnastics club for open gym. They loved it and basically we got home and went to pick up the kids from school. Monday night Chris and Brian golfed and we ate dinner, went for a walk and got the kids to bed at a decent time. Tuesday morning they packed up and left and had an uneventful trip home, thank goodness! It was an awesome trip and we are so thankful/blessed that they made the trip to come and see us! We can't wait to get home this summer and spend some more time with them!

May one photo a day

Day 121: Grandpa Bill and two of the little girls in his life!
Day 122: Ivy taking a little rest with Grandpa Bill
Day 123: Great family picture! So happy to have spent the weekend in Minnesota with everyone!
Day 124: Max and Mya both participated in the talent show this year at their school. Max did the hula hoop and Mya did some gymnastics. Ivy and I were able to go and watch and they did so well!


Day 125: Max's first outdoor soccer game of the season. It was freeeeezing that night. Thankfully, the rest have been much better. Random side note on soccer...the FIFA Women's World Cup is in Edmonton this month. Two of Max's games have been cancelled because per FIFA rules, there can't be any soccer games going on within 100km of a FIFA game. Who knew?!?
Day 126: Winter is back in Edmonton. What was supposed to be a 50% chance of light flurries turned into me going to school at noon to give the kids their winter coats and 6-8" of snow overall!
Day 127: What was left of the snow in our yard 24 hours later.
Day 128: My kind of after dinner walk:)


Day 129: A little early Mother's Day "family" gift to help out with the "I'm bored" this summer!
Day 130: Mother's Day with these nuts! They were so dirty that I had to wait until after baths to get a picture with them!
Day 131: First lemonade stand of the season at the neighors.
Day 132: Ivy is into the stage where she thinks she has to take something with her every time we go anywhere. The result is my car gets totally trashed every few days, and we lose something almost everywhere we go! Yes, I realize I could just tell her no, but we hardly ever leave the house when we're not in a hurry so I just let her do what she needs to do in order to be on time!


Day 133: I got my Acadia fixed from when I was rear-ended. Chloe is not normally allowed in Chris's car, but I couldn't say no to that face! The kids ratted me out right away to Chris and thankfully, he didn't care:)
Day 134: Just me, my Olivia Pope wine glass (google it if you don't know what it is) and the Scandal finale!! It did not disappoint except now I'm beginning to wonder if the ending was a dream. I guess we'll have to wait until next fall to find out!
Day 135: Mya can do aerials on the trampoline now. That may be another term you'll have to google. I know I did!
Day 136: The only thing good about Ivy being sick is the whole "falling asleep on my lap" thing:) She had an ear infection for the first time in 3 years!


Day 137: Some tennis in the park on this beautiful Sunday afternoon!
Day 138: We had a three day weekend for Victoria Day. (Queen Victoria's Birthday) It was super windy so we flew a kite!
Day 139: Max was goalie and did a great job!
Day 140: Thank goodness Chloe lets her play dress-up with her. #betterherthanme


Day 141: It had been a long time since Max asked about my one photo a day. On this day he asked if his superhero drawings could be my photo. Of course I obliged!
Day 142: It was crazy hair day at school and Max wanted to wear this wig. While he was at school I dug out a pic of him at 7 months with the same wig! I love digital photography for so many reasons, but stuff like this is at the top of my list.
Day 143: Finally!! Miss Mya lost her first tooth at Preston's 8th Birthday party!
Day 144: The Q babe is in the USA! Got this pic sent to me by my mom...apparently Quinn fell asleep 30 seconds after leaving the MSP airport:) So glad they're home!


Day 145: oops...missed that one!
Day 146: Some car pool line selfies for Ivy and me!
Day 147: Well, this is one weird photo. Max came to the car with no shoes on. He told me his friends buried his feet (with shoes on) during recess. When the bell rang, he pulled his feet up and the shoes did not come with. He went inside and by the next recess, they couldn't find them. I got out of the car and tried to find them with no luck. So we went home, got shovels and went back. Still no luck! So another pair will be coming with Brian and Amanda on Wednesday. I couldn't believe it!
Day 148: My two girls running through the fields at Max's soccer game trying to burn some energy!


Day 149: Mya's field trip at the YMCA was so fun! She loved the rope swing the best.
Day 150: Full house is on a lot around here;)
Day 151: Chris is the best husband around. He took the kids on a 3 hour bike ride. I got to be in my house alone which is unheard of! They had a fun time playing at the park and drinking slurpies. I was waiting for them to get home and got to see Max riding with no hands! He was super proud.

That's our month in a nut shell!