Family, Owls and Kilns

Our time spent with the Husband's Dad during on our trip had some pretty amazing highlights. The Peanut had a blast plying with her cousins, is still talking about it and asking for sleep overs. This time around we were able to get a little extra playtime in with them which included (those are gasps and squeals of joy you are hearing) not one but two orange kittens.

There was also a family BBQ with family that (in the nearly 20 years I've been with the husband) I hadn't met as well as family that we hadn't seen much of since the last family wedding. We had a great time and a fantastic visit.

On a play date visit with the husband's cousin's family we were introduced to the family of owls who had taken up residence in our cousin's yard. The young ones have been named Hoot and Holler and they put on a pretty good show for me when I brought out my camera.

One of the best parts of our stay with the Father in Law is that he lives just down the road from the Reids who were in the Fine Arts program with me at Red Deer College. If you've followed my 5 question series you may remember that I featured Auvery two years ago. It's still one of my favourite features not least because I love the eclectic quality of her work. Where Auvery's work is as fun and full of ideas as she is Joe's work has a quiet strength to it that also mirror's his personality. My current favourite series of his, are the ceramic thermos that is used as the profile picture on their studio's facebook page.

Joe and Auvery are currently in the process of building a wood fired kiln just outside of their converted barn studio. We slipped down the road for a little visit and a studio tour. I'll be honest and say that I have some pretty extreme studio envy; their space is amazing as is their work. They also have a website and blog that you should totally visit.

Since our set of dinnerware has been slowly breaking piece by piece over the last few years I'm planning on starting a new collection. I'm hoping to buy a setting or a piece of a setting here and there and since I'm not to bothered about getting matchy matchy I'll be buying from Joe and Auvery.

and in completely unrelated news: yesterday was the deadline for entering the Melissa and Doug draw. Since we obviously didn't hit the 200 facebook fan mark (I'm in the process of emailing my contact with them) I'd like to still do a draw from all the entries I did get; including the extra entries I promised those who entered before the original draw date and send one of my sun catcher's to the winner. I'll post a little about that in the next few days.

Dinos Galore

Some of my favourite photos from the Royal Tyrell Museum.



Our second leg of the trip was spent with the Husband's Dad. The highlights from that portion to follow soon.

Now I really hate to harp on this but I'm still looking for entries on the Seaside Sidekick Giveaway If you know anyone who loves to play in the sand, send them over! Deadline for this fantastic contest is on Monday night.

And it ends.

The vacation. It never seems long enough.

We're unpacking, getting settled and starting some new routines and I'll be posting some recaps of our trip complete with extreme weather and prehistoric ocean creatures but not at the same time.

From the looks of things the giveaway that I posted about before we left isn't up to near enough entries to qualify for a prize from Melissa and Doug. I'm contemplating adding an extension on the deadline (I'll post an update to this tomorrow) to see if we can't add a few more entries because I'd very much love to be able to give one of those gift packs to one of you. If you haven't entered, please, please do! If you have, tell your friends and family about it and send them on over the more the merrier after all.

The Fair!

While we didn't get around to all the things that we had plans for while my parents were here we did hit the fair.

The Peanut danced her tushy off to Bobs & Lolo

She rode the carousel, train and the helicopter rides

How we spilled the Beans

Waiting to tell family in person that we are expecting was sooooo hard but well worth it.

In the end we let the Peanut do the spilling with a back up "Congratulations" card that I had made up in case things needed a little more explaining. Of course the Peanut was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa that she was talking a mile a minute and we had to get her to repeat "I'm Going to be a big sister!" a few times before Grandma got it. My Pa got it right away and sat back laughing at my Mom until I handed over the card that also didn't seem to click right away. Perhaps my adamant proclamations that we were finished and that the Peanut was it, had a little something to do with her delayed reaction?

We told the Husband's Dad the same way. He has a little bit of a hearing problem so there was a little more of the same but the look on his face when he got it was priceless.

The rest of the trip was spent with each family faction in turn. The reason for the trip was for the Ma-in-Law (or my second Mom's) family reunion. In the 17 years I've been with the Husband I've only ever met a handful (and by handful, I mean less than 5 members) of her family. Seeing her inside a family environment, surrounded by people who opened their arms to her when she walked up was an amazing experience. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with the women (and more specifically the Grandma's and the Great Grandma's in the family which is probably one of the best places to be in a large family gathering like that. There's something about the bonding that goes on at the hearth that seems to be universal no matter where you go.

Staying with the Husband's Dad was a quieter experience other than our first day there, when we celebrated the Peanut's birthday. I had some friends from my first years of art school come over with their children and while the kids played we had an afternoon of catching up and remembering.

We finished up at my parents place with a trip to the zoo and a lot more time than I usually get with my baby sister. We got the Peanut to tell her the big news too. Since I'm showing quite a lot, and it's still pretty early and she's a single Mom of an almost 13 year old and almost 11 year old twins she was kind enough to laugh hysterically and tell me that she was glad it was me and not her since she was pretty sure that the odds of the Bean being the Beans were pretty high considering the size of my belly....

Which leads me to the results of our first ultrasound for the Bean. The Bean is just that; a single little being. The Bean is also 12 and a half weeks instead of 11 and a half; which bumps the due date up a little bit. We saw face, spine, hands and feet and of course a steady little heartbeat. Exactly what we wanted to see.

The glue that sticks it all together

So our trip.

As always trips back to see family are never long enough, add in a big family gathering on one day in the trip and it feels doubly so. We celebrated my Gran's 91st birthday and the husband's 39th with a family BBQ and cake. My sisters were present with my nephews and there were kitties and puppies galore for the Peanut to run after and pet and demand that they sit.

We're headed back again soon though. The husband has a family reunion taking place at the beginning of June and we're not missing it.

First leg

road trip

We left on our trip to Alberta this evening at 6pm. The Peanut had had a long afternoon nap so any hopes of her sleeping in the car were dashed. The excitement of heading over the top of the mountains to Grandma's house was enough to keep her happy in the backseat for about four hours when we stopped for gas and a potty break followed by another hour to the motel we are staying in over night.

Wild life spotted: one deer eating by the road almost missed it nice to see, one late deer on the side of the road not so nice to see, one hawk riding the thermals.

I had anticipated meltdowns and at least one bout of motion sickness. The gravol did the trick with any tummy mishaps and we (and when I say we, I mean Peanut) managed to keep her diaper dry until the first pit stop. Our one and only meltdown happened just as we got the card to our room. Before we leave in the morning I'll take advantage of the motel wireless and post some more picks from our first leg.