flashback - visit with farmers! & a walk in the park

As usual, I'm feeling guilty because there is so much that I haven't posted on here that I wanted to. Let's go back to the first weekend of December... shall we?

For all of the teasing we do to Jenny and Ian about being farmers, we were so happy that their farm life is what brought them out to see us. Ian is an active member of the Canadian Blonde d'Aquitaine Association and they held an annual meeting (I think) in Manitoba a few weeks back. I just so happened to have a photo of Ian with his fellow board members right here to show you all!:

Jenny and Isabella went along for the ride and Isabella proved to be an angel for the whole trip, despite their cancelled flight and long delays from Winnipeg to Calgary. The arrived late Friday night and we were SO HAPPY to have our friends with us once again. This short time together reminded me that it had been years since we have had the opportunity to just hang out together. Without kids to run home to (if at a visit at the farm) or a scheduled something to run off to. It was really nice. We're not sure if Jen & Ian felt that it was that relaxing with all of the chaos and noise that lives in our household, but we more than enjoyed their visit.

I was so pleased to see that Owen and Jake were so into baby Bella. Owen, who never ventures into our bedrooms, would open the door on his own to creep in and watch Bella in her playpen, or to simply hang out alongside her. It was really nice to see that he even had an awareness of her. Jake turned out to be a perfect little babysitter.

He had been anticipating her visit and had even told his friends that he would be "babysitting" his new little cousin, but that he wouldn't change any diapers. The two of them turned out to be great friends and we witnessed a lot of smiles and giggles that were entirely the result of Jake's entertaining her.

We really didn't do a heck of a lot to entertain our visitors, I'm embarrassed to admit. We were feeling far too lazy and having to work around Bella's sleeping schedule was a good excuse to stay close to home. Ian was only able to stay for the weekend, but we did manage to fit in a walk into the Park. I was a total grump that day and very short-tempered (sorry guys!).. I'll blame it on the fact that I didn't want Ian to leave?? But my mood was not made any better by Jonathan's slip-ups. We won't talk about his wonderful example of fearlessness at the river and tempting fate with thin ice. But we will talk about his run-in with the Law.

The Law came in the form of a big, beefy and butchy woman who wore her park ranger outfit like it was an army sergeant's uniform. Jonathan thought it wouldn't be a big deal to let Matilda off her leash (first time we've done it ever.. on a Sunday with an empty park). Matilda is too fat and lazy to run off and she's too afraid to get left behind either, but on this particular walk she ventured in a different direction from us because her stubby little legs sunk too deep in the path of snow that we were walking on. So on she trotted all by her lonesome, while we yelled to her to come back, in perfect display before Bertha the Park Ranger. While 'Bertha' stood waiting for Jonathan to walk to her, Jenny tried to appease her by saying "I'm sure that they didn't know the rules in here. They just moved here from Ontario". Bertha replied in a very dramatic voice, according to Jenny: "that's no excuse for BREAKING THE LAW!". Fortunately for us, she let Jonathan off with a verbal warning and the reminder that the laws are created to protect the wildlife. We wouldn't want little ole Matilda to eat a deer or anything. Forget the fact that Bertha ignored the couple walking their giant german shepard behind us that ran off-leash miles ahead of its owners. Anyways.. I have nothing to complain about. No fine. UNTIL NEXT TIME..

Owen enjoys the life of luxury

Will stops every couple of steps to eat snow

the Boys were reunited at last

Once Ian left on Sunday evening, Jenny stayed on with Bella for a few more days. It was so great having them here with us. We gave Jake a couple of days off from school (I hope we didn't destroy his Kindergarten year!) so that we could take the girls into the mountains with us. Monday we went in to Bragg Creek. Unfortunately there wasn't much to see since most of its stores were closed. Tuesday we took a trip into Banff and Isabella got to experience her first gondola ride up a mountain.

Needless to say that the house felt very empty and quiet when Jenny and Bella left us on Wednesday. We can't wait to have them back!