Scarface

Today's Lesson: Cut your kids fingernails.

We attended one of the young single adult wards a couple of weeks ago to hear my cousin Chris Jones deliver his farewell address. He's shipping out to California for the next two years to serve a mission for the church. After the meeting let out, I went to pick up Emma as she was running by, and as I swooped her up, her thumb nail came around and took a good size chunk of flesh out of my once flawless face. I thought she just gave me a little scratch at first, but when I saw the size of the shredded skin under her thumb talon, and the horror in her face as blood was dripping down mine, I knew she had gotten me good. I really didn't want her to feel bad about it, so after I cleaned it up a bit, I made sure that she understood that it wasn't her fault and that I was going to be just fine. She got over it pretty quickly, but the scab stayed for a few days and there is a faded scar there now, that may or may not eventually go away.

Part of me wishes I had had a better and more heroic reason for the scar when people at work asked about it the next day, but to "save face" (pun intended), I gave them an over-dramatized version of the story, not unlike the one you just read. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, but I think it makes me look more dangerous, and maybe people will start to think that I'm tough, instead of just tough on the eyes.

Swimming

Cy and Jillian had a joint birthday party down in Okotoks back on the 17th of November, so most of the family got to go and enjoy some swim time in the kids pool that they reserved for the party. Emma loves the swimming pool, and has gone quite a few times, but I've never been able to make it until now.

We stayed in the shallow end and played with Lucy and Max while the big kids made war on Uncle Trevor in the deep end. I tried to show Emma how to float on her back and fake a shark attack, but she's more of a splasher than a swimmer right now. She did give me a flying drop-kick to the throat when I tried to catch her off the slickest kids slide ever made though.

After swimming, we had pizza and cake and opened presents in a room upstairs that overlooked a kids hockey game going on below. After that, we spent the rest of the day over at the Ganchar's place where they have a trampoline, a giant fish tank, and a toy collection that could send Santa Claus into retirement. It's just enough fun to keep Emma crying all the way to the Calgary city limits when it's time to go home.

I'm glad I finally got to go swimming with Emma and I hope we try and do it more often. Filling up the bathtub, turning on the shower and playing "sinking submarine" is getting a little old.

Leaders

One thing I was always blessed with as a young man, besides my winning personality and rugged good looks, was a bunch of great young men's leaders.

I'm talking about leaders like Craig Sabey, who wasn't just your dentist, but he was also the guy who was going to kick your butt up and down a mountain if you didn't bring your blue book on Sundays. Leaders like Ken Reed and John Gibb, who would use their positions on the Police Department to help you get dates with girls. Leaders like Clint Maucieri, who wasn't just fun to draw, but just plain fun to be around. Leaders like Dave Wood and Guy Elford, who kept vehicles of all kinds in working condition, despite our best efforts to destroy them. Leaders like Bishop Wolff and Kevin Way, who could take a group of about 20 sarcastic teenage boys, and not only get them to think spiritually, but get them to enjoy it.

I don't know if any of those leaders ever thought we looked up to them, but we did, and I know we still do. It can be a challenging thing to appeal to the younger generation, but they did a fine job of it. Most of us guys have now been called to serve in the young men's program in one capacity or another, and when we gather, the challenges associated with those types of callings often comes up in conversation.

One such occasion was when a few of us visited Kevin Way in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. We took the chance to ask for his advice on the matter, and being an expert, he had some great things to say. You can read more about that visit here. Clint Maucieri was recently in our stake young men's presidency, and he's been a great source of insight for me over the past couple of years as well, even though he thinks the world will never see a finer program than what we had in the 17th ward.

The challenge of leading the young men in our ward is no longer my responsibility however, as they released me as young men's president a few weeks ago. I guess someone heard about our move down to Lethbridge and they figured that between that and a new baby arriving soon, I would be too busy to keep up with the program. I'm sure they're right.

We had a hike planned for the Saturday after I was released, and since the new Young men's president wouldn't be sustained until the following Sunday, I went for one last hurrah in the mountains. We hiked only part of the way up Yamnuska because time constraints wouldn't allow us to go the whole way. I say we, but I should say they, because I got separated from the group and hiked an entirely different trail for about 3 hours. Not quite the hurrah I was hoping for, but it was nice spending a little time on the mountain by myself, and I found a neat little waterfall while I was at it.

I'm going to miss being in the young men's program, and I think I might even miss the young men. I started teaching some of them in primary and cubs over 5 years ago, and I've kind of followed them up through the program ever since. We all know each other pretty well by now, and I'd say we've become pretty good friends. I guess my greatest hope would be that I've been the kind of leader that made as good impression on them as mine did for me. That might be asking too much, but someday they might be a leader for one of my children, and I really don't want anything I've done to come back and haunt me.

Halloween 2007

Here's a couple pictures from Halloween this year. Emma went as Uniqua from one of her favorite shows, the "Backyardigans", Tammy made her own Pablo costume (another character from the Backyardigans) at Emma's request, and I went as a young Andre the Giant.

Our ward held their annual "Trunk or Treat" party a few nights before Halloween, so Emma already had a pretty good stash before she even hit the streets. She's still young enough not to realise that you can go trick or treating for hours, so it was a quick trip up and down our street and then we headed over to a couple of her cousins houses for a visit.

I stayed home and handed out candy while the girls went door to door, and I only had about 10 kids come by during that time. When we left to visit cousins, I left the bowl of candy out on our front porch and it was empty when we got back. I guess we'll never know if we got a whole bunch of kids while we were out, or just one Augustus Gloop.

Tammy and Emma were invited to go to a Halloween party at the VRRI down by the university on Halloween day, but when they got there, they found out it had been cancelled because of a lack of staff. Emma had fallen asleep in her costume on the way, and was still asleep when they found out the party was cancelled, so Tammy decided to make a trip to Wal-Mart and break the news to her later on. When they got to Wal-Mart, Emma was still asleep, but she started waking up as Tammy put her in the shopping cart and the went into the store. Tammy can't go anywhere without using the restroom, so she wheeled Emma and the cart into the barrier free stall and began "resting". Emma looked around from her seat in the cart, still a little foggy and done up tight in her Uniqua costume, and she said "This is a Halloween party?" Tammy couldn't control her laughter, even though Emma repeatedly shook her finger and told her it wasn't funny. Poor kid must have been so let down. She's gotten over it now, but we still can't get over how funny she can be sometimes.

Hilux Surf (Bye Neil)

Bigger families mean bigger vehicles. We had a hard enough time fitting one car seat in the back of our little Cavalier, so the thought of trying to fit two when the baby comes, drove me to the internets in search of a roomier ride. This is what I came up with.

At first glance it looks like a regular Toyota 4Runner from the early 90's, but truth be told, it's actually the Japanese import version of a 4Runner, and over there it's called a Hilux Surf. I've always fancied the 1990-1995 models of 4Runners, but found that they're usually overpriced for the how old they are and for how many kms they can have on them. It's also pretty rare to find one that doesn't look like it's 15 years old and has been through the bush a time or two, so the solution is the Japanese import.

I'm not totally up on the laws in Japan, but I know that there are big costs associated with driving a vehicle that has over 60 000kms on it, due to their strict emissions standards. The transit system is pretty efficient over there too, so people generally drive a lot less than what is required for life in Alberta. Once a vehicle is 15 years old, they ship them over to North America and sell them for a reasonable cost when compared to the domestic brands of the same make. That all equates to a great deal for the people of the Americas who are willing to drive something a little different then what they might be used to.

Besides most of the writing on the inside of the vehicle being in Japanese, and the engine being a turbo-diesel (side aggravation: for some reason diesel just became more expensive then gasoline, yarg), the only real difference is that the steering wheel is on the right-hand side. It takes a few minutes and a few left turns to get used to that, but once you get to the point where you've stopped turning your wipers on every time you change lanes, you've got it mastered. Tammy and I are both really comfortable with driving it by now, but sitting in the passenger seat still takes some getting used to.

The biggest downside with having a right-hand drive vehicle is that, with the exception of Peter's, going through a drive-through alone is pretty awkward. It can also be stressful trying to pass a large truck on a single lane highway when you're alone as well. On the plus side though, when you get out of the car, you're on the sidewalk rather than standing in traffic.

It's a 1992 with only 66 000kms on it, and it feels like it's never been sat in, so I'm hoping it will last us a long time. If I can find one I like, I may end up trading it up for a 1995 when they become available, as they have the more powerful 3.0L engine in them, but I'm pretty happy with this one so far. I had to do a coolant flush and I'll probably install an engine block heater to get it ready for our winters, but other than that, all the upgrades I'm planning for it are mostly creature comforts.

This post is getting really long. We were a three car family for a while, but the folks at the Kidney Foundation came and picked up old Neil the Teal Mobile this past week, and I'm sure they are taking good care of him somewhere. The plan is to eventually become a one car family again, but it's only getting harder to give up the freedom that two vehicles provides, especially for Tammy. We'll see how it all plays out, but chances are we're going to try and sell the Cavalier before we head down to Lethbridge.

The Biggest News

A lot happened in October, so I'll start with the biggest news first.

We sold the lot we had put a down payment on in Carstairs, and we are no longer planning on moving there. There were some issues with the development, and they changed the location of the new elementary school on us, so we decided to back out on it. The main reason we're not going out there though, is that I'm not planning on staying at my current job much longer. It's time to move on to some other things, so it really doesn't make sense anymore to move all the way out to Carstairs.

Instead we're moving all the way down to Lethbridge. After a trip down to the temple, we drove back through Lethbridge to check out what was available as far as housing goes, and we ended up finding a place that we both really liked on the south side of the city. I've really only ever driven through Lethbridge before, but we toured around a bit to get a feel for the city, and it sure felt a lot less hectic than Calgary does these days. The area we're moving to is called Coulee Creek, and it's right behind the Superstore on the very south end of Mayor Magrath.

Being in close proximity to a Superstore, as well as a Wal-Mart and a Costco were big selling points for Tammy, and we were both impressed by most of the architectural and structural elements of the home, but the biggest selling feature was the prospect of saving $100 000 when compared to the cost of a similar home in Calgary. Emma is just excited about the big park at the end of the street.

Construction isn't scheduled to be complete until February, so it'll probably be March before we move down there, so we will have a one month old baby with us when we go. We haven't sold our house yet, and I haven't found a job down there, but the plan right now is for me to take some parental leave when the baby comes, and we'll survive on that until I can find work.

It's an exciting change for us as we've been looking to leave the city for a while now, but there's some definite sadness involved when we consider that we probably won't see a lot of our families and friends as much as we used to. With the size that our families are becoming though, I'm sure we'll be back in town every month or so for someones special occasion, and we'll be sure to make the rounds.

Sick or Busy

September and October were pretty busy months for us, and our blog has certainly suffered for it. I'm going to attempt to get caught up this week, before I'm completely out of the habit of making updates.

I took the first two weeks of September off of work, thinking the timing would be perfect for us to go to places that would normally be crowded with kids not back at school yet. The timing ended up being just right for me to be sick the whole first week and some of the second, so we didn't get to go everywhere we wanted to go, or do everything we had planned to do. We made a Zoo trip and I got some yard work done, but that's about it. Not great for the first two week vacation I've had since we've been married.

Later that month I discovered that I'm allergic to Gillette brand deodorant when I developed some pretty nasty irritations under my arms. After a week of it not letting up, I went to the Doctor who prescribed some medication for me to help get things cleared up. Turns out I'm even more allergic to the medication he gave me, and the irritation spread to my entire body and brought along some dizziness, shortness of breath and a host of other side effects. After about 3 weeks of constant itching and no sleep, it finally cleared up and my skin returned to its normal ghostly hue. It was an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone, except maybe the makers of Gillette deodorant and perhaps the doctor who prescribed the medication.

During this whole time, and even now, I've been keeping pretty busy doing contract work for a modular home building company on the side of my full time job. They're trying to sell homes that are built in China to the government of Kenya, which is in dire need of low cost housing. I've been doing a lot of drafting work for them, as well as some 3D modeling. The deadlines got a little crazy for a bit, so I enlisted the help of Dave Walker to get a bunch of renderings done. He's a real pro and came through like a champ, and I'm hoping that we can work on some more projects in the near future.

Well that covers most of September I guess. I'll break up October over a few posts, and barring any Y2K issues or another outbreak of SARS, I'll hopefully get caught up to November within the week.

Big Girl Bed

We finally took the crib down and set up a "big girl" bed for Emma. She's been outgrowing her crib for a while, but between finding the time to do it, finding a decent bed rail so she wouldn't topple out of bed, and knowing that it might mean less sleep for all 3 of us, we procrastinated for as long as we could.

We dedicated the last day of Mike's holiday from work, September 14th, to set up her new bed and rearrange her room. Luckily I had kept my twin bed from before we were married, along with my Sesame Street bedding - which she LOVES - so we didn't even have to buy anything in the process. We quickly discovered that Emma now has the most comfortable bed in the house, so we take turns napping in her room.

The first night was so much easier than we thought it would be. We didn't have to worry about her constantly getting out of bed after we had put her down for the night as she's grown used to falling asleep while one of us tells her a story (preferrably about dirtbikes for some reason), and once she's asleep for the night, she's out cold. However, we soon discovered that she is quite the chipper little morning person, and without a crib to restrict her freedom, she likes to climb out of bed well before the sun rises, and before Mike's alarm goes off, and come in to our room to wake us up. That was hard to get used to. Still is.

Zoo Babies

As we were wandering around the Zoo the other day, we managed to arrive at the elephant enclosure just in time to see the new baby elephant go for an afternoon walk. She was born about a month ago, her name is Malti, and the Zoo has big hopes that everything will go well for her as a new addition to the herd.

Tragically, the last baby elephant born at the Zoo contracted some sort of infection, was rejected by it's mother, and died shortly after it was born. I believe the gestation period for elephants is about 22 months, so it's a long time between babies if things don't go well.

The baby made her rounds along the fence, occasionally sticking her trunk through the bars at the kids, and chasing her keepers around the yard for a little exercise. They only let her out when the weather is nice, so if you want to try and see her up close, you have to plan your trip on a sunny day.

We also got to see the new baby tiger up close at the end of our trip. You can barely see it through the grass in the picture I took, but it was a pretty active cub, chasing and attacking its mom and splashing around in the water with the giant ball in the far left of the image. The male tigers were both separated from the mom and the cub, probably becuase they might try to eat the little guy.

It was a spur of the moment decision to even go to the Zoo that day, but after seeing the new baby animals up close, we're all glad we did.

Baby Girl

According to the ultrasound we had last week, it looks like we're having another baby girl! Nothing is 100%, but everyone who looked at it seemed pretty certain. I say everyone, because we had 3 different people come in and go through the procedure before we were finished.

The technician we originally had was having a hard time seeing something to do with the baby's heart, so she called in the heart specialist who had an equally tough time, so she called in the doctor. The doctor wasn't able to see what they wanted either, so we have another appointment in a couple weeks at an ultra-special ultrasound clinic that deals with these types of matters. We're trying not to be too worried about it at this point, the baby is a good size and seems very active which typically wouldn't be the case if there was something serious going on.

This will be the 7th girl in a row on Tammy's side of the family, and we will be the first to have two children of the same gender on my side of the family. I don't think Emma fully grasps what having a younger sibling means yet, but she has a pretty good name picked out - Astronaut.

Neil the Teal Mobile

That's the name of the car that Paul drove the both of us to school and work in for almost 3 years. He bought it off of his uncle John, who used to be Tammy's gym teacher in Junior High, and I just bought it off of him for $50. It's a '91 Dodge Shadow, and it still runs pretty good considering the price. Paul was just going to give it to me, but I felt I had to pay at least something for it, so we settled on the $50 price tag. That's cheaper than a bus pass, so even if it only lasts me a month, it owes me nothing.

Becoming a two car family has opened up a world of freedom for Tammy and Emma, and I think we're going to trade in our Cavalier now, for a bigger family vehicle for when the new baby arrives.

Thanks be to Paul, our posterity will sing songs of your generosity for generations to come.

YO JOE!

I don't remember what it was that inspired to me to search eBay for some old school G.I.*JOE vehicles, but I did, and came up with some real American, and downright heroic results. I used to have quite the collection when I was younger, but time and an evil younger brother eroded that collection away entirely. For years, all that remained were the tender memories of a beloved childhood obsession, but that was all about to change thanks to the magic of the online auction.

As I searched for my long lost treasures, I feared that the pickings would be slim, and that any decent item I would come across would be grossly overpriced. I was surprised to find that the selection was not only bountiful, but that the crafty bidder could walk away with almost any vehicle he desired for under $10. I lost the first couple of auctions I placed bids in, but I learned a few tricks, and soon came away with the lot shown in the picture - all for about $50. None of the items were in mint condition mind you, but they are all almost 100% complete with little or no signs of wear.

There are a few more Items I have my eye on, especially the hovercraft (your parents really loved you if you had the hovercraft), and I should probably try and get some figures while I'm at it too, but unfortunately, these items seem to be a little more pricey, so we'll see. I don't foresee myself playing with these toys all that much, and I don't think they're really display material, but it would be fun to let my kids play with them when they get older, as long as they're careful, and don't let my brother's kids play with them.

Great Aunt Linda

Emma has 3 great aunts named Linda. She had only met two of them until last week when one of my Mom's younger sisters (Linda) flew in from Montreal to visit for a week. The last time I had seen my Aunt Linda, or any of my Mom's family for that matter, was when our family made the trip out to Montreal about 18 years ago.

My Mom and Linda spent the better part of the week shopping and visiting friends and family all over Calgary and the surrounding areas, but we still had a few chances over the week to sit and trade stories and pictures and have some laughs. The picture I've posted is one of many that we took when my Mom and Linda stopped by our house on Thursday night, but it's the only one where they weren't in hysterics.

With everyone on Facebook now, we can keep in touch with our far away relatives a lot easier than in previous years, but we'd still like to make the trip out there again someday soon to visit with everyone. Perhaps we'll stop in a few places I served as a missionary in Ontario along the way.

We're so glad Aunt Linda made the trip out here and that she made it home safe and sound. Thanks for all the gifts and souvenirs from Montreal, say "Bonjour" to everyone out there for us, and we hope to see you all again soon!

Mosaic

This mosaic is made up of every picture we've taken of just Emma in the two and a bit years she's been alive. She's just so dang cute.

Cliffhangers

Here's some pictures of the family rock climbing trip we had a few weeks back, out in Wasootch. Tyler knows a bit about the sport, and brought enough equipment to keep two climbers and two belayers going, so we set up two routes and made a day of it.

A family from their ward was also there, and they had some harnesses small enough for kids, so Lucy and Emma got to try climbing for a bit. They both did really well until they hit the "above Dad's head" mark, and then they wanted down.

We thought it was best if Emma's Mom didn't climb while she's pregnant, but we managed to get my Mom a good ways up the side of the mountain. She climbed really well and got a badge of honour in the form of a scraped elbow while she was up there.

It was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and everything was going really well, but what happened later that day was something that nobody could have predicted...

Kelly and Dan

It was a big weekend for the Olsen and Glenn families as Tammy's younger sister Kelly married Dan Glenn this past Friday down in Cardston. Tammy and I had made the trip down to the temple the Saturday before to watch Kelly go through for her first time, and Emma stayed at Gramma Bourne's house, but Emma came along this time, and thanks to Gramma and Grampa Olsen's portable DVD player, she barely noticed the drive.

The thing I noticed about the drive was how smokey all of southern Alberta was that day. Luckily, there wasn't an overly smokey smell in the air, but it sure seemed to amplify the already scorching heat they're experiencing in those parts lately. Tammy's other younger sister Amanda, brought her boyfriend Randy who is a professional photographer, and we're hoping he got at least a couple shots where we're not all sweaty and squinting.

After the pictures we went to a farm south of Cardston for a big family dinner. The house we ate in seemed more like a community hall, with a huge great room that easily sat both sides of the family. A necessary expense when you consider the couple who owned the home had 10 children of their own. Like all farms, it had a trampoline out back, a tire swing, and some horses. Emma spent a good amount of time out back enjoying all those features.

Tammy spent the better part of the next day helping to decorate the gym of the Crescent Road chapel for the reception that night. I showed up later with Emma, but still early enough to do a mic check since I was to be the Master of Ceremonies. This is the fourth wedding I've MC'd, and I did a "great job" according to my 2 year old. She did an even better job saying the blessing on the food when all other adults turned the opportunity down, cranking up the cute factor to maximum, and getting "awes" instead of "amens".

It wouldn't be Disco Dan Glenn's wedding reception without a dance afterwards, and it wouldn't be an Olsen reception without taking dozens of family pictures before everyone leaves. After all that, Iain and I took the kids home while the wives stuck around to help clean up. We got stuck on Deerfoot for about an hour, and didn't get home until almost midnight, but Tammy and her sisters didn't get home until about 3:30am, since they decided to have the gift opening while they cleaned.

I'll finish this up by saying that we're very excited to have Dan as part of the family, and we wish both him and Kelly all the happiness in the world!

McMurray Family Reunion

Tammy's Gramma Olsen was once a McMurray, so we try and attend bi-annual McMurray reunions as often as occasion permits. Folks travel from all over western Canada and the US to attend this event, which was conveniently held in Balzac this year, about 10min from our house. We don't really know anyone outside of the Olsen chapter, but it's still fun to go and enjoy some good food and let the kids run around and play games. We posed for a big Olsen family picture, but I guess no one took one with our camera, so here's a picture of Emma fishing for some prizes.

Beef and Barley Days 2007

It was that time of year again in Carstairs a few of weeks back (we're getting behind in our posts), when the town comes alive and celebrates being a town with their annual Beef and Barley Days brouhaha. I've been to about 5 or 6 of these now, and though I've eaten their pancakes, I've never been served or even seen signs of beef and/or barley. We must be missing something, it is a big town.

After the pancake breakfast, everyone parks themselves along the side of the road to watch the parade go by and to have candy thrown at them. The parades are actually pretty good for a small town, even if you include those who sneak in and try and use the parade as a venue to express personal grievances. Last year it was a clown in his clown car with a sign that read "poverty is no joke", and this year it was a guy towing his wrecked vehicle with a sign that read "what are we going to do about thieves in our community?". Talk about your Debbie Downers.

After the parade, we usually wander around town with the family and some of Tammy's old high school friends and check out the shows and games they've got going on. Emma took a ride with Kaylie in the tractor train, and some of her older cousins went in the bouncy castle, but there wasn't much else going on outside of that this year. We ended the day with a trip to Burger Baron where we got our own beef, but no barley.

Maybe next year I'll enter a float into the parade with a sign that reads "Where's the Beef?" and pack it full of sad, hungry children or something. That should get results.

Kids Day at the Stampede

A few weeks back, Emma and I had the opportunity to go to the Calgary Stampede with Kristie and her kids on "Kids Day" - July 11th. Our first stop inside the gates was the free pancake breakfast, which we made it just in time for, before they closed the gate and ran out of food.

Our next stop was the agricultural tent, where we saw a bison, baby chicks, pigs, and cows. Amber and Kaylie even got to see what it was like to milk a cow, however this cow was made of plastic and produced water.

This was the biggest horse we had ever seen - it's hind end was easily over 6 feet tall. We later found out there were even bigger horses in the tent next door, but they were all in cages and we couldn't get as good of a view.

This sheep was being sheared, and not really enjoying it too much, it seemed. Every time it let out a "baaa" (which was about every 10 seconds) Emma would jump. She was frightened and intrigued at the same time.

We attended the "Superdogs" show, where dogs from all around the world do tricks and play various games like musical chairs (rugs) and frisbee catching. All the dogs were taught everything, and performed everything, with their owners (not special trainers) and 35% of the dogs were rescued from shelters. The show was a little long, but I didn't mind too much, as Emma had peed in her diaper while sitting on my lap near the beginning of the show, and somehow it all leaked out the bottom of her diaper and onto my shorts. Luckily it dried by the time we got up to wander around again.

The highlight of the day for me was attending the BMX show. Some of the tricks those guys were doing were pretty amazing, and it made Kristie and I feel young and cool again.

This is two of them flipping together. They got some pretty good height.

To end the day off, we went to "Buckaroos", a place where kids can play, jump in bouncers, and race in little cars. We ended up seeing some people there that Kristie and I knew as kids and hadn't seen in a few decades. Other people we had seen earlier that day were Ann Marie Houghton and her kids, Dorianne Varty and her kids, and our Uncle Rod Navratil and his son Jason who were both working at the gate.

It was a long, hot day for both Emma and me, as we didn't get home until close to 9:00 that night, but it was all well worth the exhaustion. I think Emma had a pretty good time at her first Stampede - she has since asked me a few times when we can go back.

Paul and Francesca

It was my privilege this past weekend, to stand in the wedding ceremony of our good friends Paul and Francesca Jensen, and enjoy a front row seat as they exchanged rings and vows and became Husband and Wife. I was one of seven Groomsmen who were each paired up with one of seven Bridesmaids, and I took my place as the next guy down from the Best Man.

Each one of Paul's seven Lieutenants were entrusted with a specific task, and were each bequeathed a ring of power to aid them on their journeys. There wasn't actually any bequeathing going on, but we pretended there was to make our tasks seem cooler. I was given the ring of picking up the wedding cake and posting signs on the highway, and after they were married it morphed into the ring of driving them to the airport at 5:00am and picking up their mail while they're away on their honeymoon.

The seven of us looked pretty spiffy in our tuxedos (even after some last minute adjustments due to a poor display of measuring on the part of Tip Top Tailors - zing!), but eating pizza and watching Jackie Chan while you get ready is no match for spending 3 solid hours on hair and makeup, so the prize for "best looking group of people all wearing the same outfit" went to the bridesmaids. We placed somewhere after the waiters.

The wedding was held on a beautiful day out in Priddis, and after an emotional ceremony and a couple hours of photographs, we all went indoors for some food and the program. Several speeches and toasts were made, a fancy feast was had, a cake was cut, and songs were sung to honour the new couple. After all of this, the dance began and lasted until the wee hours of the night.

Emma enjoyed the day just as much as anybody thanks to a fun ride in a golf cart, a colouring book that came with her meal, a deer siting, and a new little friend she played hide and go seek with out in the hallways. She was a real hit at the party too, being so cute and all, but she tuckered out after a few dances and Tammy took her home to bed so she'd be up for Church the next day.

I was not up for Church the next day however, as another part of my stewardship included sticking around to act as a designated driver. I reassured everyone that I drove that I had gone 29 years without having a drink, so I might be the most sober person they knew, but I did warn them that I was night blind, so they had to make the choice. Some people thought it was funny.

I'll end this with a big congratulations to Paul and Fran! It was an honour to stand so near by and watch you two get hitched, and we wish you many long years of happiness!

07/07/07

The fellow who owns the building that Gramma Bourne works in hosted a stampede BBQ down at the Zoo this past Saturday, so we tagged along with Gramma and Grampa Bourne and Aunt Sam for some eats and a stroll around the facilities. It was an after hours event, so there were hardly any other humans in the place, just us and a wedding party, and that made it all that much more enjoyable. Some of the buildings were closed off, but we got to see quite a few of the animals who were still outside, and they were all up and about since the day was cooling off and evening was approaching.

With dinner came a show that helped get everyone excited about the grasslands, and ended off with an up-close encounter with a Prehensile-tailed Porcupine for the kids. There was no petting of course, but the kids got to stand around the handler while she explained why that particular animal looked the way it did.

Very few of the pictures we took actually turned out, but it's no big loss as I'm not a big believer in Zoo pictures anyways. The Zoo is really something you have to go to in order to enjoy, and I'm sure there are much better pictures of animals in their natural habitats floating around in cyberspace then the blurry ones taken from behind the smudgy glass of some sleepy critters cage that you typically get from the Zoo. Tammy just picked up the "Planet Earth" series on DVD last week, and the high definition close-ups of the animals they've compiled are almost as cool as seeing the real thing. I give them two opposable thumbs up.

More About February

So the word is out that we are expecting a new baby to arrive early in February. We're extremely excited and had a hard time keeping it under wraps for the short time that we did. Tammy found out the night of her birthday, but wasn't sure that the test was conclusive until the next morning, so that's when I got the call at work. I was so happy I had to leave the office and run around outside for a while.

This baby will be the first baby on either side of our family to push the grandchildren count over the children count and the first to buck the generational gender matching trend. I may need to explain that...

On my side of the family, my parents have 5 children - 3 girls and 2 boys. My parents also have 5 grandchildren - 3 girls and 2 boys. On Tammy's side of the family, her parents have 7 children - 6 girls and 1 boy. Her parents also have 7 grandchildren - 6 girls and 1 boy. This child will be the first to break these trends on both sides, whether it be a girl or a boy. I don't know if this is a good omen or a bad one, but it's an interesting happenstance and I've been referring to the baby as the "chosen one" ever since Tammy pointed it out to me.

We haven't gone for any ultrasounds yet or anything, but Tammy feels great and I'm sure we'll be posting more news about the pregnancy as it comes in.

Emma's Second Birthday

Both sides of our families are getting too big to hold joint venues at someones house, so in keeping with tradition, we decided to host Emma's birthday at a park again. This year we tried our luck with Riley Park now that Emma and most of her cousins are old enough to enjoy the wading pool they have there. The weather could have been a bit nicer, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves despite being a bit chilly.

The kids couldn't be kept out of the water, even though their bodies were shivering and their chins were rattling the teeth out of their heads. We managed to get them to take a few warm-up breaks when we would notice that their lips looked a little blue, but those breaks never lasted long.

Like I said, our families are getting pretty big, even though only half of the people in our families have started having families of their own. I think we had 34 people in total, not including the 2 zygotes and a dog. We brought all the fixens to make bun sandwiches and others brought salads and desserts. It must have looked like the circus was in town. We were missing the elephants, but all the clowns were there.

Out of those 34 people we had 14 kids, most of which are 3 and under. I couldn't believe we got them all to sit still long enough to take a picture. The only fellow missing from this picture was baby Max, who was eating at the time, but I guess we could have thrown Kimberly and Sam in there too.

It started raining after we ate, and just as we started opening presents, so we packed up and most everyone headed up to our church building to finish the presents and for some cake and ice cream. Emma had lots of help opening her presents and came away with way too much cool stuff. One of her immediate favorites was a backpack that looks just like the one Dora wears. It came full of games and as soon as she put it on she yelled "Vamanos!" and ran out of the room and down the hallway. She loves all the gifts she received and if she could remember to thank everyone who gave them to her, she would.

I think the Grandparents favorite gift was the little t-shirt that she got that said "Big Sister" on it. My brother Trevor was the only one who knew that we were expecting before that point, so it came as a nice surprise for everyone else there.

It was a full day for our little toddler, and a happy one too. Thanks to everyone who came and for all the gifts you gave, and happy birthday Emma!