BIRDS OF PREY CENTRE

My friend Susan and I took the kids to the Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale Alberta. I can't believe that we have been in Lethbridge for 8 years and live only 10 mins away and have never been there!! It was the funnest and most interesting place I've been to in a long time!!

One of the tour guide girls showed Kenzie how to feed a 2 month old eagle a cut up mouse with a pair of tweezers.

All the birds are teathered to there posts. This beautiful bald eagle was stunning to look at up close!

This eagle was brought in by a lady who found it near death after being shot in both eyes and chest.

Mackenzie and her friend Summer got to hold this adorable little owl.

Sweetest thing ever!!!

I got to hold it too!!

I also got to hold this beautiful owl named "Gordon".

Kenzie is feeding the ducks here. These ducks were CRAZY!!! As soon as you threw the food down they attacked you!! Kenzie and Summer were not keen on that, so Susan and I were left to distribute 10 pounds of duck food while Kenzie and Summer screamed and ran away from greedy duckies!!!

We just heard lots of high pitched squeals!!! It was too funny!!

They preferred to hang on the bars!!

Those darn ducks followed us till they ran into some other suckers that had food!!

This little guy was in the gift shop. I wanted to take him home. Kenzie is Hooing at him. I love that they never look amused!!! After the Birds of Prey Centre we hit Mcdonalds for lunch and the girls played in the playland. Another fun fun day in Southern Alberta!!!

WHOOP UP DAYS!!!

Every year for Whoop Up Days the fair comes to the exhibition grounds and invades our neighbourhood with loud music and delicious stinky greasy food smells. Instead of avoiding the somewhat "white trash" event we joined in and made it a day to remember!!!

We were lucky to have cousin Jordan come with us and later Amber joined us.

Who can resist a ferris wheel!! On this day, from 1pm to 3pm, you got to get on the rides for 1 ticket, so we had to get in as many rides as we could. This was Kenzie's first ride ever!! She waved to me every rotation shouting "hi mom!!".

I think the Merry-go-Round is the most beautiful ride!! I really thought this would be Kenzie's favorite ride, but I was wrong!

Maybe he'll realize one day that they really don't go anywhere!!

It was the Tilt-a-Whirl!!!!! She giggled and screamed the whole time!! When we got off, I thought I was going to puke and she said "let's go again!". Every night before she goes to bed, I ask her what her most favorite thing that happened to her today was and 3 days after the fair she still says "when I got to go on the Tilt-a-Whirl 2 times!

Amber screamed more than me!!!!!

Her second favorite thing was winning an adorable cow purse at the fish pod game.

A fun rollercoaster ride with Jordie.

Auntie Amber wanted Jordie and Kenzie to get their picture taken with Huge snake!! While they were setting up, Justin took a couple of shots. I love Jord's face in this one!!! Kenzie thought it was awesome and loved the feel of the skin!! YUCK!!!

A DAY IN WATERTON

To celebrate Justin's 39th birthday, we packed a picnic and put on our hikers and headed to Waterton for the day. It really is an amazing place that lets you explore and enjoy nature to it's fullest.

Justin had noticed a little squirel creeping up on Kenzie, so he called out to her to turn around. As soon as she noticed it she totally jumped in surprise and then went chasing after it. It was totally funny!!

We walked by this patch of flowers and noticed about 8 to 10 bees collecting pollen. After being bit by 3 wasps this summer, I didn't get to close!!

A sweet birthday kiss!!!

Tired legs get awesome shoulder rides!!

Justin was on the bridge taking pictures and I took Kenzie down to the river to feel the water. I held her out to feel the cold water and then brought her back to the bank and I turned around to go and she decided it wasn't enough and walked back in waist deep! I grabbed her by her shirt and pulled her out. To close for my liking!!!

Heading back all wet and cold!!!

She still managed to pose for yet another picture.

How can you not get icecream in Waterton. The peanut butter cup is the best!! Notice the change in Kenzie's outfit!! It's good to come prepared!!

This was the best family picture we could get! I asked a family if I could take there picture and in return they could take ours. So I take this great picture of theres and this is what I get!! Justin says "next time we're bringing our tri pod!" Oh well the scenery is lovely!!

We had a nice break at this awesome playground and watched Kenzie meet new friends and make rock pies.

She probably could have sat right between them and they still wouldn't have moved!! These ones definitley wouldn't have kicked her in the face!!! LOL

This doe might have if we got to close to her babies!!

On the way out of the park we noticed a bunch of cars pulled over so we stopped to see what they were looking at. We looked up the hill and saw 2 grizzlie bears. Glad we didn't run into them on our hike, but sure glad we got to see them from a pair of binoculars!!! They were stunning to watch!!! It was a great thing to see at the end of a perfect day!!!

CASTLEGAR FUN!!

Kenzie and I went to Castlegar for the golf tournament weekend not because we golf but because it's an opportunity to see most of our family and relatives and have a BIG party!!!
Every day was filled with some kind of water fun, whether at the beach or at my aunts pool, we kept cool and had some firsts in the water this year.

Mackenzie love the wave runners this time around. Ever since the splashing incident and couple of summers ago she has been hestitant to ride them. With the help of her brave cousins, she had a ball on them and even got in the tube with Jordan. She didn't love the ride but it was a first and she took it like a trooper!


Getting ready to go!


Saying their final farwells.

Coming in. Kenzie was quite relieved!

Well, maybe next year!!

Jordan picked out this lovely twin dog for her special treat from grandma and papa.

Jared and Andi left the kids with mom and dad for the week so we got to spend lots of time with them! Jess and I took the kids into Trail one day and shopped for treasures and went to an indoor jungle gym at the mall. They spent lots of time in the "cold" tub and playing on the massive dirt pile in the backyard. Kenzie and Nathan got along fabulous this visit and really enjoyed each others company.

This was one of Mackenzie's firsts, swimming all by herself!! I have to give props to the lifejacket that gave her the confidence to kick on her own and jump of the ladder.

Cousin Shasta was a big help too!!

I tricked her and decided not to catch her!! She was mad but got over it quickly!!

"Oh what do you do in the summer time" Have a blast and we really did!!!