Tailbone Breaker

Today we hung out with the Tailbone breaker. 

AKA Smiths green space, with the giant Inflatable. 

Why is it the Tailbone breaker? 

Erin broke her tailbone in June going down the slide. 

Did the kids care.

Not one little bit.

Grassi Lakes

Today we drove to Canmore to hike Grassi Lake with the Moxley's!

During July 01 we decided to hike more as a family this summer. We made lots of plans, so hopefully at least a couple will pan out LOL.

I was super nervous taking Remy hiking a week after she broke her arm, but after speaking to lots of other families that have done this hike- we went for it. SO glad we did. Remy rocked my socks off. She was absolutely amazing and was so happy to have something else to focus on besides her arm.

A special thanks to Aunt Krista who has fallen into the Family Photographer role! I think I took maybe 2 of theses pictures- and she took the rest!

We met up at 11 am to start and it was already busy- we had to park in overflow. 

Some of the Miguels had hiked this the week before and suggested we take the harder route up and the easier route down. It was a great idea and the views from the harder route were worth it. For a bit we were hiking in a stream coming down the path, which made me really nervous for Remy, but she proved to be ready for anything. Jayden asked Kalia to hold her hat- a white bucket hat. Kalia then spent the next 5 weeks talking about a white bucket hat, searching online, Ardenes and asking for one constantly. I remember doing something like that when I was a teen, but I was much older than Kalia. Kalia has WAY more fashion sense then I did at that age- I cringe to think about what I wore when I was her age. 

When your hiking with 21 people there are people everywhere!

At the top we had our lunches and explored for a bit, Barker and Payton being boys pretending to push each other in. Kalia almost throwing Barker in. Annaliesse yelling all the while- which is just how she rolls. Remy wasn't feeling her total self and Mommy was very careful with what she could do. Aunt Krista took all the kids into this cool little cave right in the face of the Mountian and took LOTS of pictures. 

 The kids had a great time being in the mountains and with cousins. I will hike with these people for the rest of forever. Justin and I are working hard to create memories as a family- coming across this quote sums up this summer.

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory"

We couldn't have asked for a better hike day :)

Next 4 days

For the next 4 days we sorta laid around.

At least Mommy and Remy did- the other kids played with friends, at the park and in the pool but Remy and I stayed put.

The next morning we found an surprise under her shirt I missed at 2in the morning.

Grandma and Grandpa came home from their get-away and needed all the hugs.

Aunties in High River brought slurrpies over, and took the other kids to keep them busy.

Her cousins FaceTimed her while they played melty beads. 

Lots of iPads and snuggles.

Through the first couple days of pain and frustration with a cast- she still had her happy disposition and good humour. 

Then Remy broke her Arm

Hamilton came on to Disney + today! I can't tun down a good musical so of course I was all over it. I thought it would be a good use of my time to ignore my children for a few hours, while they played on iPads, and I could watch Hamilton.

Of course it took me forever to watch it, as I had to pause 30+ times for questions, snacks, and splitting up arguments. Having never seen it, I was totally engrossed and didn't want to miss thing!

It was sooo good and since this day have listened to the track and had the show playing in the background more than I care to admit. But in my defence, laundry has been folded in record time just so I could watch it!

We spent the rest of the day playing at the house, waiting for the time to head into the fireworks with the Moxley's! Daddy got home from work dinner and off to Aunt Karlas for a bit of playing before 11pm. Then disaster struck.

The kids were all playing on the trampoline, taking turns double bouncing each other. Turns out that wasn't a smart idea- as on one of Remy's turn she landed wrong and broke her arm. Justin and I were sitting on the back deck with Karla when Kalia shouts "Mom Remy broke her arm!" We looked around and YUP there her arm was, definitely broken.

We briefly discussed to take her home, or to Children's, and to leave the kids, or take them home. In the end, the break looked bad enough to just do go to Children's. Justin held her on the 30 minute drive, through ridiculous amounts of construction... while I tried not to speed too much.

Looks of pictures of a broken arm, so if you are squeamish don't scroll down.

We were at Children's from 9:45 pm until 2:10am. It wasn't very busy but the arm had to be X-rayed, set, casted and Re-Xrayed. Add in a while bunch of staff like the caster, the RN the RT, the DR, plus the Resident... it took a while.

She broke both bones in her left arm- the cast had to go up over her elbow in order to keep it set.

Remy was a rock start. serious. She mostly whimpered on the drive over, mostly because she was scared of the hospital, not the pain. She was polite with the staff and just ready for it be over, kindly.

It was a long night. But she got amazing care. Thanks again Staff at Children's- you made tonight bearable.

To the checkstop we got stopped at at 2:20am on Crowchild- made us uncover our almost asleep child to shine a light in her eyes- coulda done without you..

Karla so kindly took the other 4 to the Fireworks, and they slept over there. Thank heavens for her- as it was one less thing for use to worry about. We could have split up once we got to the hospital but Remy wanted Mommy close and Daddy to hold her.

FYI
Kalia broke her arm exactly the same day 6 years ago, when she was 6 years old.
Barker broke his collarbone exactly 2 years ago.

AND
All 4 of our kids have now broken a bone in Grade one or the summer following... so there's that.

Frank Lake

This morning we built a fort, did our reading, and Mommy did some laundry and cleaning.

It took a while to find all the clamps and for Remy and Barker to "set up" the inside. After a quick lunch we headed out to Frank Lake.

Somehow in our years here in High River we have never been!! Not knowing what we were up against, I was Marco Poloing a friend as we were pulling out of the grange- she told me to take gumboots (which we couldn't find) and to make sure we were wearing pants (which we were). 

It was gorgeous! We saw so many birds, in fact a huge flock of Pelicans had flown in and were hanging out on a sandbar just off the shore. We saw so many birds- of which I know zero of the names off of hand. Yellow headed ones, red ones, tiny ones, oh and ducks- I know what ducks look like. 

We walked around for about an hour and a half- slipping in mud and wet grass. Kalia had brought old shoes and delighted in walking right through the mud- Barker followed her after a while. Annaliesse, Mommy and Remy did our best to stay out of it. 

It was so fun- we will definitely be back!

Canada Day

Our first July 01 not celebrated in Raymond Alberta.

It was different and low key. We met the Moxley's at Karlas house in the city and played the day away! We visited and ate, had a candy scrabble for the kids, trampoline constantly, scooters, played spike ball, ordered some fabric on sale (well I did at least) and just chilled. We missed the Hardys and the Moxley's  (Jason and Stephanie)

Guys it was SOOO nice NOT to have to drive for 4 hours, rush around 3 different family groups, stressing about offending one as we were racing off to another and having our kids annoyed that we had to cut cousin time short everywhere.