Approximately 3.5 Hours Later....

Back to the Calgary trip!
In case you lost track, here is a quick recap of where we left off. After multiple car breakdowns, one lost pair of flashy shoes, a 20 hour trip from A to B and an attempted break and enter, we all stumbled into bed sometime around 3:30am.
Fast forward 3.5 hours, and we were up and at 'em, getting ready to go downtown to watch the Stampede parade. I did point out the absurdity of the plan before the alarm clock was even set, but since I was the only one of that mind I decided to tag along. Thanks to some family members who probably showed up to save seats not long after the rest of us got to bed, this outing was (thankfully) not the disaster I anticipated! We slid into front row seats just moments before the cavalcade of horses came marching by. I got my hands on two cups of coffee. Turns out, Liam likes marching bands. And Sarah's previously alluded-to "troubles" didn't surface until the smell could reasonably be attributed to the equine occupation.
All in all....a good start!


Note: See Liam's funky footwear? Those are his water shoes. It was only in the sleepy morning fog did we discover his "real" shoes had been left behind!

Liam checks out some public art...


Another highlight of our trip was a Stampede style breakfast with the whole family. The pancakes were flowing from about 10am to 5pm (seriously, they were that good!) and the kids got a chance to play with their cousins. They had met before, but now that they are all old enough to play together it felt like the first time. They all got along great, and thanks to the supervision of older cousins it was almost as if we had a "parental day off". They ran around the basement together for hours with the occasional check-in from Mom and Dad. For the record, I am completely on board with this "older kid" thing. I'm sure I'll remember with some degree of tenderness the sound of Sarah's feet pummeling towards me when she is unsure, the feeling of her dimpled fingers gripping my leg, or her hot tears and drippy nose on my neck when someone who isn't me looks at her. But we're not entirely out of the Separation Anxiety woods yet, so this day, this glimpse of Sarah minus the mommy-itis was nice. Very nice.
Several of the kids had a bit of a rave/dance party thing going on for a while. Here they are all trying to outdo each other in a Splits Competition. It's one of Liam's favorite dance moves, so he did rather well.


Coming up next in this never-ending "How I Spent My Summer Vacation Series": Reclaiming The Top Dishwasher Rack with One Trip To The Emergency Room.