Well - Kevin has been slacking on the posts as of late, so I guess I'll just pick up where he left off.

We've had an eventful July already.  I've taken the boys on a few adventures, to the zoo, Calaway, Riley Park, etc.  All trying to keep cool in this awesome heat!

This past weekend was a huge deal for me and my family.  Mainly a big deal for me because I was in charge of the entire weekend.  Organizing activities, meals(groceries), arrangments, etc.  I had a blast doing all of this, but it was definately a full weekend and I am glad to say that it is over and that it was a huge succsess.  I couldn't have done it without the help of the Calgary people and even help from the relatives from Vegas. 

Our activities included:  Swimming, Family Dinner #1, BBQ Breakfast, Scavenger Hunt, Chinese Food dinner, Family Dance, Golfing, Cooking "Class", Weiner Roast, Family Dinner #2, Program and Auction, Church, and Family Dinner #3.

We all had such a fun time, and it was so fun to be together as a family.  All of the activities turned out really well.  The food for the weekend also turned out really... (click here to read the rest)

Two years ago today Elise and I had a big surprise. Porter decided to join the world on his own terms. Those terms were 2 months early and around 3am February 15th he decided to let us know it was time. It was a long day of course and it just kept getting longer. It was around 11pm that we started to clue into the fact that he was pretty sick. By the next morning we weren't too sure he was going to make it through the week.

Look at him now! 2 years old and growing. He's still a little guy but he's got big personality. We love having him around.

Tonight's celebration was pretty low key. We let the boys play at the play area in Market Mall and then joined up with The Wolff's and Leavitt's for dinner at the food court. Everyone got to eat what they liked and there was enough room for everyone to sit comfortably.

Porter made a killing. Talk about spoiled. I have half a mind to keep some of the presents wrapped and give them to him throughout the course of the year. ... (click here to read the rest)

Derek asked me in a comment a while back "Hey, when do we get our Happy New Year? What gives?"

I thought I would address this now since I've procrastinated way too long.  I was actually waiting to grab some pictures of Christmas from various digital cameras so that this entry would have some sweet pics to go along with it.  I know it's a little behind but here it goes.

Christmas was fun this year.  We slept over at the Leavitt's again.  They got their basement finished in their new house so it was pretty sweet.  It's really nice down there.  I'll snag a couple pics of it some time.  They put in a nice big LCD TV, pool table and ping pong table.  It's a total party place now.

Mason is at the age now where he gets really excited about Santa Clause and presents.  He wasn't disappointed on Christmas morning.  Porter had a fun time too.  Mason got a new train and Porter got a plane that he can sit on and drive around.  He loves it.

We ate our traditional Hutterite sausage brunch at my parents house.  It was so incredibly tasty.  Looking... (click here to read the rest)

I went to the Calgary vs. Edmonton hockey game on this past weekend with my father in law.  It was awesome!  During the warm up we went right down to the front row next to the players box.  I only had my camera phone which takes terrible pictures so I didn't get anything worth posting, but nonetheless it was a great time.

It was the first hockey game I've been to where you could hear people cheering for both teams.  I'd say a little over 10% of the crowd was made up of Oilers fans.  I wore my Oilers shirt underneath my Flames jersey.

There was this really obnoxious Oilers fan sitting right behind us.  He didn't do much other than yell obseneties and insults.  It really bugged me.  I'm all for cheering for your team, even if it's not the team I cheer for, but I really don't like booing and rudeness.  I guess I'm just old fasioned.  I thought "well, I guess I can take pride in the fact that Calgary fans are not rude".  Pretty much as soon as I thought that the crowed broke out into an "Oilers Suck!" chant.  Oh well, what can you do?

As I said before,... (click here to read the rest)

I guess I should get around to writing something about this entry.  I didn't realize it when I posted the pictures that it only actually posted one of them.  Weird.

Last Friday we went camping at Patty's Flats.  It was really fun.  We took Jocelyn and Adelle with us too.  Jocelyn wasn't feeling very well for the first night, but she slept it off and was much better the next morning.  The boys had a riot.  They like being in the great out doors.  I have always enjoyed camping so it had a blast.

The shocking part of the whole story is that Elise really had fun too.  Fun enough that this week we went out and bought camping supplies and are going to go camping again tomorrow.  This could be the start of a fun summer.

Mason Term of the day: Chipmunk Trail - that's what he called the little pathways through the forest. 

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting something for over a year. Crazy.  It's not that I don't have the motivation... well... maybe it is, but I just feel like things have been way too busy lately.  Normally when I write "make up" entries I split them out an back date them, but this time I'm not going to.  Here is a non-linear brain dump of the past couple weeks.

Work has been keeping me pretty busy these days.  I always say better busy than bored, but I've been busy with things that are a little over my head so I feel like I'm dragging my feet a little.  I've enjoyed the last couple of days because things are starting to click for me and I'm learning quite a bit.

Porter has been toying with walking.  I think he's a little insecure cause sometimes he forgets that he's not holding onto something and does pretty well on his own.  Mason has been doing a great job of pummeling Porter every chance he gets.  Porter is no slouch though.  He's starting to fight back.  If Mason keeps up his diet of 3 calories a day and Porter keeps eating everything he sees... (click here to read the rest)

Today is Mason's birthday.  He is three years old now.  Each phase of his life has been enjoyable but I really like this phase because he can talk very well and let us know what he's thinking.  There's a lot more interaction.  I took him out to Walmart at lunch to let him pick out a birthday present.  He picked one of those little multilevel car parking garage things.  It was cheap; in price and quality.  I had some model glue so I glued it all together and it's much more stable now.  Anyway… he likes it.

His party was pretty low key this year.  My family and Elise's family came for cake.  Elise's parents made an awesome Thomas the Train ice cream cake.  It was really tasty.  He got some other train related presents are really had a fun time.

This weekend we went to Fairmont with the Leavitts.  It's a yearly tradition that I quite enjoy.  It's nice to chill out without phones or computers.  The weather was outstanding.  Spring seems to be in the air.  The drive up was nice and I was stoked to have my new MP3 player so we could listen to some tunes.  I spent a lot of one on one time with Mason there.  We had a lot of fun running outside, playing soccer and throwing rocks in the water.  He was absolutely fascinated with the little bridges that crossed the stream out behind the villa.

When we go to Fairmont there are always three things I can count on.  Good food and lots of movies.  I think those are two of my favorite things.  This trip was no exception.  We ate lots of good food and watch a lot of movies.  We also did a lot of swimming and sitting in the hot tub.  I think sitting in an outdoor hot tub is also up there on my list of favorite things to do.  The best thing would be to ride a motorcycle through the mountains to a nice little mountain resort, then chill in... (click here to read the rest)

Congrats go out to Jocelyn and the other Branton Tigers who took first place in the Girls Junior High School basketball tournament.  They must have had an exceptional coach to pull off so many wins!  It was also a good excuse for me to sneak over to my old high school and look around.  See my previous post.

For the first time in almost 11 years I returned to my old high school.  Jocelyn had a basket ball game championship there.  I took the time to walk around and remember the "good old days."  Just a couple of weeks ago I went back to Branton for one of Jocelyn's other games.  I had those same nostagic feelings then too.  Anyway... I snagged a couple shot of my old locker, the cafeteria and a few random hallways.  They really should do something about the stairwells.  They're so grungy.