That’s the hill I wanted.  And up I went, and then down I went, with Tasha on board.  Apparently, according to Graham, “You guys sure caught a lot of air when you went over that bump!” I don’t know about that, because we were coming down the hill backwards incredibly fast, and I couldn’t turn the damn thing around.  When we hit the bump, all I knew was there was nothing under me for a long time, and suddenly there was.  I have a bruise on my butt the size of a basketball, and I’m pretty sure I re-broke the same rib I broke a couple of years ago.  Anyway, we moved over to the semi-bunny hill  (safer  for young ones AND old bones)

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more on the next pages…

Ben was born Tuesday morning in Calgary.  (I think was Tuesday morning, Graham called me Monday night to tell me he and Ivy were at the hospital) In any event, photos say more than I could.  Congratualtions, Ivy, Graham and Tash!

There’s more photos on the next page…

I had never used it, but it was supposed to let me take a photo from as far as 25 feet away. So, when someone said they wanted a family photo while we were in Edmonton, I thought it was the chance to try it out.

After I figured out how to make it work (you have to change some of the set-up on the camera to enable it) I set the camera on a tripod and lined everybody up and pointed the marvelous gadget at the camera and pushed the clicker button.

Nothing happened.

So I waved it around (cause that’s what you do with a remote control when it doesn’t work) and tilted it up and pointed it down and aimed to the right and then the left and pushed harder on the button and pushed again and still nothing happened. I moved a little closer and pushed the button and still nothing. About 5 feet from the camera I got a beeping sound, and a red light started flashing, but by the time I got back to where I should be, it was too late.

In the end, one of Ashley’s friends acted as the remote control. Not quite so high tech, but it worked better.

I went to a Canadian Tire store and found a little paddling pool for Natasha (and a red Spiderman beach ball) The water was ice cold, but she didn’t seem to mind at all

Ivy, Natasha, Bandit and I decided that a day trip to Banff was in order and set out at about 10:00 towards the mountains.

I had originally planned on doing the “tourist” thing in the town of Banff for a while (mostly for Ivy’s sake, because I thought she would like to look at some of the little shops there) but the Town of Banff decided that this was the week to literally rip up the main street from one end to the other to replace the storm sewer. It certainly didn’t resemble the scenic little village you see on the post cards and TV shows. After traveling through about six blocks of major construction, I was fed up, and just wanted to move on. We managed to find our way to the Gondola lift, and Ivy bought a post card.

I could spend days in the mountains, but we only had a few hours, so we grabbed some lunch at MacDonald’s and headed towards Lake Louise. I wanted to know if the water was as bright blue as I seemed to remember it from years ago.

The scenery was fantastic, and I decided it would be wise if I wasn’t trying to drive, eat a Big Mac, and take photos all at the same time. I stopped at a roadside turnout to eat my sandwich, and take a couple of pictures.

(more on next page)

Natasha, as usual, didn’t want too much to do with me. I’ve decided that’s okay. It’s one less Christmas gift to buy

Of course, the robins on my front door waited patiently (not really, they are getting pretty demanding and noisy, especially in the morning) for supper. They preferred their worms a little on the rare side…