Mare's Visit

Mare was here from Calgary with us for about 24 hours and Kat made the most of every moment. Chris arrived on her heels. Pics to follow.

This is the group photo just before she left. We're all in it at least. That was pretty good.

Mare and Kat at the Cheesecake Factory, where she bought us lunch (Mare, not Kat-- she never buys).

Kat getting (and really liking) her first airplane ride.

Mare, Kat, Dan and the tupperware ball.

Kat showing Mare her current favorite toy.

Mare's pics: Kat's new job giving the dogs treats when we leave the house, which she learned in Calgary. She takes this task very seriously (possibly too seriously, as she doesn't differentiate leaving the house from walking thru the kitchen as times to distribute them))

Kat feeding Ben grass. But he had to be sure it wasn't something good......

Kat pushing Boo. I don't think she made much progress, as he outweighs her 3 to 1.

Kat's surprising dedication in our art class. She usually is running down the hall to play with the drinking fountain.

First Haircut

Well, Kat had her first haircut today. And my camera has healed. I went to OfficeMax to get a new card to see if that would solve the problem. The guys there tried to fix it but were unsucessful. The new card didn't fit, either. But I fidled with it for a while since we were early to music class this morn, and found a menu item for 'erase data'. I figured what the heck, and apparently that was all it took. For now anyway. So I got to take pics of her first haircut. Course, I ordered the new camera (Olympus 840 for $99) last night. With a 5x optical and 5.6x digital.....looking forward to checking it out. It will make the Fuji look like a monster, I'm sure.

This was before. You can see that there is a need......

And after....She loved the firetruck chair, and the sucker kept her occupied the whole time. Course, after seeing it done, and how it ended up, I could have done that and would have charged her waaayy less than $27 (plus tip)!!! Next time.

She is really good at scamming her way onto other kids' quarter rides at Crossroads. That's a pretzel in her mouth.

On her very fave, the merry go round! There is usually crying after the removal.

The Marathon Mariners Game

No pics. I'm having major camera trouble (it's definitely Hermy's fault, she pulled the cable out while the last of the Calgary pics were downloading, and my camera now says 'card not initialized' and that's all it will do.) So no pics. And I'm shopping for a new camera and looking for my manual to try to figure out the problem. I have major camera envy after seeing Mare's Cannon Elph camera in Calgary....

Dan had the firms' Ms tx today and we went with Mike & Megan. The game started at Kat's normal nap time, which she happily postponed. The Ms were down by one at the bottom of the ninth (and I was so confused that lots of people in front of us left....maybe they didn't get that the home team had last ups?). They tied it up and then in the 13th were behind by 3 again, which they tied up.

In the 15th, they had two men on base, no outs, the pitcher walked Ichiro (Kat's word of the day, BTW....IC..CHIR..O chanted over and over and over--when she wasn't yelling 'touchdown' every time that the crowd went wild) to load them up. Then a shallow pop to center that the fielder misjudged, and we could all go home! Kat did great, though she may have eaten frequently, raisins, oranges, blueberries, pizza, french fries, but she never melted down, though she was extremely busy moving about. She did pass out within minutes of being in the car, as expected.

From the Seattle Times: 'It also was the longest Major League game of the season, in innings and time. The 526-pitch marathon lasted 5 hours, 3 minutes.' The Ms went through 8 pitchers.

Calgary part 3

We got home late this aft. Laundry is underway, the car has been emptied of all stuff, car seat cover is washed and drying, Dan vaccuumed out the remaining french fries and pretzels. As all 5 of us were going, the Highlander was roomier, but I couldn't bear to replace that new car smell (to be more exact, nasty chemical off-gassing) with the wet dog smell, the french fry smell and whatever else we could come up with collectively after living in the car for ten days. So we all packed into the RAV4, with all that we could carry and traveled about 2,000 miles, through 2 countries, 2 states, and 2 provinces. The car was not pretty upon arrival (here or there). I thought burning it might be the best bet, but Dan insisted that we could make it better. All the while (probably) gloating that it wasn't his car!

The boys LOVE snow and they love Calgary- all rules are off at Wendy & Bryan's place. I don't know why I brought 20lbs of dog food, they didn't eat much of it at all. Dan didn't want to bring them, but conceded that they LOVE vacationing at B&Ws place after seeing them there.

Ginger- ready to snap at an idiot should it be necessary.

Kat's pictures in her USA dress.

Kat and daddy.

Kat and Ginger, sharing Ginger's bed.

Our big dinner group at Spaghetti Factory on Friday night. Kat sat across from the 14 month old and they had a great time imitating one another.

The other end of the table.

Mare and Kat.

Our wildlife sighting in the Rockies. We saw elk too- but aside from them, this was it- no bears, moose, or other charismatic megafauna. Despite my best efforts.

Kat and the boys in Banff, waiting for Daddy to hunt down an unsatisfying meal at McDonalds before we headed out to Sandpoint, ID.

Kat, Bryan & Wendy, our most excellent hosts and wonderful friends in Calgary.

The Rockies. I just love driving through them.

How Kat spent the last 2 days.....most of her toys were...well, we didn't know where anything was anymore (our only space for clothes, toys, cooler, computers, etc was the seat next to Kat), except for the twizzlers. I had those handy.

Calgary Part 2: SNOW

We know from living here that it can snow at any time. So we weren't surprised nor unprepared when it was 65 on Tuesday and 30 on Wednesday, with 4" of fresh white powdery snow. The boys LOVED it. They are northerners thru and thru. Kat...well, I think the jury is still out.

Here she is with Erin's iPhone. She loved it and now demands one for the return journey, as she would be able to entertain herself for hours with it. Erin put the Beatles on for her and she kept holding it to her ear. She liked it.

Not yet sure about the snow. But she didn't want the mitten back on and she didn't want to go inside. And when we did, she may have eaten the melting snow off of her boots.

Dan chasing Kat (Hollywood Kat) in DT Calgary.

At Wally & Kathy's. Dan with a pair of toddlers on his lap.

Kat finally got Matthew to chase her. And then she broke his toys.....

Aren't they too cute?

High-fiving one another.

The Brateks: Matthew, Kathy, & Wally.

All of us.

Calgary- Part One

We are in Calgary. We made it in two nearly-painless days (the night was painful- she does NOT like the peapod- or maybe it was Bonner's Ferry, ID). We are staying with fabulous and gracious hosts, Bryan, Wendy & Ginger. They have a beautiful house in the SW and we and Kat have our own rooms and bathrooms. I highly recommend this place! Ben has liberated only a few non-dog food items. We have been at the dogpark every day so far. And will have to go to a good ground squirrel location so that Boo can play whack-a-mole. That's what it looks like- one comes up and then disappears and another comes up somewhere else. He LOVES to chase them.

Kat on our 600+ mile journey to Calgary. She didn't eat Twizzlers the whole way. But they did come in mighty handy twice.

Tonite at Mark & Ann's. All you need to entertain a 2 year old (almost), is a border collie and a ball. For HOURS.

Bianca was also great entertainment tonite.

And Ann. This kid the energizer bunny. She just keep going as long as there is fun to be had. No meltdowns, no overtired munchkin, she just doesn't stop. After 4 hours of playing with dogs, kids, adults and staircases, and 1.5 hours past her bedtime, she didn't sleep on the way home, instead she mostly sang! Then when put in bed, passed out instantly. Here's hoping she sleeps until 11!

The entire crowd: Bianca, Ann, Mark & Dan up top, Kat, Boo, Ben, Eric and Mia down below.

Kat was so excited- she had no idea that dogs would chase a thrown ball. Hers won't, cause they're old, lazy, and mostly, not border collies!

Kat and Sherry the night before. We've been scoring free meals all week, with no end in sight! Bryan and Wendy (cause they haven't done enough) and Wally and Kathy are next up.

Shannon and Kat- so sad the pic is blurry, but he LOVED having a little girl on his lap (they have 3 boys). There was discussion (threats?) of a trade, but in the end we left with the one we brought and no extras.

Here's the crowd in Shan & Sherry's backyard. This was on the beautiful day. It is supposed to be cold and snowy the next 3 days. DOUGH!

The big boys playing with the little kids' toys.

At the dogpark yesterday. She loved all of the dried grass- it was just like the easter egg hunts.

Testing the wind?

You can get an idea how windy it was from Ben's coat.

That is a rock in the foreground- I can prove it.