Hey, I miss my family. Covid has been really hard. My brother and his family ended up coming to Calgary for the last week of our trip because my Gramma went into the hospital. They wanted to see her before she passed. It was an odd, "I'm so happy to see you and I'm so sad for the reason it's possible." But truly, it was an absolute delight to spend time with all my family.

It's hard to coordinate schedules during summer and that's kind of what happened with the Larsens. Their Gabriola trip coincided with the first week of our trip to Calgary and then they came home the same day we went to Banff... So we made sure to reserve a chill day with them the day before Cora had her surgery. I love to just be with my family. The Larsens are some of my favorite people! It was so nice to see their new home and spend time with them. After dinner, I French braided Cora's hair before her surgery. It reminded me of when my sister, Alanna, had brain surgery and I braided her hair before she went in for surgery. Both experiences were tender and special for me.

Before we knew John, Allison and kids were coming to town, my mom asked for pics of at least 8/10 grandkids. These kiddos had so much fun together! One day, my sister Kim and I went out to lunch with just Ira. Holly and Greta watched Maeve and Kim's kids (E was napping), and it was so nice to just be with my sister.

We went all in on Heritage Park and bought seasons passes and visited 3x! My kids were in it for the rides, candy and cousins. But really, it's a fun spot to go to with kids. Every trip looked a little different with some common themes (looking at you bakery and candy store!). Also, gotta say that doing outings is so much easier with big kid cousins! Getting out the door with my large crew is no joke and feels so much more doable when I know there will be some helping hands once we get where we're going. Looking forward to hopefully a couple more visits this year.

And some snaps with our Muirhead crew! On a cold afternoon, we went to Ralph Klein park and played. I brought my oldest niece with me too. The kids had so much fun and stayed warm! The zip line was the crowd favorite. After all the big kids had moved on, I spent a good chunk of time putting Maeve and Theia on it! So much fun!