This time last week we were in Calgary, Alberta enjoying time with family. We went up for our nephew's baptism and stayed about 5 days. We had a lot of fun visiting family and just being together. It's been so long since the girls and I were last in Calgary - almost two years! Now that we live so much closer, we won't ever go that long in between visits and I can't wait to explore Alberta with my family. I have a running list of things to do and see when we go up. One thing that I want to try to do every trip, is drive through Banff and stop for a hike. If you haven't been to Banff, you should fix that and go because it's gorgeous. I had chosen an easy hike - Silverton Falls (trailhead is at the Rockbound lake parking lot, right by Johnston Canyon) for our little family to do. The mountains and trees were perfectly flocked with snow and before we arrived at the trailhead big, fat snowflakes began to fall. It was completely perfect. Holly and Greta were thrilled to be in the snow and going for a hike. I said to Conor that what we had been doing wrong with all our hikes up to this point was we weren't hiking in snow. It was amazing.

We made it to the falls and this is were it got a lot colder! The frozen creek came right up to the path, but it didn't register with Holly that it was ice and she walked out a few feet. I called out to her quickly knowing what she was doing and knowing what would happen, but it was too late. The ice broke and the poor girl was soaked up to her hips! She managed to scramble out okay and we quickly took off her wet clothing and wrapped her in my coat. Fortunately it wasn't very cold (only a little below freezing), and we hadn't made it more than 15-20 minutes from the parking lot. Everything was fine and some kind strangers who came upon us right after she fell in brought us a fleece blanket. It all turned out okay, just a little startling!

Conor and I have since talked about the event and shared our perspectives. Maybe this was an important lesson for our girls to learn. The dangers of ice. Maybe it'll save them from a future fatality. If not, it sure has left us with a strong standing memory of Banff!

My parents and my sister Alanna came to visit us this past weekend. I feel a lot of gratification having so many visitors. It's like all the years of driving or flying to Canada are paying off. I love hosting family! We feel very fortunate to have had so many dear ones visit us. And there's a few more visits on the calendar!

My parents came to help us with our yard and I mean help with an S.O.S. The yard hasn't been properly cared for for quite some time. There's a ton of large rock in Spokane - a lot of the houses' foundations are built from local rock, like our house. Our house is also literally built upon a rock. About a third of our basement is raw, uneven rock and this rock extends to the side of our house. My parents decided to start by cleaning off that rock. We didn't realize what we were getting into. A couple of feet of packed dirt was on top of that rock. It was dirty, dusty work to get all of it moved off the rock. Now we have a massive pile of dirt in our yard... We were all pretty tired by the end of that adventure and there's still lots left to do.

We made some time for some fun and we walked around some of Manito Park. Gosh, I love where we live.

We promise that we don't work all of our guests this hard! ;)

This is why we moved to Spokane. Or one big reason out of the dozen. A long weekend in Yahk. A short drive to spend quality time with my family. Holly and Greta loved it. And I loooooved not feeling stressed about fitting in as much bonding time as possible. It's so nice to be able to feel a little more mellow about family time! That's a major win in my books.

We met my sister's baby, Theia, the girls played with all the pets, Holly and Greta had morning cuddles with their grandparents, wheelbarrow rides from Gramps, story telling, playing with fire, we spent time with my Aunt and Uncle, Uncle Peter gave Holly and mani/pedi, we played games, etc... It was like it wasn't even cold and rainy!

It was a weekend I needed to affirm that we did the right thing. Because let's face it, moving is no joke!

We now call Spokane, WA home. We arrived here 6 days ago and unloaded the truck. We were settled pretty quickly. Conor's parents came to help us and they worked so hard alongside us. Their help kept me going and stopped me from having a nuclear meltdown! Initially I fell apart when we first walked through the house together. I misremembered a lot of things and I really had so many feelings from driving so long and the stress of moving, etc. But as soon as we began putting our stuff in this place, I felt better. I totally love the house we bought and I'm excited to spend a good long time here. It's totally dreamy.

Now to make friends!

We celebrated Holly's 6th birthday this weekend. Six years old. That feels like the big leagues or something. It's very grown up, very much passed the "toddler" and "preschooler" age. Holly is full of energy and a generally very happy child. She loves reading "Biscuit the dog" books. She loves playing with her sister - the intensity at which they play is impressive. Every day, Holly and Greta are thrilled to be together and they play with passion. It's adorable and I'm in awe of their amazing sisterhood. Holly's Holly! She a wonderful kid! It was a fun, busy weekend. We went to the San Francisco Zoo on Friday. It's an okay zoo. The most recent zoo we've been to is the San Diego Zoo. If that's the zoo that I hold as the standard, I think I'm going to be very disappointed every time we visit a zoo. It was fun and I'm glad we went. I don't plan on visiting again. On Saturday evening we had a very small birthday party. And now it's over. But the entitlement lives on.