Scary Stuff

One of the scariest, most stressful stages of a baby's development into toddlerhood occurs when they learn to climb stairs...without knowing how to come back down...never checking for bum room before deciding to sit down half-way up the stairs for a rest. I don't like this stage. As soon as they start climbing stairs, I start trying to teach them to come down on their own. Ellie hasn't had a fall yet and I dread the inevitable one that is waiting to happen. Hopefully someone will be there to catch her. Charlie is such a mother hen and screams if she sees Ellie approach the top of one of the five flights of stairs in their house.


Here she is on her way up - probably wondering what the big deal is. She's so proud of herself.

Impromptu Bath

Ellie got really, really dirty today crawling around on the deck. The tops of her feet and every piece of exposed skin got dirty - sand, slurpee juice, cheezie dust, and just general grime. I took her to the bathroom to get a facecloth to wash her face and hands and ended up stripping her down and sitting her in the sink full of water for a bath. She's a bit big for this type of bath, but it's all I felt like getting involved in in the middle of the afternoon. She loved it and the bathroom got a splash cleaning in the process!

I love the reflection of her head in the mirror - it shows such vulnerability and sweet babyness. Look how dirty that water is. Hard to believe a baby can get so dirty in a few hours of play.

Guest Photographer

I haven't taken any pictures since returning from Arizona and was wondering what to put in my blog. Then Kenzie and Sydney came down and Kenzie started taking pictures with my small camera. This is the one I like best. It's Kenzie's little sister, Sydney - 3 years old. Love her eyes!

Remember This Name...

Mark MacKenzie.

On our last night in Arizona we got together with our nephew Mark to celebrate his birthday with some extended family down there. Mark lives here in Alberta but has been working with some music producers in AZ, one of whom produces for Lyle Lovett, on his first professional CD. Mark has a beautiful voice and writes a lot of his own songs so we're all hoping that when this CD comes out, he'll get lots of air time and begin a successful music career. We're all cheering for him.


After dinner at a local restaurant we all went back to someone's home where Mark performed some of the songs from his CD for us. Good sounds and lots of fun.

And now we're home, missing Arizona already.

Last Day

We're heading home tomorrow so today is our last full day here in Surprise. It's hard to have as much fun on the last day as on other days, knowing that our holiday is coming to an abrupt halt tomorrow, but we spent time in the pool and did some final shopping. Tonight we're going out with our nephew Mark to celebrate his birthday with his stepfather and his family. Mark is down here working on the CD that is being produced with the help of Lyle Lovett's producer. Mark has a beautiful voice. Hopefully this CD will get lots of air time. Tomorrow morning will be our clean-up time. We head to the airport at 2:00.

When I was loading pictures into Facebook yesterday I realized that I didn't have any pictures of the front of the house. So I went out and took some. Here's what it looks like in all it's desert landscape glory. It's 40C here today - 105F. Gonna be hard getting back to cold Edmonton temps.

Working Hard...or..

...hardly working!! Since Lloyd is technically 'at work' this week, he takes his Blackberry out to the pool and conducts business from there. What a life! He met with the Child Welfare people at Tuba City on the Navajo Nations reservation yesterday - a 4-hour drive each way.

Anyway, wouldn't it be nice to be able to work in such peaceful surroundings every day?! I don't know how he's going to adjust to working in High Level, or even in Edmonton, after such a laid-back existence here.

PS: Sara, show this to Quincey. He could easily conduct business pool-side.

Toad-ally awesome!

I fell in love with this foot tall/foot round toad in WalMart's summer clearance section that I just had to bring him home and put him in the back yard. At first I sat him at the pools edge, but then decided he'd look better tucked back by the sage bush. Isn't he just the cutest thing!!