Sunday May 27 2007 - FUN SATURDAY!!

Can't believe I'm blogging, twice in one week. A record for me really! We had a day of a few showings booked, and Kendall was working in Calgary all day (finishing up a painting job) so last minute I decided to just head in with him first thing Saturday morning (that way my house would stay clean and we wouldn' t be back and forth for the showings). Kendall was painting up in the NW part of Calgary, so we dropped him off and set out on our adventure for the day. It was fun to drive by where we used to live and our old bus stop and Ava even remembered that we used to ride the #19. It's amazing how instantly memories started flooding back, just being in familiar surroundings. Made me feel a bit better about never scrapbooking. Just as long as we can always make trips back (and as long as my memory doesn't give out)....we'll always be able to remember those fun times. I loved living in the NW and forgot the tiny things I loved until yesturday. So just for fun, I drove by our old "duck pond" we used to go to. Ava could barely ride a little bike (with training wheels) and Mya was a baby still when we'd go there. It was torture letting Ava ride her bike (tack on an extra hour to our little outing for sure!) but I loved it...and instantly missed it! We'd ride through the University, out onto 32nd Ave and then into the Varsity area. There's this sweet little park with ducks and it was a perfect day to go as the little ducklings and little goslings were hatched and as cute as ever!!! (Too bad I didn't have a fancy dancy camera to take nice zoomed pictures with. Where's Chad's new camera when I needed it!!)

I wasn't prepared with any bread to feed them, but had a couple of Ritz crackers in the diaper bag but they didn't seem to like that much. We used to have them come right up close.

Brooklyn thought this was awesome. Notice her "dry pants" in this shot.

Ya, well, lets just say I was smart to have brought an extra pair of pants for her. She badly wanted to hold one of the little ducklings! I snapped this next picture, not sure why, just thought it interesting that these daddy ducks weren't helping the mommy ducks with all the little ducklings. Interesting! Just joking of course!!!!!!!

So after the duck pond, we played at the park nearby and had a blast. (Brooklyn is showing her dry side of her body here!) What a stinker!

After that,we decided to head over to my mom and dads grave. I needed to look into the cost of getting his death date added to the gravestone. It is still a compelte mess there and badly needs new grass and a good clean but nice to spend some time there and order the engraving etc.

Not far from their grave is a little childrens area where children are burried. In the middle of it all is this little park and the girls had a blast playing around while I walked around and tried hard not to cry as I saw the sweet little graves and messages left .

I love this shot of Ava helping Brooklyn. She was a big help for me that day with her sisters!

We actually spent a lot of time here (which was nice) cause I had the entire day (until Kendall was done work) to just hang out. I supppose that's why it was so nice, there were no deadlines, no reason to rush...just a nice day of doing whatever we wanted. Then we went to Ikea. Big mistake. That trip is a blur. Notice no little photos' to remember that experience. I only needed to buy a bunch of candle holders (for Young Women's) and of course, they were right a the end of the store. I won't lie, I was lucky to leave the store with all 3 children and nothing broken. Brooklyn and Mya wanted to test every chair or bed or dish each of them running off in opposite directions. That's all I'm going to say about that trip. Finally, it was about time to make our way back up to the NW part of the City to get daddy. We ended the day with an awesome Family BBQ. Tanis and John are moving and this was their last day here, so we had a little going away party!!! We met at Crystal and Jeremy's house and Tanis and John cooked up a yummy dinner and then it was off to the lake for some fun.

One of the best parts of this, was that I can honestly say with no word of a lie, that I took WAY better picutres than Chad did. Hands down, amazing shots. Better luck for you next time Chad! I'd be happy to give you all my tips, but perhaps the first tip would be....don't forget your big fancy camera!!!!

Cute bunch of kids. Now I just have to learn how to get them to all look at me at the same time! Remember the shot of the daddy ducks I took earlier....well, how do you like this idea...

Sent all the dads and kids down to the lake....while we just sat and talked!!!

Once again, note the "dry pants" Brooklyn is wearing here....

and the"no pants" she is wearing here....

Only this time Brooklyn wasn't alone, Ava, Ella, Abby and even Mya all joined the club and walked home soaking wet! Good times were had for sure. I will miss that we aren't all 15 minutes away from eachother anymore. It has been so fun for us to live so close together and awesome for the kids to play so much with cousins. When we move, it will be a big shocker, not only on the Rausch side but also the Hardy side, not to be surrounded by awesome family! So that was our day and thus concludes the LONGEST post EVER!!!!!!!