Enjoying Summer

Since we have been back from our vacation, we have been enjoying sticking close to home. Generally the weather has been great and has allowed for lots of fun hanging out in the backyard. Jaret has really enjoyed playing on his play structure and spending countless afternoons in the pool. It is so much fun to relax in the backyard and watch him splash around and then when I get to hot with the sun beating down, I like to splash around the pool a little as well. One afternoon while out enjoying the day, Terry and Jaret spent half an hour just running around the backyard and then running and jumping into the pool. This has become a pretty fun game for Jaret and we have captured some of it on video.

There have been a couple of afternoons that it cooled down and thunderstorms threatened but we usually didn't see the rain until the evening. On the cooler days, we opted for playing inside instead. Jaret has been spending time doing his alphabet puzzle and has his a train set up in the living room that he has been playing with. His favourite thing to do is to see how long of a train he can make and then try to keep it on the track through all the twist and turns.

Jaret also likes to go for bike rides, both in his bike carrier being pulled behind Terry and on his own little bike. When he is riding his own bike though, he is still just being pushed on it as he hasn't gotten the hang of how to pedal. I keep trying by actually moving his feet, one at a time while he is on the bike, but he still isn't catching on. I guess that is kind of a good thing or he would be tearing up and down the streets with Liam, a five year old boy who lives across the way.

Jaret is still napping in the afternoons, which allows me to get a few things done around the house or chat on the phone, uninterrupted. When he naps he likes when his elephant chair and his big teddy share in his naptime.

The Long Weekend - On Saturday, I attended a wedding of a colleague and friend from school. That was also the evening of the Rider game here in Calgary. It was a beautiful night for the game. Terry and Jaret watched the whole thing - which means Jaret was up way past his bedtime. I also watched on a t.v. at the hotel with a number of other fans who were also at the wedding. It was a fantastic game and true to Rider form, it came down to the final seconds of the game to clinch the win. The Riders are now 6-0. How exciting!

On Sunday we took it easy and didn't do much of anything. Then today, we went out to Banff. We had lunch at Earl's and then hiked from the townsite to Bow Falls. Terry had more of a workout with carrying Jaret in the backpack. Jaret loved being in his backpack. It was a beautiful day with temperatures being around +25. Jaret loves going out to the mountains. He also has a fascination with rocks and throwing them into the water. It is sometimes impossible to pull him away from this and he just continues on and on and on... I think this is something that boys don't grow out of as Terry likes doing it as well. And I saw another father doing the same thing with his son, who was older than Jaret. In fact, they were trying to find the biggest rocks to see who could make the biggest splash. And then they tried to fire rocks over a cliff face across the river, which I didn't think was too smart since there is a trail on the other side. But we didn't hear any yelling from hikers so I think all was fine. So, indeed, something that boys, and men, never grow out of.