Swimming Lessons

The past two weeks the kids have been having swimming lessons at the pool every day at 11:30.  It’s been nice since the Parent/Tot time starts at noon, so I’ve been able to just join them in the pool after their lesson (if it’s nice).  They did pretty well, but didn’t pass the Level.  Guess we’ll have to keep working with them. Emma is pretty close.  She will put her face in the water and attempt to swim and was getting the required 5 meters by the end, but Ben is a little more stubborn.  He doesn’t like getting his face wet and will do what they ask of him as long as they are holding on to him.  He won’t attempt to try swimming on his own. 

This was the last day of classes, so the kids got a play time with their teacher and students from all the other classes.  The lazy river was the place to be!  It was such a beautiful day that I had fun getting in with them afterwards and spending another couple hours at the pool this afternoon!

Training Wheels… OFF!

While we were in Kalispell, Lennard took Ben to get a new bike helmet.  While they were in the aisle, Ben saw the horns and bells for bikes.  He really wanted one, so we told him that if he would learn to ride on two wheels he could have the horn.  We took his training wheels off once before and it didn’t go so well, so we weren’t really thinking too much about the deal other than that we would need to spend some time helping him to learn how to ride his bike.

Yesterday, Ben asked me to take his training wheels off and I told him to wait for daddy to get home.  We ended up going to Lethbridge, so it didn’t happen.  Then, today, Ben waited for Lennard to get home and had him take them off.  Before Lennard could get changed out of his work clothes, we heard the kids yelling and went outside to find Ben riding his bike!  Just like that!  He picked it up and started riding!  Unbelievable! 

He was so excited and kept asking us if we were proud of him.  Of course we told him we were very proud of him and he just beamed.  So cute!  I love that all his little friends were watching and cheering him on.  He has such a fun group of friends.

Carriages and Airplanes–A Great Combination

Shauna called this morning and asked what we were doing.  Since I didn’t have any grand plans, we decided to meet at the Remington Carriage Museum after lunch.  The kids had a lot of fun racing around the climbing in to the carriages (that they were allowed to).  It was a little wild, but the museum wasn’t terribly busy so I don’t think we really disturbed anyone.  Emma and Ben had fun playing with their cousins and it definitely made the afternoon fly by!

Shauna brought the kids over to the house afterwards to play for a while, but Lennard ended up coming home a half hour early so that we could head in to the airshow in Lethbridge.  Shauna left, we got the kids loaded up and we were off.  Both kids fell asleep on the drive in and we really should have gone in to Lethbridge and got something to eat for dinner first, but we went straight in to the airshow grounds and parked.  The kids were hungry and cranky from being woken up.  It took a while for them to get in to a decent mood.  We finally stopped and grabbed a hamburger for them and some fries and that helped. 

The kids loved exploring all the different airplanes and trying on helmets, etc. from the army booths.

The airshow was late getting started because of a mechanical issue on one of the Snowbirds, so it was almost 8:00 before it really got going.  This is what the kids did through most of the show… wrestle around like puppies!  We didn’t end up staying until the end as they were starting to get to the beyond tired stage.

We managed to stop at a couple more plane on our way out so the the kids could sit in the cockpit.  The first one, Ben wasn’t happy that he was sitting in the right seat… he wanted the left. (This boy knows his planes!)

He was overjoyed when he managed to get in the pilot’s seat for the next plane! 

We had a lot of fun, but we will definitely do things differently next time when we go.  We need to make sure we have a cooler with water and snacks and some fold up chairs so we’re not sitting on the ground.  We didn’t even leave the grounds until after 10:00.  Such a late night!

Flying in to YYC

We had such a fun day today!  About a week ago, we received in invite to attend WestJet’s annual family/friend day at the Calgary International airport.  Usually private planes can’t land at this airport, so Lennard was very excited to get the chance!  My friend, Shannon, took the kids for us at 7:45 and Lennard and I headed out to the airport.  We got the plane out, everything checked and in the air by 8:15.  Once we were in the air, I wrote down the multitude of radio frequencies that we may need getting in to the airport, and before knew it, we were in Calgary airspace! 

I was impressed with how well Lennard did dealing with all the traffic and talking with the air traffic controllers. We ended up landing on the new runway and taxied right up to the huge WestJet hangar.  The plane ended up being part of their static air display and we had LOTS of people checking it out and taking pictures.  I took a lot of pictures of all the different planes and had fun talking with people from all over.  One guy had a RV-7A plane there – the same kind that we are building now.  It was fun checking out his plane and seeing what the final product will look like someday!

After visiting with a bunch of people, Rick (our friend that’s a WestJet pilot), asked if we were interested in going on a tour.  We thought he meant the hangars we were in, but he took us all over where he works.  It was so amazing.  We saw the simulators, mock-up planes for flight attendant training, offices, dispatch, cafeteria, board rooms, the works!  It was really eye-opening at how many people are really involved in an airline. 

We had a quick lunch that they provided.  They started up an old engine from a Hercules bomber and later had a Silver Dart competition (which we missed as we were touring around).  We visited quite a bit more and then, before long, it was time to take off.  There was quite a line up and quite the procedure to get out of the airport, but we made it without too much difficulty.  The clouds were really starting to build up, so we were glad we were heading south!  I really don’t like flying in the afternoon as it gets so much bumpier and today was no exception.  It was so hot and bumpy that I was very happy to land! 

It has been such an amazing experience getting to land at a major international airport!  Such a fun thing to get checked off the bucket list and even better to get to do it together!

Vacation End… and A Break In

It was such a beautiful morning that we wished we could have stayed longer!  We had a good drive home, but then once we got home, everything came crashing in.

 

We’d bought quite a bit of groceries in Kalispell and I was anxious to get all the frozen stuff put away. While Lennard was working on getting the trailer unhooked, I grabbed a few bags of groceries and opened the front door.  I noticed that the key turned easier than usual, but didn’t think too much about it then.  I walked downstairs to the storage room and immediately noticed that the door was open.  We always close the door.  Anyways, as soon as I stepped in to the storage room I knew something was wrong.  There was glass all over the floor and when I looked up I found that the window was smashed and open.

I put the frozen stuff in the freezer, walked in to the family room to see that there were things missing there and then went outside to tell Lennard that the house had been broken in to.  What a horrible feeling!  While he called the police I carefully went around to see what else had been taken.  Our room was the hardest hit.  ALL of my jewellery was taken.  Even the pieces that were only sentimental.  I didn’t touch anything, but it was so hard to see that everything had been touched and rifled through. 

Thankfully, the police came fairly quickly.  Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do.  There was too much dust to get fingerprints (oops) and the blood that was on the broken window wasn’t enough to do anything with.  She got the info she needed and told us to come down to the station tomorrow to make a statement.  We were then able to clean up all the glass in the storeroom and get the window boarded up.

The thieves took Lennard’s work phone and the kids phone that they play on.  They also took things like the Wii, controllers, charger, apple tv remotes, etc.  Thankfully, it looks like they were in a rush and didn’t search thoroughly because so much more could have been taken or ruined. 

The thing that makes me the maddest is that we had finally got Emma feeling secure at home and now she is scared again of ‘bad guys’ coming in to our home… and I can’t blame her.  Lennard even went and got the baseball bat out of the garage and put it by his side of the bed.  None of us are feeling very safe right now.