Big Hill Springs with Friends

For the first time in my life I decided 

to host an outdoor play date.

 

I invited a bunch of friends to 

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park, 

About 15 min outside the city.

 

  

 

(I confess I couldn't have done it without this lady!!)

It was refreshing and fun. 

. . . I Actully mean . . . . 

It was pretty cold and rainy and not 

all the kids had a wonderful time at first.  

But we gave them time to adjust in the wet 

and eventually they got into the swing of things.

I loved how they were soon making up their own 

games and encouraging everyone to join in.

 

Everyone enjoyed exploring and enjoyed the great company!

April Zoo Trip

In March I bumped into a wonderful friend from university 

who invited me to visit the zoo with her and her Amazing Son.

The kids had a PD day and so we braved the not so 

awesome weather and made it a zoo day.  

(In all seriousness I just can not fathom doing something 

like this without at least one other mom!) 

Apparently it was a great idea as we ran in to 

some other mom's from school 

who decided the same thing.

Grace was amazing and let us choose all 

the places we wanted to go.  

They have a zoo pass and so both her and her son were 

super chill about my slightly demanding kids.

 I'm not sure if Mr. T even realized the Rhino was alive 

and staring at him and smelling him.  

Haha he pretty much couldn't care less!

The Hippo's fascinated the girls Way more than I thought they would.

 Apparently Wandering through Africa is just So Boring.

But this girl loved Every minute especially the part 

where she could get out and play at the park.

Being spring this peacock was a riot.  

He was Super Loud and Rambunctious. 

The best part was for some reason he was 

in with the Dinosaur exhibit.

(An area of the zoo filled with anamitronic dinosaurs that 

move and make noise when people walk by.)

He was louder and scared more people than the dinosaurs.

(Ms. E was not impressed!!)

I think in the end they liked the Carousel and the 

Train more than any other animals we got to see.

As we visited I was super excited to hear from Grace 

that she was thinking about accepting a position 

all the way across the country at a prestigious university.  

Her husband was just about done his masters and so 

they were very excited about the prospect.  

She asked me for any tips about moving across the country.  

All I could say was do lots of research take any 

help that's offered and SELL ALL YOUR FURNITURE!

I was super glad that I took the time to spend the day 

with this great friend before her family headed off 

on her new adventure!!

The only casualty we had was a snapped umbrella.  

I think it may have been three days old. 

I pretty much picked this thing up 

just for going to the zoo.

Spring Thaw Adventure

Shane wanted to scout out some hiking trails 

we hadn't tried before so we packed up the van 

and headed out to Elbow Valley Wilderness Area.

(near Bragg Creek)

To start we took a little walk around the 

Beaver Flats Interpretive Trail.

Highway 66 was still closed but the kids had a 

great time exploring before we even hit the trail.

Once we hit the trail the kids had lots of questions.

We had such a great time exploring and 

discovering along the way.  

 

We talked about moss and flood physics,

along with erosion and reclamation.

After our fun walk we walked a little up the road,

and found a trail taking us down near Rainy Creek.

Of course in the mountains spring takes it's 

sweet time so we were hiking through 

snowy patches, along rocky river beds 

and even some steep and sandy inclines.

(Thank goodness for dad!) 

After our explore we walked down by the 

river to throw rocks and eat lunch.

We decided to take the road on the way back.

circumventing the sandy patches.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there were 

lots of bikers taking advantage of the closed road.

It was a great day and even Ms. V decided 

that there was some fun to be had 

throwing rocks into the river.