our city under water ~ alberta floods

i've been trying to write this post since saturday but haven't been able to find the right words.  i'm not sure that there are any "right" words for it.  on thursday last week the southern part of the province of alberta was hit with a massive rainstorm.  it was unrelenting.  so much rain fell that it devastated twenty-four communities, including our city, calgary.  the mountain towns of banff and canmore were hit very hard with the rising waters of the bow river and cougar creek.  the creek became a river and washed out the highway leaving canmore and all its residents cutoff.  twenty-four hours later the flood waters of both the elbow river and the bow river began to rise in calgary.  the entire town of high river was placed under a mandatory evacuation.  the entire town!  community after community along these rivers were evacuated.  and the water kept rising.  and the rain kept pouring.  when both rivers had finally hit their crests the entire downtown core, stampede park, the zoo, prince's island, and all communities on the banks of these rivers were flooded.  some completely wiped out.

today we are still in a state of emergency.  the rain has stopped.  the flood waters are beginning to recede.  our city is a mess.   but through it all, as is the case in any community faced with disaster, the people have come together.  for help.  for strength.  for support.  we will get through this.  we will go on.  and we will rebuild.

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

thank you. thank you.  a million times thank you.

to the many city employees.

to the countless police and fire crews working countless hours.

to mayor nenshi.

to everyone and anyone helping.

and to those who have lost their homes.  their everything.

we are here for you.

your city is here for you.

we will rebuild together.

open season

last weekend (not this past father's day weekend, the one before) we did our first camping trip of the season.  it was also our first time with both kids in tow.  i still can't believe how much stuff our two little people require for two days and two nights.  somehow we managed to pack everything into the tent trailer and headed west to johnson's canyon in banff national park.  i don't want to mention all the things we forgot, but to be fair this was the first trip out and we consider it our trial run.  we've now started a master camping list in the hopes of forgetting fewer things in the future.  kinda hard to roast marshmallows and hot dogs without your roasting sticks.

liam had a blast running to see the trains as they passed by (got a site close to the tracks just for that reason) playing in the forest and visiting the waterfalls.  he's still talking about them and tells pretty much anyone who'll listen that he saw trains last night.  and averie girl was more than happy to be held in someone's arms for the entire weekend ... thanks gramma, auntie nix and uncle scott.  for us, there's nothing better than camping in the mountains with friends and family.  seriously one of the best parts of summer.

nine months and three to go

well averie's eighth month has come and gone and i have zero intention of recording it.  it's not that i don't want to have every months milestones recorded somewhere, i just honestly don't remember what happened, what she did, you know the important things.  life has just gotten in the way of all that.  it's hard to find time to sit down and think about those things let alone actually have a quiet moment to sit at the computer reminiscing.  ha.  quiet moment.  anyone with multiple children ever have these mythical quiet moments?  that would be in some fantasy world right?  right.  i did however manage to get a sort of "quiet moment" and took some photos of averie girl while liam was napping.  um yeah, my almost three year old still naps.  perhaps this fantasy world does exist, in some form anyway.

nine month milestones

~ waves hi and good-bye, love love loves to clap

~ she loves to play peekaboo and it's super cute, managed to get her on video a few times

~ she's crawling all over the place, still mostly army style but full on crawl when she's on the carpet

~ learning to stand and pulling herself up ... on everything

~ loves to babble and "talk" to us.  current vocabulary consists of dada, da-dee, and mmmmmmmm

~ we still only have the two bottom teeth, with her top right starting to cut through now

~ wearing 6-9 and 6-12 month clothing, as well as size three diapers

~ unfortunately for me averie is still up twice a night to nurse and lately it's been more.  there have definitely been some struggles in the sleep department with this little one.  

~ eating has gotten a lot better.  her current favourites are cheese, cantaloupe, banana and cheerios.  she's starting to give meat a chance, but it's usually hit and miss and she's not a veggie girl unlike her brother.

~ averie loves to make faces, especially scrunching up her nose and shaking her head "no"

~ her favourite toy is her lamb-ie and when she won't settle at night she'll grab not him and snuggle

~ she absolutely refuses to wear socks or shoes.  this one kinda sucks because she has some super cute shoes.

~ she wants to play with whatever liam has and do whatever liam is doing.  she's totally gonna be his shadow.  and for the most part like a quarter of the time, liam doesn't mind.  the other three quarters he freaks out and tells her "no averie"

~ and last, but not least, averie had the chicken pox this month.  yup three month shy of her twelve month vaccinations containing the chicken pox vaccine.  she had a relatively mind case, but it still sucked.  poor girl.

i can't believe that in three short months our baby girl will be a year old.

not only that, but my maternity leave will be over.

i am looking forward to going back to work.

let's face it, being a teacher has it's perks, especially when you are a parent.  

i have every major holiday and summer vacation to look forward to with both our littles.

but ...

there is still a part of me that longs to be with both my kids.

all day.

every day.

love you my little nine month-er.

always.

life {lately} according to iphone ~ v.12

i have been noticeably absent from blogging the last few weeks.

things have been both busy and tough.

i had some minor surgery done to remove some abnormal cells.  they are all gone now.

averie has been refusing to sleep.  we are now trying to let her cry it out.

so far it's sort of working.  we check on her every ten minutes, even at three in the morning.

there has been a camping trip. complete with trains, rain boots and s'mores.

tons and tons of rain has been falling here ... starting to feel like we live in vancouver.

planted a few pots with flowers, but we still have a mud pit for a yard.

and to top it all off, averie currently has the chicken pox.  

just a bit of our life lately.