Safe & Sound... and on the Ground!

Well we're here! Safe and sound in Ontario.

Here's how the rest of travels went on the 26th...

We were told that our plane was delayed until 8:00pm when we first walked into the airport. Okay... no big deal! Then we were delayed again and told our departure gate was changed, so we moved to that gate.

Then we were delayed again... and then again and again... and can I say "again"?!!

Our final delay was announced that the plane was coming from Vancouver (we'd been told this numerous times that night so we just laughed!) and would be here around 11:20pm. So when our plane DID actually arrive and the boarding screen read a departure of 00:10 we were elated!!!!

Our take off was a wee bit bumpy as we has some awful cross winds on the runway while taking off. NOT FUN!

We ended up taking off out of Calgary at about 12:15am. Spencer had used ALL of the diapers in my carry-on bag at 11:00pm and after hunting down diapers twice, the only ones we could find were a bag of very expensive NEWBORN diapers for him to wear on the plane!! Yes... I said "newborn". Mommy got very creative and slapped 3 of them on Spencer's butt and he curled up on his seat in between us and fell asleep just seconds after take off. Needless to say, he was one soaked little boy when he woke up!

As we were waiting for our baggage to come down to the luggage area, Spencer could hold it no longer and we forced to pee on the floor. Daddy just told him, "Well Buddy, that's what they get for delaying us 6 hours so you just pee wherever you want!". I had to laugh!

We arrived in Toronto at about 6:30am EST and Dad was certainly happy to see us! It was extremely foggy and we had a slow but safe ride home.

Me, having had NO sleep at all, and Todd only a few minutes worth, we both got home and immediately crashed!! Spencer stayed up with Mama and Papa and kept them entertained while we slept.

So all in all, it wasn't too bad a trip.

Lessons learned....
1. Pack a WHOLE load of diapers in your carry-on 'cuz you never knew what's going to happen! Thankfully I had packed empty grocery bags for wet & dirty clothes and 2 pairs of PJs cause we used them all!!!
2. Pack better snacks than junk food to snack on 'cuz junk just don't cut it!

The 3 of us are still on "Mountain Time" but are fairing well. We enjoyed a fabulous night with my friends and all their families last night. That's the part I miss the most about Ontario.... hangin' out with Jen, Amanda and Dianne!

Our week is filling up for plans...

Tomorrow: breakfast with Dianne and finishing up our Christmas shopping.
30th: Christmas with the Israels' family.
31st: Some kind of celebration for the new year.
1st: Christmas with all the Cope's.

Hope you're all having a great holiday!

Trials & Tribulations of Travel

Wanna know what happened to us?


Yup.... flat tire coming into Calgary. Thankfully, we were just down the street from James' house (where we're leaving it for the next 2 weeks) when it happened. We changed the tire in the driveway and took the tire over to Canadian Tire to get repaired as we got here 2 hours early. They couldn't repair in the short time we'd be here so we left the tire to be repaired then picked up when we return.

We arrived at the airport 2 hrs early as required. As we checked our baggage, we were told that our fight had been delayed 2 hours. GREAT!!! With a 3 year old.... NOT fun!

So here we are... in the Calgary airport... waiting for our departing flight. The plane we were due to leave in NEVER arrived from Vancouver due to bad weather so they somehow found us another plane to go home in. We leave at 8:55pm MST according to the boards right now. Here's hoping that the boards are correct!!!



All I can say is.... thank goodness for FREE internet!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Christmas Morning....

Howdy family and friends! Merry Christmas!

Here's a few shots from this morning's festivities...

Spencer got to open his stocking when he got up but before breakfast. Things were kinda stuck so he was tugging stuff out in the photo....

Mmmmm.... Smarties! His favourite!

Rubber ribbit?


My new winter hat.... thanks to Santa!

Opening a few other cool things from everyone....


"A BIG truck Mommy!!"


Getting ready for family photos.....


Merry Christmas from the Israels family!

Happy Holidays!

Traditions....

I remember as a kid getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve so I wanted to do the same kind of tradition for Spencer.

So this afternoon, Spencer opened up the 2 packages that have been under the tree for the past few days. He was so excited!


He got a brand new pair of cute and fuzzy PJs with polar bears on them from Mommy and Daddy.


And the second present under the tree was the second part of the "new" tradition for our family. I always remembered curling up with my Mom and my sister and reading books in my Mom's bed so I thought it would be a nice tradition to add to the new PJs... a new book.

So in honour of Christmas Eve, I found a beautiful copy of "The Night Before Christmas" in a bookstore in Fernie. It has the most beautiful illustrations in it and Spencer loved having it read to him by Daddy....


.... and Mommy!


I'm off to gather all the goodies and set up for tomorrow morning!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday!

He always spoils the fun!

Sunday I went out to do some Christmas shopping and get some stuff for stockings and for Todd. I ended up buying him some special gloves for snowboarding in Fernie.

I spent all Sunday wrapping all the gifts for Christmas. I even spent a few hours making a surprise clue hunt for Todd to find his gloves. I had 10 clues hidden throughout the house.... I hid the tags so he couldn't see anything until Christmas Day.

Well... he decided a few days ago that he was going to go snow boarding in Fernie today. So he dragged out all his gear last night and realized that he had only one glove liner.

So I broke down and gave him the present with the first clue. He made it to clue #3 okay... with a little prompting from me... and then he couldn't find clue #4.

Clue #3 read: I'm "honey nut" delicious! Come and share a treat with me!"

The nut job thought I meant the cupboard where the peanut butter and honey is kept. D'UH!!!! The Cheerio box, you dork!!!!!!

So in his search for the "honey nut" clue, he opened up the pantry cupboard and found clue #8!!!!! Yup.... From #3 to #8.... freakin' bugger!

So he grabs #8 and continues on!!!

I spent 2 hours for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally just gave him the wrapped present out of frustration.

Just tickles me PINK that he couldn't just have fun with it! I won't be doing anything like that in the near future! If Spencer could read, I would have done it for him instead! Goodness he ticks me off sometimes!

............................

Here are some pictures we took of the Fernie mountains yesterday while in town...

Looking towards Sparwood from the base of the Fernie ski hill....


The mountain to the East of the ski hill.... It was blowing hard yesterday on the ski hill.


Here's the "surprise spoiler" getting ready to go boarding this morning....


I made Spencer lick him for not cooperating with me for photos!


He'd better make up for it in the next few days!

Birthday Greetings

Wishing you a wonderful birthday! We'll be home to celebrate in only a few days!

4 Days and Counting....

Well it sure is cold out here! We've had temperatures of -30 for the last several days. Sure makes staying in doors a must!

Todd was supposed to go into work this morning for OT time but couldn't get either one of our cars started. He had bought us both stuff for our block heaters yesterday but his "timer" controlled block heater didn't come on because he set it incorrectly. We figured it was worth it just to leave them on all the time since the weather seems to want to stay right around -30. We'll turn them off if the temps above -20.

Spencer has been coping with the cooler house in his underwear. Daddy tried to put PJ pants on him today to keep him a little warmer but he soon found out why Mommy's been leaving the pants off! Oops!

I haven't been feeling very well today. Very achy and tired. I actually took 2 naps today and thanks to that... here I am.... 1:30am in the morning... typing this blog entry to pass the night away.

I can't believe Christmas is only days away. I feel so unprepared! I still have to get some stocking stuffers and some items for our holiday days off.

We are having our friends over for dinner on the 24th since we both don't have any family in the immediate area around the holidays. I'm sure their little boy will enjoy playing with Spencer and Todd and I will enjoy the adult conversation for the evening.

I think the 25th will be a super casual day for us. PJs all day. A good breakfast. Lots of munchies. And hopefully a lot of great photos. But no turkey dinner. We'll wait 'til we go home to have that!

Todd was supposed to attend the FREE skiing/snow boarding event in Fernie tomorrow but he's decided to go to work instead. I think he's planning to go on Monday instead. The hills should be good as we have been getting regular snow for days here and Fernie tends to get even more.

We've received some wonderful holiday cards form friends and family..... Teresa Tunney, Jen Tunney, Dick & Judy, Aunt Florrie, a friend from the Netherlands, and Spencer has received the most mail... from Mama and Papa (my parents). We also received a beautiful holiday card from Tech (previously Elk Valley Coal), with a coupon towards groceries at 6 of our local grocery stores in the Elk Valley area. I think we'll end up using it for goodies for Christmas and travels home.

Gotta run. Maybe I can finally get to bed now! Take care all and we'll see you in a matter of days!

Brrrrrrrrr....

This photo says it all......

Brrrrrr! It's freakin' cold here today!

He Did It!!!

After only one week of the whole "potty present" technique, we had SUCCESS! Spencer went 4 days without ANY accidents.

So on Friday night, Todd and I spent 2 hours putting the train table together before we went to bed.

On Saturday morning, Spencer ran into the living room (not knowing he was getting the table) and this is what I caught on camera....

"Oooooooooooooooo... Mommy... it's my potty prize! You put it together for me Mommy?"

"Nope... Daddy did! Isn't it cool?"

"It's AWESOME Mommy!"

He played with it from sunrise to sunset and again all yesterday!

The table has 5 areas where when you have one of the magnet engines cross it, it makes a train related noise. It's quite cute!

Even more progress.... We now have graduated the potty seat to the actual bathroom and he's doing great!!! We're so happy that things are progressing so quickly and easily. We were expecting more issues like we had previously trying to train in the early fall.

More Birthday Wishes!

Yup... another set of birthday wishes going out to my Mom today!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom! We miss you! Hope you have an incredible birthday filled with lots of hugs, good food! Many happy returns!

Birthday Wishes....

This one's for you lil' sis... Happy 30th birthday girl!!!

Dear Santa... Please bring me some pants for Christmas!

Okay... I just had to laugh... Spencer has been running around the house "commando" style this afternoon and I got this shot of him in front of the Christmas tree.

He's doing SO well with the potty training that he has already earned 3 days towards his "4 days with no accidents" to get his potty present. He has learned to know when he's got to go. He can go #2 on the potty all by himself. He can put on his own underwear. He's even gone to the post office in town with underwear and pants on!... TWICE!... with no accidents!

The next step is to wear pants and underwear. That won't be for a few weeks yet though. We're so proud of him!!!

Snow Pile Jumping!

You may have go directly to the blog to see these photos correctly: http://sosketchy.blogspot.com/

Snow!

We finally received our first real dumping of snow here. I spent part of yesterday morning shoveling the driveway and a pathway in the side yard for Spencer's large dump truck.

Spencer finally found a pile of snow large enough to jump into....

Todd and Spencer put up my tree one morning while I was Aquafit and here it finally decorated....

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Yup.. it's official... we're coming home on the 26th until the 7th!

Needless to say I am not happy with my bank though!!! I paid off a portion of my CC to pay for our flights and the payment didn't go through as soon as expected. About 5 hours ago, I could have saved $200 on flights and had guaranteed seat assignments but had to wait for everything to come through on the CC. I'm so mad.... when I went back to the site to book our flights 5 hours later, the freakin' rates had gone up for the flights we wanted to take out of Calgary!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrr! So instead of getting in at a reasonable time on the 26th.... we're not getting into Toronto until just minutes before midnight!!!!! The stupid computer was having issues reserving seats so I don't even have seat assignments for either of our flights! Who knows if we're even sitting together!!! I'm sooo mad!!! Stupid bank... it's all their fault!!!

The Icky's Came to Visit!

Well the icky's decided to visit the Israels' house today.

Spencer woke up all icky and covered in ick this morning. After a nice warm, soapy bath and fresh pajamas, I made him take it easy today.

At one point I found him curled up on the floor on his toy car mat, under a blanket with the couch pillow over his head! Such a strange place to sleep.



He seemed to get better as the day passed but I think his fever really kicked him in the butt. He wasn't hungry and didn't eat any dinner tonight. After Todd and I ate we found him curled up on the floor again....

Look at those rosy cheeks! Poor kiddo! Daddy put him to bed early.


Todd was scheduled to be off until Sunday but he's been called in for overtime for tomorrow. So to help to pay for one of the 2 new front windshields we need for our cars, he's off to work tomorrow. He said that the snow we got the other morning was 2 feet or so high on the mine site. He said he enjoying 4x4ing in the work truck all day just to get from one place to another. I think winter is here to stay now!