Mother's Day Triathlon

On Friday, Lowell and I headed to Carstairs for the great Mother’s Day BBQ that Marti threw for her Mom and our shared Mother-in-law (Lowell’s Mama). It was super duper fun, but unfortunately there are no photos to document the occasion.

After the BBQ, we headed further south to Lethbridge and arrived close to 1am. After a good night’s rest, we kicked around the house for a bit, then took our friend Florence out for a Mother’s Day lunch. Again, we don’t have any pictures of this, but I’ll slap up an old picture of Florence and I just so you can see this adorable woman that we love so much.

Lowell’s parents met us in Lethbridge on Saturday evening. We had a nice supper together (all of our parents and us), then had tea while chatting. Aaron and Megan popped over to join the fun.

On Sunday I was up bright and early to prepare 2 shifts of Mother’s Day brekky. Mom and Lowell had to be at the University for their triathlon between 7:30 and 8, and Jen (a friend that had been staying over for a couple of days) planned to leave for the airport by 7. So, breakfast shift 1 at 6:45am.

8am was time for shift 2.


By 9am, we headed to the University to catch the triathlon action.

Lowell's pre-triathlon good luck kiss:
Lowell swimming:
All the 'rents watching Lowell's swim:

Lowell's getting ready to ride!And off he goes!And here Lowell is approaching the finish line. Woohoo!While on the bike, Lowell's chain came off. Fixing it took time, so to make up for it, he went super fast along the rain-soaked road. He took a corner a little too fast and completely bit it. Ouchies!! Here's a small glimpse of his road rash:
Now it's Mom's turn. She's in the aqua bathing suit getting ready for the swim:After a successful swim, Mom is heading off on the bike:She's back from the bike!Grabbin a quick swig of water before the run...
I ran the last stretch with my Mom:And here she is going through the finish chute. GO MOM!After the race, we enjoyed some delectable goodies courtesy of the Penny Coffee House:
Here are the 2 champs. They both got second place in their categories. WICKED!
Some more post-triathlon photos:
We had an excellent Mother's Day weekend. Between Lowell and I, we have 13 siblings (including their significant others), and we had all 4 parents all to ourselves. Good times!

Congratulations Mom & Lowell for excellent triathlon finishes!!!!

Seesters

So, last weekend was our long awaited sister weekend in Victoria.

It all started when I registered for a workshop in Victoria. Shareen lives in Victoria, so of course I stayed with her; Kylie was just a ferry ride away so she decided to join us; and Carlynne just completed her last exam ever, so she partook in the adventure as well. This was all well and good except for that I had a conference all day Friday and Saturday. With an exam at the end of it to boot.

It ended up raining most of Friday & Saturday anyway, so it wasn't so bad that I was stuck inside all day. While my dendrites were busy branching out, the other sis's had some good times around the town, but the real fun began when I was done on Saturday (if I do say so myself).

So, here's the fun:

Out for fish 'n chips with explosive ketchup (mmmmmmm...) then taking pictures on the pretty green grass by the harbour.




B/c I get car sick so easily, I got to sit in the front with Craig while these goofballs had some fun of their own in the back! :


While I was at the conference on Saturday, the girls apparently saw a bunch of protesting males walking around in high heels. I still don't get this. Perhaps one of them blogged about it.


Saturday night we did face masks and watched Princess Diaries 2. Carlynne and I had a craving to watch it b/c we watched the first one last weekend with Dad and Lowell. Lucky for us, Shareen and Kylie were more than willing to indulge this desire.

Carlynne and Kylie are particularily photogenic.

How can Sunday NOT be a good day when you wake up to Shareen preparing a feast? Yum yummers in my tummers!


Sunday was market day! And guess what? The sun came out and it was a beautiful day!

Several vendors did not have mirrors, so we put the clothes on over top of our other clothes and took pictures of ourselves so we could see what we looked like. Kylie and I ended up getting these shirts (and I'm also showing off my new fish hook earrings).

(That's me behind Kylie with my new bag!)

Next was lunchy-loo, then it was back to Shar and Craig's b/c it was time for our dear Kylie to depart. *sniff sniff*


Carlynne and I had a fun and relaxing afternoon with Shar & Craig, then caught our 7:30pm flight back home to our hubbies (well, my hubby and Carlynne's future hubby). It was a wonderful weekend... and also spectacular to see Lowell and Dan's handsome faces at the airport when we returned!

Now I'm going to check out Kylie's blog. Lowell told me that she did a post about the weekend, but I haven't seen it yet. We'll see what her view of the weekend was...

Weekend: Fully Loaded

Last weekend was my Mom's 35th nursing reunion, so Ma & Pa ventured to Edmonton for the weekend of festivities. Mom's festivities centered around the reunion, but Dad's fun centered around US (as spouses are no longer invited to the nursing reunions!)

They arrived Friday night and Mom went straight to her shin diggity. Dad came to our place, and Carlynne took a break from her intensive studying to join us for the evening for supper and the viewing of one of our all time favourite movies: Princess Diaries. We're so lucky to have men in our lives who like (and arguably prefer) chick flicks!

Saturday came quickly, and started early with breakfast at Uncle Tom & Aunt Janet's. What a feast. I love breakfasts. I look forward to them when I go to bed. I really don't understand people who don't eat breakfasts.

Next it was off to the Kinsmen Sports Centre for Mom, Dad, Lowell & I. We planned on playing tennis and/or badminton but the courts were booked. Dang. We made use of our time there anyway, and came home right ready to scarf down some loaded sandawichies. 

After lunch (and a NAP- very common among the G fam), we went to the Brink's place for tea. It's always a delight to catch up with "Auntie" Irene & Shannon. We always pick up where we left off and have a grande ol time!

Following that delightful tea time, we dropped Mom off and had our first 7-11 stop. We had coupons for free stuff, but we could only use one coupon each at each 7-11, so we had to make a couple stops. We got bevies at the first stop, then redeemed the most important coupons: the ones for the HOT DOGS. Not only was this supper free for us, but we actually made money on it. As we were leaving the second 7-11, the lady called us back in (rather frantically I might add) and gave us 62 cents. We're still a little confused about that little transaction! 

This satisfied my 3 month craving for a juicy 'dog with a lot of ketchup. Nothin but ketchup. I loooove ketchup.

We enjoyed our hot dogs while watching MATTY (aka Matlock). My Dad hadn't seen it in ages, so it was a happy reunion for him indeed.

After din din, we soaked up the brilliant sunshine and went for a walk. We played at the Legislature for a while, then took the long way to a coffee shop for some refreshing beverages.

Our little snowball-aiming competition at the Legislature didn't satisfy Dad's competitive spirit as he sporadically grabbed snowballs during the rest of the walk and hucked them at random targets. 

(PS- the next day he still picked up snowballs, but this time started throwing them at me on the way to church. I quickly walked right up to an elderly lady with limited mobility(also going to church) thinking that this would prevent my Dad from whipping the snowball at me. NOPE. The snowball grazed my body anyway! That Daddio... always looking for some good (and slightly risky) fun!)

Sunday, Mom & Dad's last day here, came all too soon. Before church, I pulled a Shareen & Kylie and did my make-up in the living room. I never do this... they always do. I didn't want to miss any of the action.

(I know this action doesn't look overly invigorating, but I'm sure the conversation was intense!) :

After church we had a family lunch, then bid the parentals farewell.

This month has been a family-filled month and I wouldn't have it any other way. On Thursday night, Carlynne and I are flying to Victoria where we will meet Shareen & Kylie and have a sister weekend. Too bad I'll be attending a conference 85% of the time...

And one more bit of news for today: CARLYNNE FINISHED HER LAST EXAM FOR MED SCHOOL THIS MORNING. SHE'S DONE!!!! She will officially have her M.D. in a month. CONGRATULATORIES CARLYNNE!!!

Adventurous Crepes

We have the best BS (Bible Study) ever. Here we all are:


Tonight was a BS night. We had fun times with pizza, conversation, hockey... and another unexpected adventure.

As the hosetess, I ducked away to the kitchen (when the pizza was gone) to whip up some crepes for dessert. APPARENTLY we have super sensitive fire detectors as our fire alarm kept going off (and the crepes weren't even burning). To help clear the air, we opened the door to the hallway. This turned out to be a big mistake as the overwhelmingly loud fire alarm for the entire building started screaming. I thought "oh crap"...but that wasn't the worst of it. Apparently.

Literally, less than a minute later, we heard sirens...lots of them. We looked outside, and 2 giant fire trucks were parked outside, and big, fully-equipped firemen began pouring into the building.



Either this was a freakish coincidence, or this was my fault.

Then there were more sirens, and another firetruck and an ambulance came to join the party.

And neighbourhood folks began to gather to see what was going on.

OOPS.

The adrenaline was running high in our suite. Ashley swiftly took over crepe-making while I paced back and forth in disbelief (while taking pictures of course).


Lowell and Dan went downstairs to talk to the firemen and explain the situation. They had a good sense of humour about it, and even asked if we had any extra dessert.

The crepes were well worth the adventure! MMMmmmm yummmmm...


I have a bit of a tumultuous relationship with fire alarms. Have I told you about the fire I started at work within my first month? No? Well, that's a story for another day. Coconut really is quite flammable...especially when left with the broiler on high...