Continuation of Summer

Man summer is the funniest time but that means for boring blog posts because I feel like I get so far behind. I swear I do have more thought provoking things to post about but those will have to wait for another time.

Anyways here is what has been happening in the last couple of weeks.

The Ledge is a must do during Edmonton Summers. I a lot, maybe majority of summer outings my memories as a kid are at the Ledge. Fun, relaxed (minus parking now), and free activity. Only bad part is all the cement and I think we always leave with one scrapped knee. I always have a band aid on hand

First summer vacation- off to Waterton. First stop obviously Cardston :)



 

We made it there. We had the best weather in Waterton. I think the weather can either make or break your stay in Waterton. Very little or no wind. Hot hot hot. We didn't do any major hikes well any for that matter. I wanted to bears hump or something easy but I know my kids... and this year was not the year to make Jace do it. AND I WAS NOT carrying him. He is old enough but he does not like walking for long. We had fun though. Hung out as a family, got to play tennis one night which was tons of fun, Cameron Lake, Red Rock Canyon, never ending supply of rocks to throw in the lake, what more could you ask for?

 

I love this baby. She may have struggled a few nights to go to sleep but did pretty well.

 

 Turkeys

 

The never ending supply of rocks to throw in the lake. If you need to kill time there this is what you do...

 

 At Emerald Bay. Kids made a castle, can't you tell?

Also one of the days we went to the other side of Emerald Bay and hung out there. Robbie, Jason and I did go all in. It was sure cold.

Red Rock Canyon

This girl sure loves her Grandma Low. Obviously she is a loveable person, but Penny for the majority of her life did not like people. Only a select few and Grandma Low was high and still is high on the list of those people. Pretty happy about this... makes a mama's life easier :)

Cammie basically 40 weeks pregnant. Had a baby I think a week later?

Took some photos for them. I definitely don't look that good at 39-40 weeks along

 

 This is a little "hike" kind of around Red Rock Canyon.

I love this photo for many reason.

1.) Makes us look like an adventurous family, a family who would make their kids hikes...

2.) We're all looking

and mostly

3.) My father in law totally photo bombed us. Not even sure if he noticed. But good pose and all :)

 

More Lake

Penny was seriously struggling to go to sleep and had missed her nap. Sometimes when I hold and rock my babies and it's just quiet I feel the spirit the strongest. I'm reminded how special each child is. I often struggle with feeling trapped at home and that I gave up a big part of me to be home (really hardest decision EVER but right decision for me), and in these moments I reminded of how lucky I am. Lets be honest we need these moments because some days can be hard ;)



 Oh someone woke up... rats!

Only picture we took at Cameron Lake. You know it was a good day when they zonk out like this

 

AND we got home. So now we're just enjoying summer around Edmonton. In a couple weeks we're off to Echo.

 

When I got back on the 17th I had to have a laser eye enhancement.

 

So I didn't tell many people as it was my choice to get this done in the first place, but I had to have  laser eye surgery enhancement on my right already. I had -7 vision initially and it's not uncommon but not super common as they explain it with my prescription for an eye to go back slightly. My left ended up being 20/20 with some "struggles" as they called it, and my right went back to -1 already after being 20/20 post op. So I got the enhancement on the 17th. I did it because it felt like I needed glasses for the right and not the left. Frustrating. Wasn't painful at all. WAY better than the first surgery. And my right eye is crystal clear. I remember going through a phase initially where it felt like both eyes were clear but didn't see great together. So I'm going through that right now. They said your brain and whatever is adjusting to this.

Now my distance vision is perfect. Crystal clear but reading close is still off. I feel like my left eye can focus on stuff that's close better than my right. Could be that I just had the enhancement 2 weeks ago. I don't know? So I guess this eye surgery didn't go as smooth as I thought it would BUT that being said I would do it again in a heart beat. I was blind already, couldn't wear contacts without infections, and wore glasses 24/7 which gave me headaches and now my distance vision is perfect. Couldn't ask for something more clear.

My near sightedness isn't awesome, it may be that I need reading glasses? Who knows? I CAN read perfect with each eye but one has to be closed. So only reading with one eye, but seems like my brain is still adjusting. HOPEFULLY it's still adjusting.

I'll find out more August 14th for my 1 month follow up. I will say that my doctor has only ever seen 1 person who has ever needed more than 1 enhancement his whole life. So hopefully this is it for my right eye. If is that I need reading glasses, so be it. I'll get some cute reading glasses ;) There is worse eye problems in life, and I can definitely deal with this, if this near sighted stuff is permanent. Which I'm guessing it's not because it took 1-2 months post my initial surgery to get back to normal.

 

Found this girl stuck the other day. Pretty random but cute as well 

 

Got our frozen dresses. Worked great!

Since we finished our yard we've been playing in the sprinkler, blow up pools, on the tramp, and on the play set. We love our backyard.

And I love a naked baby!

 This boy loves tractors :)

Cousin Sleep over weekend. We picked up Marli and Avery for a sleep over and we also got to have Benson for a night. Fun night. House full of 6 kids five and under. They all did great.

 

 The girls room

The boys room

And our raspberry bushes are producing raspberries! Yay... except Talia stained this dress. Not her fault I should have taken it off after church. But how cute do they look? Ok photo not worth wrecking a dress. Bad call. But they are cute ;)

 

I think she's our chunkiest baby. Isn't she such a cute chunky monkey??

Little projects around the house. Jace loves helping. Always brings out his took box. 

Edmonton has great outdoor pools. What makes life easier is when Jason works at 6 pm and he has the morning and afternoon off. We love when Daddy comes! Seriously makes the trip way less stressful. Fun family day. It like +30. SOOO nice! I have a video of it but no pictures. Talia jumped off the diving board. She talked about it on the whole way there.
"I'm going to go right up and jump" She really 5 minutes into being there she did. I think she knew she could do it but there were nerves there, and she totally tried NOT to show them. She loves to impress and excel. Total internal drive in this girl. She's super competitive as well. That's why she succeeds so much or kills her when she looses. We'll have to work on that when she gets a bit older. But totally paid off in this situation.

 

And this boy is so much more comfortable in the water. He for sure needs his life jacket but he loves the water. Penny was in heaven... except when I was going into the pool holding penny thinking the water would be up to my waste. I was wrong I slid in holding her and to my surprise... and hers the water was up to my neck. Got a massive bruise on my arm to prove I totally miscalculated that. AND penny may or may not have got a little dunk. I really don't know I didn't see her face. I was protecting my right eye from going under water and trying to hold us both up. She look shocked and wet but didn't cry.



 

 Another successful outing... zonked out baby!

 

Next- My parents pool is finished yay! Might go swimming there tomorrow. Not that I can go under yet. Have to wait 1 month post laser eye surgery. But going to go watch the kids yay!