Strange Child

Every kid has their own personality and it's fun to see that come out after a few weeks of birth. As an infant, you can somewhat control your child and they don't do so much that surprises you - good babies are predictable.

One of the joys of parenthood is watching your child become unpredictable. Rebecca makes us laugh so much by the things she does!

Shoes for drinking.

Sunglasses at breakfast.

Cooking with Grandma

This is a flashback to our time in Canada. My mom is an amazing cook and she gave Rebecca a few lessons. Rebecca, Aunt Rachel, and Grandma made manacotti with homemade suace and pasta.

Camping

A few weekends ago we went camping with Eric and Val, Scott, and Rachel. We had a good time, but that cold air we had in Canada at my parents' followed us home. The water was pretty warm, but we were bundled up on the boat!
I learned how to wake board! I never stayed up for very long, but it's a start.

The Mall

The West Edmonton Mall is the largest indoor mall in the world. It has a water park, amusement park, hockey rink, mini golf, and of course over 800 stores. It was a little overwhelming, but we had fun and even bought a few things.

The water park.

The pirate ship that is in the center of the mall and has all kinds of attractions on it.

Rebecca in front of the ice hockey rink.

A seal show that performs twice a day.
I think I could have spent a lot more time there walking around and looking at all the different stores, but even I can only take so much shopping in one day :)

Neerlandia, Alberta

My parents have lived in Neerlandia for a year and a half now. Here are a few of the local sites.

This is farm country just like Iowa. Here they grow fields of canola, which are the bright yellow flowers. And as always, Rebecca likes the cows.
In Canada they sell gas by the liter.

My parents often go to the indoor pool in Barrhead so we thought we would check it out too. No out door pools - too cold!

There is a local ferry that will take you across the Athabasca River - the only way across for quite a few miles. On the other side of the river are sand hills and miles of walking trails. There was also a beautiful look out spot that over looked the river. You could really see the great country side and the canola fields.

We also thought this fire watch tower was pretty interesting.

More of Jasper

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Jasper. We stayed at the Athabasca Hotel right in down town Jasper. It was a short walk to the shops and places to eat.
We also went to the Sunwapta and Athabasca Falls. There were beautiful! The color of the Athabasca river is a striking green-blue aqua color from the rock flour that it picks up in the mountains. Rebecca is the perfect poser!

On our way out of the park we drove past Jasper Lake and saw people walking out to the middle. We had to stop and get it out. It was a full size lake that was only about a foot deep all the way across. That is my sisiter Rachel out in the middle of the lake.

We also saw a lot of elk along the road side.

Oh Canada

We've made it to Canada to visit my parents! They live in Neerlandia, Alberta which is a very small town NW of Edmonton. We've been having a great time. Here's a little bit of a recap so far.

Rebecca did pretty well on her first flights.

We went to Jasper National Park for two days and one night. It is a mountain town with plenty of tourism. There is a tram that will take you to up the mountains. The elevation of the tran when from 1304 meters up to 2277 meters above sea level.
There are two trams that counter balance each other as they go up and down. Each car holds about 30 people and takes about 8 minutes to go up the mountain. We went up on a very clear day and we were able to see Mt. Robson (snowcovered in the middle of the picture) which is the hightest point in the Canadian Rockies at 3954 meters. After the tram dropped us off we hicked another 200 meters to the very top and ejoyed a 360 view of the beautiful mountains.
More to come...