Trip to Calgary - Day 7

Today we all got up and headed to church as a family. Mark's friend Stu from college, who was a youth pastor on the same district as us in Ontario, had moved to Calgary this past year and we wanted to see his church and his family. It was great being there and it was a lovely worship service. After church, Mark's cousin Kristin and her husband came back to the house for dinner. It was fun being together and getting to know Bob and Kristin better. After dinner, we had a nice relaxing afternoon and even had time for a bit of a Nazarene nap and more work on making cards. Kaley even decided to help out and did a great job of reorganizing all of grandma's stamps. A couple more games of Acquire were played and more food was had and we enjoyed our last night in Calgary. All in all, it was a nice day spent with family and friends.

Trip to Calgary - Day 5

New Years Day! Mark made us all Eggs Benedict for breakfast and it was delicious. He is such a talented chef. After breakfast was had, we all headed outside to have some winter fun-sledding! We had gotten an inner tube earlier in the week and tried the hill at the back of their house and had a blast. Mark and I went down with her a couple of times and she loved it. She even tried it out on her own which was great for the first couple of times, but then the third time down she ended up getting turned around and did a head first plant into the snow.

Today, when we went outside, apparently she remembered that experience because she wouldn't even go down with either one of us. She kept saying "no, no"! So, Grandma and daddy made it down one time and then walked the trail back and forth. It was really cute. Then when we got back into the house, we found out that the power had gone out. To keep busy and warm, the guys did the hot tub and us girls worked on card making.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Sharlene came over and more fun was had by all. The game Acquire was played a couple of times and Aunt Sharlene taught Kaley how to take pictures on the camera. Fun way to spend the first day of the new year.

Trip to Calgary - Day 4

Today was New Years Eve and we celebrated the last day of 2009 in style. Mark and the crew made a delicious prime rib dinner with all the fixings. Kaley started off the day reading the daily newspaper catching up on all of the current events. It was another pretty quiet day and we actually made it to 12:00 to ring in the new year!

Trip to calgary - Day 3

Today Grandma, Aunt Sharlene, Kaley, Mark and I headed out to the Science Museum in Calgary for a morning of fun. It was such a neat place. They had a special section that was suited perfectly for toddlers with a play supermarket, a water station, jungle gym and lots more. Kaley was like a kid in a candy store - not really stopping to play very long at anything, but just running around and taking everything in. Then she found great fun in running up and down the spiral ramp that led from the main floor to the second floor.

After that we headed down to another floor where there was a great big play place for her to explore. They had a theater, a cave, an art area and even a floor that played music when you walked on it. It was a lot of fun- especially for Kaley.

Mark and Dave and Riley then went to have Dim Sum for lunch and the ladies headed to the mall for a quick bite to eat. Fun was had by all!

Trip to Calgary - Day 2

Christmas came to the Coulter family for a third time this year-Santa was really busy this year;-). On Monday, Dave and Sharlene came over and we had the Coulter Christmas. There were many gift cards given out to the adults and Kaley got some special gifts to play with.

Kaley got a princess piano book, some girly goodies, Elmo books, a new vest, a guitar and an R2D2 and many other fun things. I'll let the many pictures do the talking.

Trip to Calgary - Day 1

Our trip to Calgary started off on a bit of a crazy note. When we arrived at the airport, flights were being canceled all over the place to the States which made it a very hectic place. We were able to get through without any problems at all, only to then wait in the terminal for 2 hours!!! as our flight got pushed back farther and farther. By 8:30 we were finally boarding the airplane. I must say that Mark and I DID win parents of the year award for being able to entertain a toddler in an airport for that long (although the escalator and the moving sidewalk did help a lot). Luckily, this time was well spent because Kaley quickly dozed off about a half an hour into the flight and slept the whole way through-Praise God:-). We arrived in Calgary at what would have been 12:30 our time, so needless to say, after all of the hellos were handed out, we called it an early evening.

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas at home this year. Because of how events unfolded, we ended up visiting my side of the family at the end of November and went out to Calgary at the end of December, so that meant that we were at home for Christmas. It was really nice. Kaley was at the age where she really *got* what opening the presents was all about. We started off by going to the Christmas Eve service at our church for the kids Christmas play where Kaley was a monkey. She did a smashing good job and was so brave to stand up in front of everyone and pretend like she was singing;-) She looked so grown up being up on the stage all by herself. We were so proud!

Then after the service, we had Chinese take out food for dinner and then opened up our presents. Kaley got many gifts from friends of ours at the church and some special gifts from mommy and daddy. Mark finally got his snuggie and some gift certificates to Mark's Work Warehouse. I got some gift certificates to the mall to spend which I am really looking forward to!

Christmas day we spent relaxing as a family. We made a big brunch together and then went sledding in the afternoon with Kaley's new sled in our backyard. We had lots of time to play with Kaley's new toys and with each other. Great day!