Kettle River Camping Trip

Although this first picture is a little blury, it's one of Kevin & I at Kettle River. We went camping this weekend and did lots of cliff jumping and sitting around the fire with some friends of ours, Chris & Yvonne. Atalie got her own beach chair, which she was very happy about!! Kevin apparently wasn't satisfied jumping off cliffs and logs... Atalie was satisfied however, lounging in the make-shift shelter on the shore. Chris & Yvonne joined us in the fun this weekend! Don't be fooled by their cheerful, easygoing faces... the river was FREEEEEZING cold!!! (just ask Chris!)

Hike to Gallager's Canyon

This peculiar picture is one of nature's many mysteries. Read on to discover more of nature's finest. ... or skip to the last photo to see where we discovered this first one. Yes, this is exactly what it looks like. Here we have Kevin enjoying nature in the nude.. .. well, whatelse would you expect?? No worries, they're alllll edited. Ahem - - - on with the trip - we headed out for a little jont on Saturday aternoon. Yes yes, we're not the quickest bunch of people around on a Saturday morning. Eager to explore but enough not to get out of bed before the hottest part of the day. So with the sun beating down, we casually made our way down to Gallager's Canyon (Mission Creek, I believe, is what you're viewing on the left) to have a look around. Only about 2km's. The Canyon was quite spectacular. We shamefully admit that we had no idea something like this even existed 2 minutes from the city where we live! Pretty cool when you don't have to pay a couple thousand $$$ to fly across the globe to see something so beautiful(!) Little Attie loved every minute of it (once again). This one's a little hard to make out. Kevin is walking somewhere down there near the shore. The large unidentified object in the foreground is actually a car. Yup. Breathtaking scenery, everywhere you look.

There's a first for everything.

This chubby chicken had her first go at the ol' Jolly Jumper yesterday evening... she went to bed an hour late due to too much fun :) Her little legs twinkled about as she quickly caught on to the jumping motion. We think she looked more like a little fawn bounding through the meadow one leg at a time rather than a baby in a jolly jumper. Whoever invented this thing was genious for a good laugh! She had Mommy & Daddy in stitches!! Aww shucks. Time for bed.

Camping Trip #1

This weekend Attie had her first camping trip! We went to Conkle Lake for a couple nights ~ this picture was actually taken AFTER a long day. Read on to find out why she's sleeping... She got to dip her toes in some icy cold water ;) ... ... and pose for many pictures ... ... on a little hike to a picturesque litle waterfall! "Don't worry Nana, Daddy's got me!!", said Atalie as she dangled from a 1,000 ft waterfall!! (okay, not really - it looks worse than it is) Atalie also got her first photoshoot in a bathingsuit on the beach:) She had lots of fun with Mom & Dad, talking (loudly!!!) almost the entire hour she lay on the beach... I think people were beginning to wonder if she was loving or hating this experience. I don't recall seeing a sad face on this little girl though.

July Long Weekend

Driving through the mountains just past Revelstoke - always beautiful!! We headed to Alberta this weekend for the passing of Kev's Grandma. It was a celebration of life in many ways... as you can see, there are many new lives popping up in the Israelson family :) The above picture is Kevin's cousin Tara, myself and his sister Lisa, with our daughters. This pic was taken as a follow-up to a pic we took when pregnant. I'd say we all look much better now:) Attie is the youngest (3 months) as the other two girls are over 6 months... yet she is just as big! A beautiful Alberta sunset.

Lounging....

Aaaah, the life of a little girl :) So, believe it or not, there is a story behind this photo. The story is that Atalie apparently has an extreme case of "flat head"... yes, the dreaded "flat head". If you can't tell by my lack of tone, I'm being somewhat sarcastic. Doctors and nurses across the universe (or at least BC) seem obsessed with babies having perfectly rounded heads - and really, who can blame them. Nobody wants their perfect child growing up with an imperfect shaped head, not if they can help it. But heaven forbid you should visit the Health Unit with a case of "flat head"... look out! It leaves all Mothers and Fathers in a frenzie as to how to solve this problem without constantly having to hold their child, and without jumping to the extremes of baby helmets (yes, they do exist - and babies must wear them almost 24hours a day to resolve this issue). Well, Atalie detests being on her stomach, so the doctor prescribed "tummy time" is out of the question - and Attie seems insistant on being able to monitor alllll that goes on throughout her day, which leaves only a few creative solutions considering she cannot yet sit up on her own. Huh. So the nursing pillow with a rolled-up blanket behind her neck is one idea we came up with... see?! Stay at home Mom's are extremely useful after all. When we aren't changing diapers, feeding hungry mouths, wiping spit, soothing crocodile tears, entertaining watchful eyes, attempting to instill a little morale or catching a little shut eye from the night before, we're using what little creative juices we have left to round our children's heads. Wow. What has Motherhood come to? But, as you can see from the next pic, I suppose the life of a stay-at-home Mom isn't so bad either... ;) Who wouldn't want to be around this cuteness all day??? You'd be nuts not to!