Oh, Canada!

I'm going to back post this to June to keep dates straight.  I worked on a few photo books over the summer and it was SO much nicer when I had a blog post to use for pictures and details.  Makes it worth it for me to go back and do old posts.

We made a trip up to Ben's hometown in Alberta over Memorial Day.  We had planned to visit his home sometime in the summer, but Ben was asked to be the guest of honor/speaker at his high school's graduation.

Ben did a great job!  It was so neat to see the quaint and intimate graduation ceremony.  The graduation ceremony is so different when your graduating class is 24 kids!  I certainly did not grow up in a booming metropolis but my high school had more students than there are people in his town. 

Because every other person in town was at the graduation, we solicited my nephew's babysitting services so I could go hear Ben's speech.

I think things went pretty well, don't you? 

Ok, so maybe this wasn't while he was babysitting.  I ran over to watch Ben speak and was only gone for about 30 minutes.  Lizzie was asleep and he called me 4 times to ask questions and didn't let Samara leave his side.  I think he will make a fine babysitter. :)

Our friend, Jody, who introduced Ben and I, lives in Stirling.  We were able to spend time with her darling family.  The home lots in Stirling are huge.   I think Samara had heard Ben talking about wanting a bigger lot and how much land costs because she was amazed at their yard.  Their lot is over an acre and is awesome.  Samara exclaimed, "You have an actual meadow for your backyard.  I can't believe it.  How do you have enough money for a meadow?"

Her kids are wonderful and my girls had the best time with them.  

Jody even babysat for us so we could attend the Cardston Temple.  I have never been and loved this temple.  It's very unique and beautiful.

 Of course, we had to visit Grandma Sheila who works at the town library.  We loved spending time in the children's section named after Ben's mom.

 

We spent a day at Waterton--the Canadian side of Glacier National Park.  Waterton is stunning.  You go from totally flat farmland to pairies to rolling hills to towering peaks.   The drive there shows nature at its finest.

It was so strange to go on a holiday and be COLD!  We haven't had that for a while and were a bit underprepared...err FREEZING! 

 But we are never too cold for ice cream! 

We were able to spend time with Ben's grandparents.  We haven't seen them for years and it was wonderful to visit with them.

We also took the opportunity to have family photos done by my uber talented sister-in-law, Shanna.  She is the master of posing.  We started at 6 PM, Lizzie's bedtime.  You do what you gotta do but bedtime is not the optimal time for a photo shoot.

Lizzie was crazy!  In fact, they both were.  See Lizzie trying to eat Samara.  Clark (the baby-sitter) was trying to earn money for a new video game so he took some candids with the iPad.  He's very affordable--$0.50 per image.

Edited ones are $1.

 He also does videos ($1.50), which are so fun to have.  Sometimes when you look at all the nice finished images you forgot how NOT FUN having your photos taken was.  But these help us remember not to do family pictures too often. 

Here are the favorites from the shoot: 

 This nose crinkle is my favorite expression!

Maybe baby brother will look like this in a few years.  Isn't Ben's mop of red hair darling?  

A Big Map and a Book

I loved majoring in Geography and when I'd tell someone that I was majoring in Geography, I'd typically get one of two responses.  First, "Oh, you study rocks.  How interesting."  Geography.  Geology.  They sort of sound the same, I guess.  Or "So you study maps?  You must know where every country on the map is."  Geography is more than just maps!  Geography is ecology, anthropology, and history all bundled in one discipline.  There are many sub-disciplines too: cultural, physical, environmental, political, economic, demographics, etc.  That map question got pretty old when I'd hear it over and over again.  But I do actually love maps.  And I wish I knew where every country was and that I could visit them all too!  While we were building, I decided I wanted a big map wall and it's finally up.  I may be a "geography nerd" but I feel gleefully happy every time I look at my map. :)

I saw a tutorial for these mini-polaroid magnets.  Tiny pictures are ridiculously cute, aren't they?  My map isn't magnetic so my plan is to mount the pictures on foamboard and use a paper tape to attach them to the places we've been.   First, I want to get caught up on photobooks though.  *sigh*  Why do they take me so long to finish?  Lizzie's first year book (click on lower right corner of book below to flip the pages) probably took me 2,033 hours.  And now she's almost two and Samara needs one for last year and I want to make several of our time and travel oversees.  Because why take so many millions of photos if they just sit on my hard drive?  Anyone want to help me get caught up?