Feb. 6 - Sister Sylvia's 66th birthday celebration.
I invited our siblings over for Sylv's birthday. It was so special that Rick & Arlene came out from the island and that all three husbands came over. That's a nice thing about getting to retirement age.
Case can only sit still for so long. He showed Sylv how to fish in our pond.
Feb 13-17 We flew to Willem & Jeanette's home to see our new grandson, Tom Derrick who was 3 weeks old.
Day 2:
Sunrise.
Hank is a very social little guy.
Every day we saw deer. We also saw a group of four coyotes.
Case & I took Scott & little Case to the Calgary zoo. Once there, they took over and at my prompting, gave us a tour. Jeanette has an annual pass and makes good use of it. These Humbolt penguins are larger than the Galapagos penguins.
King penguins are larger than the Humbolt penguins.
A mountain goat. I've seen several in the wild.
Mountain sheep.
Snowy owl.
Great Grey owls.
There were two polar bears!
Wolves.
Cariboo..
Otters.
Little Case loves his new baby brother.
Day 3: Big Hills Springs
Little Case was so intrigued by how the water rushed through the ice cavities.
View from the top of the falls.
Walking upstream.
Then off into the forest.
Tufa rock.
In the morning we had gone to the hugh recreational centre where Jeanette is a regular. A lady in the office offered to have baby Tom while she went swimming with us and the 2 boys. Hank went to the day care where they have to watch him because he's gotten into the habit of throwing things. I told Jeanette he should compete in shot-put in the special olympics when he's older. He's got a powerful swing.
Day 4:
Observant Hank.
Making friends.
After about an hour of vigorous play, Opa reeled the boys in with some french fries. This turned out to be a good thing because just as we were eating, two men started shouting...
A child fell through the roof! On the play equipment above, a piece of padded floor tilted when an adult who shouldn't have been up there, stood on it. Thankfully the father was sitting right below the floor when it broke and was able to catch his child. Everyone had to clear out except those who were directly affected. Who knows when this place will open to the public again.
Belly time to help relieve the gas. Tom wasn't terribly fond of this position.
Little Case having loads of fun as daddy pulls him in fast loops.
When Hank was a baby, Little Case was only 2 and didn't realize he was hurting Hank when he prodded, pulled and threw things at him. This time he's 4 and is very gentle with Tom.
But he's still not so gentle with Hank. One of these days Hank will get him back...
In the evening we drove to Red Deer and had a "gezeleg" time with Jan & Grace Vaessen. (cell phone pic)
Day 5:
Such beautiful sunrises.
Glenbow Ranch Provinical Park. In 2006 the Harvie family donated 3247 acres of their land to the Alberta Government so it would be protected from developement. There's over 35km of trails throughout the park.
The Rocky Mountains in the background.
Scott and I branched off to do the Tiger Lily trail. Jeanette says in the summer its full of wildflowers.
On the Badger Bowl trail.
After half-an-hour of walking, Scott was "getting tired". I told him that's good and to keep on walking.
At the pond we turned left onto the Bowbend trail.
Then we did a final left turn onto the Glenbow trail. Opa Case pushed the two boys up the hill.
Hank wasn't so impressed about being contained.
In the afternoon Jeanette dropped us off at the Calgary airport. We had clear skies and far-reaching views of the Rocky Mountains.
Landed in Sumas Praire, Abbotsford airport.
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