"Satellite"

We went camping 2 weekends ago and I haven't had the chance to post the pictures. It was just the 3 of us for the first time in a long time (we went once with Max also). We headed up to Banff and there were a lot of filled campsites, but we found a really nice one near to the town but still in the woods. We requested close to the potty so that Buck would not have any accidents. We got a site nearly ON the bathroom, but that worked great for us.

Normally, we bring a two man tent (maybe it's a 4 man, but it seems small to me). After camping with family and taking the large tent, we realized that the extra space (it's a 3 room 10 person tent) was a huge bonus. It's nice to have "inside" space where Buck can run around and play with toys in the morning. We had a good time setting up the tent and making s'mores. Campsites in Alberta tend to be really quiet after 11pm - even the partiers go to bed around then. We had a bit of trouble sleeping, but a really nice time on our blow-up air mattress over all.

I'm sure you all don't need a blow-by-blow of the trip...it was just a really calm, really fun time for the 3 of us. Buck got to go up in the Banff gondola (his favorite) and RKZ and I had a break from the jobs waiting for us at home.

And the second we got home we were swamped with things. Last week was BUSY. But today we're off to Nevada and Colorado for 7 days. RKZ has been invited to a work trip of "wine tasting, golf & spa" & spouses are included! So, we're leaving Buck with the Joads in Reno for a couple of nights (we can drive to Napa from their house) and then all 3 of us will fly to Colorado for Labor/Labour Day weekend! Buck is literally BESIDE himself today. Every 5 minutes it's, "Are we going on the plane now? Because I really miss everyone." Seriously, my child has social issues of anti-shyness.

But I can't wait to go either.

"Happy Birthday, Dear Buck..."

Yesterday was Buck's "last birthday." His actual birthday was on Saturday. He turned 3 to very little fanfare. We organized a real birthday for his 3 closest friends last night (Sunday). I always had this idea that I wanted to have birthdays where there were as many kids invited as the child was years old (I read about it in some book or something). But over the last few years, it hasn't ever worked out to have only that many kids. Actually, I don't think we've had more than family birthdays for Buck's 1st and 2nd. We're always on vacation somewhere and it's easier to have the party with all of the family around.

This year, Buck let it be known that it mattered that he had his friends over for a party. Unfortunately, it is very hard to plan a friend birthday party at the end of August. EVERYONE is out of town at different times and it's impossible to get people together. Finally, I had to send out desperate emails as invites to a last minute party. I sent the emails to Buck's 3 closest friend's mommies and one family even flew in from Toronto about an hour before the party (Clemmie).

By the way, TOTALLY worth it to have a tiny party. RKZ made his world famous "California chicken" & grilled zucchini on the grill. The kids had hot dogs, of course. We blew up the bouncy castle and had NO games. We had a Diego cake and "tiger,tiger" ice cream. This is ice cream I've only ever seen in Canada - orange sherbert and black licorice stripes. No lie. It actually tastes like fruit loops and it's Buck's favorite. The cake was pretty good but the actual calm party was better. Clemmie, Charlie and Jackson and their parents. Beer and birthday cake.

I am now officially back on the idea that we'll only have as many kids as Buck is years old. Even if it was just by mistake at first.

"He's the one who's calling you baby"

Both of these pictures make me smile. One, because it's my "baby" brother (he's 30) and the other because it's my "baby" hugging his cousin. I think they have similar smiles.

Life is beginning again. Been hanging out with those Challenge girls as the summer winds down with a week-long convention for the Challenge girls of Western Canada. Thank goodness I am not organizing this one...but there still is a lot of work. Buck spent the day surrounded by 15-17 year old girls and he seemed to love it. Crashed on the hour-long drive home alone, though.

We are preparing for a 'quick' trip to Napa Valley for RKZ & myself (a work trip, but fun) and then a side trip to Colorado for the long weekend. We'll see almost all of our family in one week! It should be great. Can't wait to see RKZ's "baby" brother who is having a big birthday today! We miss you "Uncle!" The grass still looks great and your big bro can't wait to spend some time with you. It seems useless to be blogging those sentiments when facebooking them would get the point to Cor so much more quickly. There is not enough time to get everything said and updated. I've spent all day/night on this computer and I'm starting to hate it. Where is the good old fashioned TV when I need it?

"And I think to myself...what a wonderful world"

More Kelly Fam reunion pictures (almost done, I promise)
Grandma Joad with A-man and Buck on a Heritage Park ride.
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236712936937180210" />Buck actually hit down a can and won a prize! There was much celebrating!
Yep, you guessed it - an "Old Fashioned" family shot. Missing members stayed home to watch the Olympics

Supermodel D and Superman M hiking Johnston Canyon.
The Kelly boys all growed up
Hoonka & Coach K1 and their 2 sons.
another of my famous "family shots" Needless to say that everyone hates me (in both families) because of these shots - Get ready Gradys!!!
At Heritage Park with the Joads.

I'm just going to post pictures today. We were at the funeral of an acquaintance this morning and we're all feeling blessed to have each other - and family. Buck's taking a nap.

"These chains of love..."

Through a few processes of miscommunication, it turns out that Buck begins Pre-K 3 on September 2nd instead of October 1st, which we believed. (There is a long story about this which I'll tell later). So, Buck and I had to go to the local school uniform shop and buy his first school uniform today.

Even as I write this, a wave of sadness breaks over me. I didn't expect buying a stupid uniform to be such a big deal for me. I can still remember the 100's of times I went to giant plaid-filled factories to buy my own dreaded school clothes. I can literally picture the warehouse in Las Vegas where we would stand in line for hours to buy clothes we didn't want to wear that made me, personally, look like someone's grandma's puffy pin cushion. I remember being heart-broken that I wouldn't be buying a high school uniform in the summer after my 8th grade year because we moved to a new city and I'd be attending my first public school in the 9th grade. Weird, how much a person can love and hate the same thing (or maybe it's just girls and clothes).

The Clear Water Academy uniform shop is tiny - and in the basement of the school. It's in a medium-sized cage (probably where they used to store guns as the building is a converted military base). We were the first family to be able to use a Visa card as it was just installed in the "store" this weekend. Buck had to try on everything because it's his very first fitting. We were crammed into the side of the room and the owner/operator joked that "3 year old boys were much easier to fit than girls in grade 9 who need to find a washroom to change." I was unrealistically proud of Buck's little boxer briefs as he shrugged out of his shorts and into the polyester-blend grey pants he'll wear twice a week (for 3 hours a time) for the rest of the year. Potty trained and starting school all in 3 months!

That was when the sadness hit me. I think that the $200 price tag for 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 1 sweater and 3 socks might make RKZ sad, but mine was an entirely different type of sadness. I have spent my entire life in school since kindergarden - even going straight from University to teaching for 13 years - and to think that Buck is beginning that journey makes this little step a big deal (to me, at least. I'm sure he'll barely notice). Of course, I'm sure this is all caught up in the "my baby is growing up" blah. blah. blah...but school. A big place where he won't have me all the time and I can't be sure that someone will be there to laugh at his stupid jokes or I can't know if anyone will understand those 3 year old sayings that are such a part of our conversations. I don't want Buck to stop saying things like "fairest of the Mall" because it's not "correct." I don't want who he is to be lost in who he's "supposed" to be. But I am a mature enough human to realize that all of these feelings are about me and not him. Buck is ready to spend 6 hours a week with other people. He is excited to learn his letters and numbers and to have someone whose entire existence (in his life) is just to teach him new things. I am smart enough to know that I will still be his mommy and that I am his first (and most important) teacher. It's still an emotional experience for me.

Buck just wanted to keep playing on the school playground.

"When you wish upon a star..."

This morning Buck says rhetorically, "Who's the best baby in the mall?"

Translation: "Who's the best baby of them all?" as in "who's the fairest of them all?"

I think Disney should do a tween movie called "The fairest of the Mall." Wait a minute, I need to copy write that - or Buck does.

"Don't go chasing waterfalls"

This is an ACTUAL picture of one of the waterfalls we hiked to.
The crowd camping day 2
Just having a depressing time of sorting through the news. Everyone but the Joads have gone home now and the house is echo-y empty. It's been so nice to have mom here to tool around with. She and Pa Joad took Buck to the science center today so that I could get some work done on my girl's leadership group stuff. Ahh - to live near family for just a year. I would never get over it if we lived near my family or RKZ's. It seems like a dream.

"Everybody's goin surfin' - surfin USA"

CoachK2 after shirt removal (we had a bet as to how quickly that would happen :)
Sra and SDJ. Sra is SDJ's good friend from club volleyball.
Supermodel M taking a breather in the back yard.
Buck surfs on Supermodel D's back
and then surfs on Superman M. A lot of surfing going on.

I forgot to mention that CoachK2 showed up for the reunion as well while the rest of us were at the zoo.

Wednesday night, we all went camping in Johnson Canyon. I will post pictures tomorrow that basically tell the tale (I think I mentioned it yesterday). Thursday, we toured around Lake Louise and Johnson Canyon. Such great hikes!

Yesterday (Friday), we had a bit of a breather. The families with babies/toddlers headed to Heritage Park (The Joads flew in from Quebec Thursday night and were also there). Superman M's family stayed at the house to watch (and re-watch) the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We're very excited about the Olympics here. Later in the evening, we threw the first of Buck's 3rd birthday parties. He was THRILLED. This is the first birthday he's noticed so far. He has spent the day playing with the Diego rescue truck he received for the big day.

Sadly, the CoachK1 family had to leave at 4am this morning. Buck's first question was "I'm going to go check if A-man is awake." He didn't really get to say good-bye so he was pretty sad that the family had gone. So are the rest of us.

"I want to ride my bicycle"

Supermodel D getting ready for the hour-long bike to the zoo.
SDJ & Buck take time to hug by the Lions.
100's of animals and Buck and cousin A-man only cared about the walking train. They cried about it most of the day until they were able to climb aboard. Best 5 minutes of their day.
What the mommies did during the train ride. It has been a beautiful week weather-wise.
aformentioned (sp?) domino game. Coach K 2 trounced the competition (or the Canadian beer did. Jury's still out)
Superman M & Hoonka made a bottle for KK
Superman M does the dishes
...REALLY does the dishes
thumbs up from Me while the dads play dominos all night - seriously. A good deal of beer was consumed.
after the bike ride but before the zoo.


We're just home from one night of camping in Banff (Johnson Canyon, actually) and it was both fun and insanely stressful. I will post shots of our short but jam-packed night and day tomorrow.

As always, I'm a few days behind in what we've been up to...we rode bikes to the zoo on Monday and then spent the day swimming on Tuesday. Wednesday, we left for camping and now we're back. There are over 150 pictures already, so I'm bound to be behind.

A quick attitude recap that, although there was a lot of uncertainty as to how camping with 9 adults and 3 toddlers would go - it turned out pretty well. We had my dad (Pa Joad's) 30 ft RV, and a 3 room tent. Ironically (or maybe not) everyone except the Coach K 1 family (and 2 kids under 3) slept in the tent. Coach K2 (being the baby of the fam) was also forced to sleep in the RV. On the attitude front, Coach K2 is actually bringing nothing but a positive attitude to the reunion. We are firmly blaming the daily "rosary walk" for his awesome attitude.

"Trust me on the sunscreen"

These are the lyrics to "Everybody's free" a song from 1999 by Baz Luhrmann. For some reason, my family reunion reminds me of this song:

Wear Sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand
the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years
you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how
much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You're not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other peoples hearts, dont put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
the race is long, and in the end, its only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing
this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

What ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either
your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, its the greatest instrument you'll ever own..

Dance even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and
the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get,
the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander,
you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were
young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their
elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time its 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

This song came out when I was 19 years old - and as I get close to 40, it's all really true. Funny.