Catch Up

I apologize to anyone who has been following my blog for the long stretch I've gone without updating. Let me try to catch you up to what's been going on for the last little while.

First off, the big news, which anyone who is friends with me on Facebook already knows: Avril is pregnant. We don't have an official due date yet, but the baby will most likely come in the first week of April. We just seem to love the spring birthdays in this family: Alex and me in March, Avril and this new baby in April, and Kenny in early June.

We had fun over the long weekend in August. All of the Laquas got together for a camping trip at a place called Reeser Lake in Cypress Hills provincial park southeast of Medicine Hat. Avril and her family went camping there all the time as she was growing up, and this is the first time in a while they've been back together since they've all been adults. We all had a good time, but I think Kenny had the most fun. All six of the Laqua grandchildren were there, and Kenny loved playing with his cousins. We went swimming a couple of times at nearby Elkwater Lake, and Kenny took to the water quite enthusiastically despite the chilly temperature. I pride myself for being the only adult in our group who actually swam, although I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I first went in over my head. It was cold.

The weather was mostly agreeable, but we did have quite the thunder storm early one morning that woke me up and lasted for a while. The campsite was in a valley, so the thunder was louder than what I'm used to out on the prairies. I slept poorly the entire weekend, actually, but I never sleep well when I go camping, and having young children just makes it worse. I enjoyed myself, anyway.

Last week was Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge. I was never able to go myself, but Avril went with the boys and her father and sister one day while I was at work. It was Kenny's first real visit to a fair, and he loved it. He went on a lot of rides, some of them more than once. He especially loved any ride that resembled a train.

There was a petting zoo there, too, and the boys enjoyed that. Kenny's favourite animals were the pot-bellied pigs. He liked the sheep, too, even though one snuck up behind him and scared him with a loud baa. Whenever he tells someone about his day at the fair, he always mentions the noisy sheep.

Alex enjoyed himself, but he wasn't allowed on most of the rides. He made it onto the carroussel and a train, and he had fun at the petting zoo.

Kenny has started graduating from his pre-school DVDs and taking an interest in my movies. I have a small collection of animated movies based on DC Comics characters: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern seem to be his favourites. The latter two are rated PG-13, so I'm a little nervous he might start slipping some words into his vocabulary that I might not approve of. Nothing so far, though. I don't think he understands what phrases like "I own your ass" mean, so he doesn't bother using them.

And, just because, here are some pictures of Kenny and I making cookies.