Christmas has come and gone

2009 ended great for the Dry family. We stayed in Calgary for Christmas and Elle was spoiled as usual! Her face was so cute christmas morning as we brought her downstairs to all the presents that Santa brought. She looked for a second and then let out a gasp of surprise. By the 4Th or 5Th present she wanted to be done so we had to open alot for her or be very persuasive. It was a long but fun day for her. Santa brought Curtis a photography course for Christmas. He is all enrolled. It is through the New York Institute of photography and it is all done correspondence using Internet DVDs telephone and mail. He has three years to complete it and he is nervous since it has been so long since he has done anything school like. He was very surprised and happy. Santa brought me a jewellery dresser I have wanted for a while that matches the rest of our bedroom furniture. On boxing day we took off for Fairmont where we met up with my Sister and her family and my oldest brother and his family who made the drive from Victoria to see us for the week. All the kids had fun playing together and though Elle and I were feeling a bit under the weather we still enjoyed a day out in the snow with the snowmobile and toboggan. The highlight for Elle was Radium Hot Springs. She had a blast and kept plunging into the water with no fear even if there was no one ready to catch her. We have to watch that child,her dad has made her fearless. My baby bump is growing and I can no longer keep up with all the things I give myself to do each day. I get so frustrated because I feel so lazy but I just can't do as much as I could a month ago. I am definitely slowing down. Only about 3 months to go. It is going to fly by and we are getting so excited for baby. I am thinking a girl would be great so we don't have to go out and buy anything but we will just have to wait and see! We don't think Elle really has any idea what is going on with the new baby coming. She did successfully make the big move from her Crib to a big girl bed last weekend and she loves it. Curtis captured some middle of the night shots of her (which are above). She is growing up and is going to be a great big sister.

Since July........

I am not so good at this blogging thing. July was over 3 months ago. Needless to say alot has happened in the Dry family over the last 3 months however here are just a few:

* Elle and I went on a little vacation to my parents cabin on Vancouver Island for a week in August, Elle had a blast in the Lake and the boat and hanging out with all her little cousins.

* We went to Fairmont for the September long weekend with some of my family that live in Cochrane. They are always a fun bunch to be around and Elle enjoyed wearing everyones shoes but hers around the cabin, a fun hobby of hers!

* Elle turned 17 months, then 18 months, then 19 months and now is about to turn 20 months old this month!! Can't believe it.

*I started back at piano lessons in September after the summer break. I am really enjoying my lessons and it is great to feel like I am making progress. I have started a Christmas song for the Christmas Concert. I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming.

*Elle was a little skunk for Halloween and had a long day of trick or treating and visiting with all her family and friends. She especially likes to fill her treat bag from the candy bowls herself. And the best part is shaking and dancing with her boxes of smarties.

*The Dry Family will be expanding come April. We are expecting a new arrival April 15th . The pencil test says it is a little boy so we will see if it is accurate for two babies in a row.
Stay tuned for some updated pictures.

Cousins

MMMMM... Cookie! Elle and her cousin Emma had a great time visiting together when my sister and Emma came from Victoria over the summer. My sister Shannon came for a visit with Emma and we went and experienced a few of the great attractions that Calgary has to offer. These pics are from Heritage Park. I was very disoppointed with this outing as the boat ride was closed for repairs and that was the one thing i was most excited about...and of course no rain cheques.. .

Heritage Park

This is the Heritage park Train ride.

The Calgary Zoo being little 'Joey's'

Emma at Calaway Park way up high.

Me and my little rider

The girls checking out the view!

Emma and Elle are only 6 months apart so we are already seeing how as they get older that gap begins to get smaller and smaller as Elle catches up. I think these two are going to be really great little friends. We can't wait till Elle is old enough to travel for summers to Victoria and for Emma to come to Calgary to play. What fun it will be.

Elle & Dune Buggy's & Sand & Sun..........

(If you haven't already noticed I am a bit behind on the blogging.. so you are getting lots of posts in chronological order over a very short time, so I can catch up on everything that we have done in the last month.)

The Dry family went on a road trip to Utah in May! Some who know Curtis may know of his not so fond attitudes towards visiting Utah but this trip brought Utah out on top in his books! He even said that he would now rather visit Utah than Edmonton! (Sorry Katie)

We left and drove all night this way Elle was able to sleep all night and that always makes a road trip with a little one way easier. We arrived on May 16th a Saturday morning and the plan was for my parents to get into town from Victoria on the Sunday. We stayed with my aunt and uncle who I haven't seen in almost 2 years. It was great to catch up and we really enjoyed spending time with them. They hadn't met Elle yet so that was fun to introduce her. .
Now, we had only heard many, many, many great stories from my family about Sand duning so we were dying to see what all the fuss was about hence the big reason for our trip.

My Dad has a dune buggy and some ATVs that he keeps in the states, and my uncle who we stayed with also has a Dune buggy and AT V's as well. So off we go with our Caravan of toy holding trailers behind us. We travelled a couple hours before we arrive at our destination, or to what appears to be a humongous parking lot of sand with no one in sight, wind blowing so hard you can't even open the car door, and when you do you are completely exfoliated by all the sand blowing everywhere. I have to say my first impression of this leisure sport was not what I had expected. You could see the disappointment in my dad's face as he looked on our faces and told us how he had never seen a day like this before at the dunes... of course it would happen to us!

Thankfully the wind quickly passed and we found a camp spot with running water and flush toilets and we soon fell in love with the sand dunes. It was such a blast and Elle was also on board with the adventure of it all. She had her first ATV ride with Daddy, and then she had her first Dune buggy ride with Grandpa, Grandma and Mommy. You can tell from the pictures that she was so excited she fell asleep riding in the dune buggy every time. Puzzling since these machines are not quiet and it's not always the smoothest ride. When she did wake up there was always a smile on her face or I would hear her talking to herself in delight. It was so hot she was always slathered in sunscreen so she was always coated in Sand since those two things like to stick together. She has never been SO dirty but as all kids do, she loved it. There is one place there called "Sand Mountain" It is a700ft mountain and it is straight up. My dad took me up it in his dune buggy and the whole way up you are looking straight at the sky. It was a real thrill. Unfortunately for Curtis who was riding the ATV behind us, my dad forgot to tell him that he wouldn't be able to make it up this particular mountain on the ATV. We had to watch him as he gets halfway up and powers out and then realizes that he can't go up any more and he is going to fall off the mountain backwards. He stops and balances, his tires drop in the sand and he manages to jump off without catastrophe and pull the machine around and drive back down. Not an easy maneuver. That was nerve wracking. We all came away unscathed, though up until a couple weeks ago we were still getting the sand out of our ears! The pictures really don't do the dunes justice. It was so much fun. Curtis has even been dreaming about it.

Also while in Utah we were able to visit the Salt Lake temple. Curtis got a really cool shot of the temple but it is actually a picture of it reflected on a big fountain pond. See if you can spot it on the slide show.