Happy Canada Day!

Wow! Today was amazing! And full! And wow! I just realized I didn't blog yesterday so I have to play catch up!!
Okay, first off, we didn't get our van on Tuesday. We signed some papers for it but because they were going to fix some stuff on it for us we weren't going to be able to get it that day. So, on Wednesday when I went to Calgary I just took my car. I left town at about 8 and I didn't get to my sister's house on the north end of Calgary until just before 10. Stupid construction. We jumbled carseats and then went to the zoo to meet up with my darling cousin from Montana, my aunt and her two adorable kids. The first thing we did was go to the brand new carousel they just put in. Instead of horses, the figures are all different types of zoo animals: bats, red pandas, giraffes - that sort of thing. Well, I went to go put Gabe on one and he freaked out. There was too much going on and too many lights and sounds. So I sat down on a seat on the ride with him and he started to calm down - and then we started moving. He cried almost the entire time we were on it. And not just a little bit crying - he was screaming in terror. And they didn't stop the ride. Thanks guys. The only time he stopped crying was when I pulled his hat down over his eyes so that he couldn't see everything going by so fast. well, throughout the rest of the morning we grabbed some food, Gabe got to see a bear, he loved watching the elephant and we all got alot of exercise and sun. Once we'd all had enough we booked it back to my sister's house where my cousin and I switched back to my car and we went shopping. What should have been a 10 minute trip down south took half an hour, again, thanks to construction. I wanted to go to the Le Chateau outlet there to find a dress for my cousin's wedding at the end of July. Well, I found one. It was yellow and tight and hugging and sexy and it looked absolutely fantastic on me... but the zipper wouldn't do up the last inch. Oh, and did I mention that it was marked down to $30 from $230??? I didn't buy it because I was feeling rushed and I didn't want to make a bad purchase, but when we go to Edmonton on Sunday we're hitting up the outlet there and I'm going to get it. Seriously, I looked so hot in it. Anyway. I dropped my cousin off at her parents' place and then headed straight out of town. The only problem with that plan was that there were two accidents on Deerfoot just before I got on it. It took me half an hour to get two kilometers. I left my cousin's place at 4 and I didn't hit Calgary city limits until 5. By then I was mentally exhausted from stalled traffic and I knew that I needed coffee so I stopped off in Airdrie to hit up the Timmy's but because it was now after 5 that was lined up through the whole parking lot. I ended up getting a milkshake from Wendy's and then rushing home. I got back to town by 6:20 but I was supposed to have been home by 5 to go get the van. Fortunately the dealership was open until 8 so we dropped Gabe and Cash off with my parents, got the van, ate dinner by 8:30 and then visited Matt's parents to show off the van to them.
Now, on to today!
First thing this morning I went over to my parents' house for breakfast (waffles with whipped cream and strawberries). Once the coffee was finished off we packed up and went to Heritage Ranch. We bought a pony ride for Gabe and since we were pretty much the only people there we spent a fair bit of time just petting the horse (by no means a pony) and letting Gabe get used to seeing a real horse for the first time. When the time came for him to go on he got cold feet - it was the carousel incident all over again. The ranch hand said that when this happens they usually get the parent to go on and hold the kid for the ride - so I got to get in a tiny horse ride today too! Gabe totally wanted to be on the horse but was overwhelmed when he was on there so I had to face him towards me for almost the whole ride. He gradually started to figure out just what it was that we were doing. He has a rocking horse at home (that looked remarkably similar to the brown and white painted pinto we were on) and we always sing a song to him "So rides the lady's horse..." and so when I sang that to him while the horse was bumping and rocking us he kinda put two and two together. By the end of the ride he was waving to people, barking to the horse and pointing out the other horses in the nearby field. After petting the other horses for a while longer we went home to grab a quick bite before we went out for some golf. We hit up a tiny little par 3 and pushed Gabe around the course in his stroller. He thought it was fantastic! I didn't play great (my putting has really gone downhill) but it was really fun anyway. We then shot a bucket of balls at the driving range (my best clubs are my 5 wood and my 9 iron) and then went home and lazed about until Matt got there. Then we started dinner :) The smiley face is because of what dinner was: bannock and steak strips. Bannock is a fairly sweet dough that you wrap around a stick and cook over a fire and then you roll it in butter... mmmmmm. We also cook up steak strips over the fire and season them with this seasoning salt called "Alpine Touch" which is the most amazing seasoning salt ever. Once we were done steak, bannock and roasting mini marshmallows (that was painstaking) then we went fishing. The mosquitoes were murderous however so that only lasted for about 40 minutes, even though the fish were biting really well and jumping all over the pond. We got back to my parents' place by 10:30 and we were all pretty bagged so we decided to call it a night. On the drive home Matt and I were able to see the fire works going on from the Canada Day celebration, so that was cool.
Tomorrow will be another early day; we're leaving for Drumheller by 8:30 so I'd best get some sleep!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)