Outlook, Saskatchewan

We left for holidays in Alberta during the first week of August. We had to drive because Dale had to take the camping gear he needed for his 5 day canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan river with his brother, Scott. They went from Rocky Mountain House to Edmonton and had a great time and some sore muscles, apparently. 

Before we left I loaded up on games and various things to entertain Sarah on the trip and off we went. We stopped at many playgrounds and schools on the way - about every 2 or 3 hours to satisfy her need to 'slide.' 

We camped at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park on the first night. It's roughly between Regina where we stopped for dinner at the BP(Boston Pizza not British Petroleum) and Moose Jaw but a bit north. What a great place. The pool was closed when we got there but it looked great and the lake looked really nice as well. We didn't get into the tent until it was almost dark and Sarah was asleep with an hour or so. Yeah. She moves around a lot in her sleep (always sliding out from under her covers) so neither of us parents got a lot of sleep.

In Outlook, Saskatchewan we ended up at a school with a great playground. It was stinking hot because we were in the middle of a heat wave but this school had a proper merry go round. I haven't seen on of those in ages! Sarah loved it. The rest of the pictures are of a sliding girl and her Daddy.

August long weekend camping

For the August long weekend we decided to try camping with Sarah for one night. We weren't sure how it was all going to work, so we thought if we didn't get any sleep that we could manage that for one night, but not for two!

We went to St. Malo Prov. park which is about an hours drive South of Winnipeg. Sarah was in 7th heaven because it had a great 'slide' (her word for a playground). She loved the circle slide and she's now quite proficient on the 'big girl' swing but she can't go as high in it as she can in a 'little girl' swing.

Setting up the tent was a novel experience for her. She loved it! 

While Sarah waited for dinner to be ready she climbed into her booster seat and ate (and played with) some beans and peas from our garden. 

Sausages are always great camping food especially when they're done over a fire.

Our campsite was full of gravel - great for Sarah to play with but not so great when you're sleeping. We took the 4 person tent that my cousin Dave and his wife Claire gave us but all that meant was that Sarah had more room to roll off of her camping mat...and onto the gravel which she didn't think much of!

We decided to go to bed around 8:30 - an hour after her bed time. We should have waited until it was dark. It took 2 hours to convince her to go to sleep! She got stuck in a loop of moving her stuffed animals from the head of her bed to the foot...Dale had to finally step in and stop it because she was starting to get frantic! I put a bag at the head of her bed to stop her from rolling onto the gravel and we just waited her out. She was up at oh-dark-stupid the next morning (ok - first light) and I took her to the 'slide' while Dale packed up the campsite. Not a huge success, but not bad either. 

Sarah's not really all that fussed about veggies these days. She'd rather fill up on fruit - raspies (raspberries) and straws (strawberries) from our garden, grapes (she calls them gapes), booberries (blueberries) - you name it, as long as it's fruit, she loves it. The only way we can get her to eat a decent amount of veggies is to give her a carrot pulled straight from the garden and washed off with the garden hose.

End of July

Sarah giving William a big hug (pron. biig ug)

Sarah's Auntie G (my sister Gwyn) send her a beautiful sun dress so I thought I'd take a few pictures to show everyone. In this picture she's rocking in her little chair.

Sarah has a nasty habit (in my opinion, not hers) of running away from me. She thinks it hilarious, but there are places like airports, supermarkets, etc where this just isn't a good idea. So - we copied my sister Elaine's idea and bought her a special puppy backpack with a long tail. Some would call it a leash. She loves it! In this pic she's a superhero - Super Sarah and her backpack with special powers!