Fall in Canada

The snow has arrived and Oaklee is ready!

She's got her war face on and everything.

 

We hyped ourselves up by looking out the window. Oaklee was

so excited, thought the snow was great. Couldn't wait to get outside.

 

And then we actually went outside......

Nope, not a fan. It's going to be a long winter in Canada.

 

Along with the snow came the cold weather. Oaklee and I made a trip to Walmart today. After freezing our butts off with just the 15 second walk inside, we've decided we will be staying in the house until April. Ryan will have to pick up groceries on his way home from work.

 

Aside from the risk of frostbite, we have been enjoying our time in Grande Prairie. Oaklee is as crazy as ever. She makes me laugh every day. And she gets more like her dad every day. Good thing I happen to enjoy his personality.

We are living with Ryan's brother Corry and his wife Steph. They just built a beautiful townhouse and decided a naughty one year old would do a good job of breaking it in. So far no permanent damage. Hopefully it stays that way. Honestly though, we are lucky to have such a beautiful place to live while we are here for the winter.

This summer and fall seem to be FLYING by. It felt like we were just getting settled into Grande Prairie when we made a trip back home to Utah. My Grandpa passed away and we were lucky enough to get there early enough to spend some really great time with him before he died. We loved getting to see everyone. We had only been gone a month but we are needy and missed our family. :)

We've been back in Grande Prairie for about 3 weeks now and are getting settled again.
Ryan has to go work in this every day:

 

Poor sucker. Oaklee and I are very lucky he's willing to spend 12 hours a day out in Canadian winters. I'd like to say I'd do the same for him, but......I think we all know that would be a lie.

 

While daddy is working very long hours Oaklee and I find ways to entertain ourselves:

 

 Oaklee has a current love affair with banisters.
They provide hours of entertainment.

Pumpkin carving! I really can't believe it's almost Halloween.

 

This will be our first holiday away from the grandparents's, aunts, and cousins. Hopefully they forgive us for not having Oaklee there to trick or treat. It will certainly be strange for me not to spend it with them. Oaklee is going to be a lady bug! Pictures to come.

Oakleeisms

I saw a pin on pinterest the other day that said,

 

"I'd post photos of other things besides my kid,

  but all I do is hang out with my kid."

 

Some days that feels VERY true. Especially since we got to Canada and I really don't know anyone. Luckily for me, I like my kid a lot so it's okay.

 

The bigger she gets the more personality she gets. I find her to be hilarious most days. Some of the things she does are so random and you can't help but laugh.

 

 

Here are a few of the things she's been doing lately that get me every time:

 

~ She claps all the time. If there's ever any clapping on TV she will

stop whatever she's doing to clap with them. She claps

anytime we finish a task; eating, diaper changing, getting

dressed. It's so hilarious.

 

~ Every morning she wakes up for a bottle about 5:00 (luckily she

goes back to sleep for another two hours after that). When

she wakes up she's crying and really upset. Every morning

without fail she will drink about half the bottle and then stop,

turn to look at me with a huge smile, say 'hi' and then

goes back to drinking.

 

~ She recently started getting scared by the most random noises.

When water comes down the pipes or a door opens or

someone yells on TV she will drop whatever she's doing

and run (crawl really fast) over to cuddle with me.

I'm not saying I want my baby to be scared,

but I really love the cuddles. :)

 

~ She loves to wave goodbye. If she sees me put my shoes on, or

pick up my purse, or hears the word 'go' she will instantly

start waving to the room, even if there is no one for her to

say bye to.

 

Crazy baby of mine. She also loves to laugh. If anyone is laughing around her she will just start to laugh. She's a charmer too. She's charmed the pants off of the couple we are living with and she also had quite a few rows of people behind us laughing at church on Sunday. Are you supposed to take your kid out of sacrament when their laughing is too loud? How's a person supposed to get mad at this face?

 



 

Ryan has gone back to work now so we are alone from 4:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. It can make for some long days but we try to keep ourselves entertained. We have gone to the park near us quite a few times. Oaklee LOVES the swings. It was pretty chilly last week but this week is supposed to be almost warm so hopefully we can have some good outdoor time before Canadian fall and winter descend upon us.

I'm sad to report that I STILL haven't found my vanilla coke here.... Based on a facebook page I saw, I'm started to suspect that there isn't vanilla coke anywhere in Canada. Guess I know what I'll be asking to have sent up by my family. Other than the lack of my preferred drink, I am okay with the move so far. Here is the view from our back yard. There are ducks in the pond which of course Oaklee enjoys. 

Canada

After a VERY long six weeks and two days Oaklee and I are finally with Ryan again. Not that I was counting or anything. We are all three very happy to be together again. Here's a little bit about our journey up here and the days spent here so far.

 

Grande Prairie is about 22 hours north, and a little west, of Salt Lake. So we set out Thursday afternoon with my mother in law for the first leg of our journey. Here's Oaklee all geared up to go in her Canada shirt. Poor girl didn't know what she was getting into.

 

After a stop for dinner and a change to pj's for Oaklee we were back on the road. In all honestly Oaklee was an angel. She couldn't have been any better. 

 

We spent the night in Butte and then Friday morning got up and were in Alberta by early afternoon. We planned to stay a few days in Cardston to see all of Ryan's family.

A lot of whom Oaklee hadn't met.

We stopped in the duty free store and gave Oaklee her first taste of Canada. I hesitate to say, as soon as I took this picture she threw the flag down on the ground. I'm sure it wasn't personal....

This is a bad picture but it's the only one I got of Oaklee meeting her Great Grandma Enola for the first time. We also got to go out and see their farm which was so much fun since I have heard tons of stories about the farm.

 

On Saturday we went to Waterton Park which was SO beautiful. This picture cracks me up. She was so happy to be sitting in the rocks. We got a few sideways glances though because right behind her was a sheer drop to the lake.

 

Us with Nama at Waterton.

 

 

Oaklee loves her swings, even in Canada. And yes, she's swinging with a chip. Like her father, she prefers to keep food near by at all times.

 

 

On Monday we started the last (and very long) leg of our trip, Cardston to Grande Prairie. Oaklee wasn't as good as the first part, but really I can't complain. She did pretty good for what it was. I did have to bribe her with some oreos though, as you can see:

 

And this is what happened when we ran out of oreos. She has hard life.

 



 

Tuesday morning Ryan got off work and we FINALLY got to see him. You can't tell it by this picture but they were both very happy. We had all three had a very long night, Ryan at work, and us driving.

 

Then we headed over to what will be our temporary home here. We are staying in the basement of Tiffany and Kent Manville and really I couldn't ask for a better temporary home. They have a beautiful house and we have tons of space to ourselves. Plus the bed we are on is freakishly comfortable. I'm trying to figure out how to steal it when we go. Here's Oaklee telling you with her face how amazing the bed feels:

 



Ryan is off work until next Wednesday so we decided to take advantage and get as much fun out of our daddy time as possible. Today we hit up the local rec center for some swimming. Oaklee is a water baby so she loved it. 

 

The rec center here is WAY impressive. Here is the big water slide that we didn't get to go on because Oaklee got scared by some waterfalls and we had to leave. Next time...

This picture is too small to get all the details, but the kiddie area is super fun. Oaklee's too small for all of it, plus she didn't like how noisy it was, but still, it was cool.

 



 

Here she is doing some back floating with dad, notice in the big pool away from all the loud noises of the kid area. Silly baby.

 

 

So far my only complaint about Grande Prairie is that I can't find Vanilla Coke! How depressing this town is if they don't have vanilla coke. I'll keep searching. Other then that I am thrilled to be with Ryan, but trying to get used to being away from our family. That part pretty much sucks. But Skype helps! Besides the lack of vanilla coke here are a few of my observations so far:

 

• There are street signs to get to Alaska, WHAT?
• I'm going to say at least 98% of the population here owns a camper. EVERY driveway has one.
• The drink sizes at fast food places are HUGE. Do NOT order a large, you will never finish it.
• You have to pay to get a grocery cart. You get your money back when you return the cart, but still.





Lately...

A lot has happened over the last month in our little world. Since my last post Ryan turned 26, so he's basically an old man now. He was away at work so we didn't get to spend his birthday with him, but Oaklee sent him a special picture, considerate girl that she is:

She has fabulous penmanship, right?

Five days later Oaklee turned ONE! How did this happen, you ask? I can't tell you. I have no idea. I'm certain it can't have a been a year already. Here's what we saw on that very long and traumatizing day last year:

Exactly one year later, here's our little birthday girl.

The week before Oaklee's birthday Ryan found out that the rig he was working on in North Dakota would be shutting down. Not exactly what a person wants to hear. It did mean that he got to be home for Oaklee's birthday, which he wouldn't have been otherwise. So there's your silver lining.

While we debated what move to make next, we got spoiled by my grandparents and taken on a vacation to Sun Valley with my entire family. It was a blast. Here are some of the highlights:

Riding up the lift.

Getting a push from Jayne.

Cuddles with Bapa.



Swimming with Dad.

Hanging with Grandma.

Two of Oaklee's FAVORITE people in the world.

The car ride home. Don't let this photo fool you. She was naughty for 90% of the drive.

After we came back from Sun Valley it was back to the real world. Decisions to be made. I'll spare you all the gory details, but in the end Ryan is in Canada working right now and Oaklee and I are headed up there in a few weeks. It's all been a little overwhelming but Ryan is already loving his job up there and I will love getting to see my husband every day.

If that excitement wasn't enough for one month, we also got a week with Bentley! Ryan had to leave in the middle of it, which was a bummer, but we still had a blast. And to make it even better Kara and Pete were here!

Since Bentley left, Oaklee and I have been missing Ryan a lot. She loves to Skype her daddy and always has big smiles for him. Now that Oaklee is one (well 13 months now since I'm a little slow on my blog update) she has some new tricks. Which of course I find to be adorable. I'm sure the entire world thinks she is as wonderful as I do. :) Her favorite new trick is spitting. She spits all day long now. Good thing her spit face is so cute.

The about sums up our month. Makes me tired thinking about it. I don't think the next one is going to be any more relaxing. Soon I'll be blogging from Canada. Wish us luck!