The Beck's know why the dinosaurs are really extinct

It's because they were eaten alive by swarms of freaking mosquitoes!!!!
Last night Aaron and I decided that the Beck Family needed to do some hiking today. So, we googled some ideal family hike locations semi-close to the city, checked the weather, ran to Safeway to buy all of our picnic supplies and woke up to some inclement weather for Plan A. Plan A was Grotto Canyon - it promised to have hoodoos, ancient rock paintings and a stream where rids can throw rocks into for the entire trail. Sounded fantastic! Then we seen the forecast of thunder showers so went with Plan B. Plan B was Dinosaur Provincial Park which for those who don't know it (we found out while driving there) it's not actually by the Royal Tyrell Museum which is "the dinosaur museum". It's actually down past Brooks. In any case, we went there. And were swarmed by mosquitoes about 90 seconds after exiting the vehicle. Luckily they had a concession stand which sells bug repellant for $12.45/can. A small can at that. BUT, we were now 'protected'. Ha ha. Not really. The bugs may not have 'bitten' us but they did land on our clothes, hats, shoes and constantly brush by our skin so we still felt like we were being attacked. Not fun. We made it through the smallest trail and then just as we were getting used to the mosquitoes we had a crisis. Thing Two landed on a FREAKING CACTUS!!!!! Game over. We ate in the Tahoe on our way home, and Alex made us promise to never take him there again.

The End.

How was your weekend?

What were we thinking?

Now I can finally understand why my mom didn't like bunkbeds - the top bunk is almost impossible to make without sprawling all over it like a fish out of water!!!

But Thing One and Thing Two are mucho happy!

And after a mediocre summer so far we've finally had a heat wave! Bring on the waterslide - I even went down it a couple times - cold but refreshing :o)

Another successful trip to Calaway

Yesterday was another super-busy-let's-not-waste-a-minute-of-the-sunshine kind of day. We headed to Calaway Park with the boys' cousins and spent the day on rides, walking around, and standing in line. It's inevitable. Everyone had fun but why oh why do I have to look so goofy in the pics of us coming down the Log Ride? We have yet to get a pic good enough (which means you can see everyone) to purchase. Maybe by the end of the summer...

We have yet to go on this summer's houseboat adventure and we're already planning our holiday for next year. It looks like instead of the staycation we were thinking of we'll be headed to Ontario to take in all it has to offer. After going to Calaway Park last weekend we realized that the boys have the height, stamina and interest to take in an entire day of rides so we'll be heading to Wonderland next year. Then we'll do Niagara Falls and Marineland. It's going to be fantastic!

Dad's girls

Last night we went out with a group of girls (14 of us went - it was a large group) to see Sexy Gals in the City at Jubilations. I highly recommend it!

The music was good, the dancing was pretty good - a lot of ballet by Charlotte - and a lot of us had the pleasure of appearing on stage. Yes, I was one of them.

The occasion? A birthday, then another birthday, and then an impromptu stagette. That will teach Looloo for not answering when asked "Are you single?"

More pics to come from my drunken bimbo actress-girlfriend...

What's with all this rain?

As long as it's sunny skies on our houseboating trip I can live with the rain right now. Makes for long days of fort-building, playdoughing sculpting and musical chairs but we're surviving just fine. Maybe tomorrow I'll bring the bouncer inside to shake things up a bit. Ooohhhhh...

This past week was Calgary Stampede- yippeekiyay Cowgirls and Cowboys! We were party-poopers and did not go to the grounds this year but it's been crazy busy around here! We did take the dayhome kids to the Bobcat Stampede Breakfast - it was fantastic!

We also celebrated Alex's 6th birthday this past weekend. Why I thought he should make the guest list I have no idea BUT we hosted a movie party to see Ice Age 3 with Alex and 14 of his closest friends. That's right - there were 15 kids ages 4 to 7. And 3 adults. We took up 1.5 rows of seats. All things considered it was a very smooth party - no tears, no 'accidents', and there were only 3 bathroom breaks during the movie. Not too bad at all.

And just for a laugh - here's a preview of my fascinator I'll be wearing to our Ladies Night this Thursday. If you can't laugh at yourself....

First golf game of the year

We had our first golf game this weekend and it was a success. We actually did all 18 and without complaints or whining (well besides when Alex clubbed himself in the ankle, ouch)

We also went as a family of 6 to see Transformers 2. I was a bit skeptical and wasn't sure it was kid friendly but it was good. Longggggg but good!

And we FINALLY went to visit the Bass Pro Shop yesterday. I'm surprised Aaron could hold out this long!