Grama, Grampa, Nana, Opa, Auntie Keltie and Uncle Kyle...so many visits so little time

Hi there. Well it has been a long while for our updates (we apologize) but I'm sure the new pictures are worth the wait. Dinara is growing like a weed and is beginning to talk. She now says hi, bye bye, boo (her dolls name), baby, and eye. She can identify on herself and others where eyes, ears, mouth and nose are. She can identify who Mickey is and bring us her Mickey doll when asked. She is able to tell us when she is hungry, thirsty and tired through sign language (she picked this up from her bff Maza). She is now 23.25 pounds and over 76 cm in height (I know I am mixing the metric and imperial systems but oh well). She had a good long visit with Auntie Keltie and Uncle Kyle, Nana and Opa last week (and part of this one with Nana and Opa). She also visited with Grama and Grampa in Edmonton last weekend. My folks (Grama and Grampa) hosted a welcome to the family bbq for her and some of my relatives joined us. It was awesome. Dinara got to meet many of the Watson clan and get fed a huge amount of junk food (not something we do often but it was nice for her to be spoiled). Grama and Mommy went shopping at the Walmart in Edmonton and bought Dinara a tonne of new clothes. Nana and Opa also bought a huge amount of clothes in Canmore and Ontario for her. She now does not need anymore new clothes (for the time being). At the bbq Dinara met her little cousin baby Laura. She kissed her lots and tried to force feed her Cheetos...no there are no pictures of this (at least with our camera...silly parents forgot to take it out of the car). If any of the people who were at the bbq read this...thank you for your donations to the baby house we will send those along with ours near Christmas and if you have any pics of the bbq could you send them to us?

What else has been happening? Well I love my job. I have learned a lot and I am doing a good job (according to my mentor). I went to an ichnology conference and got to catch up with Gabriela, Luis, Murray, Shah, JP, George, Lynn, Marilynn (spelling?), and met some new ichnologists too. It was lots of fun and I learned so much. I can't wait for the next ichnology conference which is going to be in Poland in August 2008. It will be awesome...field trips to the Holy Cross and Carpathian mountains! Dinara and Andrew will join me after the conference for a little vacation in Dracula's homeland. We might even get to go see his castle! Totally cool for former Goths. Well that's enough for now. Talk soon. Miss you all.

Oh...Congradulations to all the Pearsons who got married this summer (you know who you are) and welcome to the new Pearsons (wives and little ones).

Friends and Family

Hello Folks,
I imagine some of you have been missing seeing new photos. Sorry for the wait, but I kept forgetting to buy new batteries for the camera. Well, as noted in the comments, I did not metion anything about a short family visit. The Oakville Pearsons drove through the mountains on their trip out west. Nadine and I forgot to take any photos of the event so I waited until Uncle Gary and Aunt Karen posted photos.
This is Sara, Eric, Dinara and Audry together in Canmore.

They brought Dinara a new outfit and some sidewalk chalk...we sent them to continue the car trip with bags of candy. Playing with the kids did wear her out so here she is in the new outfit, exhausted.


The Folk Music Festival has come and gone from Canmore. There was a free childrens concert that we went to and we ran into a friend that we knew from our live gaming days in Edmonton. Eric and his kids were in town, visiting family and enjoying the music. The next day, we got to meet up with them on the music festival grounds. Eric and Star have 3 children and the two youngest of them are adopted. We had a great visit with them and Dinara thought the music was okay but the grounds are also the park that we visit so she did not get to run around as much as normal. I know she was not impressed with that. We also forgot the camera so no photos of us at the music fest.

Dinara is also feeding herself now...sometimes. I still cannot let her self feed some stuff because I am paranoid about the mess. This is my parents place so i get worried about that. We did let her eat cut up pizza on her own and this was the result.


So also the super heatwave with the temperature above 30C is now over. This led to a surprise cold morning.



The last bit of news is about Dinara's best freind. For the past several weeks, Dinara has had playdates with her freind Maeza (Mah-zah). She is a little girl of 15 months that was adopted from Ethiopia by a single mom. Her mother, Robyn, used the same agency that we did and they arrive back to Canada about the time that we left. Robyn has request no posting of photos but I will provide a tale or two. One time, while we were visiting them in their new yard, Robyn brought out some snack food for the girls. This led to Maeza feeding Dinara hummus with a spoon. There was hummus everywhere, including in Dinara's hair. Good thing it was bathnight. This is a photo of Dinara while playing in the park with her best freind. I think she looks a bit unhappy" (sarcastic tone)



And now, a special goodbye from Dinara

Grama, Grampa and Hail

Hello everyone,
I, Andrew, will be doing the posts now. Nadine is quite busy at work and is not one to use the computer when at home now.
We realized that our last post was a while ago and so much has happened.
A couple of days after Trevor left, Grandma and Grampa came to town. As they were celebrating their 30th married year, I think the trip in the mountains with thier grandaughter was a great way to celebrate. If only it was not quite so hot. The daytime temp here has been getting to 30C easily making the morning the only time to go do anything.

Here they are with Dinara at Lake Louise. It really is an amazing place.
Daddy also likes to dress Dinara up for outings like that. I think that Pink and Camo go really well together.


After Grandma and Grampa left, Canmore had a massive hail storm, the likes of which has not been seen here in decades (according to the locals and the paper). At about 9:30pm, I watched this red cloud system come over the mountains and there was a noise that sounded like marching. The wind gusted up and the marching got louder. I even began hearing screams of people (poor folks that got caught in it). Then the real noise began. The condo here in Canmore has a metal roof and hail stones were driven into the building, some stones the size of golf balls. The noise woke Nadine but not Dinara who slept through the entire thing. The next morning, there was branches and leaves everywhere, stucco and tile sheared from buildings, a few broken windows and exterior lights and dents in some cars. Dinara and I went out to get photos. The storm was over by 11PM and the photos were taken at 9 to 10 AM the next day.





The white in the photos is NOT snow but rather hail all clumped together. The town of Canmore put out the planters seen above the day before. They WERE full of flowers before the storm.

The last thing to report on this post is a new storage unit. We got a stand for the Xbox and router with the drawers as storage for DVDs.


And becuase it is just too cute, this is Dinara sleeping....

Work, Work, Work and Work Some More

Hi everyone.

Sorry I have been lax in my blogging...work has taken up most of my time. I am not complaining abou this at all though. I love what I am doing and what company I am working for. I was a little worried when they told me I would be doing seismic interpretation (that's normally what a geophysicist would do) but I am loving it. The downside is that I don't have as much free time to do my web logging. I get up at 5:30am, I leave for Calgary by 6am and I am at work between 7:45 and 8am. I then work for 9 hours (lots of breaks and lunch is in there too) and then leave for home around 4:30 to 5pm. I end up getting home around 6:30pm. Long days. Oh well...my family gets to be in Canmore for the term.

Dinara is doing great. She is eating more and more so we think a growth spurt is going to be happening any day now. She still doesn't say too much besides momma and daddy but we think it is going to be any day now. She has taken to singing E-I E-I ooo lately. Very cute. Well that's all for now...I know not as much as many of you would like but I have other things to do right now. Enjoy the pictures.


Our friend Trevor's face...I told you I would post it eventually. This was taken while we were on the Banff Gondola.


Dinara on the Banff Gondola. We didn't really enjoy this too much. It was expensive and not that good. We prefer the one at Kicking Horse Resort in Golden.


The family in the mountains. I love this picture. I wish we were smiling more but we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.


The mountains and the city of Banff.




Dinara playing Peeka Boo with Mommy.


Dinara is already learning how to get money out of Daddy. This is while Daddy is trying to pay for our lunch at the Chateau Lake Louise.


Our friend Trevor at Lake Louise.


Beautiful picture of Lake Louise.

Well that's all for now. Keep the comments coming as we do still read them. Thanks for being understanding about our new time constraints.

Oh and I just want to thank a few people for some adorable gift we have received. Karl and Gisi thank you so much for the very cute and cuddly jacket and amazing card for Dianara (I hope you like the pictures). I didn't know they made congrats on your adoption cards. Also, thanks Kerri for the adorable sweater...I think it is a little too hot right now for it but she will fit it in the following months.



Dinara in her adorable bunny hug...ok it isn't a bunny hug but this fits the definition better.



The beautiful card from Karl and Gisi.

Canmore Here We Come...Here We Are Actually

I know, I know...I'm suppose to be posting more often. Well I am sorry. We have been more then a little busy this week. To make up for it I will post lots of photos (I would've anyway).

Let's see...Monday I drove 9.5 hours from Saskatoon to Canmore. It took much longer as it was raining for all of the trip except the last 2.5 hours. So to say the least it sucked. Dunkelzahn was suppose to be sedated...which I interpreted to mean sleeping...he was only drowsy for the trip. This meant he still meowed but not as loudly. It wasn't too bad. It did smell a little like damp cat but I can deal with that. I arrived late in the evening on Monday and had to get all sorts of things ready quickly. I had to unpack the car, organize the material, grocery shop, and eat. I did all this and ended up going to sleep around 10pm. So I didn't do too bad. The next morning I drove to Calgary and went to the airport to pick up Dinara and Daddy. Dinara looked very surprised when I was waiting for them in arrivals. This is to be expected...Mommy wasn't on the plane what is she doing here now. Very cute.

For the remaining time we have been chilling out. I have driven to Calgary twice and determined how long it will take me to get to work each day. I have to find some people to commute with...it will cost me $30 per day to drive. Just a tad expensive. Oh well...we aren't paying rent so this can be our rent money. Our friend Trevor is visting us right now. He is having a great time just relaxing with us. Uncle Trevor has also been a big hit to Dinara...she just loves his cooking! We do too! Tonight it is a marinated chicken breast with pesto pasta for our main course. Yummy! Well enough chatting here are the photos.


Nana and Opa's Canmore condos with the addition of the new TV. Doesn't it look great!


Same but now you can see the new cat condos too.


Dinara in her Nike pink suit. She looks like a little Anna Kornikovia (spelling?) doesn't she?


Dinara running around on the new floors. Have you noticed her hair yet? Yep she had a hair cut. We just couldn't wait any longer for our friend in Edmonton (translation Mommy couldn't get to Edmonton anytime soon and baby needed a hair cut).


Dinara playing with one of her favorite toys...the blocks Nana and Opa bought her in Saskatoon. She also loves a Grama and Grampa toy...her pot and wooden spoon.


Happy Canada Day! Dinara's first Canada day...I think she shows good Canadian spirit. She is at her first Canada Day parade...well actually her first parade end statement.


Trevor watching the parade. I didn't get one of his face...whoops. I'll try later today to accomplish this.


Clown number one...it said Jerque du Soleil on his back.


Second clown of the parade. This one had a moving pink flamingo puppet. Very cute.


Shriner's new cars. These are much cooler. I think Opa will agree.


Dinara is one cool little girl...thanks to Aunt Heather's and Uncle Kat's gift of the No Zone suit. We love it! Andrew refers to it as her superhero outfit. It worked really well this hot Canada Day. This suit means that we don't have to put sunscreen on her (except her face, hands, and feet). We made the sunglasses fit by putting the strap around the hat as well as her head.


Dinara on the swings. She loves to swing her time away. Daddy and Mommy like pushing her on the swings too.


Dinara still on the swings with her baloon. I just thought she looked cute.


Daddy and Dinara at the park. Cute, cute, cute!

Nana and Opa Visit/The Sparks Meet Dinara

Sorry about the lack of posting...getting ready to move to Calgary has taken up most of our time. I think we are pretty close to done on that front though. Boy do I have a lot of clothing. I decided while I was packing to cull my closet and give some of it to charity. I love to buy clothes (as many of you know and have witnessed first hand) so I decided anything I don't need to keep was going bye bye. I got rid of two green garbage bags. My closet looks quite bare but I am sure by the end of my four months in Calgary I'll have replaced a good deal of it. I also got most of Dinara's stuff packed and boy does she have a lot of clothes too. I need to not buy so much...it is just so hard when all the kids clothes look so cute.

Back to the actual title of this post...Nana and Opa visited Dinara last week. I think they had a great time...well I know they did. We took them to Fudrucker's for breakfast (yes they ate a greasy spoon and I have photographic evidence). Dinara got many new toys and DVDs from them too. They spoil her but oh well...isn't that a grandparents job. Her favorite gift from them is a set of wooden blocks. You all know these blocks they are the old fashioned ones with the alphabet, numbers and pictures on them. I am sure we all had these at one time. Nana only did one really bad thing for the whole trip...she rocked Dinara to sleep and let her sleep on her. This is a BIG no, no as for the next week we had a hard time putting her to sleep in the normal routine. We have stressed to her this faux paux and I think she won't do it again...well I hope she doesn't. We now have her back to her routine and she goes to sleep fine again. Whew!

On Friday Dinara had her booster shots...five of them!!! She had one in each arm, one in one leg and two in another. She now only needs a pneumonia booster in 8 weeks and then she is caught up until she is 4 years old. Good because she really didn't like to have all those shots done. On a good note that day though she got to go over to Grama Gail and Grampa Gord's house and play in the pool and hot tub. She loved this! She barely noticed that she had been given shots at all. The exercise in the pool helped a tonne. While at the Sparks house she also got to meet Aunty Terri, Aunty Jenny and her little cousins Kiki, Alex, Jack and Thomas. They all fell in love with her. In fact the two Aunts got teary eyed when they met her. I can understand that. So we all had a good time in the pool and Terri's two boys kept wanting to hold Dinara. I have pictures that I will post of all of this.

Well that's really all that has been going on these last few days. I leave tomorrow with a SUV full of stuff and Andrew and Dinara follow on Tuesday. Imperial paid for both of them to have seats on a Westjet flight to Calgary. Very nice! Now Dinara will only have to travel for two hours to Canmore instead of eight. Mommy likes this too! I get to set up the Condos and get groceries and stuff for the place. Well that's all for now. I'll try and post later this week from Canmore. We don't know what our connection is going to be like initially so be patient with us. Lots of love from us in Saskatchewan...soon to be Alberta.


Nana and Opa in the Fudruckers. Nana is feeding Dinara her pancakes.


Dinara sitting all cute in her highchair at Fudruckers. This is her favorite restaurant so far.


Dinara in her highchair at home eating her cookie. I just thought it was a cute picture so I added it to the blog.


Ok this is the one and only time you all will see me in a bathing suit. Mommy and Dinara enjoying the pool.


Dinara on Daddy's lap. She is just so cute in her little Winnie the Pooh bathing suit.


Dinara playing peeka-boo with Mommy.


Thomas holding Dinara in the warm tub.


Jack holding Dinara in the warm tub.


Dinara playing with the boys in the warm tub.


AquaDinara. Diver extrodinaire!

Hope you all like the photos. More to come. TTFN.