Eggs, Eating, & The Culinary Arts

Currently Maïshaah has a fascination with eggs. Most kids will cry out for candy when they go to the grocery store. Our daughter firmly requests eggs. The other day I was at Walmart with her and without realizing it I meandered into the egg section. Suddenly Maimai screams out at the top of her lungs in excitement "EGGS! Eggs Eggs Eggs!" She wouldn't let me leave until she had a box of eggs in her lap.

 On more than a few occasions the first word she utters when I go to get her out of bed in the morning is an inquisitive "Eggs?" with a sideways look. "Good morning sweetheart, let me guess what you want for breakfast," I respond with a laugh. As I carry her down the stairs to the kitchen she bounces with excitement saying eggs the whole way there. Before I can even get the frying pan, she's got the eggs out of the fridge and her chair pulled up to the counter beside the stove. It doesn't surprise me to find a splattered egg already on the chair from time to time as she gets a little over exciting and starts eagerly pulling eggs out of the container. We have a lot fun together doing this. It's one of those special daddy daughter things :)

The egg so carefully cradled in those hands met its demise on the floor that morning

She really enjoys cooking along side of us - pancakes are her next favourite food to cook up. Not so much for the pancakes themselves as for the mess and fun of the batter as you can see.

She is a quick learner this girl and is eager to try things out. She loves to pull out the spice jars and add all kinds of things to whatever it is we are cooking.

She's got the egg and pancake routine down perfectly now. Pipins is what she first called pancakes. It was so cute when she began to talk last year and would say "pipins" in the morning when I would ask what she wanted to eat. This year it has been all eggs for actual eating, but she definitely has fun with the pancake batter. One evening she opened up the cupboard and got all excited when she saw the brownie box so we made brownies together for a family home evening treat.

One of Maimai's favourite foods of the summer is corn on the cob. She can really go at it with the corn and is not shy to make a total mess while enjoying it! She loves the annual fall corn busts that we have through church. This year she went with Grandma and grandpa to their ward corn bust on an acreage out west of Stony Plain. She got all of her favourite things in one afternoon! A playground, a trampoline, horses and lots of corn :)

Well we don't want to forgot little Jovyn now. He is a little monster! He has been eyeballing our food for quite a while now and began attempting to grab our plates into his lap. It was evident he was itching to try our food. We asked his paediatrician if its ok to give him the babt food at the young age of four months and he said if the poor guy is hungry let him eat! He loves to suck on watermelon, Maimai was the same when she was a baby too. Here is trying out his first baby food from the spoon. He caught on right away and even tried to wrestle the spoon from my hand and do it faster himself he loved it so much! Peaches was his first. It is funny to see the faces he makes as he tries out different flavours for the first time. Sweet potatoes are his favourite so far but one thing we know for sure is that peas are the trash. Thats my boy!

Feeding my boy for the first time

Happy 4 months Jovyn!

Jovyn turned 4 months today. A friend of mine who has no children of his own yet recently asked me the age of my kids. I responded with the appropriate specific number of months for each. He remarked that parents always say the age in months - why is that? He was certainly right. Nearly every time I ask parents the age of their little children they respond in months - ourselves included. After pondering that question for a moment I responded that the reason for this is that in the life of a small child every week and month marks significant milestones and discoveries and exciting developments. Amongst parents, the moment you say the age in weeks for a baby, or in months for a small child - we get a pretty clear picture of what that means right away. Therefore, happy 4 months birthday to our son! Lets take a moment a celebrate some of the milestones in this little guys' life thus far.

As the above picture depicts, Jovyn is becoming quite proficient at dealing with his tummy time. For a while there he would fuss and squirm until someone rescued him. Then he got real good at rolling over the moment you put him down on his tummy. Now he seems mildly content to spend some time staring at objects and attempting to reach them  For those who don't know, most babies don't enjoy tummy time all that much in the beginning.
He has started to get the positioning for crawling down pat so it is only a matter of time before he will be mobile. Maimai began crawling at 5 months old, so the challenge is on! This morning when he woke up and I held him I could tell he had gotten much stronger what seemed like overnight. Sometimes that happens with babies - you look at them one day and it is as if they grew right in front your eyes the difference is so stark. I enjoy those moments. We can tell he is stronger also because just yesterday Vanessa put Jovyn in his baby chair while she bathed Maïshaah. When she turned around half his body was hanging off the bottom of the chair. Thinking to herself that she must have put him in the chair improperly she picked him up and adjusted him back to the correct position and went back to dealing with Maimai. Again when she turned around he was nearly off the chair! So this time she put him back and kept an eye on him - sure enough he had figured out the butt launch - where they throw their behind in the air with a forward motion while arching their back. No more unattended, unstrapped couch or chair time for him!
In the past few weeks he has become fascinated with his hands and feet. This is always a special time because they begin to touch and grab and grasp and feel all kinds of things for the first time ever in their lives. These moments are precious and so fleeting, so we try to catch and celebrate every one with him.
Food is becoming increasingly attractive to him. It won't be long before we start the baby food. Already he enjoys sucking on watermelon and just the other day literally grabbed a popsicle out of vanessa's hand! Here he is enjoying his conquest.

Jovyn enjoys listening when I sing and play the guitar. He will sit in his baby swing next to my jam space staring intently at me as I sing him songs. It is adorable when he breaks out in a smile and beings to blab along to the songs. He is such a happy baby, it amazes me every time I see his smile. Even when he is fussing, he will still interrupt his frustration to crack you a smile when you come talk to him.

His big sister is very kind to him - so much so that he constantly finds himself the recipient of hugs and kisses from her. Maimai loves to dance, and if baby is around she grabs his hands and tries to stand him up to dance with her. We can tell already she will be very happy when he is old enough to play with her. We hope they will be great friends over the years. Its fun to see Jovyn give her a wack in the face with his hand or foot when she tries to invade his feeding time.

Diaper buddies watching the Olympics

His favourite thing above all however is spending snuggle time with his mama. No doubt about it - this boy loves his mama. Mama's boy for life. Happy 4 months son.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

I have fond memories of the summer vacations of my childhood. My parents were great at organizing fun, adventurous, challenging and creative family trips all on a modest budget. They raised five kids, and for any of you that have children you know that planning even a trip to the store can be a challenge at the best of times! We are quickly discovering that for ourselves. I was blessed with truly magnificent parents who sacrificed entirely for the well being of their children. Dad would come home after a hard days work and would spend the remainder of the evening with us - teaching us to throw a baseball, skate, play football or just hang out. Sit in front of the TV? Not my dad. This devoted characteristic of my father carried over to our vacations. He wanted us to have real experiences with the beauty of our planet and to connect and appreciate nature in all its beauty. Especially everything we have in our own backyard. So many people fantasize about travelling at great expense across the world while at times forgetting what we have right where we are. Growing up we camped and hiked and climbed all over alberta and british columbia - from the dinosaur badlands, to the majestic rocky mountains, to the fertile okanagan valley to the pristine coast of vancouver island. The island was a family favourite. Dad would read extensively about all the great hikes and places to see along our route, and took us to many of them.

Naturally, as a family man myself now, I hope to carry on this tradition instilled in me by my parents. Family vacation represents so much more than just the travel and seeing pretty places. It's about bonding and connection. It's about growth and personal discovery. It's about relationships - both amongst ourselves as human beings in a family, and amongst us and nature. It's about learning to be grateful for our surroundings. After all, just like a muscle, we only grow when we are strained. Put 7 people in a tent together for two weeks on an island in the wilderness and some strain is bound to result! I grew pretty big :) Wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Vanessa on the other hand does not share the camping loving David Suzuki nature bug that I have. She loves to experience the wonders of the world, but at the end of the day go home to a warm bed within solid walls far from anything that may be associated in any way with the word "wild." Fair enough, caribbean island girl that she is. Although I must interject. I have been to Haiti, and let me tell you, some of the creepy crawly "wild" things that I witnessed meandering about my path like they pay taxes is enough to make me run for the tent in "cold" alberta with a bear in my campsite any day. Not to mention the stories she tells me from her childhood of possessed chickens, talking dogs and herds of half human man goats.We won't go there.

Speaking of bears, for some reason Vanessa has harboured major issues with these generally harmless and peaceful creatures whom she had never met nor been the brunt of any harm or unpleasant encounter at any point in her life. Anytime the idea of camping was brought up she would go off on this bear beef of hers. The concerned and consoling husband that I am, "Babe," I would say "stop worrying about bears, you will never meet one, they should be the least of your concerns." In the end I managed to persuade her to indulge in a family camping trip to Banff national park for summer vacation this year. I even generated excitement from her when I told her there was a nice eight man tent by Roots for sale at canadian tire. Along with nice comfy sleeping bags! So we bought our first family tent, along with brand new sleeping bags. On sale! Maybe that is why she was excited. Maimai got her own sleeping bag too. I even bought Vanessa a nice queen size electric pump inflated air mattress! Nothing like the tree roots and rocks we had to sleep on growing up. I do recall at some point being excited when we got to have an air mattress as a child. Slightly misleading because they were the type that weighed a ton, you foot pumped up for an hour and then woke in the morning with a kink in your back on a completely flattened mattress - on top of the same roots and rocks I had known before! You all know what I am talking about. 

Our first family vacation was in the summer of 2010. It was a busy summer with Vanessa's brother getting married and many other activities so we did mainly weekend trips to lakes nearby.  Maimai was 3 months old and one weekend we spent at wizard lake Maimai took her first speedboat ride while Dad wake boarded behind. Vanessa's cousin Ewinka was visiting from Philadelphia, it was her first time in Alberta. Wanting to have her experience some of Alberta's best we planned a weekend outing beginning with a trip down south to Drumheller to find dinosaurs - visiting the impressive Royal Tyrell Museum. 

We then drove out to Canmore (one of my favourite towns) where we "camped" for a night. We were joined by our friends the Boehmes whom I discuss further below. (consisting of Tate, his wife Felisha and their son Khyrum.) Ewinka had never camped in her life before, and vanessa and Felisha were both rookies as well. It was a campsite located right on the edge of town so I wouldn't really classify it as camping by my definition. That night us men thought we would impress the women by giving these new campers a real camping meal - wieners and beans cooked over the fire. Needless to say they were not impressed. 

First thing the next morning we found ourselves at McDonalds...they wouldn't trust what we might contrive for breakfast. Didn't help that the McDonalds was literally right next door to the campground. See what I mean about not classifying this as camping? Blasphemy! Although, giving them the comfort of being near town was an alright way to ease them into I suppose. No bears here I could easily assure Vanessa. 

We had fun hiking up the beautiful grassy lakes hike in the nordic centre provincial park and swimming in the picture perfect quarry lake - one of our favourite places to spend time. Up in the grassy lakes at the top of the hike Tate and I decided to impress the ladies once again by attempting to swim in the small crystal clear pristine body of water. It was hot after all so it couldn't hurt to get cooled off. In we go! Lots of people were watching us as though we were crazy - I couldn't understand why. We didn't get ten feet out before the obnoxiously cold water caused us to completely seize up - we barely made it out alive! 

From this trip I learned Maimai would become a true camper. You could tell she enjoyed being outside in the fresh mountain air even at three months old. Totally content strapped to daddy's chest while hiking and the way she slept so deeply that night in the tent made me happy to see! We all had fun, but by all accounts we didn't succeed in leaving the greatest impression upon our camping doubtful women - from the dinner, to forgetting most of our camping essentials such as flashlights and axes for cutting wood. I ended up heisting the neighbouring campers hatchet while he slept to cut our firewood, and we just went to the  convenience store next door to buy flashlights. I guess camping in town has its benefits after all. 

Last year in 2011 we stepped up our plans and took a big trip out east. Since I served my mission in Ontario I am always excited at any chance I get to return and visit so many beloved people I know out there. Maimai was excellent on her first flight. It helped that the canada junior hockey team was on the same flight so we were surrounded by a bunch of young hockey players who were more that ok with having their hair pulled and being poked by a cute little one year old. We spent a few days in the toronto area visiting brampton, brantford and barrie. I spent time in all those cities as a missionary, and it was amazing to catch up with old friends. We didn't have nearly enough to see everyone we wanted. I love introducing vanessa and Maïshaah to everyone I can. Our friends the Boehmes were out in toronto as well since Felisha grew up there so we hung out and took the kids to the toronto zoo one day. Beautiful place! Best zoo I have seen to so far, the kids absolutely loved it.

Next we headed down to Niagara Falls to stay a couple days with our dear friend Elda Louis - whom we all know as Big Mama because she has the biggest heart of anyone I know and treats you as if you were her own. We took a day and travelled into New York state with her to go visit all the church history sites of our church in the area of Palmyra, NY. What an amazing day! From the location where the Book Of Mormon was originally printed, to the sacred grove where God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph smith, to the Smith family farm, to the Hill Cumorah where the gold plates containing the book of mormon where buried anciently and in modern times revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith. It was the first time anyone in my family or Vanessa's have visited the sites of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. It was a very spiritually uplifting experience for us all. There is a hilarious story about us running out of money to pay the highway tolls we didn't know existed EVERYWHERE in the eastern states. Ask us about it sometime :) From then on we set the GPS to avoid tolls...resulting in an even more unbelievable and funny story on our journey home from Philly. I am sure you can imagine.

Elda "Big Mama" Louis

Palmyra, NY 

Hill Cumorah

Smith Family Farm

Palmyra Temple

Palmyra LDS Visitors Center

Niagara Escarpment

Niagara Falls

After leaving Niagara Falls we drove through the breathtaking countryside of Pennsylvania to get to Philadelphia where Vanessa has an Aunt and cousins. We stayed with them for a week and had a really great time visiting and touring around the area. Maimai was an excellent traveller. She never complained but to get out and run around once in a while. We spent time touring historic Philly, drove out to Washington DC to hang around the National Mall, drove up to New York City to explore and payed in the ocean in Atlantic City. It was Maïshaah's first time in the ocean!

Liberty Bell

Capitol Hill

New York City

Atlantic City

We had so many great experiences all along the way and really enjoyed being with Vanessa's cousins Ewinka and Phillip. It was an exhausting trip by the end because of all the activity we packed into the two weeks. It was nice to visit the east - as western canadians we don't often travel out east. Probably just because there is so much in the west to experience many people just never get around to it. We got to see first hand all the rich history that resulted in the nations and freedoms we enjoy today in north america. Let me me recommend however that if you ever want to visit DC and really take it all in - give yourself a month and don't bring little kids. Although, it amused me to no end when Maimai found the sound of her voice echoing off the chambers and dome ceilings of the National Archives so amusing that she refused to stop yelling and giggling while very serious and stern security guards stared us down and intent and equally serious people crowded for a peek at the declaration of independence. LOL! Americans...

On our journey back to Niagara Falls we took a detour and went to visit the site of the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood and where Joseph Smith was baptized in Harmony Pennsylvania. The utter peace and serenity we felt in that place along the banks of the susquehanna river was overwhelming. Go there someday if you can, you will see what I mean.

Susquehanna River

It was a magnificent vacation. The long and lovely drives were pleasant and filled with long conversations. Yes we tried to bite each others heads off at times, but maimai is always quick to interrupt any of that. It is quite amusing actually, the way she cuts us off. Have to grow those muscles right? Good times!

Back to the main story of this post - summer vacation 2012. In addition to all of what I was doing to get vanessa excited about the trip, my good friend Tate and I decided to collude on this camping trip and so we began our work trying to convince his equally caribbean comfort loving wife to come along also. After all this was going to be a REAL camping trip. No more in town next to McDonalds nonsense. Tate Boehme and I have been great friends for years. I introduced him to his wife Felisha whom I met while living out in the toronto area. She hails from Jamaica. So we both married caribbean honeys, a week apart. The craziest part of all this is that our first babies were born on the same day! Common, you couldn't plan that if you tried! Felisha was a week early and Vanessa a day late - their son Khyrum and our daughter Maïshaah were both born on April 17, 2010. Together they have been trouble ever since.  Maimai made him cry a lot when they were babies, but on this trip the tides turned and like clockwork after they had been playing for a while you could count on Maimai breaking out in heartbroken, mortified tears as Khyrum whacked her, pinched her cheeks or threw something at her. Little lovers those two. They always have a lot of fun together. This trip they had a blast exploring in the forests, bug hunting, playing with shovels in the dirt, kicking balls around, riding their bikes, throwing rocks into the creek behind our site, trying to swim in every body of water they spotted, poking the fire and running wild where they could. One reason we planned the trip together was to give the kids a chance to play together since our families don't see each other to often because they live 5 hours south of us. Their newest son Keiston and our son Jovyn are only a couple months apart. While on the subject here are some photos of Maïshaah and Khyrum playing together during this recent camping trip. Details of the vacation will follow in part two. 

Johnston Canyon Creek

Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

Lake Minnewanka