July is a big month. Not only for Canadians (our national celebration day is July 1) but also for us "Calgarians". The above pic is from miss M's first Canada Day celebration at Prince's Island Park. In terms of more local celebrations, the Calgary Stampede (the greatest outdoor show on earth) runs for ten days in July and turns this Western Canadian city into a veritable cowboy heaven. You should see all those tight jeans on businessmen downtown! Eep!
Amid lovely visits, weather and getting our groove back in Calgary we encountered some serious reminders of the importance of family and friends. A dear and special family friend, one of the "saskatchewan mafia" was lost to her battle with breast cancer. This was a woman who helped shape who I am today including introducing me to some of my most beloved books. One of the things I was most looking forward to in moving back was to get the chance to see her more often (and the rest of the mafia). I'd also wanted to give two very special ladies in my life a chance to get acquainted. I think of her and miss her often. I was glad that I got to be here though for the coming together of loved ones, and to give what support I could to her family. I'm going to read M those books and tell her of her "great aunt" who shared the secret of "Bridge to Teribithia" and "Beat the Turtle Drum" and read a mean version of Roald Dahl's "The Twits".
In July Dad also suffered his second stroke. His recovery essentially occurred on Mom's birthday - which is most possibly the best birthday present anyone could get. He is really, really, lucky to be doing so well. The radiologist who did his angioplasty said that Dad was a) the poster child for early intervention and b) one of his best success stories. Especially in light of losing our mafia member Dad's continued health (in spite of having his third stroke in October) is something I try to be thankful for every day. I've told him though that he's blown his luck for the lottery!
This pic is of M and her "brother cousin" playing hide and seek at Amma and Afi's. They spent MANY hours playing together over the summer. They are BIG pals.
Here is miss M at the park sportin' her cowboy hat -- she hardly took it off all summer!
Miss M saw her aunt toting around the newest member of the growing clan and thought she'd do the same! I need to get my creative juices flowing and make her one that is more her size though, yards of fabric wrapped around little toddler legs make for treacherous toddling!
This pic is of the bath that we practically had to force her to take to wash of the face painting that she got at one of Calgary's farmers markets. The one that we frequent most er.. frequently is close to Amma and Afi's. Her Amma took her there many times over the summer, and treated her both to chocolate milk AND the bouncy castle -- to the point where M now assumes she gets chocolate milk anytime that her and Amma are at the market. Did I mention the chocolate milk is organic, and amazingly delicious? I'd like some too!
These two pics are of one of miss M's favourite (all you yanks check out the CORRECT spelling) games -- what we call "cheee-eee-eeese!". The one she's holding is an old film (yes they still exist) camera that we found when we were packing to leave Boston. She also loves it when we take her picture (so stay tuned) and then immediately asks to see the picture. I'm glad I don't have to tell her that she was to wait for 2 weeks for the film to come back.
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