Little Cousins

Scotty has two new cousins this month.


Brett was born on September 3 in St. George, Utah, to my sister and her husband. They now have 5 kidmos.


The most recent addition is this little red-haired boy named Cannon. He was born last week in Pocatello, Idaho, to my brother and his wife. They now have six kids, bringing our total for neices and nephews to 18 (15 on my side and 3 on R's side).

These latest additions came when I thought my side of the family seemed tapped out for cousins, and now my little brother has announced that he's getting married in November. That's great, because we thought our kids might end up with nobody their age on my side of the family.


On R's side of the family, the most recent addition is Lacey, born to R's brother and his wife back in April. She's got the cutest little head of hair ever.

Ghost Lake - Take 2

These pictures are from the beginning of August, when we had a follow-up, more-successful ski trip to Ghost Lake Reservoir. It wasn't quite hot enough to make R want to jump in the water, but the rest of us took a turn behind the boat.


I tried out the dry-suit, but it hardly seems worth the hassle to peel all that rubber off your wrists and ankles. The water's not so bad, really.


The kids each took a turn in the tube, accompanied by their daddies. Unfortunately, our battery died before we got a picture of Scott and me in the tube. That's probably just fine, since there were quite few tears.


It's pretty scenic on the lake. I don't know if I noticed this kind of thing as much when I would come here as a teenager.


Speaking of scenic, who's that tough guy in the background?

Mini Challenge - Calgary 2008

I was in a marketing class and our professor mentioned the Mini Challenge in his lecture, which reminded me that I have some video from the event back in April here in Calgary.


My brother-in-law L told me about this promotion, run by BMW Canada, where you get to test drive several Mini Cooper and the new Mini Cooper Clubman on a closed track, as well as several competing cars. There were tight turns, wide turns, emergency lane changes, acceleration and hard braking. The best part was that they just let us loose in the cars, sometimes even coming on the radio to tell us to drive faster.

I would do this again in a heartbeat. Here's a clip from us in the Mini Cooper S:

The Bowness Croquet Club

More Backyard Bobsled

Scott (15 months) sets the backyard speed record in his wagon. He follows it up with an impressive descent on the slide.

Stranded On The Icy Shores of Ghost Lake

When I was growing up, I learned to waterski on the weedy shallows of Chestermere Lake, just east of Calgary, pulled behind a boat that we borrowed for a summer or two. When we moved to the NW part of town, we bought a boat of our own and switched to Ghost Dam Reservoir (aka Ghost Lake), which is west of town. It's also dreadfully cold.


My family sold the boat long ago, but R's family still has a boat, which was purchased several decades ago, back when her Grandparents owned a pair of cabins on Invermere Lake. The boat is showing its age a bit, but it's still a lot of fun to take it out to Ghost Lake for skiing. This year, Scott had his first experience with the boat.


Unfortunately, that first experience was somewhat limited by a carburetor issue, and the boat never made it away from the dock. However, Scott still got to play in the frigid waters with his trusty life jacket and sun hat. It was a pretty hot day when they went (I believe I was at work or something).


It's fun to see Scott playing with his cousin H, who is just 6 months older. Although they frequent wrestle each other for desirable toys and shiny objects, they are gradually turning into good buddies -- and the wrestling produces more laughing and less screaming.


It's tons of fun to have cousins and aunts and uncles around to play with -- especially on those days when the boat isn't working.

(Scott's talented uncles managed to get the boat running and properly tuned for subsequent outings.)