Bowling fun and crawling Charlee

My friend Alicia's husband is TDY for 2 weeks so she invited us to go bowling for FHE last Monday.  Jason was busy that night so we went and had a great time.  The on base bowling alley is kid friendly with ramps the kids can launch their balls down and gutter guards and all that.  I managed to break 100 (with the help of the gutter guards!).  

Charlee has been crawling for a while, but I don't think any of the grandparents have seen it.  So, here is a video for your viewing pleasure.  She won't lift her chubby baby belly off the floor, so she has perfected the army crawl.  She does fairly well keeping up with her brothers this way.  I'm in no hurry for her to learn to walk because then she'll be unstoppable!

Banff

BEFORE

AFTER

OK, I finally have time to post about our trip to Canada.  We were gone for 5 days.  The first 3 were fun.  Then Charlee had had enough and it was rough after that.  She doesn't like to sleep anywhere but her own bed, so she was getting pretty sleep deprived.  

We drove to Cardston on Tuesday and did a temple trip.  Cardston is a small town.  The temple is probably the biggest and nicest building there.  We ate at a Chinese restaurant, and honestly, I have never had worse food.  It was awful!  But the temple was awesome.  The next day, we drove to Banff via Calgary and Olive Garden.  Yum!  The Canadian Rockies are beyond description.  I was in awe.  Banff is a really cool touristy town.  It has lots of fun (expensive) shops, good places to eat, and lots to do.  We stayed at Douglas Fir resort after a friend told us about it.  Thanks, Lacie!  We went on the Banff gondola.  This takes you to the top of a mountain where you can see the whole world, it seems.  It was a partially foggy day, so that was a little bit of a bummer, but it was still gorgeous.  Our boys absolutely loved the gondola ride.  Then we went to Upper hot springs.  We couldn't stay for long because it was really hot water and our kids were getting pretty red in the face, but we still had a good time there.  We found some really great places to eat.  The hotel itself was a blast for the kids because it had it's own indoor playground and water park.

We tried to stay another day in Banff because we were having too good a time to go home, but the resort was full, so we decided to take the long way home via Whitefish, MT.  Bad idea.  Charlee screamed the whole way there.  Then, she wouldn't sleep that night, so I drove around town all night so Jason could sleep (and drive home safely the next day while I slept!).  She refused to sleep anymore in anyplace other than her bed, so we didn't do anything in Whitefish.  We just got in the car and started for home.  Charlee SCREAMED the whole way home.  It was a long drive, to say the least.  Anyway, we eventually made it home safely and put Charlee right to bed.

Did I mention I had my stitches in the whole time?  I felt really ugly because my face was all swollen from getting my moles removed and the stitches were getting really irritating.  My good friend Alicia came over that night and took them out for me.  Instant relief!  What a great friend, huh?  So, now my face is mole-less.  When the scars fade, hopefully it will look nice.

I went to an obstetric conference in Helena on Tuesday with Elaine the midwife and Melanie, my fellow student.  It was fun and I was pleased that I actually understood most of what they were talking about.  Me and Melanie were the only non-nurses there.  I really enjoyed it and learned a lot, but I missed my kids terribly all day.

I think that's about it for the last couple of weeks for us.  Maybe (cross my fingers) life will return to some sort of normal now.  

I missed church...again!

OK, so in the last 5 Sundays I have been to church once!  Ahh!  Not only does my heart feel heavy and in need of a spiritual lift, but I miss my ward family that I've come to love very much.  A good friend of mine, Tiffany, had her last Sunday today and I missed it!  I'm so sad about it.  I got a call last night that there was a lady in labor in Helena and so I made arrangements to go.  Luckily, I didn't have to go until this morning, but I was gone all day.  My babysitter, Liz, is heaven sent.  I feel bad making her miss church, too, though.  Last week Jayden was throwing up so we couldn't go to church, but the other weeks it has been births keeping me busy.  If any of you babies up in heaven can hear me, I need to go to church next week.  Please choose another day to come!

In other news, we are headed to Canada this week for family vacation.  We are all very excited. We are going to Cardston the first day and going to the temple.  Then the next day we are headed up to Banff.  It should be fairly awesome.  :)  We are staying there for 2 days, then heading back down.  We may or may not stay a day in Calgary.  It depends on if our excitement and our money hold out or not.  Hooray for leaving your cares behind for a few days and having no obligations except to play with your husband and kids!!  I may have to sneak in a few hours of homework in there, but hey, that's what long car rides are for.  See you all when we get back!