A trip to Moraine Lake

The day before Neil's mum left to travel back to the UK, we took her up to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake for the day. It was the first time she's seen the lakes in the summertime (ie. not frozen over!) and I think she was blown away by the beauty of the place. We were hoping for some bear sightings, but sadly we were out of luck. We did however see an elk by the side of the road on the journey back!

June news

June has been a great month here, after a really chilly and miserable May. Although we've had more rain than I can remember since we got here 19 months ago, the sun is now making up for it. Neil's mum arrived on the 12th, just in time for the annual Okotoks parade, and also her birthday! Jaz was very excited to be taking part in the parade this year as part of the Guides Canada float, and we all soaked up the sun sitting at the side of the road. Jake had his baseball fun day in the afternoon with a 'tailgate' barbeque and 2 back to back games. We enjoyed more sun until the last game had to be called off due to a massive thunderstorm!

Jake visits his new school

Jake is coming to the end of his elementary education, and come September, will be moving on to junior high school. This week, Okotoks Junior High (known locally as O.J.) had an open evening for grade 6 students, where they could visit the school, take a guided tour from the current year 7 students (who were great ambassadors for the school) and speak to staff about next year. In addition to the usual subjects - English, Math, Sciences and Social Studies - the students have to choose courses that they would like to study next year. These can be year long courses, or courses for just one semester. Jake was really impressed with the music department, as they have amazing facilities, so he has chosen to study in the concert band. This is great news as it means that he can finally start learning trombone again after what will have been a 2 year break. He's also chosen Science and Technology, and Woodworking for one semester. His choices aren't guaranteed so fingers crossed he gets what he wants.

We were certainly very impressed with the school and staff on our walk round. Everyone seemed very welcoming and the building was bright and attractive, with bright, colourful homerooms and a wonderful gym and library. I think he's pretty excited about next year.

Basement reno

Lots of you back in Blighty have been saying you'll come and visit us, so we thought we ought to get our bums in gear and sort out some accommodation for you!

When we first started looking at Canadian properties way back on our first visit here, we were amazed at how every house had a basement. It seems to be a North American thing, but virtually every house here, new or old, is built with a basement. While many people use it as a space for storage (here in Canada, people don't really use their loft/attic space in the same way we do in the UK, so the basement is the place to store stuff. Our attic is full of serious amounts of insulation!) there are also many who convert the basement to extra living space, be it a large 'recreation' room or man cave, to a self contained rental suite. Our basement is a fantastic big space, and perfect for conversion to extra living space/bedroom space for guests to use when they come to stay. We also wanted to convert it before it filled up with 'stuff' (like our loft did in the UK....man, that was a pain in the rear end to clear!....it took us weeks!).

Neil was anxious to learn how to do a lot of the building work himself, but lacks a lot of know how. Luckily, he shares an office with a good friend, and fellow realtor, Paul, who also happens to have a background in the building trade - so he knows his stuff. This is perfect as it means that Paul and Neil can work together to convert our basement.

We will be posting regular updates on their progress on here. So far, we are at the stud wall stage, and the boys are busy wiring it all at the moment. We are putting 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a small kitchenette (also known as a wet bar) down there. There were already 2 windows, but we've added a third.

Here are a few before and after pics of our progress so far. More to come....

Short break to Banff

We've all been exhausted recently from working so hard (especially Neil who's been working extremely long hours in the last few weeks, so much so that Jaz said that she was fed up going to bed without bedtime cuddles from her Daddy - oh dear!)

We therefore decided to treat ourselves to a short break in Banff. We stayed at the Hidden Ridge Resort located on Tunnel Mountain just above the town. The views were stunning, although for much of the trip the valley was shrouded in snow clouds. We were happy just to chill out, spend time together as a family and take advantage of the 2 outdoor hot pools! It was a wonderful break - over much too soon for my liking!

Jake's 12th birthday

Jake celebrated his birthday at the rink today with his 3 friends Damon, Connor and Mwambi, followed by pizza with all our friends. His main present, a huge basketball hoop is being constructed as we speak, and he also got lots of baseball gear with his birthday money. We finished off the celebrations back at home with an Oreo Cookies and cream birthday cake.

Long time no see!

Hmmm, I think I've been neglecting the old blog recently. I do have good reasons though - Neil and I have been mega busy recently with work stuff and are continuing forward on our journey towards establishing our lives here. So a quick update on what's been going on....

JOB NEWS - for those of you who may not have heard, I've managed to secure a teaching job for this coming September in Calgary. My current employers - I'm for Kids - have decided to expand their operations from early years intervention for children with special needs, and have decided to open a preschool and private kindergarten in McKenzie Towne in SE Calgary. I applied for the kindergarten teachers job and got it! It's all really exciting and for more info, go to www.tinytowne.ca - our new school website.

Spring is most definitely in the air. We've had lovely warm sunny days, and with the thoughts of summer fresh in our minds, Jake has just signed up for a summer season of peewee baseball. Training starts shortly and we'll keep you posted with photos of games etc in the coming months.This will be his first taste of baseball, as last summer he chose soccer club instead. We now need to go and buy a glove, helmet etc in prep for the summer season. He's very excited about it, bless him.

Jaz is doing rookie lifeguard training every week at the moment. She completed all the swimming levels before Christmas, so this is to tide her over until she can join the local swim club - the Okotoks Stingrays - for their summer competitive program. It will also help her get her swimmer badge for guides, as she already has all the distance achievements, but needed water safety training to complete her badge.

Neil is still working hard too. He has two listings at the moment, one here in Okotoks and one in High River (about 10 mins south). We're hoping for a couple of days away at some point over Easter for some R&R and family time, so watch this space.

We are also beginning our basement conversion. We have the plans drawn up, and the next month should see the beginnings of the building work. We are in the process of getting an extra window put in for the second bedroom and a fireplace for the den. Piccies of the reno to follow!