LouiseandSean.com

Andrew and his Bike

Sean — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:00:43 +0000

Andrew was outside playing while Melanie was selling cookies in the neighborhood. It was a little bit snowy and icy, but Andrew didn’t care and he wanted to ride his bike while the rest of us walked. He’s getting very good at riding, which probably means that he can finally reach the peddles! He’s really grown lately and those of you that haven’t seen him lately might be surprised by how much bigger he is and how much more he’s talking. I can even understand him most of the time and Melanie doesn’t have to translate nearly as often as she used to!

©2009, Sean Phillips
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Tricks and Treats on Halloween Night

Sean — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:00:39 +0000

Melanie and Andrew were both very excited to get the show on the road on Halloween night. Andrew very happily wore his cozy elephant costume and Melanie bundled up in layers under her Fairy Princess outfit. She even got to wear several layers of her mothers makeup to make her look beautiful! She was very proud of herself! They both went out Trick or Treating with the neighborhood kids and brought home huge hauls of candy and treats.

Andrew came home a little earlier than Melanie, but he still managed to bring home far more candy than he will ever eat in a year. We were still trying to finish up the bowl of candy left over from last year!

When Melanie got home she immediately went to work sorting and organizing her loot. She had to divvy it all up by type of treat, size of package, color, and all the other important criteria. Then when she went to bed we scooped it all up into the bowl and put it away for another day…

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Andrew at the Agrium Halloween Party

Sean — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:00:57 +0000

Andrew got to go to the Agrium Social Club Halloween Party this year all by himself! OK, Louise and I were there, but Melanie had a birthday party to go to instead. Andrew had lots of fun in his elephant costume and hardly stopped running and playing with the other kids the whole time we were there. He was one wild elephant!!

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Movember – Join the Fight Against Prostate Cancer

Sean — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:30:06 +0000

I have decided to join a global movement that is bringing much needed attention to prostate cancer. I’m doing this by growing a Moustache this Movember, the month formerly known as November. My commitment is to grow a moustache all November and I am hoping that you will support my efforts by making a donation. The funds raised go directly to Prostate Cancer Canada.

What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men with 25,500 diagnosed and 4,400 dying from the disease each year.

Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved.

To make a donation, you can either:

• Click this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/378916/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or
• Write a cheque payable to ‘Prostate Cancer Canada’, referencing my Registration Number 378916 and mailing it to: Prostate Cancer Canada, 145 Front Street East, Ste. 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3, Canada.

All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law (in Canada).

Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please go to http://ca.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/.

Thank you

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The Chocolate Fairy

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:40 +0000

I know I keep saying that I’m going to finish up with the vacation pictures soon (and I will) but I’ve got some kind of a mental block about it and I can’t seem to get myself to do it. I want to get it over with as much as you want it behind us, so I promise, I’ll get it done soon.

In the meantime here’s another gallery of the crazy kids. There are a few photos of Fairy Melanie going to a Halloween Party, and a video of Andrew enjoying a Brownie. I mean Really enjoying it. He smeared the chocolate icing all over his face, and then used his amazingly expressive eyes to tell the rest of the story.

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Fun at the Calgary Zoo

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:00:22 +0000

I’m almost finished with the posts about our vacation (only 2 more to go), but life continues to roll on… Here are a few shots from our trip to the zoo on Sunday. It was a high overcast day which makes for beautiful light for photography. So for the first time in a long time on a trip to the zoo I left my biggest lens at home and installed my favorite portrait lens on my camera. I took a few other things in the bag as well, but I never changed lenses. I mainly focused on trying to get some nice pictures of the kids. It’s easy for me to shoot lots of other things and forget about the family pictures, so I really try to take advantage of good light when I know that the kids will be having a great time!

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Rural Montana – Big Sky Country

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:19 +0000

The return trip from Yellowstone National Park to Alberta crosses through some really flat land. This is a little taste of the sights and sounds from Big Sky Country.

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Yellowstone Vacation — In the Woods

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:36 +0000

On our last morning in Yellowstone I finally got around to making some images in the woods near our campsite. There was a fallen tree right beside our campsite and the kids were constantly wanting to play on it. It seemed like the perfect place to make a family portrait. One of my favorite things to see in the park was the wide open space between the trees in the forests and the short, bright green grass growing between. Sadly my pictures really don’t do it justice, so you’ll have to take my word for how beautiful it was.

After taking this picture we finished packing up the van and hit the highway for the return trip to Canada. We weren’t heading home right away though; we had a reservation at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. More on that soon…

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Yellowstone Vacation — Junior Ranger

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:00:51 +0000

This post is not as long as the other ones about our trip to Yellowstone, but it is longer than most. Feel free to jump straight to the bottom to see the photos. But don’t forget to come back later to read the story!

On our third full day in Yellowstone we again decided to get up early and hit the highway instead of cooking breakfast. We went back to the gas station to buy breakfast and then headed back down the road to Hayden Valley. The scenic landscape in the valley had been so beautiful the day before, and it was so exciting to see the massive herd of bison spread all down the valley, so we really wanted to experience a little bit more of that. Fortunately it was almost as good the second time as it was the first. The fog rising over the river with the early morning sun shining down was truly amazing and we were all happy that we had decided to return.

After we had our fill of Hayden Valley we drove up the northern part of the park to see the hot springs and terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. The limestone terraces were very interesting and beautiful, but the area much smaller and faster to visit than we had realized and we had seen as much as we wanted to see before noon. We took advantage of a picnic site in the area and cooked up a box of Kraft Dinner for lunch!

After lunch we continued around the Grand Loop towards Tower Fall. Tower is an aptly named waterfall in a narrow canyon in the Northern part of the park. It is very popular and there were huge numbers of people at the visitor area when we got there. Unfortunately, the bottom section of the trail was closed (due to erosion), and the base of the falls were not reachable. The signs indicating this were not very clear, so Melanie and I hiked all the way down to the the base of the trail anyway, but we couldn’t actually see the falls from the bottom. Instead of being disappointed we just jumped onto a big rock for some timer-shots instead! We climbed back up to the visitor center to join Louise and Andrew for some ice cream!

Throughout the trip Melanie diligently worked to become a Junior Ranger. The goal of the program is to introduce children to the natural wonders of Yellowstone and their role in preserving them for the future. Melanie took the program seriously and she worked very hard to meet all the requirements of the program, and more. At the end she had to put on a Ranger hat, swear an oath in front of a real Ranger (”As a Junior Ranger, I promise to learn all I can about Yellowstone and to teach others to love and respect its beauty, its plants, and its animals.“), and she was awarded the official Junior Ranger badge. She was so proud of herself and it was really fun to watch her get excited about each new activity!

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Yellowstone Vacation — Hayden Valley Bison

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:30:52 +0000

We were so impressed and excited about seeing all the Bison in Hayden Valley that we decided to go back again for a second day. The lighting and the fog weren’t quite as impressive, but it was still pretty amazing to see all those animals in such close proximity to each other.

It was a bit of an afterthought, but Louise pulled out her video camera just as we were driving away…

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