Birthday Cakes

I've had a request to post photo's of these cakes I made for Quinn's sisters this summer. I had never made buttercream frosting before and had no idea how labor intensive it would be but it was worth it......Yummmmmm. I wont even mention how MUCH butter was involved. Yikes. It took me awhile to figure out how best to work with the fresh flowers but eventually I figured out a system that seemed to work. It was fun to try something new and both birthday girl's seemed thrilled with the end result!

Nancy's Birthday Cake

Erin's Birthday Cake

A Biking Summer

Ashton started BMX this summer and loved it. Here he is at Calgary Olympic Park riding the track with Quinn and his 'down hill junkie' uncle Chris who was in town from Utah.

Ashton catching some air....look closely or you might miss it!

He insists it looked much steeper from the top....it looks plenty steep to me as is.

This is the beginning of the track. Good form Ashton :)

Off Roading....single track...whatever. I'm not sure I'm up on the biking lingo. Quinn should be writing captions!


24 HOURS OF ADRENALINE RACE IN CANMORE Quinn put together a 5 man team this year in the race. It is the 2nd annual for us. I volunteered with my sister in law and Ashton participated in the 24 Minutes of Adrenaline Race which ended up lasting about 24 seconds....but who's counting. It was a great time had by all and has turned into a reguar family affair. This picture is of the beginning of the race. It is a mountain biking race and takes place over a 24 hour period. Teams have a camp site and each person does as many laps as they can do switching off like a relay event all day long and through the night with head lamps to guide their way. A lap is 15 miles of single-track through the mountains and on average takes around an hour to do. The team with the most laps at the end wins. The trail is brutal and this year it proved to be treacherous as it rained and rained and rained making the trail slipperey and slow. Many packed it in and went home, others toughed it out soaking wet, cold & covered from head to toe in mud. The most amazing thing about this race is the amount of soloists who enter. Unreal. They go it alone the entire 24 hours. Truly amazing individuals & athletes from all over the world participate. It is a great experience to be a part of even as a spectator/dismount person/time recorder :)

Ashton & Harrison mount up & put on their race face!

Ashton rounding the corner.....go, go go! They had a blast.

This picture is taken after torrential down pour #1...there were several others that evening & throughout the night. All in the name of fun....a lousy T-shirt and water bottle!

Scarlet Fever

Our sweet baby....before the suprising diagnosis

Imagine my surprise when he was diagnosed with strep/tonsilitis & SCARLET FEVER. Who has scarlet fever these days?! Apparently it's rather common to get it with the strep virus. Some children are just more susceptible to it than others.

The rash that covered his body from head to toe turned into blisters on his hands and feet which caused swelling in his hands.

The blisters covered the bottom of his feet but didn't stop him from walking around....Ouch!

Almost two weeks later there is still residual rash and his toes and fingers are literally shedding skin ....just like a snake. It's somewhat disturbing. Who knew!

Waterton

Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton

We spent the day picnicing with Quinn's family & biking around Waterton. It was a beautiful day and believe it or not....no wind!

Our mock wedding announcement pose!


Throwing rocks....it doesn't get much better than this!


Ashton & cousin Brock

Caribbean Cruise April, 2008

We left the kids with my mom & dad and flew out of Vegas to Ft. Lauderdale, FL

We set sail on Holland America's Westerdam for a 7 day Caribbean Cruise

Our first port was Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.
It was a private island so there wasn't much to see.
It poured on us for a good portion of the time we spent there but finally let up
in the afternoon. We had a big BBQ and were able to relax in the sun later that day.

I'm not sure Quinn will appreciate me putting this photo up, but
I love it!

Our next port was Grand Turk of Turks & Caicos

The island was named after a funny looking cactus that looks like a turkey's

gobbler and Caicos is another name for "a chain of islands".

We specifically chose this cruise to go on so we could check out
Turks & Caicos for future vacations. It made our short list. We will definitely go back.

The island was so quiet. It is still a well keep secret unlike Provenciales, the larger of the
two main islands. The only people we ran into were locals trying to keep cool in the hot sun.

The old buildings and homes were quaint and picturesque.

This was a old home that a Hollywood producer used to own. He would house his staff and starlets here while filming. It is now a restaurant & bar.

We walked the entire little village in an hour or so. Another interesting bit of history.
This is the island Columbus landed on when he discovered America. There is a monument documenting it. The British own this island now but Canada has invested heavily into it & hopes to purchase it from the British. They are still in negotiation.

We went snorkeling here and saw cuddle fish, huge barracudas & and enormous stingray. It stealthily came up behind me and when Quinn motioned for me to turn around and look, it was practically beside me and literally scared me to death. It may as well have been a shark for the terror that ran through me for that split second. He swam away completely uninterested...thankfully!

This is Quinn's treasure he found diving. We threw it back in the ocean once everyone got a good look at it. The reef around Grand Turk has an unusual drop off. Its depth goes from 75 feet deep to 7000 ft deep. It was an eerie feeling as we passed over it in the boat and could see to the bottom through the clear blue water....then just dark abyss.

Our last port and Quinn's favorite was Grand Cayman

This is the oldest house on the island. They have preserved it as part of their history.

The most interesting place we went was Hell.

It is an actual place on Hell Street.

We mailed ourselves a postcard that was actually postmarked "from hell"

This is why they named it Hell. This black gray rock are lime deposits in the middle of a green oasis. Strange place and it certainly was hotter than hell!

We had time to kill before our flight left so we rented a car and drove down the coast to check out Miami. It looks just like it does on CSI and Miami Vice. Cool, cool, place. We called Mike & Lisa Dunham to find out where to go. Lisa sent us to South Beach, a hip happenin place with beautiful white beaches. It was great way to end our vacation in the warm sun!

We returned home to Calgary & 2 new feet of snow.

Spring Vacation In Utah

The water park in St. George

Quinn was able to squeeze in some mountain biking while we were there. His buddies from Calgary were in St. George for their "semi-annual/annual "ride. The plan was to meet up in Fruta but St. George was the only place it wasn't snowing that week. They headed to Moab later that week sans Quinn, Robert & Chris.

Lots of quading....Ashton is the little spec in distance riding the mini quad that Grandpa Urie fixed up for him. It's been in the family for years....I remember riding it! Uncle Mac & Ben learned on it too. He had been looking forward to riding all year, and loved it.


THE URIE'S at the cabin in old Iron Town for Dad's 60th birthday party!

Landon in his Carhart overalls just like Grandpa Urie's!

And he's off....exploring!

Ashton's best Guitar Hero face. Many Guitar Hero battles have taken place at Grandma's house. Wish we had a picture of when uncle Mac split his pants though...that would be awesome!