Bennett's home & outings.: Two Thousand Seventeen! A year in review. THE END!!!

Where are we? Still in 2017, remember? I have yet to write about 2018.

September 02nd 2017, we decided to go to Waterton for the day. We went to Cameron Lake and it was smokey and orange. We knew there was a fire happening but had no idea the impact it would later have on our beloved Waterton.
Our day was really relaxing. We just walked around town, went to play by the lake. Watched the kids playing while sitting on our camping chairs, and did the essential visit to the Cameron falls. We kept it simple since Marc was hurt and all.

If you noticed, I've been trying to add
more pictures of me in my posts.

Looking more like his dad.

It was really smokey. We didn't stay long.

Hot stuff. Lol!

One of Marc's cousin got married in September so we went to that too. I didn't take much picture of the celebration.

September 04th, We went to Writing on stone.

We went through the hoodoos, and ended up at the beach where the boys found some toys and were given other ones to play with and keep. There are some kind people out there.

We didn't really plan to stay and play at the beach but you know kids, they see water and they just can't help it. We had a blast. So many beautiful places to see in Alberta.

Like father like son!

Can I go in the water, pretty please?!

Gas stations really liked us. We were constantly going somewhere. Focusing on our family was our top priority. Making memories with our boys, seeing more of the province, and just having a wholesome time as a family unit was really important to us and still continues to be, and will always be.

September 07th, we decided to go to Vermilion for a few days.The boys were so excited to spend time with grandma and grandpa B. We took a leisurely trip on Thursday and got to Vermilion in decent time. The next day, grandma had planned a kayaking trip for us and packed some food to enjoy while we were in Ross Lake. It was such a fun day. We had the beach to ourselves. The food grandma packed was really good, and we got to kayak a lot which was fun. The water was warm too which made it more enjoyable. I spent a lot of time in the water like I usually do, and it felt so refreshing and good to actually swim in the lake.

Helping grandma make breakfast!

First thing Yann did was to try out the monkey bars.
So obsessed with it.

Smiley!

He eventually paddled on his own.
He was quite happy.

He wasn't happy about wearing the floater haha.
Safety first monkey.

He did great by himself!

Always a stop to build a bear.

The next day, September 09th, we went to West Edmonton mall. You can't go to west ed without doing any shopping, so we got some clothes for the boys, and went to T&T to buy some of my favorite childhood treats to fill my pantry with. Yummy! Every trip to west ed takes me to the crepe shop, I just love them. They should have one in Lethbridge. Again, it was a relaxing trip. We bought food at T&T for lunch and ate it by the little "pond". I really like the food there. It is similar to what we have back home. It helps that Marc and I have about the same taste in food so we didn't need to go to the food court and buy something else. Even the boys ate the food. Evening came, we headed back to Vermilion to spend more time with grandma and grandpa and the next day, we went to Church, had Sunday dinner then went for a walk at the Vermilion provincial park. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon with family. It's tradition, really.

Nobody grows veggies like my in-laws.
Their garden is always packed.

Not so smiley.

Other things we did in September:

First day of school!

Breakfast with my sweetheart!

So unhealthy yet so tasty.

Occasional trip to Henderson Park.

September 22nd, We went to Drumheller for the day. We got up in decent time, then off we went. It was the boys' first time to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. They were beyond excited! Yann couldn't wait to get there. We toured the museum and ate lunch at the cafeteria in the building. We were hoping to get out and explore but it started to rain.

On our way back to town, we decided to stop at the Fossil World Discovery Center. I recommend it, especially if you pay to go inside their little museum. Kids get to dig for their own fossil to take home, and get to sluice for semi precious stone and even gold. Few hours later, and with boys happy as can be, we headed out to go home but not before stopping to see the "World's Largest Dinosaur" and the Star Mine Suspension Bridge in Rosdale (Drumheller) which I also recommend. The bridge was built for the coal workers back in the 1930s. Another great day! Again, so many fun place to visit.

Nodosaur! Beautifully preserved dinosaur found accidentally
by miners in Fort Mc Murray, Alberta. We read about him before we went so seeing it at the museum was a real treat. The story of its discovery was quite fascinating. Go check it out.

Yann was in dino heaven!

Sluicing!

Animatronix.

Looking for fossils.

The World's Largest Dinosaur!

No selfie just my shoes,
and the beautiful grid of the bridge.

What the boys found while looking for fossils and sluicing.

September 23rd, Another trip to Fernie. This time, no biking on the trails. We just wanted to go somewhere. We went to a couple places we just drove by before and Marc wanted to buy some biking gears to add to his equipment, and make riding even safer, and stylish lol.

I like taking pictures. Not of people, mostly of plants,
flowers, nature, structure, architecture and so on.
I usually keep them to myself. Haha.

Shopping gone wrong!

He really liked this train.

My little boy.

My big boy.

To end the month of September, we decided to tour the Bellevue Mine in Crowsnest Pass. We packed for the day, and happily left Taber to go to the Pass. The Bellevue mine was a hit! We all enjoyed it and once again, I recommend doing it. Crowsnest Pass has such a history worth knowing or even learning about. History about coal mining, the tragedy of the effect of rock sliding from Turtle mountain, the Hillcrest disaster and also bootlegging. I like history! On a side note, dress warm if you go there. It can be chilly.

See those tags behind Marc, that's how they knew who
and how many miners were in the mine.
It was a way to keep track of them.

After the mine, we went for a short hike on the Frank slide trail. Something a bit eerie about this hike but still a beautiful, fun one to do.

It's a nice trail to do as a family which I also recommend. After the hike, we went into town so the boys could play at their favorite playground then stop at Vito's for supper. Food was good! So good indeed that Marc ordered the chowder twice.

THIS was excellent!!!! Even the boys liked it.

Meat was flavorful and so tender.

Fish and chips were to die for.

That's it for September. While we indeed had a fun summer and went on a lot of family getaways, we also did a whole lot of nothing. I could probably write a post about it but I promise you, it will bore you haha. There's nothing wrong with doing a whole lot of nothing. We need those days to just allow ourselves to be lazy, and vegetate. We actually like those days too. A day to carry nothing on our shoulders, a day to put our feet up, read a book, watch t.v even and eat. A day to play board games, draw, snuggle together, and be with our family without taking them places, or "entertain" them. A day for each one of us to just chill. Surprisingly enough, memories are also created on such days. And some good ones too. We don't need to go away to create memories. They are created when we are together and it doesn't matter where we are. At home, on vacations, in the car, the store, outside, inside, anywhere as long as we are together.

October!
It started with early snow falls. The boys were happy to have snow so we welcomed it and had fun playing outside. We built snowman, had snow fights, and just goofed around.

Yann got a cool kid award on the 06th of October. Both Marc and I were there. Proud parents moment for sure.

Grandma and grandpa came for a visit
and walked the boys to school.

October 10th, We went to the fire hall for family home evening and learned about fire safety and how to respond to it and worked an escape plan just in case a fire was to take place in the apartment we lived in at the time. Plan an escape route for your family. Makes a great family home evening activity. The boys got to do some activities based on the fire fighters training. Fun evening. We went home that night, and Marc taught the boys some of the first gesture they need to do if face with a fire. We also practice our escape plan.

There are definitely a lot of things that we did in 2017 that you can find on my Facebook page or Instagram.

October was also about house hunting. Marc went with our realtor friend, and contractor friend to look at a house. Beautiful building, almost abandoned, that someone tried to flip but ran out of money to do it. The house itself, architecturally speaking, was really cute. But we wanted to know if it was structurally sound. The house was on a market for a long time. It was priced decently and we knew if the structure and foundation was in good shape, we could hire our friend the contractor to do the work inside and turn it into something beautiful. With our friend's help and expertise, we decided not to buy the house because the foundation was shot. So grateful for him. The house had so much potential, but the foundation of the house had too much problem it wasn't worth putting our money into it. Other wise, it could have been a nice house to call home.
That same day, our realtor friend, Wayne, told Marc about a condo in Barnwell. At first we were like, no way. But, we decided to go see it anyway, just for kicks. And we are glad we did. We happily call the mention condo our home and are so happy to have made the decision to buy it. The condo was listed for a long time. I remember seeing the listing for it when we first moved to Taber. We got the place for really cheap and were quite happy about it. We witness service in action everyday where we live. We all pitch in to make this little heaven an enjoyable place to live in. Even if one day we ever decide to move again, we want to keep this place. We love it here! The boys do too even though they still miss the apartment house. It was home to them. They spent most of their life in our tiny apartment. We have great memories of the place even though it was hot inside in the summer time. It was a great place to live in and call home, but we were ready to move on. As soon as we heard that the old owner accepted our offer, I started packing. We had about a month and a half before moving day but I knew I would have to do the work by myself, so I packed and packed and packed. Everything was packed weeks before moving day. We only kept the bare necessities. Another effective move under my belt. The way I see it, the people that are coming to help you move should only be there to grab boxes, furniture, and bags and load into their vehicles, and unload it into your new house. It's a lot of work for them. They shouldn't be doing the packing part of your move. That's me anyway! And truth be told, I like doing my own packing so I can keep it organized the way I want it to. The kitchen is my least favorite place to pack.

The most colorful place we ever lived in!
Bye home.

I know I have said on Instagram that I was going to post more pics of the house but I truly got busy and sick and simply forgot. But I will have a post dedicated just to the condo with tons of pictures.

October 14th, Molnar's Pumpkin Festival! I have been wanting to go to this festival since we moved to Taber but there was always something happening that kept us from going. To be honest, we thought it wasn't all that great but the boys loved it, so it made it worth going. I don't know if we'll go this year. The hay ride was my favorite, always seem to be at this kind of event.

Ready for Halloween!

With my sweetheart!

Halloween was a busy time. They had Halloween celebration at school, at Taekwondo, and the regular one at night with us. We took the boys out to dinner after TKD before going trick or treating.

Waiting for the boys to be done
their Halloween celebration at school.

Out to supper!

They re-open DQ so we had to give it a try,

With his loot.

Yann san!

November was all about packing and getting ready to move. We moved into our new place on November 30th. Marc's younger brother came to help us for two days. Marc and I went to empty the storage unit we have rented for months before his brother came. Marc and uncle Joel made a few trips between the apartment and the condo. I stayed at the condo and started cleaning the place up especially the bathrooms, and the kitchen and everything else. Bathrooms were on the top of the list. I disinfected them like nobody's business haha. In the evening, the crew came to help including our friend Kyle and with my cleaning duties all done, I went and helped the crew unload the trailers and trucks. We were all tired. Marc's knees and shoulders were hurting quite a bit, so did Joel's. My joints had taken a beating but still, we pushed through so only a minimum would be left to do the next day. We were so grateful for all the men that came to help us that day. December 02nd, grandma and grandpa came to look after the boys so Marc and I could go to Mexico. By then, my house was all clean. The furniture were where I wanted them to be. The Christmas decorations and the tree were up, and the kitchen was all set up. All that was left to do was to set up the storage room., wash the carpet which grandma did while we were gone and clean the apartment and give the keys back which we did after our trip. It was a lot of work.

December! We went to Mexico for our 15th Anniversary (post to come.) Yann had his first ever Christmas concert at school, and we were sick a lot especially me, darn chronic illness. As usual we got ready for Christmas and all and enjoyed a really low key Christmas holiday. We were happy to be home from Mexico. Happy to spend our first Christmas in our new place. Were counting our blessings daily for a great year. Life is good!