Thursday, March 28, 2013

Inaugural Bike Ride

Oh HEY!

It has been wonderfully warm here in Calgary as of late. I'm currently in Kensington and it is a-BUMPIN'... tons of people on the streets, patios full, jeeps blaring music in the street, I almost overheated in my car, you know... all those summery things. It's only a Thursday afternoon in March! I won't get my hopes up that we've seen the last of winters icy grip, but I will enjoy this no-jacket, sweater-optional weather while it lasts. Too bad Mark works for the next 6 days! Dangit, employment. He did, however, have Tuesday off, which was great. We got together with new, but dear,  friends Amy and Aaron Castle for an impromptu bike ride and weiner roast. Hanging out with these two sometimes feels like you're on a sitcom, in the best of ways. Below is our adventure.



We got all 4 bikes on one bike rack! Crazy, right?? Yup....Mark's bike was the last one on and when we got to the park, to our horror, it was GONE. We raced back up the muddy road, laughing really hard (read: nervously) to the subdivision with speed bumps where we were pretty sure it must of fallen off. We had been watching the bikes the whole way there, but got distracted by Amy and Aaron's shocking retelling of the show 'Animals F'ed up my Vacation'. Those crazy animals!! 


We found his poor bike just meters away from a gigantic speed bump, and it seemed mostly fine after Mark bent the handle bars back. Yay! No harm no foul, right? ...never used that saying before. Now lets go for a bike ride!


Oh but wait! This is what the paths look like. (Shaking fist at Calgary) We will persevere! We eventually found some clear paths and we were on our sweet, sweet way.


Oh but wait! First Marks' chain will fall off a couple times. 


Oh but wait! Nope, not this time. This part was so actually so great, I was ringing my bike bell in joy, like a crazy lady. This neighbourhood was full of beautiful houses with their backs to the river. I probably said 'Mark look at that one!!!' five hundred times, but lets be honest, he probably would have looked without my prompting. 


Eventually we were biking right along the Elbow River. It was so pretty! Bike paths: I feel so safe on you.


Can't wait to tube down this in the summer!


These two are the best, and showed us so many cool paths and places to bike in the future. 


Mark was pretty cute in his new coat.


After bike ride, we roasted some weiners in the park. It was swell. At this point we did, in fact, need coats. Note: I'me wearing my hiking shoes.. yes! 



We each had two. They was delicious. 



By the end we were basically smoking them. Which is also good! We all went home smelling like campfire. I have a love/hate relationship with that smell, but this time I loved it... it smelt like SUMMER. What a lovely day.


Photo worthy attractiveness. 


Quickly progressed to these dangerous axe-weilding antics.


We're done here. 

PS - I'm starting a portrait of Mark today. Keep you posted. My weaving is slowly coming along. My big problem is I don't quite know what I want the end product to look like, colour/pattern-wise. I need vision. Until then, progress will be slow... and white.


Also, those of you who don't follow me on Instagram, won't have seen the finished braided rag rug. It's sweet, 'cept we need a sticky rug thing for under it because it does tend to slide a wee bit. Still happy with the end result though. Check it:


Friday, March 1, 2013

Walking With Boys

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We decided to escape from the city and go for a walk through the woods in Kananaskis. While it got progressively cloudier as we drove further from the city, we were not deterred. We would walk. I love driving towards the mountains. You just need to swivel your head to see so many unflinchingly flat bits behind you contrasted with such unflat in front. Mountains! Walking with boys is so different than walking with girls. Even in such serene nature, Mark and Dan found a surprising amount of things to smash. I wouldn't have rather walked with anyone else.






Jumping over creeks, even though there were bridges. This was the first creek Mark drank from. He was terribly thirsty. 

 

The cutest little acorn (right)


 

Cause why not, right? (left) Brothers who love each other a whole lot (right)


Group shot. 


Dan said it was like they caught a fish. They smashed it against the rocks. This was probably the fifth large ice shard with the same fate. 


I love Dan in this one. He could be five, in the best way. They smashed this log against the rocks too. In a loving way, not in a log-hating sort of way. 


How Mark prefers to drink his water. Dan and I took drinks too, but Dan got a little bit of water up his nose so we stopped. 


Building an homage to our walk for future generations to enjoy. In reality, the next boys to walk up this trail will probably find immense joy in pushing it over. C'est la vie.


We built it together! It was awesome and super sturdy.


Goodbye for now, dear mountains. I slept the whole way home. The only thing I did that night was work on my rug... it's coming along! I can almost curl up on it.  


Till next time.