Welcome Baby Samuel

Great News! Andre and Judy welcomed their new son, Samuel Wade Robichaud, on Saturday August 15th (Acadian Day!). He was 7lbs 15oz! I've seen some pictures and he's perfect!

Love,
Cathy

Baby Robichaud News!

Judy and Andre have been very patiently waiting for they "little schmoo" to arrive at the end of August and just found out today that their little bundle will arrive a wee bit early. Judy is going to be induced either tomorrow or Friday, so we'll find out if we're going to have a new niece or nephew (I personally think it's a boy.... we'll see if I'm right or not!) We're super excited for them and can't wait to hear the news!

Cathy

Six Great Years

On August the 2nd, 2003

Marc, my great husband, did marry me.

We've had some great memories, some challenges too

but I would never trade my life with you.

Thank you for a fabulous 6 years!

I love you more every year

Love,

Cathy

Summer has arrived!

Well, we thought it might never come but it seems that summer has finally arrived here in Calgary. We've had two good weeks of warm weather, and I'm actually sitting out on our deck while I type this - enjoying the shade and the beautiful breeze that has come up. A breeze/strong wind/tree-bending gale force is usually always a safe bet in these parts.... although I'm assured that it is much more windy in Lethbridge. I suppose that would be why there are so many windmills in that area. Marc and I actually considered getting a screen gazebo to put on our deck this summer, but then changed our minds when we remembered the wind here. Now, there are a lot of people who use these in Calgary, but I'm not sure how people keep them from blowing away! We spent an awful lot of time last summer picking up the swing that kept blowing over in our backyard. That might have something to do with why we still have not taken out the seat for our swing this summer - just a frame sitting on our patio. Then again, maybe we're just lazy!

Things around here have been going well. Jeremy and Adam are both still working but very much looking forward to being in NB for a few weeks and just getting a break from their normal routines. Jeremy is progressing with his summer school. He's still struggling a bit with the content, but wholly crap it's hard! Marc and I are reviewing homework with him every night but we're finding it difficult to actually help him with it. Apparently I don't remember a lot of algebra from my high school math days. It seems totally abstract to me and I really struggle trying to understand it!

Buster seems to be doing much better lately. He's being fed lamb and rice and is loving it. As for me, I'm not loving it quite so much because it's a whole lot of work! That dog eats a lot of lamb in the run of a week! We have to cook it and then cut it up and portion it with rice and then feed it to him twice a day. We now refer to him as King Buster and figure the new pup will be very jealous of Buster's food!

Speaking of the new pup, Marc and I are headed out to "officially" pick our puppy on the evening of the 31st. We have him tentatively picked, but we wanted to wait to see their personalities before deciding for certain. Then Marc will be able to pick him up on the 26th of August. I will still be on vacation in NB/Ontario, so Marc will be handling him alone for the first few days!

Well, that about sums things up from here for now. Can't wait to get to NB for some R&R in the last two weeks of August. See you then everyone!

Love,
Cathy

Happy Birthday Adam!

We celebrated Adam's 14th birthday on the 5th of July!

Here are some pictures of the festivities!

Here is Adam on his scavenger hunt to find his gift from Dad and Cathy - a set of golf clubs!

Adam opening up a card from his friend Aaron

Adam opening his card from Gram Coffin

Adam having a fun night!

Adam showing off the duct tape wallet that Aaron gave him - complete with gift card! It's pretty neat actually - had pockets inside and everything!

Here is Adam and his friends all choosing to do something slightly strange for the camera....

Happy 14th birthday Adam!

Cathy

I Love Me a Prairie Sunset

For those who haven't seen a prairie sunset, here are some photos - courtesy of Marc's fabulous photography.

Birds Blooms and Butterflys

This past week I got a call from a friend inviting me to head out on an adventure with her to the Ellis Bird Farm . What is the Ellis Bird Farm you ask? Well, I had the very same question! You can click here to get to their website and learn all about it but, in short, it's a sort of bird sanctuary full of birds, beautiful gardens and butterflies. Well, to be honest, we didn't actually see any butterflies that day, but we're told that they do frequent the beautiful butterfly garden.

Here are some pictures of our adventure!

Love,

Cathy

Things you find in your house when you go looking.....

Yup - we've got boys!

Summer Babies

There is something about the beginning of summer that seems so fresh and new. Those first really warm days that we've been longing for seem so sweet. The grass is green and the flowers beautiful.... frankly, we're just ecstatic that the snow is finally gone and we get to savor Canada's far too short yet glorious summer season! I can't help but pull my camera out and snap photos like crazy! On our recent trip to the mountain parks, Marc and I were witness to another sure sign of early summer - wildlife babies! Here are some of the pictures we took of some of the "babies" we saw that weekend, as well as some other wildlife shots.

Here is a baby Rocky Mountain Sheep - adorable!

A shot from a little farther away, but here is a mother mountain goat and her baby!

This one is quite blurry because the bears were quite a distance away, but here is a Grizzly and two cubs!

Here is one of many bears seen in the ditches along the highway, chowing down on all the fresh greens!

Wild Wild West

Okay.... so we're really not all redneck cowboys in these parts, but there is certainly no shortage of wildlife - especially in the mountain parks. Marc and I visited both Banff and Jasper last weekend and took literally hundreds of pictures. Here are some of the highlights!

If these pictures have left you wanting to see more, then head over to our photo website to check out some more pictures.

Love,

Cathy

Summer's on it's way!

Marc and I had an impromptu trip to both Banff and Jasper National Parks this weekend. It started out as a day trip, but turned into a weekend away when we found ourselves in the town of Jasper. We got many beautiful pictures, but you'll have to wait until my next post for those! Let me leave you with another picture that is a sure sign that summer is around the corner.... An end-of-the-year school band concert! Here is Adam playing away on his trombone!

Also....here's a sample of our beautiful weekend

The simple things in life

Come with me on a little walk....

You're invited to join me on a picture tour of Cranston. Come and enjoy pictures of the place I call home springing to life all around me!


Strapped the camera around my neck and I was ready to head out.... didn't get too far before I started taking pictures. I came across this tree showing off it's beautiful blossoms and I just had to capture it's beauty!



Then, I almost walked right into this next tree and got so wrapped up in it's beauty and taking a picture that I didn't notice a fellow walker staring me down.... As soon as I had snapped this shot, she demanded to know why I was photographing her house! Admittedly, her house is in the background of this picture but, as you can tell, I clearly wasn't trying to see into her bedroom with my zoom lens or anything!!!


Well, once I recovered from being accused of espionage, I continued on my merry way, snapping pictures as I went along. Here are a few samples of the pictures of the day - and more reasons as to why I love living in Cranston!

Well..... hope you enjoyed our little photo walk. I definitely hope that it made you want to hop on a plane and come visit (hint hint...) because Cranston is so much more fun in person!

Oh....and in case you didn't already know this, Calgary has the strangest weather in the world. I went for this walk on June 3..... in my sandals and capri pants.

This morning, June 6, our yard looked like this -

Oh well! At least we don't need to water the lawn this weekend!!!


Hope you're all having a great day!


Cathy