Canmore Hike - Grassi Lakes

At 36 weeks, we made our last trip-before-baby, an overnight stay in Canmore with Tom's family. We arrived on a Friday night, ordered pizza and pasta takeout, and spent a little time in the pool. After Lacey went to bed, we played a board game, before we all hit the hay ourselves.

The next day, we drove out to the Grassi Lakes trailhead, and did half of the short hike. The round trip on Grassi Lakes trail is about 4km. We did about 1km up to a waterfall, and then turned around.

It never ceases to amaze me what an adventurer Lacey is. This is the second hike we've taken her on (her first was earlier this year in Palm Springs), and she insisted on walking about 80% of the trail herself. She occasionally wanted to be carried if the terrain got a little to rocky or tree-rooty, but otherwise, she wanted to march along by her own steam.

There were many people out on the trail enjoying the warm weather, and Lacey got plenty of kisses from passing dogs.

She cheerfully marched along with Auntie, Uncle, Grandma and Grandpa, quite pleased with herself.

She even seemed disappointed when we turned around to head back to the car.

But it was the right decision to head back. Hiking is hard work for a two year old! She was out like a light, two minutes after finishing her post-hike snack.

And I can assure you, she was NOT in a good mood when she woke up 40 minutes later... She could have used a good two hour nap after all her hiking! We got her to bed early that night. But we know she'll be game for more hiking in the future!

Satisfaction!

There is a certain sense of satisfaction every time you finish a project. I remember a time after Lacey was born, when it felt like there was never going to be time to work on, or finish a project, EVER AGAIN. Between the sleepless nights, endless laundry, bottle-washing and feeding, I went into survival-mode, and everything extra-curricular fell away.

But over the last two years, things have gotten easier. Our life has fallen into a rhythm or routine. And bit by bit, I've gotten some time back to myself.

With our new baby nearly on her way, I have been working diligently on some projects. The first, I asked my good friend Jeff, to design for me. It is an ocean themed alphabet, which can be seen in the image below.

Jeff drew this alphabet, and then digitally designed it for me-- and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.  There are not enough words to describe how much I love it! I took the digital design, and converted it into a cross-stitch pattern. And then for the last 2.5 months, I have spent every free moment cross stitching each of the animals. It was probably hundreds of hours spent cross stitching! Before bed, during lunch hours, on planes, in the car... I took every opportunity I could get to cross stitch. And now, it's finally done!!!!!

I'm so pleased with the results. It will fit into the ocean theme of the new baby's room just perfectly!

And... Just a few weeks later, I finished off the second major project for the baby's room-- a painting!

I saw this painting on a website over a year ago, and took a screenshot of it. I thought, this would be perfect for a nursery! And so the screencap has sat on my phone, collecting figurative dust, until I was able to find the time to sit down and paint it out myself last week.

Again, I'm very happy with the results, and I'm glad I've been able to spend some time being creative before the baby arrives. I know we will spend a few months back in the void of sleepless nights, laundry, never-ending bottle washing and feeding soon enough. But at least this time I know there will be an eventual end to it. And I'll have more time for projects like this again!