blog famine

It's been a long while since I've posted.  Kinda in a blog funk lately- combined with a photography funk makes for a very boring lame blog.

I look at my blog stats- LAME.  Not read by many.  Attempts to share my blog are stalled.  No one ever comments on it- in person or here, so I sort of wonder why I bother?  Will I continue?  I'm not sure.  Maybe I need to re-evaluate my audience.  Do I care if others read it?  Or is it just a blog for grandparents who live away..... guess we'll see what happens.

But I do have one image to show.

Dylan with his  I mean the dog downstairs.

(yes, he's sitting on our couch.)

Yes, this boy needs a dog.

No we are NOT getting one.

It's a zoo when he's in the house along with three cats and a handful of people, who I might add are outnumbered by animals !!!

Mat and I have spent many many MANY days in Waterton.

It has to rank as one of our top places to be.

I always say I want to retire there, but actually...

I want to win the lottery and spend my summers there.

And then go back for a week at a time for a really harsh, cold, isolated winter.

Where you wander the streets, and pass more animals then people.

Where you can't pop into a corner store, because EVERYTHING is closed.

With the exception of one hotel.

But when we were in Alberta, the sun was shining, and we took Dylan to Waterton for the first time.

He was thrilled that they had a water park.

Who wouldn't like to play in the shadow of the amazing mountains?

Ohhh how times have changed.

A few years ago the excitement about a night out at a venue would be for 

ME

seeing someone like

PAUL (Iloveyou) BRANDT

or

Derks (omg) BENTLEY

or

some other random cute boy that sings.

BUT things are different, last night we were cheering for.....

"Your backyard friends the backyardigans"

AHHHHHH

Our Pre- Concert Mall Dinner

 (MOM- must you photograph everything??)

He seriously couldn't contain himself on the way there.....

 Shouting BACKYARDIGANS !!!!!!

 ohhh ya, we've got tix, and an overpriced stuffy !!  

Score !

AND we have

One

VERY

happy

boy

 The danced, they sang, the jiggled around.

Uniqua came close to the end of the stage, but no one fell.

 These things can seriously dance !!  haha

 We had originally planned for just one of us to take Dylan, but once I found out we had third row centre seats to his FIRST concert, we both had to go to enjoy him enjoying the event.

 And he love it.

Smiled and smiled.

 WOW !

Dylan LOVED it.

But it ended late.  And he melted down when we got to the car because it was past his bed time.  He was crying and shouting backyardigans.

I told him they left to go home.

He said 

"NO MOMMY !!!! BACKYARDIGANS STILL DANCIN' !!  "  

AWWW SO CUTE.

I've assured him they have gone back home.

To LA.

Where the rest of the big stars live.

More Calgary Fun

Calgary Fun

For once the weather was good in Calgary !!

 Dylan thought Grandma should be wet too...haha

wordless wednesday

Napping at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Riiiiight !!!

What Dylan does when he is supposed to be sleeping.

I might also add this was under grandparent and father's watch.

haha

they said they heard some banging.

I'll have to ask Mat again what were Dylan's exact words when they went in the room.

Note- 

stuffed animals under bed

bed rail off

bedding stripped

curtains open

Yes- we are back from our holiday.

No- I don't have tons of pics to share.

I'm not exactly sure why, but this time when we went to Calgary to visit the grandparents, my camera didn't come out much.  Which was really silly, since this vay-cay was really ALL about Dylan.  We took him to Coffee and Scream which he loves, Riley Park Wading Pool, Tommy K Play, the play places in Market Mall, Cross Iron Mills, and to many parks in Calgary.  The highlight for him was a trip on the C-Train.  We rode Calgary Transit just for him to experience the train.  The trip was really all about Dylan- but I'm lacking photos.  I've been in a bit of a photo rut lately.  That combined with the fact that I'm finding that sometimes bringing my Big Gurl Camera hinders me from playing with Dylan, and makes me fixated on babysitting my camera when I'm not using it.  So I left it at home.

And came back with very few images.

I almost didn't take it to the wading pool on the last day it was open.

I got a few images, but again, not lots.  I think I'm in a bit of a photographic rut.   Here are a few from that day.

Who needs a haircut???

 Play

Ohhhh I've been so busy lately- I've hardly posted- I'm so sorry my lovelies !!!  I'm not playing favorites, but I posted over there first....

http://cherryblissphotography.blogspot.com/2011/09/tracy-cook-nature-photography.html

THIS photo is more appropriate here, then on my photography site... but it's too funny not to include.. so go see more over on my other blog...

so go check that out, then come back here because by then, I'll have something else up !

Tracy

xoxo

As if the day before we left for Calgary wasn't busy enough, Dylan asked if we could go to music in the park. Every night down at riverside park a band plays- it's really very good.  He plays at the park a bit, sometimes goes to the water park, and then we finish over on the grass to watch the band for a bit before we head home for bed.  We've done it a few times this summer, and it's a really nice evening.

So tonight on the park... our little man was having so much fun.

 The music started, 80s rock.

Think KISS "I wanna rock and roll all night"

and Bon Jovi...

Well, the little man started to rock out !

Drumming like crazy !  

How adorable is that ???

Crazy fast drumming hands !!!!

I LOVE it !!!!

We are so blessed with our little boy.

Vintage

When I first started offering photography sessions, I started to collect vintage stuff as cool props for photo shoots.  While doing this, I learnt that I really do like cool vintage stuff, and so now I've got a bit of a collection going.....

My "vintage" bread bin... which says Bread and Cake and actually says 

"made in china" 

on the bottom, but it looks vintage, and it holds lots of stuff...

 My vintage side table, that really needs to be painted another colour, with my cool suitcase that is a tribute to my husbands heritage on top.

(i didn't realize until seeing this that everything here looks like such a mess- I thought it was eclectic cool- I thought wrong)

My awesome retro high chair that I need to decide what to do with, and make the necessary repairs.  But don't you just love it?  

Ohhh my latest etsy purchase, a cool old camera that I WILL use in a photo shoot when I can.

The cool scale and retro box that I have actually used in photo shoots and also use in my kitchen as displays.

(we are going away, that's why we have no fruit and that lone banana looks all sad and brown)

My really super cool super old scale which I LOVE.  Found it in Lilloette and think it's just so neat.  Have not yet used it, but my fake fruit sits nicely there.

My lovely 50s style chair that is beautiful but catches so much cat hair.

My funky chair that is old, but not sure how old- I have used it in photo shoots.

And finally, and embarrassingly... this railcar trunk that I bought was in poor shape, I've attempted to strip it, and it's just not working out.  So it's sitting in the bedroom and collecting junk.  I had aspirations of restoring it, but the paint job someone else did on it has made that impossible.  It's great storage- and I want to get it looking better !

(proceed with the gasps that it's so messy)

So there is a tour of some of my vintage stuff, and probably a bit of a preview of some projects that might be popping up on here soon....

Happy Day!!!!

Dylan is SOO proud of himself !!!!  

For the first time

E.V.E.R

He peed in the potty !

We did the happy dance

We yelled, we screamed

We phoned Daddy

We phoned Grandma (as his potty book suggested)

He couldn't be prouder of himself.

Yes yes, ewww gross,what a weirdo... I know I know.

But he's my only baby.

And I'm proud.

And at least it's not his first poop like Kate Gosselin took photos of for her sextuplets.

Ahhhh the sound of victory.

A flush.

haha

Look how proud he is !!!!

Now let's see if we can keep this going !!

Hey everyone... I know i'm kinda a pain in the neck when I don't do a real post here and instead ask you to go check out my photography blog....

BUT 

I just did a maternity session that I'm pretty excited about... 

Soooo pretty please check it out, and leave me a comment because I tried a lot of new things in that session !

http://cherryblissphotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/tracy-cook-maternity-photography_24.html

Tracy

Ah- freedom to run, play, throw rocks in the river, and sit in long grass.

Isn't childhood in the summer fabulous?

Jack Layton passed away this morning.  Very sad- seems to have happened so quickly.  If you haven't read his open letter to Canadians, written days before his death, google it.  It's lovely.  The last line reads...

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world"

All my very best,

Jack Layton