Lake Louise

Next Stop was an hour further down the road at the absolutely amazing Lake Louise. We were again lucky enough to be staying at the Fairmont in one of the largest and most beautiful rooms both Cam and I have ever stayed in.

Immediately after we arrived it was time for Brandon to take a nap, so rather than hang out in the hotel room Cam and I covered him up and went for a 90 minute walk around the lake while Brandon slept the entire time.

Brandon had no idea what he was missing out on.....what an amazing view!!

He was pretty keen to make up for the time he lost sleeping......

And one with his Mum!!

Brandon figured that the view might be even more impressive from an elevated position so he climbed on my shoulders.

Some quiet time for father and son to reflect together at one of the world's natural wonders.

This was the view from the hotel bar in the lobby.

And finally, this was the view we had from our room.........not bad hey?!!

Brandon in Banff.

The first stop of our road trip in Calgary was Banff. It started with me picking up the rental car. An ongoing joke between Cam and I is that she always rents the smallest car they have in their fleet and I always want to upgrade to something a little larger and/or more exotic. Unfortunately when I arrived at Budget Car Rental they had no small cars left so I was 'forced' to upgrade. Budget was also generous enough to give us a discount for the inconvenience. When I went back to pick up Cammie and Brandon I told her I got an upgrade and a discount......she didn't believe me until she went out into the driveway and saw this Bad Boy parked there!!

Talk about EXOTIC, this V8 - 16 seater bus was fully decked out with plush 'pleather' seating, a bitchin' stereo system and last but not least a fire extinguisher in case Brandon got rowdy in the back. It was just what the doctor ordered for Brandon, Cammie and I to enjoy our road trip in the luxury we deserve!

We were also lucky enough to be staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel which is without a doubt one of the most amazing hotels I have ever been to. It's a huge and amazingly preserved castle. Which over looks a huge valley in Banff. Unfortunately because of the size of the castle the photos cannot do it justice.

Brandon had a great time in the hotel pool. He was flying around like Superman and showing off to all the other guest.

The views from the hotel were pretty spectacular...again we cannot do it justice with the photos.

Breakfast at one of the restaurants.

Summer is here

It's about time, but I'm happy to report that summer is officially here in Vancouver......and not jut because the calendar says so. After having the coldest winter with the largest snow fall in recorded history it was nice to have one of the hottest June in recent memory! There was over a week when the temperatures didn't get below 30 C and even more amazing we have only had a couple of days of light rain all month.

So we installed a pool which Brandon loves...he's definitely got plenty of Australian in him and he loves hangin' out outside in the sun.

Thankfully he's very conscious of maintaining his beautiful complexion and always wears a UV protection T-shirt or sunscreen.

When he's not living it up large in his personal swimming pool he is training himself for our next holiday to Calgary for the Calgary Stampede which we leave for in the next week. For those who don't know the Calgary Stampede is the 2nd largest Rodeo in North America and a huge party. I've always wanted to go ever since moving to Canada and Cammie has also never been so we are all pretty excited.

Brandon has entered the Bull Riding competition and here he is practising on our fake cowhide couch.

Professor Thomas

I am very proud to announce that we officially have a University Professor in our family. Cammie Thomas will be the newest member of the Accounting Faculty at Simon Fraser University (SFU) having accepted an offer to teach the Introduction to Financial Accounting course this semester at SFU. For those of you who don't know, Cammie won the Dean's Medal at SFU in 2002 while completing her MBA, and the University was only too happy to have one of their best ever students return to the nest!! I'm so proud of you Cam!

Father's Day - Canada Style

Brandon's Dad is a pretty lucky guy and not just because he has the most fantastic Son in the whole world! Because Australia and Canada decided to have Father's Day on different days of the year.....this Dad gets officially spoilt twice a year instead of just once. The morning started with a fantastic breakfast and a sleep in....compliments of Brandon and his Mum.

I was awoken by a smiling Brandon who couldn't wait to read his Father's Day card to me!!

Then we went for a walk to the park and it wasn't just me who was being spoilt.......

Brandon was so excited when we came across a very friendly dog on the path.

Brandon whispering in my ear that I don't need to be scared on the big slide.

Father and Son just hangin' out on the swing.

Next on the agenda was a special Father's Day lunch at the Cactus Club Cafe.

Brandon ordered the Jack Daniel's Ribs.

He even got his first phone number!! One of the cute waitresses wrote her name and number on the back of the coaster........what girl could resist that beautiful face!?

Brandon's Grandad came over for Father's Day dinner to spend time with his Grandson and Daughter.

Swimming Graduation

Cammie and I are both very proud to announce that Brandon graduated with Honours from his first swimming class. His professor was very impressed with his progress and made some special observations on his graduation certificate. As his Dad I was obviously especially proud of his Motor Boating skills!!

Brandon show boating for the crowd.

As you can see he was pretty proud of himself!

The Graduate with his Proud Mum!!

Seattle Invasion

The last 2 weekends we have been invaded (in the nicest possible way) by visitors from Seattle. Last weekend Mike Keegan and Conley came to stay on Sunday night. The Mothers then had the pleasure of spending Monday afternoon in the park while the Dads had to go to work!!

(L to R) Candace, Sophia, Brandon and Keegan.

This last weekend we had our second set of visitors from Seattle. Scott, Cherish, Ella and Cole came to stay with us for the whole weekend and a great time was had by all. The weekend started with Brandon's final swimming lesson which everyone joined in on.

Saturday morning story time with Scott.

The excitement of all the visitors was too much for Brandon and he tried to find some quiet time away from everyone else.

The afternoon was spent at our local water park........mid 30's temperatures that we experienced all week were replaced by 22 degrees Celsius on the same day as we wanted to visit the water park, how typical! ;-)

Scott and I with our Boys!!

Cherish gets in some quality time with Ella and Brandon.

On Sunday afternoon we went for a BBQ at our friends Stephanie, Davin and Isabelle's house. The kids all got along really well as you can see from the photo below. Ella took such good care of Brandon all weekend and after we asked her to hold onto Brandon for a photo so he wouldn't fall she was only too happy to help out! ;-) She held onto him alright....with one of the best headlocks I've seen for sometime! Thanks Ella.

The Million Dollar Smile!!

It really is difficult to find a time that our Little Man doesn't have a huge smile on his face! I am very proud to say that I think he's probably the happiest person we have ever had the pleasure gazing it. Here are a few of our favourite smiles from the last month or so and we hope that it puts a smile on your face too!! :-)

Brandon's first Birthday Party

No Brandon is not 1 year old himself yet, but his friend Cameron turned ONE this weekend. Cameron is the son of another Australian/Canadian couple Karen and Spencer. Cammie works with Karen.

It was a great afternoon and thankfully not too crazy! There were only 4 kids at the party in total (all boys) so it wasn't a total zoo. Brandon although the youngest certainly held his own against the older kids.......it probably had something to do with the fact that although he was the youngest he was by far the biggest!!

The birthday boy Cameron reminding everyone how old he is.

Brandon challenging Cameron to a staring contest to see who the top dog is!

Brandon was feeling in a mischievous mood and makes a grab for Cameron's balls! :-)

Brandon and his older (but smaller friend) discussing the age old question.........is there life after turning ONE?!