Little People Christmas Party

Last Saturday we went to the Little People of Alberta Christmas party. It is a lot of fun. They have a raffle and a Chinese gift exchange. Santa also brings presents for the kids. The afternoon ends with a potluck dinner. It's a chance to get together with all the other little people and their families from around Alberta. Unfortunately Austin's friend Andrew couldn't be there this year as their family had a wedding that day. It was still fun though.
This is Santa with his wife and baby son. They all have achondroplasia. Cute, eh?

Preston was a little confused. He was speculating that he couldn't be the "real" Santa because he's short.

Austin and Santa
J.J. (the guy beside Austin) who is on the ALPA executive called our place about a month ago, requesting that Austin announce the raffle winners. That's him drawing out a winner. He did a pretty good job, had a nice loud voice and a few funny jokes. His biggest problem was that if people laughed at a joke once, he used it again and again. (I wonder who he inherited that from).

Joy

About Alyssa

I won the Academic Award for having the highest average for my grade 7 year. I tied with one of my bestest friend Megan. Here are some pictures of the event :By myself with my plaque
Me and MEgan
All the kids who recieved high honours
My volleyball team is SUPER AMAZING we placed first in our league. We finished in the top three in all our tournaments (would have been the top two except for a very awful semi-final game against D.A Ferguson.) If you

Here are some pics from Volleyball:

This is my team after wining the ICHS tournament

Me hitting a ball against Foremost
Me and my friend Danae ready for a vlock against Cardston

Celebrating after a three set win over Cardston at Divisionals in Raymond. (We played Cardston four times and won ever

y single game)

Happy Birthday, Granny!

All about Alyssa

Alyssa has been busy so far this school year. She is playing volleyball and running cross country. Her volleyball team hosted a tournament this weekend. It was amazing how much better the whole team is since last year. Alyssa got some playing time and did really well. She spiked a few balls over, hit most of her overhand serves, and got subbed in so that she could pass up some powerful serves from the other team in the final. Her team came in 2nd in their tournament.
Alyssa didn't like this year's school picture so we took a few in the yard.

At MHS cross country works like this. All the kids run in gym class and the top six girls get to run at 2 cross country meets. This year, Alyssa made the top 6, so she ran in the Cardston race. This is her coming into the finish. Her time for 2 K 10:51. She pulled her hamstring (again) partway through the race, descending from a high sidewalk) and had to walk it out for a minute. She still did great. Her cousin, Kaylene finished about 20 seconds ahead of her.
Another shot from the volleyball tournament.

Nuh-Unh!

Technically, it is still summer today. But I saw THIS from my back door last Friday. And, last night I stayed in Waterton with Rob because he had a conference. Nearly an inch of the white stuff fell there. It's just crazy! Just for the record, the average daily high for today is 18 C.

What a load of........

......Gravel!

Our summer project was to take out the grass, tree and top soil on the south east side of our house, build a retaining wall, and fill in the area with gravel. The purpose of this project was to create parking for the trailer, truck and boat so that our street & driveway are cleared off and so that there is room in the garage for the car and van. It also means less grass to mow which makes Alyssa happy. We were lucky that some friends were looking for sod and topsoil, so they came and took both. The gravel arrived on Tuesday and just last night be moved the trailer onto it. The boat needs to be winterized and covered in its protective cover before it joins the ranks. But, halleluiah I got to park the van in the garage today and didn't have to go out in the rain to get in!