Calgary Stampede '09

First time after 3 years that I got to experienced Calgary Stampede! It is an annual event here in Calgary (more of fiesta in my native land) but the theme of this event is cowboys, horses, wearing cowboy clothes and hats, etc. It is a 2 week event beginning every 1st friday of July. It is a non-holiday event however, most of the offices (especially in Downtown) were participating in the parade so pretty much, every one is either on vacation leave (to give time to go to events) or companies are more lenient to employees and allows them to watch the parade or go home early so they could enjoy this event. As always, Calgary is decorated in accordance to the theme of the event in which you could find cowboy hats or horses in every establishments or sometimes as simple as a "Yahoo" text in the windows of some offices.

You could find free breakfast sponspored by companies or groups anywhere you go. In fact, in our community, they had 2-day FREE breakfast in our neighbourhood. But, I wasn't able to attend to these since they held it on a weekend and they usually starts at 9am (which is I am still on dreamland during this time). And If I remember it right, they held the 1st FREE breakfast on the day of my birthday (which is we went out of town).

The funny thing is, you could see people wearing checkerd polo shirts/blouses with boots and cowboy hats everywhere! It's like a costume party on a summer. We somehow did our "costume" part by wearing a hat. Didn't have the guts to overdo it =)

Just before the Stampede came to an end, Noel and I decided to go and experience it. We went to Stampede ground near the Downtown and we enjoyed ourselves (along with Ella) playing games (we actually won 2 LARGE stuff doll for Ella) and just watching everyone in their cowboy costumes. It was really FUN! There were rides for everyone, foods are overflowing, and it was over crowded that I guess half of the Calgarians are there to celebrate! And not to mention that the temperature that time is over 20C! Super H-O-T! Overall, it was fun and my daughter loves it! Looking forward to 2010 Calgary Stampede!

My bday trip

It was a nice Sunday morning and since we were quite tired from our trip to the amusement park just before my birthday, we slept all day and woke up at around 12-ish. And I was coming back and forth to the other room where Noel is sleeping (He doesn't sleep at our master bedroom because Ella and I is occupying it, my daughter is not used to sleeping in her own room! We are just using it for her clothes and toys. So, Noel has no choice but to move to the guest room and sleep there since my little girl sleeps and moves like a "torpedo"). That time, Noel is still asleep while my daughter just woke up and watching her favorite morning cartoons on TV. I headed downstairs and prepared brunch for us and asked Noel to go for a shower so we could start moving. There were some delays (as usual) but we finally hit the road at 2pm and I was beginning to feel cranky. I was telling my hubby that my birthday is almost done and we haven't started our trip yet. Of course, Noel is still very positive that we will have a good day despite our late start. We drove for 2 1/2 hours and as always we missed our stop again... which is a result of non-stop talking while he is driving. And we could have gone all the way to Vancouver if I didn't see the sign saying "Welcome to British Columbia!" huh?!! We actually left Alberta! But it was fun, although I am very, very hungry but I guess as what Noel is always telling me, nothing is really precious if you spend it with your loved ones. Awwww!

So, finally we reached our destination. Lake Louise is as always breathtaking. The mountains, the lakes, the flowers, everything is perfect as if you are looking at a post card. We took some pictures and we headed to Fairmont Hotel (a five star hotel just in front of the lake! wow! TRIVIA: during our honeymoon days, Noel and I went to Fairmont Hotel in Banff and it costs us almost $500/night!). So, we had our LU-NNER (lunch and dinner) in the hotel and the food was great! First time after a long, long time that I had an alcoholic drink (Long Island). It was ok, although I specifically instructed to make the alcohol minimal ("just a touch of alcohol -- I said") but I think they forgot and they still gave me a quite strong liquor... somehow I guess they knew it was my birthday! =) So, we had great food, good conversation as always and we resume taking pictures inside and outside the hotel.

Before going home, we stopped by at Banff and ate dinner and headed home. There were some stops, as Ella is getting cranky and wants to get out of the car so we stopped for a while in an overlooking area where we took some pictures again. And we're home by 11pm and called it a day. It was a very simple celebration but mind you, it was one of the best birthday I had =)

Our backyard!

Here are some pictures of our newly built backyard. It is still a work in progress but overall, I am very happy with what has been done so far especially the sod which is a "project" of my hubby. More renovations to come but for now, just enjoying our backyard and looking forward to a well deserve vacation somewhere else for my birthday =)