Boone's birthday party!

Let me start by saying that while I love Pinterest, it really does make me a neurotic parent. It's like there are a million things on there that make you feel like you aren't being crafty enough, or organic enough, or organized enough. So, when it came to Boone's first birthday party, of course I looked through Pinterest for ideas on how to create a farm-themed 1st birthday. But when it came down to the actual party, I realized that if you have Boone + lots of people who love him and want to show him attention + yummy food and dessert, a good party will be the result. And that is exactly what we had.

We held the party at Jeff's parent's house, and while the party was on one of the hottest days in Missouri so far this year, we were all able to stay nice and cool inside and enjoyed the sights of the farm from a nice, air-conditioned house. We did go outside for a bit, but soon I remembered how a "hot" day in Calgary doesn't hold a candle to 100+ degree temps and humidity in Missouri.

Anyways, back to the party! We had mostly family and a few close friends come for the party, and we served pulled pork, smoked chicken, a couple of sides of salad, pasta salad and watermelon and then we topped it all off with an ice cream sundae bar. I decided to just make Boone a small smash cake for him to enjoy. I really thought about going all out and getting a cute farm-themed birthday cake, but in the end, I figured maybe this could become a tradition where I make his cake every year... (that Martha Stewart-esque notion may go up in flames in the future... we shall see!)

Here's a few pictures of the day! Pictures that I took are mixed in along with pictures that Carol Robertson too, so if you see some nice shots, the credit probably belongs to her! :) There are lots of pictures, so get ready:

Birthday Banner! My family's dear friend, Sybil. made this for us, and it's actually made with chalkboard fabric! So you can reuse it again and again with different messages! I love it!

The set up downstairs. It was WAY too hot to eat outdoors! The pictures hanging on the wall were of Boone (almost) every week in his first year. It was fun to look back on them all at one time!

I brought blue mason jars from my mom's house to get flowers for centerpieces for the table. Then I got cheap and saw on the wildflowers growing outside on the farm and decided to just pick those! I did have a bit of a hiccup though because I picked some ragweed (not knowing it was ragweed) because I thought it made for pretty greenery in the bouquet! Can you tell I don't have allergies?? Luckily, I got rid of it before anyone showed up! Ha!

Boone's little smash cake! I did cream cheese icing on Carol's 

recommendation and Boone seemed to really like it! And the candle on the cake never actually got lit. Do you think I trust my son to be within 5 feet of an open flame? 

We didn't really get a good picture of Boone's party outfit! He had a monogrammed shirt that my mom made for him with a tractor on it. And then my mom also made a little farm bib for him to wear!

Uncle John and his girlfriend, Katie!

Sybil, or as we like to call her, Nana Syb came! We were so glad you could make it!

The spread! Jeff's Aunt Dana made it to the party with Julie.

My aunts Dorothy and Melba! They both had quite the drives to get there! We are so thankful they could come.

Boone playing with the Murphy kiddos! Thanks for coming guys!

Just like the good ole' college days. Are we old enough to be able to say that?

Getting ready for cake! My aunt always gets her grandsons a birthday number balloon for whatever birthday they are celebrating. We continued the tradition for Boone! 

Us with Boone before he really tore into the cake!

Boone with two of his second cousins. Logan (on the far left, from Emily's side of the family) and Wesley (in the middle, from Jeff's side)

Digging into the cake! He was timid at first, but who wouldn't be with that many people starring at you?

Playing with Papa Sutterfield

I got a chance to hold Boone's second cousin Mayci! She was only 6 weeks old here! So sweet.

Boone with Grandpa Robertson

Boone being held by my cousin-in-law, Jessica and playing with my soon-to-be cousin-in-law, Samantha! You can tell he is loving the attention.

The Libberts! (My aunt and uncle and cousins!)

No trip to the farm is complete without going to check on the cows! The white one is actually Boone's!

Checking out the cows!

Boone with his pals, the Murphys, again! 

Jam that I made for everyone to take home! I borrowed the idea from another friend and had some help making it, but I'm anxious to try some more canning now!

My mom, Carol and Sybil. These ladies took care of all the clean up while I was still visiting with people! These three ladies mean so much to me and I'm thankful for all three of them.

Carol and I snapped this photo after the party! I made it into thank you notes for all the wonderful gifts that Boone received! Thanks again for everyone who made the effort to come out to celebrate with us! It means so much to have so many people who care about Boone and want to love on him.

Phew! I guess it takes a big party to celebrate a big year! And this last year was a big one for us! Lots of good times, lots of hard times, lots of learning. We are so thankful for EVERYTHING this year has brought us, and it all started with that little boy in the overalls. SO thankful!

Until next time,

Jeff, Emily + Boone

Headed back to Missouri in August

Back at the beginning of the summer, Jeff and I started talking about what we wanted to do for Boone's first birthday. Whether to have it in Canada or Missouri was the big question. We decided that we would just head down to Missouri with Boone so that we could bring the party to all our family instead of having them come to us!

Boone and I headed to Missouri a little earlier than Jeff and enjoyed some family time. We traveled down to near Springfield, MO to visit my Aunt Melba and Uncle Wallace and so they could meet Boone! We had a great visit with them and Boone took right to them as if he had known them since birth.

Boone checking out the surroundings when we got to my Uncle and Aunt's house!

Making himself at home.

He was happy as could be!

When we got back to St. Louis, Boone loved hanging out with his uncle John!

Then.. a couple of days later, Jeff flew into town and we headed to Fulton to get ready for the big party!

Here's Boone playing with a toy that Jeff used to ride around on when he was little.

There are tons of great pictures from the birthday party, so that will be it's very own post! We always love going home to Missouri to visit our family and we are blessed that we are able to do it!

Stay tuned for pictures from the party!

Jeff, Em + Boone

Boone's first camping trip at 10 and 1/2 months!

Well... we may be crazy, but we decided to take our less than 1-year-old camping when our dear friends. the Younkins, came up to Canada! We originally had planned to camp in Jasper, but as we checked the weather closer to the weekend, the forecast kept deteriorating with predicted rain and cold, cold weather (around 40 degrees at night... brr!) Since we were planning to camp in a tent, we just thought it was a big gamble to travel 5 hours and sit inside a cold tent when it was raining. So instead, we decided to drive up to Banff and try and get a first come, first serve camping site. We got the last one at the Tunnel Mountain Campground that had a fire pit, so Jeff was very happy. I think he doesn't consider it camping if you can't build a fire and sit around it at the end of the night!

Jeff and I camped a few times our first year of marriage, but we never made it out to camp while we were in Tennessee, so we were a bit surprised when we remembered how big our tent actually was when we opened it up! The Younkins brought their own tent, but after we set ours up, we decided to just split one tent!

We saw so many cool things while we camped, so there will be lots of pictures further down in the post, but a few things we learned during our first camping trip with Boone aka "Camping with a Baby Survival Guide"

1. Bring a pack n' play - Our babe didn't really sleep in the pack n' play. (Probably because it was SO cold at night! 40ish degrees is too cold for tent camping, but we did it!) We did find that the pack n' play came in handy for plopping Boone in when we needed to put the tent up, or get a fire started or anything else where our hands were going to be busy for a bit and we needed him to not eat rocks, or get covered in dirt or venture toward the fire.)

2. Be prepared to not sleep - Whether it be rowdy neighbors that kept Boone up, or the lack of all the white noise we usually have in Boone's room, he didn't sleep great! As long as I know that going into a camping trip, I'm good, but I wasn't prepared for it initially! Oh well, we were only camping for 2 nights, so anyone can survive with a few nights of poor sleep!

3. Bring tons of layers of clothing for the baby - As I said earlier, it was REALLY cold during our first camping trip. I would guess if you aren't camping in the Canadian Rockies or don't schedule a camping trip after October or before April, you should have a little warmer weather, but I would always error on the side of bringing too many clothes for a baby. You can layer them up at night and keep them nice and toasty no matter how chilly or windy it gets in the evening. The funny thing was, I brought plenty of clothes for Boone, and not nearly enough for myself. At one point, I felt like I had layered all the clothes I had brought at the same time just to stay warm enough!

All that being said, we had so much fun and definitely made some great memories! Jeff and I really enjoy camping and I can see us taking our family camping for many years to come! It's cheap, fun and you can see so many cool things in places where you camp!

Ok, here's some pictures of Boone's first camping trip:

We did the Lake Louise hike to the tea house with Boone! It was a pretty hike and we enjoyed a little tea once we got to the top!

At our campsite for the weekend in Banff. Hayley was so great with Boone and helped take such good care of him. (Although, I think in this picture he is eating a pinecone! HA!)

After we set up our campsite, we decided to check out a few spots near our campground. Here are the hoodoos!  

Love this picture of Hayley and Sybil! So glad they came up to visit us!

Saturday, we decided to finally do the Johnston Canyon Hike. Here's the group checking out Johnston Canyon as we were starting our hike. We did the full hike all the way to the Ink Pots. 

We hiked... 

and hiked...

and hiked.... and this was the view at the end! Breathtaking and worth it! You can only get this view by taking the time to hike the whole way! We left behind the crowds at the beginning and this was our reward!

And we were hiking for so long that Boone just zonked out! 

We also took the Younkins to see Moraine Lake. It's one of our favorite spots in Banff! 

Love this place!

As you can tell from this picture, in order to get a picture without any random tourists in it, you have to work pretty hard! These destinations are so busy in the summer.

Our campsite the second morning!

Love these two!

Hayley didn't want to have to face the cold (or wake up!)

Good morning, Hayley!

We survived the first camping trip! Boone's such a little trooper for all the places we take him and he just handles it with ease! Too bad the pictures of all these adventures will be the only way he remembers them all!

Thanks to the Younkins for coming along with us on our first post-baby camping trip! (Mrs. Younkin was the master chef!) We had so much fun with you all!

There's still some warm weather left before fall officially arrives, so get out there and camp! 

Until next time,

Jeff, Em + Boone

so behind! catching up with summer (or maybe trying to make it last longer!)

Well, the summer has gotten away from me! Probably because it was so busy between traveling and hosting visitors, we stayed very busy! It was nice to stay busy, but here I am sitting on September 11 and realizing that the last time I updated the blog was about stuff we did in June! So, the next couple posts will be lots of catch up!

My parents came up at the beginning of July and we checked out the Calgary Stampede and then went to Jasper with them! It was such a fun, busy week. I made sure to take them to the Calgary Stampede parade on the first friday of Stampede. It's a little crazy because so many people go down to view the parade, but we took the bus downtown and then sat right at the front of the parade (across the street from the Canadian Prime Minister!!) and had a good view of all the floats! Here's a few pictures:

The guy in the front row with the black cowboy hat is Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He was just across the street from us, and all the security surrounding us (including rooftop security) was a little unnerving!

First Nation RCMP leadership

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (or Mounties, as most people know them!)

At the Stampede (decked out in his coveralls!)

Mom and Dad (with Dad's new cowboy hat!)

Calgary Stampede - The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth

On Sunday morning, we headed toward Jasper! The Columbia Icefields Parkway that you take up to Jasper is considered one of the most beautiful drives in North America, and I would say I agree!

This is the actual glacier mover that we traveled on to see the Columbia Icefields. The ride alone was pretty impressive, and the view once we got there was really cool too!

The Robertsons

Our little American-Canadian

Our hike up to Angel Glacier. You can see the glacier from this picture! It does look like an angel sitting there on the mountain! So glad these two could come to Jasper with us!

In Jasper National Park. People were actually swimming in this lake, but it was definitely chilly and I would not be getting into that lake all the way.

This guy lived in the hiking backpack in Jasper, and as always, he did great!

Athabasca Falls

Lower on the falls!

On our way back from Jasper! Peyto Lake is a must-see!