Birthdays, Spring and Other Things

Hello spring!  How magnificent it is to head outside without having to layer the kids with ski pants, jackets, mitts, toques, scarves and the like.  We have had unusually warm weather here for March - we were warmer then Arizona for a bit this month.  In true Winnipeg fashion, everyone was out in shorts, flip flops and trips for Slurpees were in order.

The kids activities have ended for now - swimming lessons are finished with all three girls moving up to the next level, Danica ended her skating lessons with a surprising pass and Emily wound up her first year of ringette with a terrific wind up party at Kid City.  Soccer starts in a bit and so will the grown up activities of softball and Ultimate frisbee.

Work has been going well - a nice mix of learning new things and process improvement that I have been enjoying so far.  I have also started to make use of the gym facilities at work.  Just before I left on maternity leave, the last of our complete overhaul of our building was finishing up and along with those renovations, came a brand new, state of the art gym was put in.  Three days a week I take part in bootcamps, weightlifting and other various classes that are offered - all for free.  How sweet a deal is that?

Peyton and I both celebrated birthdays a few weeks ago.  It's hard to believe that a year has come and gone.  She has started to move now - I enjoyed her disinterest in getting from point A to point B but I knew that wasn't going to last forever.  She has started crawling and has progressed rather quickly to walking with the help of the furniture (or vacuum cleaner as the case may be) and has tried a few tentative steps on her own as well.  She likes to side shuffle when you are holding her hands too.

We have spent a fair bit of time enjoying our season tickets to the Jets.  How fun it has been to experience the NHL back in Winnipeg.  The atmosphere in the arena is incredible!  We even managed to score some top notch seats that my work was offering and we sat right behind the visitors penalty box.

Here are some shots from Peyton's birthday:

Waking up on our birthday morning.

Gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Danica.

We are looking forward to spending some much needed time over spring break relaxing and taking a trip for some cross-border shopping and a much needed visit with some of my favorite Americans.  We had our annual camping meeting to plan out our trips with friends this summer as registration opens up soon for that as well.  And of course, we are very much looking forward to heading to this place this summer in Wisconsin Dells for a much needed reunion between us, the Hrehirchuk and Karsten family's.