We went to Lake Louise this past weekend to celebrate for the first non-business related, child-free weekend since having children.  It was really nice!  I did not take a lot of pictures but thought I should have one…I happened to prefer this blown out one over the others as it washed my wrinkles away.  10 years does not  come without a few of them;)

So the story behind the gift…we have never really been “gift” people. Probably goes along with the fact that we are both fairly practical but also minimalist. This is a little different though, when you hit a big milestone there feels like there is a bit of an expectation. So I have been soliciting his friends and golf buddies to see if there was a club that he needed. Well, it seems that there has been a “need” for them some time in the past as he has all of them. So I was at a bit of a loss…and mentioned it one day. He answers rather quickly with “there is the bike I have been looking at and it is on sale right now”. Sweet! Shopping done! So the friendly neighbourhood UPS guy arrives last Friday with the gift a month early and I, fortunately, had a GNO planned so that I did not have to be part of the assembly process;) So here is the new cruiser…not the motorized kind that he would really like but the family friendly, get some exercise kind. Don’t ask me anything else about it because despite being shown the website and video and hearing about it for a week or so, I still can’t tell you anything about it or why he needed it?!? Happy Birthday Honey…I know you love it. I just may have to find a beanie helmet because the mountain biking one looks goofy – ah, Father’s Day!

There is no doubt that it will be well used as we are out biking as a family every opportunity we have…here is everyone else geared up. All I ever see is my son’s dust so thought that this was fitting.

I think that Barb is fantastic. Her focus on eating to nourish and energize our bodies is something that I feel is extremely important. Although food and healthy food has always been extremely important to me it is even more important as I put food on the table for my family (approximately 6 times a day). I want my children to go to school with as much energy as they can to learn but I also need to be able to do this efficiently. Barb’s classes have offered a lot of solutions for my family (and I tweet about the yummy things that we are eating a lot…the recipes are typically from Barb).

Another change in light of a few documentaries like Food Inc., Sharkwater and End of the Line as well as working with Barb Thomas of Love 2 Eat, I have been continuing to learn and change the way I feed my family. Anyone who knows me, knows that this has always been something important to me but changes that I have made this year are eating at least one vegetarian dinner per week in an attempt to consume less meat. Trying to understand where my meat and fish come from and only purchase from the Sustainable Fish list. I have also been trying to consider the packaging and distances traveled in my food purchases (this was also brought up at my Social Series last year by Kerry Kaufman of Green Plan-it).

Another change I that I have been making is changing to online magazine subscriptions through Zinio or directly from magazine companies. I have to admit, I still subscribe to my paper version of Fitness magazine as I like to go through this when I am working out. Gradual changes;)

On the business front, I have always been focused on minimalist packaging in an attempt to be green. This is something I am going through again as I am in the process of changing my logo on everything. I am also currently going through system and process improvements to eliminate paper and do more online.

It is definitely a process and something that I do think is important (particularly as a parent) so I just thought I would share some of the changes that I am making. I would love to hear feedback on unique things you are doing.

I, of course, have to share a few of my children from a trip to the Calgary Zoo last weekend. The children and I made a trip to the zoo to see the new interactive dinosaurs and to take a few pictures of the frost (which has been gorgeous this year!). As you will see the dinosaur exhibit did not go over well. Oh well, a little trip to visit the hippos and the play area turned things around.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Valentines and Family Day weekend!

The little one was hanging out in the studio with me last week when she was not feeling well…I just downloaded these as I was downloading the weekend sessions’ images…She looks like I feel today…although my eyes might be a little more red. The scruffy looking pink thing is her sleep bag that my mum made when her when she was born…and I am still surprised that it is still the thing that she carts around everywhere.