A Visit to Lloydminster for Evan Brands Birthday.

Ethan came down with croup on Tuesday night. All day Wed he had a fever and tight breathing. Then, Wed evening he got his energy back and was back to his old antics again. This time those antics took the form of pulling his dresser onto himself and (not 5 min later) giving himself a black eye on the edge of the bathroom counter. So, he was snotty, had a congested cough, and black eye! What a sight!

Anyway, we were not going to go visit the Brands because of Ethan's cold. But, after discussing with Jen, we decided to go. Ethan did really well and seemed to feel well.

Evelyn and Juliana had a great visit. They both had the same 'nurse' PJ's and thought it was really neat to wear the same thing. The both love to pretend to be nurses. They played with a Littlest Pet Shop play set Evelyn brought and they set up Juliana's doll house.

Evelyn and Evan played together a fair bit too. She actually went up and asked him to play with her. He was very pleased and happily went to do her bidding. Later, those two shared a few hugs. So, it looks like Ethan has a crush on Juliana and Evan really likes Evelyn. Pretty cute.

Ethan showed Evan how he uses the potty. They were both interested in each others parts. What a boy thing! The boys also played cars and balloons and danced together. Evan loves to dance.

We drove to Lloyd after Playschool on Thursday and arrived around 4 pm. We left around 1 pm on Friday and did some shopping ($15 jeans for me!), then drove home in time for bed! The sky was crystal clear and there were thousands stars visible. It was really a beautiful drive. I managed to successfully avoid hitting 2 suicidal deer(they'll just have to live another day), and Evelyn got to try to pee on the side of the highway with a horse watching her from a near by pasture. She got stage fright and decided to hold it till we got home.

During supper on Thursday, the sky lit up like it was daytime. Totally bizarre. For about 2.5 seconds, it looked like someone had turned on Stadium lights. We'd never seen anything like it. We thought 'Is it lightening? - but where is the thunder?' then 'Maybe something exploded! - but where's the boom?' About 2 minutes after the light, we could hear a low, sustained rumble. It reminded me of what an earthquake can sound like (but without any shaking). The rumble lasted for about 10 seconds, followed by some crackling and popping. It turns out the light was caused by a meteor glancing across the Earths atmosphere. It managed to fall low enough that the air was thick enough to transmit sound. As it travelled through this part of the atmosphere, it created the low rumble. It is unknown if any portion actually fell to Earth, or if it glanced back into space, or just burned up. Apparently, when a meteor actually falls to Earth, it stops burning and falls in darkness. This makes it a lot harder to see it's trajectory. Whatever the outcome, it was an experience I've never had before. Apparently it was seen by most of Alberta.

So, today it is Evelyn's turn to have a fever. She has not developed a cough, but she's a bit annoyed at Ethan for making her sick. We have a fresh dump of snow on the ground. That was a big surprise to me because the sky was so clear last night. The temp is already just above Zero, so it may not stick around for too long. Winter has been very mild so far this year! Evelyn wants to try making a snowman - after her nap. We'll see how the kids are feeling, then we may take advantage of this wet snow and create a monument to last until spring! (most of our snow is too dry to make anything with it)