Anna, one of my little readers, plays on a Cobourg Rep ball team, and I went to watch her play her first game in a tournament at Legion Fields yesterday. What an amazing little player she is! I loved watching and taking pictures of her! Here you are, Anna, this blog's for you!
Each child gets at least 5 pitches when they get up to bat if they need them. If they keep hitting foul balls, it could be more.
Anna never needed her 5 pitches!
And it connects!
And off she goes to first base.
Listening to advice from the coach.....
.....and waiting her chance.
There she goes!
The piece of equipment in the middle of the diamond is a pitching machine. There is not a pitcher, and all the balls come across the plate at the same place. I thought it was a great idea!
She's a running machine! Reminds me of the energizer bunny!
Safe at second base......
.....and safe at third.
Sometimes Anna played second base - and played it very well!
Ready for the hit...
.....she scoops it.....
.....and is ready for the throw.....
....straight and true!
Sometimes Anna played right field as well. Back-up's ready....
......but she didn't need back-up!
Ready to throw on the run....
....and once again, straight and true!
I thought it was cool that this time,.....
....she made the decision NOT to throw, and it was right on!
Anna is the only girl on her rep team, and there were NO girls on the opposing team. THAT tells you something!
Another base hit!
And she's there! I love the look on her face in this one!
Heading into the outfield - I just really like this picture of you, Anna!
Mom, this series of pics is for you - it's the play you missed while dealing with the puppy. Anna made another really good play from right field.
Anna has two older brothers who play ball as well, so that might have something to do with her interest in baseball, as well as hockey.
And another great play is completed!
I forgot to even ask who won, but somehow, it didn't really matter!
The after-game pep-talk in the field.
And back to one of her biggest fans, her puppy, Spencer.
Though we flew in and out of Edmonton, with a very short visit with Greg and Karen before they left for their "trip of a lifetime", we were happy to spend one of the 2 weeks of our western visit with Jeff and Kerry and our grand-daughters, Erin and Megan in Vancouver. The girls were unable to drive out with us for various reasons, but drove out on their own later, then we drove home behind each other. It was nice to spend some time with them out there as well, even though they stayed with their Mom's sister and family. We'll start with a day we spent with them on Grouse Mountain.
There were lots of wooden sculptures on the mountain top, and Megan is always willing to pose for me.
Erin thought that bombarding us with snowballs was a fun thing to do!
Everyone's favorite thing to do was to visit the grizzly bear area. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those big claws!
Here I come, ready or not! Grinder is the fun bear - always ready for a play fight with Coola.
Both bears were rescued in 2001 as orphaned cubs, and both are male. Grinder is smaller than Coola, but holds his own in their scuffles.
The top of the mountain gives a lovely view of Vancouver area, and Megan adds to the lovely view!
This is one of the trams which brings people to the top - 100 at a time! Pretty crowded!
A lot of people like to hang glide off the mountain. Erin and Megan's Grandpa Siemens did it one time - the thrill of a lifetime for him.
Another lovely view of the Vancouver area, with another lovely grand-daughter.
The salmon berries have begun on the north shore, and the bears love to eat them.
Jeff says the way to tell if the bushes are salmon berry is to look at the leaves. If you fold back the top one, the others look like a butterfly.
On our last day in North Van, we went to check out a nature sanctuary, and there were signs everywhere that indicated there were bears in the area eating the berries, but fortunately (or unfortunately!), we didn't see any.
We actually didn't see much of anything exciting. If this duck family had not moved, we would have missed them too - they were well camouflaged!
We did, however, see lots of flowers!
Since we were close to Deep Cove that day, we decided we had better go on and get some donuts from Honey's - a favorite in the area - and well worth the drive!
While in Deep Cove, we found these ravens. I had wondered how to tell the difference from crows. These are much larger, and have a different head.
It was funny to see the smaller crows chasing and dive-bombing these guys.
I thought this saying on a tee shirt in a store front was funny!
And there were many beautiful flowers in Deep Cove as well.
Anna and Rylee, I thought you might be interested in some of the things we saw on our drive from Vancouver back to Edmonton. There are high fences on both sides of the highways most of the time, and places like this give an opportunity for animals to cross to the other side without getting smucked on the roads.
This, on the other hand, is a snow shed, which keeps the SNOW off the roads in avalanch areas.
This car seems to show up in lots of my pictures! That's because we were following Erin and Megan most of the way home. This is another, different animal crossing area.
This gives you an idea how hard it must have been to cut a road through the mountains in some areas.
We didn't see a lot of animals on this trip, but there were some big-horned sheep suddenly just by the road in a town (no fences), and I just pointed the camera and clicked away. This was the best I got.
Back in Edmonton, we took a day to visit the Muttart Conservatory, a place that has 4 glass pyramids with plants from different "biomes" inside. Girls, see if you can find out what "biome" means.
As you can imagine, I took lots of pictures, so I grouped them together for each of the biomes. The first is the "Temperate Biome".
This one is the "Tropical Biome".
This is the "Arid Biome". Girls, what do you think arid means?
The fourth is actually one they call the "Feature Biome", which changes throughout the year. This is a beautiful place to have pictures taken for weddings, and we had to wait for a wedding to be done before we could go in.
After seeing the conservatory, we went to spend some time at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.
As soon as we arrived, there was a talk about the reindeer, which we listened to as we ate ice cream. This reindeer was fond of eating dandelions!
I'll bet you thought this animal was called a Llama! It's actually called a Guanaco, and is a relative to the Llama, with many of the same features.
This was one of my favorite experiences at the zoo. We came across this mother and baby Big-horned Sheep just minutes after the baby was born and we were asked to suggest a name for the baby. Since Mama had a red ear tag, we decide Rosie would be apt.
We just missed a talk about Lucy, the zoo's only elephant, but saw her being led from her enclosure to a field to spend the rest of the day.
I am not a fan of snakes, but found it interesting how this one presented, with his head turned up like this, and his eye so evident.
And yet another interesting snake. It is a Vietnamese Blue Beauty snake, and people in Viet Nam and Taiwan keep them around their homes and buildings to keep the rodent population down.
This cute little critter is called a Slender-Tailed Meerkat.
I'm not sure what kind of monkey this was, but I loved watching him and his friends. Spider monkey maybe???
Again, I don't know what this was called, but it climbed like a monkey, yet looked almost rodent-like.
Girls, I know you enjoy seeing these kind of critters, so I'm adding it for you.They are called "Inland Bearded Dragons".
This not a resident at the zoo, but, like us, a visitor! It is called a Magpie, and is a common bird in the west. Though a scavenger, like a crow, it is a very pretty one, all black and white and blue!
I found the Kea to be an interesting bird. They are only found in New Zealand. Erin decided he looked like a hawk crossed with a chicken!
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree....." Have you heard the song? I believe he is native to Australia.
I didn't even know there was such an animal as a Red Panda, but apparently there is!
This native of South America, who looks kind of like a hog, is actually a rodent. It is called a Capybara.
I love to see the Zebras. This one is a Grevy's Zebra, the largest of 3 species of zebra.
These little prairie dogs are always fun to watch. This one appears to be eating a stalk of white asparagus, though there were also parsnips for them to eat.
Some of the favorites at the zoo are the seals. We missed that show as well, but sat watching them through the glass for quite a while.
Another favorite of mine is the otter. They are such fun to watch!
Megan and I were watching this fellow"eating a fish", then when we saw the pictures, realized he was chewing his own tail!
Well, girls, I've enjoyed seeing lots of blossoming trees in Edmonton and Vancouver, but I'm really hoping that I haven't missed the spring flowers at home as well. We're heading home on Monday, and I will plan to be back with you and "Stuart Little" next Monday. Until then.......
