Medicine Hat Family Fun

If you are a stay at home parent, a working parent, single parent, or otherwise, the odds are that you are always looking for something new to do with your little one(s). Here are a few things that my family enjoys doing around Medicine Hat that are fun, outside, and quite budget friendly! Make sure to share this with friends and save it for inspiration later!

Go Rock Hunting!

Rock hunting? If you're new to Medicine Hat, or visiting, then you may not have heard of Medicine Hat Rocks! Many members of our community paint on rocks and stones with their own unique designs, and then hide them around the city parks. A popular hiding location is Police Point Park, which is perfect because it is centrally located.

This activity is great for little ones because not only do they get to find the rocks, but they can find a new place to hide them! They can also collect a few fresh rocks to paint themselves and hide later. Parents, be sure to join the Medicine Hat Rocks Facebook page so you can post yours and your child's findings and hidings.

Echo Dale Farm + Lake

If you are looking to get out of the city, but don't want to take too long of a drive, then Echo Dale is an amazing location. It's my family's Go-To place for a quick day-cation.

It's so beautiful year-round, however the summer is when this park really shines! The park houses a historical farm and the entrance to a long since closed coal mine. Entry is free, and not only do you get to read about the history of the place, but the also bring in several animals for you to visit while you're there. My son's favourites are the donkeys and the chickens. There are also pigs, ducks, goats, and horses. Sometimes there are even some cats that will follow you wanting some attention for themselves. If that's not enough animals for you, then it's good to know that the park is also on-leash dog friendly, with an off leash area on the other end of the park.

Another great feature of this beautiful park is their swim lake and fishing pond. This photo was taken at the beginning of the season for the swim lake, so it was more shallow than usual but my son loved playing in the shallows and the water markers that were up on the sand. There's plenty of beach and walking paths all around for families to spend the day exploring.

If you're not much of a beach family (I'm sure not one to spend all day in the sand), then don't worry! There are a few play structures both on and off the beach that you'll find as you walk the trails.

I almost forgot that the fish lake allows for you to take some boating devices like kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. Personally I would like to take my son fishing here for his first time. I think it would be a great starter location where we as a family could all be really relaxed and enjoy the day together.

Elkwater - Cypress Hills

So funny story about Elkwater. I spent a lot of time going snowboarding as a kid in the Cypress Hills Provincial Park, but I never went there during summer! I only realized that this was the same place, when my husband, son, and I took a random drive out toward Reesor lake which is deeper in the Provincial Park than Elkwater is. Needless to say, when my son gets older, we'll definitely be taking him there for his first snowboarding or skiing lesson. I mean, I'm hoping he chooses snowboarding because then my husband and I can hopefully teach him, or maybe even his uncle (who taught me).

Now, more about Elkwater. This will be for a day when you have extra time, because it is 45 minutes one way out of Medicine Hat towards the Eastern Alberta boarder. Don't want to do that kind of drive for just one day? No worries! There are more campgrounds and lodges than I can list. I'll have to leave that up to you! However, the one that I want to grab right away for the next camping season is the Firerock campground, because there are some amazingly private sites that are surrounded by woodland. Definitely top of my list to try out!

You definitely won't be bored while you're there. There's swimming, boating, frisbee golf, and plenty of trails to explore. Plus, if you want to take your time exploring the rest of Cypress Hills you'll definitely will have no shortage of options. Then once you get back from exploring, you'll likely be able to find a food truck or two near the main beach. Most often when I've visited, there's a Swirls Ice Cream trailer waiting and ready to fix your sweets cravings!

Hopefully these give you some inspiration for your next family outing! Don't forget to pass this on to your friends and family with little ones that are planning a visit Medicine Hat.

Thanks for reading!

Pregnancy & Me | Part 1

For many women today that are hoping to start their families, pregnancy is one of the first things they think about and what it will be like. What will my cravings be? How big will my bump get? Will the morning sickness be bearable? But most of all, will everything be okay? Honestly that last one is the question that is held onto the longest and for good reason; Every pregnancy is different! Today I'm going to tell you the story of my pregnancy with my son.

To start off, lets get this out of the way. This pregnancy was not planned. It actually was quite shocking when I took that pregnancy test and it was positive. You see, about a year beforehand, my doctor told me that it was unlikely that I would be able to get pregnant due to some of my health problems. It was suspected that if I wanted to have children that we would need medical help. Now that you have the background, lets hop into the story.

Finding Out

If I remember correctly, it was a Tuesday morning around 10am. I had not been feeling quite right for a few days, with being tired, having no appetite, and lots of brain fog. Those things aren't super uncommon in my life due to health issues, but this time things seemed different. So I decided to check my calendar to see when "Aunt Flo" was supposed to be paying a visit, only to find out that it was a couple days late. Not unusual for menstruation to fluctuate timing by a few days give or take, but the pervious five-ish months I had been 28 days on the dot regular. It made me a little suspicious. So off to my pregnancy test stash I went, grabbed one and went for it. You know how tests say things like "results in 1 - 3 minutes"? Well I didn't even get to set down the test before a big ol' PLUS symbol was showing up telling me "you're pregnant".

I was in shock to say the least. What was worse though, was that I had to go to work that afternoon and wouldn't be off until 9:30pm! So basically I had to be at work, thinking about the fact that I'm now suddenly a mother, without having had the opportunity to tell my husband, for several hours until the dark of night, also while working alone. What tops it is that the main computer crashed as I was closing up the store, which left me stuck there until after 10pm. So I didn't get home until close to 10:30pm that night, 12+ hours since finding out.

During the day I had been thinking of cute ways to tell my husband, but first I wanted to go to the doctor to make 100% sure this was happening. There were so many ideas going through me head of what to do, then I walked through our old house door and saw my groggy husband making a snack in the kitchen, he smiled and asked me how I was, and I couldn't take it. There was NO WAY I was going to be able to keep this under wraps for another day. So I excused myself, ran downstairs to get the pregnancy test, called my cat and put a onesie on her (the reason why we had a onesie on hand is a story for another day) that said "you've got this dad" and took her upstairs. I held her out in front of him so he could read what it said. Now remember how I mentioned he was groggy? Well he looked at our cat in a onesie and did a little chuckle (like awe that's cute), then it hit him! "Are you pregnant?" suddenly burst out of him, and I handed him the test. Afterwards it was a straight half hour of him going "huh.... um.... well..... huh...". Just trying to process this information in his tired mind after a long day at work, and right before bed.

First Trimester

Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Those are the words that I hope no mama has to hear. Unfortunately for myself, this was my life not only for the first trimester but throughout the whole pregnancy. This extreme form of morning sickness left me nearly unable to eat, drink, sleep, drive, and I had to take medical leave from my two jobs at the time. I knew morning sickness was going to happen, but I never expected anything like that!

At 8 weeks, I had to have an ultrasound because there was unusual spotting happening. This was heart wrenching because all I could think of was that my baby was in danger. The ultrasound revealed that there had been a slight hemorrhage near the implantation site. For now nothing detrimental had occurred, but I had to take it easy for several weeks until my next ultrasound. It wasn't so serious as to go on bed rest, but I was told exercise would have to be low impact only, no strenuous activities for work or moving furniture in the house (something I often do), and to try to keep stress under control.

The best first memory that I have from my first trimester was hearing my baby's heartbeat for the very first time. 147BPM! It was so amazing. Honestly, it made me feel so honored to be carrying this life. Before I heard that heartbeat, I was so lost in what I felt. Was I happy? Sad? Scared? Or all of the above? But hearing that sound, made me know that it was a privilege.

Now, that doesn't mean there weren't problems. Pregnancy is amazing, but it's also a full time job that takes up so much energy even when you are doing "nothing". I spent so much time in bed and in my recliner during those first few months, because I just had zero energy for anything else. Cooking was near impossible most of the time because it just took too long, and I swear the brain fog made me forget how to cook. We had a friend over for supper one night and part of the meal was mashed potatoes. Simple enough right? Apparently not! The ended up being the worst I've ever made, like so runny that it would have been better to make it into a soup instead. So as a bit of a perfectionist with cooking, that drove me nuts. I essentially lived off of potato chips, water, and oatmeal. Not very nutritious. Thankfully I was regularly taking my prenatal vitamins, and would try to eat fruit and any other actual food whenever I could manage it.

Some things that helped me were keeping warm, because it was winter and all the extra pressure of pregnancy on my body was wreaking havoc on my joints. Using a warm water bottle on my hips (not too hot or too long), then moving it onto my upper back or knees, was super helpful. Some days when the morning sickness was especially bad, that warm bottle right on my chest/stomach was just the thing to make it bearable. Making sure to stay hydrated was also absolutely key, especially with losing so much hydration to all the sickness plus frequent pee trips which start way earlier that I expected!

Then there was the second trimester. Please subscribe here or follow my Instagram @rhys.and.ellice for updates on Part 2 where my second and third trimester's will be covered! Thanks for reading!

Toddler Toy Time: Less is More

Recently I packed away all of my son's noisy toys. Not that I think there is anything wrong with having them, or found them annoying, but we were wanting to encourage him to rely more on his own imagination rather than just on the sounds and lights of the toys. Don't worry! We kept all his other toys, they are just being stored away right now, and will slowly come back into play. It was simply that we as his parents wanted to see how our son's playing habits would change based on the type and amount of toys available to him.

First up are his wooden rainbow sets from Tiny Wooden Treasures. He stacks them, knocks them over,

and uses them as slides or teeter-totters for his other toys. Sometimes he will take one for himself and give me another to play telephone! Aedan loves to finish his conversations by abruptly slamming down his "phone". Or he even will use them for peek-a-boo by covering his eyes with an arch and peeking over or under them. It honestly makes me think of the glasses Cyclops wears in X-Men.

On the parent side of things, they are also great if you want something that doubles as décor. As you can see they fit right in with my Willow Tree figurine and many plants. Plus it is fun to challenge myself with ways to set them up for various activities or trying to stack them higher than the last time.

Next up is his Peg People set from Wood + Willow Co. They come in a set of several colours, which is not only fun but a great learning tool! Aedan has definitely liked showing off his colour matching skills using these cute little toys. It's so fun to see his imagination at work as he has the pieces interact with each other, and as he goes "Weee!!" when he slides one down one of his rainbow arches always makes my heart happy.

Lastly, something I find extremely important, is spending time outside. Let me tell you, this boy gets DIRTY! I mean head to toe mud. If there isn't mud to play in, just wait, he will track down the nearest water source and make some! It's fortunate that we have a big back yard with some garden patches for

us to enjoy. One of which we put a Mud Kitchen in for Aedan to use, made out of some old tables and pallets we had in the garage. He gets to make messes there, and interact with nature by finding bugs, watching the birds, and picking dandelions to sniff.

The best part about so much of his playtimes is that he's constantly learning. Toddlers soak up so much information even when we may be thinking they aren't exactly paying attention. For example, Aedan watches his dad and I do chores around the house, and often wants to take over for us. He most enjoys helping with putting away the silverware from the dishwasher, but lately has also been handing us the bowls and plates to put up in the cupboard. Right now the scariest chore he helps with is sweeping. Sweeping scary? Yes, when someone who still is figuring out coordination is handling something that is over 2X their height, swinging it side to side, you fear for your eyes and any low sitting fragile items. In the end though, we love how much he wants to help and hope to keep encouraging him to do so whenever possible.

Changing up our son's toys has definitely been of benefit to us all as a family. Less stimulation has seemed to increase his use of imagination, and has taught us as his parents how to communicate with him better than we previously had. It has also shown us how much of a visual learner he is, which will help with long term teaching goals. Not to mention, having fewer toys also means less time tidying up and more time playing! Having that extra freedom to focus on our one on one time is so important for each of us. In our case, when it came to having toys in the house, less is more.