Family Reunion Summer 2011

We took a long trip in August to spend time with family. First, we headed to Raymond for a few days where we spent time with Grammy and Grandpa, Paul, Spencer, and John. We spent hours at the outdoor pool in Raymond, enjoyed raspberries in Grandpa's garden, and we got to watch John play the role of Ralph Malph in the Happy Days musical showing in Cardston.

There's a great tree climbing tree in the backyard in Raymond and Hudson spent a long time sitting in the tree, he was pretty proud of himself.

And Shae has always liked to climb trees since she was little.

Look, Hudson's as tall as Spencer!

One day, we went to Lethbridge and met up with my brother Jared and his daughter Lilia, as well as my mom, my brother David and his wife, Laura. We hung out at Henderson Lake where we climbed more trees, tried to catch crayfish in the lake, ate pizza, and rented some four-wheeler bikes.

After a few days in Raymond, we headed down to Hayden Lake in northern Idaho. We rented a house near the lake and just around the corner from my cousin Eleasha's home. We spent most evenings over at Brad & Eleasha's, hanging out around the fire or playing games. We also went to the lake, had a lunch and games at the church, and spent one day at Silverwood Amusement Park.

This is the front of the house we rented:

Maira and Connor are pretending they're swimming in a lake (I guess the shag carpet was pretty deep):

Hudson is helping chop up the bananas for our fruit salad:

This is David swinging one of my kids around (Hudson, I think?). Now we know what he would look like if he was a ghost...

Maira and Eleasha's daughter, Keely:

Connor and Keely:

Playing "Two Truths and a Lie":

David and Laura jetskiing off into the sunset:

This was Connor's first time being tall enough to go on a real roller coaster.

Here we are, waiting in line for the Timber Terror:

The ride is about to begin! (for the record, it was a terrible ride, they should name it Whiplash Wonder):

Here we are on a horizontal ferris wheel type ride. It was really fun.

The highlight of the day for Maira and Hudson may well have been the train ride:

Hudson loved the train, he just thought the whistle was a little loud:

There was much swinging and twirling when David and Laura were around:

At supper time, we decided to try Elephant Ears. We thought they were like Beaver Tails, a favourite treat from Ottawa, but it turns out they're about 10 times bigger than a Beaver Tail so when I ordered 4 of them before I knew how big they were, we were drowning in Elephant Ears!

Good-bye Silverwood! Your lineups were way too long and your roller coaster way too painful but we still had a good day!

On the drive home, we stopped at this giant truck parked on the side of the road in Sparwood BC, so Hudson could get out and stretch his legs.

We had a great time but it sure is nice to be home again!