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!

Camping at Cold Lake

In July, at the height of mosquito season, we braved the elements to spend 5 days camping in bear country up by Cold Lake. We never did see any bears though we did see rabbits, lots of birds, and way too many squirrels. We set up our tents in the rain (and in the dark), and we ended up taking down our tents in the rain too so it was definitely one of our wetter camping trips but luckily it didn't rain the whole time so we were able to enjoy the beautiful park we were at.

One day, Connor found this little murky pond beside the lake that was full of minnows (and who knows what else) and he pretty much spent the whole days hunting minnows with his net.

He got pretty good at patiently stalking his prey:

And eventually, he decided to build a dam to try and trap more minnows in his pond. A dam out of slime...EWWW. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

Hudson missed me while I was out in the dinghy, he gave me a nice hug when I got back.

There was a lot of "The Force" game happening at the lake - that's where the younger kids hold up their hands and pretend they're using the Force to knock Shae over backwards in the water. Apparently it's hilarious.

This is our campsite. We were pleased with how private it was. Though not private enough to block out the sounds from the obnoxious neighbours behind us who let their kids stay up way later than ours...I guess maybe they thought we were obnoxious too since our kids woke up way earlier than theirs!

I think this might have been everyone's favourite part: singing old cheesy campfire songs after a marshmallow roast.

Summer Stuff

Well, it's been a busy summer, I can't believe it's almost over. It's been too busy for me to sit down and go through the thousands and thousands (literally) of photos Jess has taken this summer, and pick out my favourites to upload here but I think I'm finally ready to give it a shot.

I'll start with a few random pictures I like and then I'll talk about our camping trip to Cold Lake.

First off, here's what happens when you leave the kids alone and they're being really really quiet...

First, he was mad that I took his markers away from him:

Then he laughed when I started laughing:

And then he proudly showed me all his artwork on his belly:

Jess' "little" brother Spencer came to visit us a few times. It's not every uncle who will dress up in a pink cape to play with his nieces and nephews...

We went to Fort Edmonton Park a few times because Hudson is at that age where trains are the coolest thing ever. Here's the train we rode on:

And Hudson's face when we climbed on board:

It was a rainy day but it wasn't pouring and we still had a good time...despite the duelling pipe bands marching around the park. We happened to be there on their annual Celtic celebration and there were about a dozen bagpipe bands marching around, each one playing a different tune. I found it quite entertaining but Jess was less than impressed!