McMullin Reunion 2013

As soon as school got out, we packed up the van and headed down to Raymond for a McMullin Family Reunion.  This was for Jess' Dad's family: his mother, Jane Walker McMullin, and her 5 kids and their descendants..  Most of her descendants live in Utah, Idaho, and Montana so they had a longer way to travel than we did.

On Sunday, after church, Grandma Jane wanted to go on a tour of the Raymond cemetery to show everyone where her relatives were buried and tell stories about them.  It was a super hot afternoon but Grandma Jane really enjoyed the chance to reminisce.

Grandma Jane, with her daughter, Nola Baker:

Grandma Jane was tired so they took a seat on Grandma Jane's parents' grave marker.  Grandma knew her parents wouldn't mind.

Grandma Jane's oldest son, Brad, escorted her to and from the car.

The next morning, it was time for the annual Canada Day Parade.  I had us all dressed in red and white, and the kids were set with plastic bags to collect their candy.

After the parade, we gathered in the backyard for the annual Walker family dinner.  This is a gathering for all of Grandma Jane's family, as well as the families of her Walker siblings, all of whom grew up in Raymond and have many descendants still living nearby.  There are usually about 250 people at the dinner.  When I told Connor we were going to be attending the same lunch we always do after the parade, he was amazed to find out he was related to all those people - he said he had always thought they were just Grammy and Grandpa's friends who they like to invite over to their backyard!

There was a bouncy castle and balloon animals, as well as lots of delicious food.

This is a photo of all the Walker first cousins at the picnic.  I believe they all grew up together in Raymond.

  

And Shae with some of her second cousins:

That evening, we headed to the Raymond Pool, a fairly new outdoor pool, that our family had rented for an hour.  It's usually really busy there so it was a real treat to have it to ourselves.

 There were fireworks that night which the kids loved but I don't have any photos because Jess was tired and decided to stay home and I didn't think to bring a camera.

The next day, we went to Waterton.  We spent most of the day at Emerald Bay.  Hudson loved playing with his younger cousin Brinsley.  He thought it was pretty awesome to play the "big brother" role for once in his life!

Maira and Hudson had fun tending to all the caterpillars they found.  Maira made a home for her caterpillars:

Shae really enjoyed having cousins her age at this reunion (this is really unusual for her, she's usually way older than all her cousins).  She treated her cousins to poutine in Raymond (they're all American and had never heard of poutine), and took them to the rental shop in Waterton and they rented a surrey together.

John and Spencer with Jayna and Brinsley taking a turn on a canoe:

Connor got to do a lot of fishing during this reunion.  Grandpa took him out fishing 4 times!

One of their fishing trips was in the canoe at Emerald Bay.  Connor was Grandpa's good luck charm as Grandpa reeled in a huge lake trout, something he hasn't caught in 35 years!

Another time, they went fishing at a reservoir near Raymond and Connor caught a walleye and a pike - good job Connor!

Later in the day, Jess and Shae left to go to Girls Camp.  Jess had volunteered to attend as a leader and Shae was going as a Third Year.  The camp was at the summer home of a family in our ward near Mountainview, quite close to Waterton.  I'll do a separate post of their time at Girls Camp.

After they left, we decided to drive up to Red Rock Canyon.  Mary-Rose and I took Connor, Maira and Hudson on a walk up the canyon.  It was absolutely gorgeous up there with weeping walls and luxurious moss and butterflies and cool misty air, we all loved it.  Since Jess wasn't there, I didn't get any pictures but he and Shae actually hiked up Red Rock Canyon the next day with Girls Camp so I'll use some of their pictures to show what it was like.

The canyon is absolutely gorgeous.  It was a hot sunny day and we were enjoying exploring the canyon, and splashing in the ankle deep water as we walked further and further upstream.

Eventually, we came to a narrowing of the canyon where a log jam had formed a natural cave.  With difficulty, we navigated our way through the cave, which had faster moving and deeper water inside it.

Just on the other side of the log jam, I happened to step on a loose rock.  The rock shifted and caused a larger rock, which had been resting on it, to shift as well and it quickly rolled onto my ankle, crushing it and pinning it.  I yelled out in pain and fell down.  Jess' cousin, Wes, and his family were hiking with us at this point and Wes was at my side in about 2 seconds and pulled that rock right off my foot.

The rock caused a severe eversion sprain in my right ankle, as well as a small avulsion fracture.  Don't know what those words mean?  Neither did I before this happened.  Eversion just means my ankle rolled outward and avulsion means the ligaments in my ankle pulled away from my bone when they were being injured and pulled a small chip of bone off my ankle.

Needless to say, my ankle hurt a lot and there was absolutely no way I could put any weight on it.  Fortunately, there was another family hiking nearby who emerged from the log jam not long after my injury and they offered to help.  There were two men and their two teenage sons in the group, as well as Wes and his teenage son Dallin, who were willing to help carry me out of the canyon.  This other family turned out to be LDS and so was Wes so they were able to give me a priesthood blessing before carrying me out, which was a great source of comfort.

Of course, getting me out of the canyon involved carrying me back through the log jam,which didn't appear possible at first.  But one of the men basically ended up piggy backing me through as he crawled under the logs.  Then they all took turns carrying me in pairs back down the canyon and then up into the parking lot.  They were all amazing.  They never faltered or slipped once and seemed happy to help.  I was really grateful for their help and kindness.

Here's a picture I took of my feet while I was waiting for x-rays in the Raymond hospital:

And here's what my ankle looked like the next day:

It's now been a week and there's nothing like losing your mobility to make realize how really wonderful it is.  I really really miss being able to walk and I hope I will never take that privilege for granted again (and hopefully my kids are gaining a new appreciation for all the work I normally do around the house now that they have to do it all for me!)

Soccer

And, I know I've already posted about soccer before but here are some more cute pictures Jess took during Maira and Hudson's last week of soccer.

Sometimes Hudson found the goalie position boring so he liked to liven it up.

On their last day of soccer, they got popsicles and they each got a turn playing on the Adventure Bus.

Last day of school

Hooray, school's out!  Hudson had a great year in playschool.  This was his first year going to school and after being dragged along to drop Maira off at school as a baby and toddler, he was so very very excited that it was his turn to go.  He played and learned a lot and went on all sorts of field trips, including Fort Edmonton Park, the Festival of Trees, the Telus World of Science, and the Muttart Conservatory.  His teacher was Teacher Cathey and he loved her very much.

Connor's 9th Birthday

My sweet Connor is 9 years old now.  He is a boy who has a tender heart and an inquisitive mind.  He has the mind of a scientist, always investigating and exploring the world around him.  He devours books, both fiction and non-fiction, and one of my favourite times of the day is at bedtime when I sit on his bed and read a chapter to him from whatever book he's reading at the moment.  I introduced him to the cartoon series Calvin and Hobbes last summer and the Calvin and Hobbes books he has are some of the most read books in his room.  I often tell him he reminds me of Calvin because he's smart and has a big imagination.  As a surprise for him, I crocheted a stuffed Hobbes toy for him for his birthday.  I worried he might be a little old for a new stuffy but he didn't let that stuffy leave his sight after his birthday, except to go to school.  If I could have figured out a way for Hobbes to ambush him when he got home from school, I would have!

 My Mom gave Connor a Nerf type bow and arrow and Connor headed straight to the field by our house to try out his new weapon.

For his friend party, he requested a Minecraft theme.  If you are like me and are unfamiliar with Minecraft, I will explain:  it's a video game that is sort of like a giant land made of legos.  Everything is brick shaped and very pixellated, and you create a world and hide from green monsters called Creepers.  That's all I know about it.  But thanks to Pinterest and the wonder of the internet, it was easy peasy to throw together a Minecraft themed videogame that involved no actual video game playing at all.  The food was simply cut into block shapes, the cake was made to look like a giant block of dirt with grass on top, and they played pin the tail on the pig (a very block-ish shaped pig) while wearing that block shaped head you see in the picture.  That's what the main character in the game, Steve, looks like.

Fun was had by all and I was glad when it was all over!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!