Jacques Lake in Jasper

Jess and I managed to get away for a quick back country camping trip in Jasper on a warm weekend in September. We decided to hike the 13 km trail from Maligne Lake to Jacques Lake. There's not much change in elevation as you stay in the valley between mountains the whole time but the trail is by no means flat and it's quite muddy and rocky so with a 25-pound pack on our backs it was still pretty challenging.

By the time we reached Jacques Lake, the sun was dipping behind the mountains and there was already a chill in the air. There was another group of campers spending the night at the same spot and we sat by a fire with them and ate our supper once we had our tent pitched.

We'd seen giant moose footprints in the mud that looked quite fresh but so far, no moose. Jess was really hoping to see some moose to photograph but since it was the middle of rutting season, I was pretty happy not seeing any.

It got down to about zero degrees so it was really cold for sleeping. I slept with my wool hood pulled down over my head and my sleeping mask covering my eyes and my sleeping bag pulled up to my nose so the only part exposed to the air was my nose. And then I stayed like that until around 9:30 in the morning because it was too cold to get out until then.

It turns out that we should have gotten up sooner because a huge bull moose walked right beside our tent while we were still in bed. One of the other campers was up and watched the moose wander around our tent for a while before heading off into the woods. Luckily for Jess though, a female moose was still around when we got up and she was very cooperative about staying put while he took lots of pictures.

By the time we had all our gear packed back up, the sun was high in the sky and it was a hot 27-degree day. It was a lovely day to be out in the mountains.

First Day of School

Grade 2

Grade 5

Grade 11

Kindergarten

End of Summer Trip to Southern Alberta

Jess's youngest brother Paul came home from his mission to Toronto at the end of August so we packed up the kids for one more summer road trip and drove down to southern Alberta.

Our first day there, we drove out to Waterton. It had been a couple of years since we'd climbed Bear's Hump and I really wanted us to do that again. After some initial grumbling and whining, (except for Shae - hers was more extended - but I'm starting to accept that as a constant state of affairs with teenagers) it went really well and the kids were really proud of themselves for their accomplishment when they reached the top (which is exactly what I wanted to have happen). When we reached the top, Hudson exclaimed, "You should buy me hiking poles for my birthday because I'm a really good mountain climber!" Besides the amazing view, the refreshing breeze, and the sense of accomplishment, they also really enjoyed the chubby, well-fed squirrels who brazenly approached us to try and take some of our trail mix. One fat little squirrel even climbed right up onto Connor's leg.

Here's what Bear's Hump looks like from the ground:

And here's the view from the top:

We ate lunch with the family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins). This is a grumpy James with Spencer - James had a cold this weekend so he wasn't very smiley.

Jess went on a photography excursion in the evening and took some photos of the park. This is a particularly lovely shot of Cameron Falls.

Back in Raymond, we had a hot dog roast in the backyard and dragged the kids off too bed far too early for their liking.

The next day, we drove into Lethbridge to Henderson Lake for a Schindler family reunion. Jess brought out the fishing gear and was soon surrounded by nieces and nephews who wanted to help fish. The lake was full of large fish, you could even see them leisurely swimming along the surface with their fins poking out of the water, the way a shark swims, no more than ten or twenty feet away from the edge of the water, but no one ever caught anything more than a hook full of weeds.

Even so, it was the first time fishing for many of the kids there so even weeds were pretty exciting.

With some not so subtle encouragement from me, Maira hit it off with her cousin Avery and they had a great time playing together. 

The theme was science and Avery's mom, Adrienne, is a scientist, and she bravely agreed to run a science demo for the kids (there had to be at least a couple dozen kids under the age of ten).

The next day was Ron's birthday as well as Paul's homecoming talk at church. Of course, we ate homegrown watermelon at the family dinner to celebrate (watermelon is Ron's favourite food and something he's very good at growing). Here he is with a 26-pound watermelon baby.

Jess took this picture on the front step of his parents' house on the day we said good-bye to Paul two years ago so we re-created the photo two years later. Except we made sure we could see Shae's face this time.