Fun Day with Friends

Everyone has been so busy this summer that when Shannon invited a bunch of us to go hiking in Waterton this week, I jumped at the chance!  We all met at Dina's house and convoyed in to Red Rock Canyon in Waterton.  Between, Shannon, Dina, Megan and me we had 16 kids with us!

 We hiked up to Blakiston Falls.  The kids had so much fun with so many of their friends that they ran ahead of us most of the time in a big group.  The moms had fun visiting as we were walking so we took a bit longer to get there.

 The water level is so low this year.  We need rain so much.

 We all stopped at the falls and had snacks and took a few pictures.

 We definitely filled the trail with our group!  We had a few people stop and ask us if all these kids were ours. lol

 It was such a perfect day to be out.  There were no bugs, no wind and the perfect temperature to be out enjoying the park.

 It was still pretty smoky from all the wildfires in BC and Montana, but we managed.

 When we got back from Blakiston, the kids all climbed down to play in the river.  The water was so low, that we didn't worry about them and a bunch of the kids got soaked.

 Shannon had been saying earlier that every visit to Waterton this summer she's seen a bear, so she didn't want to break her record... and she didn't!  This guy was on the road when we were coming out of the canyon.

 We stopped by Linnet Lake and had a picnic there for lunch.  The kids were more interested in gathering drift wood and playing in the water than eating.  The picnic ended rather abruptly when a bear decided to come visit.  We had everything gathered up and headed up to the vehicles in record time!

 We had to get back so Lennard could take the van to Lethbridge for physio, but the rest of them decided to go down to Big Scoop for ice cream.  As we were pulling out, I noticed Dina still there and noticed that she had a flat tire.  I pulled back in and waited with her in case I needed to take them home with us. Thankfully, a good Samaritan stopped and switched the tire out for her!  We never would have figured out how to get the spare off, let alone get it changed.  What a blessing.

She followed me home... although we did make a quick stop in Mountain View for ice cream!  Even if the day ended differently than planned, it was a great day with friends.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and a national park in our backyard to play in!

Good News

Happy 18th Anniversary to us today!  We are officially 'adults' now!  Lennard had another specialist appointment in Calgary with Dr. White, so we all loaded up bright and early.  We stopped in Fort Macleod to get breakfast at Tim Horton's.  The kids did pretty well on the drive and thankfully we didn't have to wait long to get in this time!

Dr. White looked at the x-rays and said that he thinks Lennard is finally 'healed'.  It's not completely filled in with bone yet, but it's heading that way.  He cleared him to work at 100% instead of modified duties.  After almost a year since his accident, we were both very happy to hear that.  Lennard is still going to be doing physiotherapy until the end of September to get some better movement, but we're glad to have good news and that he hadn't injured it at all when he fell in Omaha in July.

We stopped at IKEA afterwards and bought a new bathroom vanity and faucet for our main bathroom that needs to be redone, had a quick lunch at Edo's and headed home.  Such a fun anniversary! 

Ward Campout

Once Lennard got home from work, we loaded up and headed out to the Spring Glen Campground for our Ward Campout.  We got there in good time and the kids were off and running before we even found a campsite!  We were all supposed to do our own dinner that night.  The kids weren't interested in eating, so we let them play for quite a while.  We ended up having quite the group congregate around our site, so when it was time to eat, we ended up eating in front of everyone!  ha! ha!  

There was a great talent show at about 7:00pm and everyone had lots of fun... especially since Brother Leavitt handed out candy to whoever participated!

Brother Boehmer recited the poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee".  It made us think about Lennard's mom.

The Bishop got a bunch of the little girls involved in his number... Emma was thrilled - since she then got candy!  ha! ha!

Ben got to go up to and do the haka with a bunch of the dad's and sons.  Lennard had gone to help Emma right then so he missed out, but Ben had a blast.

After the talent show, we ended up with a big group gathered at our trailer again.  We set up the propane fire pit and had a nice visit.  The kids were so excited to just run and play that we decided to just let them stay up.  It was after 10:00 by the time we finally got them into the trailer to sleep.  They had so much fun running around in the dark with flashlights and 'exploring'!

This morning we had a pancake breakfast for everyone and a few games for the kids.  They had water balloons that they were supposed to toss back and forth, but kids went wild and just chucked them at each other.  They also attempted to play a game of baseball with them.

Most of the adults just hung out, watched the kids and visited.  I was enjoying talking with everyone when I looked over and here was Lennard driving up with the truck and trailer!  He'd gone and packed everything up by himself.  Guess he was ready to head home!  It was a fun way to spend the weekend.

Family Reunion

We had such a fantastic time at our family reunion!  We headed out at about 3:00 on Thursday and were very happy to arrive at Moyie Lake, BC.  We'd hoped to leave as soon as Ben got back from a birthday party, but last minute things took a little longer than we planned.  Oh well... 

Once we got to the park, Lennard dropped the kids and me off at the campsite with everyone else while he went to fill the trailer up with water.  We then attempted to get everything set up so that we could make dinner!  The kids were only concerned about getting their bikes out.  They were SO excited to get to play with their cousins and it was nice to be able to let them!  Our campsites were super close to the playground and bike park so it was great to let them roam.

 Mindy, Roger and Melissa's families were across the road from Rachel and us.  We were all on double sites, so it was great to have us all close together.

 Shauna & Matt had planned to go hiking in Waterton since their kids were all off at a camp, but all the back country trails ended up being closed because of the fire hazard.  They surprised us and came to visit for the one night!  Mike & Melissa didn't come until Friday night, so they used the tent and stayed the night.

 The kids played so well together and everyone loved taking turns in the hammock!

 There was so much dust everywhere that there wasn't a chance of staying clean... yuck!  The kids didn't care though, they just had fun.

 We had a yummy dinner of ribs and potatoes with mom and dad and then we played cards and visited for quite a while.

 Friday we played!  The kids rode bikes, we walked down to the lake, they played on the playground, etc.  It was such a beautiful day!

 Everyone hung out and watched the kids going back and forth and then I pulled out a big container of sidewalk chalk!

 The kids had a blast drawing outlines of themselves, etc.

 Emma and Lauren were best buddies during the entire time we were there.

 Dad enjoyed one of our chairs and, in between reading his book, took a few well deserved naps.

 Shauna and Matt enjoyed Roger's huge Costco chair for a while before they had to head home.

In the afternoon we headed over to the lake.  It was a bit windy and not as warm as we would have loved, but it didn't matter to the kids!  They were off and playing immediately!

 We had so many toys, floaties, boats, kayaks, etc for everyone to play with that everyone was entertained.

 Mike & Melissa arrived that evening and we had a big potluck dinner with hot dogs on the bbq.

 A bunch of us went on a short walk afterwards.  It was such a beautiful night!

 I loved seeing Roger and my mom as we walked.  He may tower over her, but he's still her baby boy.

 Saturday morning, mom put on a huge pancake breakfast for everyone.  We had pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, etc.  Yum!

 Most of the family went down the the lake in the morning to play again.  It was a perfectly calm morning and they had a great time.  We had a big lunch of taco salad... Roger was kind enough to help me out by cleaning up one of the bowls. LOL

 I pulled out some paints and let the kids go to town painting rocks.  They all got into it and made some interesting creations.

We had another big dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread and caesar salad.  Everyone was so full from all the food!  We then pulled out our propane fire pit (since there is a fire ban on this is the only way we could have a fire!) and let the kids roast marshmallows and make s'mores.

 Sunday we all got cleaned up and went in to church at Rachel & Cub's ward in Cranbrook.  When we got back, everyone snacked on whatever they'd brought until we were ready to do our big meal - corn on the cob, potatoes, salads, etc.  It was also Liam's 2nd birthday!  We had fun singing to him and having DQ ice cream treats.

 Mindy made a bunch of popcorn and Lucas thought it was all for him.  ha! ha!

We all had so much fun visiting around the fire pit after we got most of the kids to bed.  We played Speak Out and we all laughed so much it hurt. I'm sure the people camping near us were glad when we finally went to bed!  It was almost 11:30pm.

Monday morning was a whirlwind of packing up and getting everything cleaned up.  We were on the road mid-morning. The kids were sad to leave but we distracted them with the idea of the solar eclipse!