Travis' Crazy Hair Day

Today Travis could celebrate his teacher's birthday with crazy hair style!! The kids could all come to school with their wackiest hairdo and wow did they ever look good....
Travis had all little pigtails with a bunch of spiders and flies over his head

Since Tash is sleeping over, and Travis didn't want to miss out on his party, she got to join him at kindy for the day. Her little doll was swinging on her head for the day, with sparkles to make her a princess!

Since we've come back, Travis is not too sure about going to school, but he has a great time while he's there!

Getting ready to start their day with their "butterfly legs". Thursday mornings are a combined session with the preprimaries, so the class is quite big. But Travis enjoys seeing Ethan at school; between Chase and Ethan, he's got his best buddies there!

Sunday, June 15

Sunday morning we woke up to a very ominous, dark sky. Sure enough, by the time it was time to go to church, the heavens had opened and it was bucketing down. Wow, rain is fantastic (when you don't have to go out!!)

After church the rain had stopped but the park across the road was again filled and Wade and his friend Dion had a hoot trying out our new (old) sit-in kayaks on the resulting lake.

But now we're back to sunny blue skies, temperatures ranging from 4 to 20 degrees celsius....

A Week to Reflect

Well, we've been back a week, and it's time to update my blog again. Let me go back, and reflect on the week we had at Dirk and Amanda's...

We are so thankful that we could spend a week making memories: Puerto Rico, Jambo, Tim Horton's, shuffle board, weiner roasts, late nights, talks, 5-star Hotels and David's devotion to Dave!!!

On Thursday we had a relatively quiet day. Dave and Dirk played a round of golf in the morning, endured haircuts in the afternoon and played soccer in the evening.

On Friday we went to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Fort McLeod. Another absolutely fantastic day full of history. It was great getting to know a bit of Indian history, and seeing how they used whatever was available, like cliffs and cunning, to kill the mighty buffalo. 'For thousands of years, the Blackfoot people used the cliffs near Fort Mcleod to hunt buffalo. When the buffalo would mass in the open prairie, braves from the tribe would gather and herd them toward the towering cliffs. As the animals got closer, they would be funneled to the edge and made to stampede. Over the edge the enormous mammals would fall to their doom, ensuring the survival of the tribe. For the Blackfoot, the buffalo was sacred; to honour the fallen prey, every part of the animal was used, nothing would go to waste.' These cliffs got their name, not from the buffalos but from an Indian boy who was killed when he decided to watch the slaughter from a cleft in the rocks near the base of the cliffs. Many buffalos were killed that day, and as the bodies stacked up, they crushed the little Indian brave, and so the place was named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. From there we went to Fort Mcleod to learn more about the settlement of white man in the area, and how the Mounties came to deal with the Whiskey traders.

Saturday was a grey and rainy day so we decided to take the kids bowling, the Canadian way. I haven't been 5 pin bowling in years, and my score reflected how poorly I did years ago...even David beat my first score!! Well done David!! In the evening Dirk and Amanda, Dave and I went out for a thoroughly enjoyable dinner....to taste some more of those yummy Canadian ribs.

On Sunday afternoon, after worshipping in Coaldale, we went to the coulees in Lethbridge where we had our final weiner roast (this time we remembered the matches and the axe!!), and tasted deer burgers. We played an interesting game of bocce; the grass was so long we couldn't see where our balls landed andwere blessed with a fantastic rainbow over the rail bridge that spans the coulee.

After dinner we went a little further downstream to the wetlands and were rewarded with beaver activity!! Beavers and birds kept us busy a while longer before it was time to head back home.

After a final late night, it was time to say goodbye. The memories are precious, and Dirk and Amanda's hospitality was a real gift for us. Dirk kindly dropped us off at Calgary airport on Monday morning and at lunch time we were already at Nick and Lisa's, feeling like we were home again. Funny how a trip that took us 3 days by car, only took an hour in the plane!!

Monday evening we went out for dinner with Nick and Lisa while Kara, Jodi and Emma babysat, and then of course we had to have a final round of Puerto Rico, only to have Lisa foil Nick's plans. Way the go Lisa!! More memories created and treasured before it was time to say goodbye to them as well, and we headed back to Australia, via Portland and Tokyo. The flight home made me realise again how far away Canada and the rest of my family is, and made me appreciate the trip to see them even more.

Thursday afternoon the kids all came home after school and we celebrated our anniversary with this lovely cake that Jessica and Meagan had made for us. It sure was good to be back, and on Friday it was even better when Travis came home from Dren's and we were all home together as a family again. We praise God that he took care of all of us during our holiday, and that He gives us these opportunities of strengthening family ties and wondering at His marvellous creation!!

Wednesday, June 4

Well, we travelled back to the mountains today to explore Waterton national park. Before we got into the national park, we already had our first animal sightings: 2 bald eagles sitting proudly on their branches. Once we got to Waterton, we went for a hike up Bear's Hump. Okay, up is a little understatement. We walked 1.4 km and ascended 200 meters! Along the way we encountered a whole herd of deer, walking along the path, and eating greenery in the bush. They didn't seem too bothered with us walking by at all!! At the top we could look over the lake, apparently the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies, and then the more adventurous went a little higher still.

On the way down we saw a group of bighorn sheep a little off the track...more photo opportunities!!

After the hike we stopped by a fast flowing river to have a weiner roast. Oops, we forgot the matches and the hatchet and some paper but the boyscouts went right to work, and in a short while we had a fire going, and were roasting our smokies and weiners!

Our last stop was for a short walk at Red Rock Canyon to see some more waterfalls! The variety in rock formations was fantastic to see. And the walk to Blakiston falls was well worth it. I just love water....

These top 2 photos are of Red Rock canyon; one looking upstream and the other looking downstream. The range in colours was so striking!!

This walk was a little longer, but another beautiful sight at Blakiston Falls.

Of course we had to get home on time to watch the last game of the Stanley Cup final.

Tuesday, June 3

Dinosaur Park and the Badlands!!

Wow, this country is full of surprises. Today we went to the dinosaur museum, which took about 2 hours to get to. This is an area where a lot of dinosaur bones have been uncovered. The museum was fascinating to see but the landscape just blew us away!! All of a sudden we were in the badlands!! I think only the photos can explain a little. We have definitely moved away from the beauty of the Rockies!! But this is also awesome in its own right.

Monday June 2

On Sunday we arrived safely in Coaldale, after a sleepover in Calgary. There we caught up with Willem and Linda, and got to meet Dirk and Amanda and all the kids. We had a very enjoyable evening, although a little late!!

So on Monday we had a more relaxed day. We dropped Dirk and Dave off up the river so they could canoe down while Amanda and I did a little shopping. David had to spend his birthday money (from Oma) on some candies...wow has he had fun with all his candies!!

Thankfully the men arrived home shortly after we did. They had a great time paddling down the fast flowing river.

From Aldergrove to Coaldale

On Wednesday evening we began our trip to Dirk and Amanda's. Our first night we stayed at Harrison's Hotsprings and had a wonderful time there, soaking in the hotsprings....

The next day we drove all the way to Kelowna. Along the way, we had to drive through the coastal mountains, following a very windy road, with lots of corners around the mountain edge...a little too close to the edge for me!! Once we were through the mountains, we headed to Osoyoos, a desert here in Canada!! The Okanagan Valley (runs from Osoyoos, through Kelowna and on to Vernon) is one of the warmest in the country and together with the sandy beaches, means great swimming. Well, that's what the tourist books say. We were rather disappointed with the "sandy" beaches; they were grey and stony! Maybe we really are spoiled with the white SANDY beaches in Australia!!+

We stopped off at this roadside place, because we saw a goat on the overhead bridge. It ended up being quite a neat little stop. There were wheels at the top of the bridge, with a little bucket of food for the goats on the bottom. When you put some corn in the bucket, the goats at the top would turn the wheel until they were rewarded with the corn!! One pushed the wheel with his nose and the other would use its paws. There were also some knickknacks and yummy sausages to look at and taste!! The rest of the drive through the Okanagan reminded us a little of home, with lots of wineries and more dry areas.
In Kelowna we stayed in a hotel that had a spa and a pool and a sauna. Well, I was introduced to the joys of saunas...why you want to sit in a stinking hot room until the sweat is dripping out of every pore of your body, is beyond me!! Although, I must admit that after the sauna, hottub and pool, we did feel very refreshed!!

Then it was more travelling. We stopped off at these falls and were rather impressed with their signs. They are even open on Sundays but do not charge admission because the Bible tells us to honour the Sabbath day...

We went for a fantastic walk following a path which had not quite cleared of snow! It was fun to walk on the snow and suddenly your foot would sink down and you'd get all snow in your shoe!!

The path followed an old railroad track!

In Revelstoke National Park we hiked up Nels Nelson's slope where some crazies made world records for ski jumping. I'm standing straight, the slope was that steep!! It was quite the hike up!

Then we were hoping to go up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway to the snow. (apparently only 12km of the 26km road were cleared of snow) but the gates were just closing. Instead, we parked the car and walked a km up the parkway to go for a lovely 2.5km walk. It was an awesome walk through the trees, and along the streams, although I was a little worried about bears in the neighbourhood as we'd been warned they were out and about. So I merrily talked and whistled along the way and thankfully we didn't meet any bears on our walks!!

We also went on 2 more short walks: the Skunk Cabbage Trail over a boardwalk through a swamp and the Giant Cedars Boardwalk through some magnificent giant cedars.

Thursday night we stayed at Canyon hotsprings in a little wooden cabin. Once again we enjoyed soaking in the hot pools!

Friday was a big day where we drove through Glacier National Park, Yoho National Park and Banff national park. We did more hikes, saw awesome mountains and waterfalls, went to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake which were still frozen over, walked the 2.4 km trail to Wapta falls and the beautiful walk along Johnston's Canyon. Wow, what an awe-inspiring part of God's earth!!

Wapta Falls

Emerald Lake

Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, still frozen.

Johnson's Canyon was a fantastic walk along the edge of the canyon. Some parts of the walk were even right above the fast flowing river!!

Here are some animals we saw along the way:

The stellar jay posed prettily for the cameras and these 4 elk we saw in Banff town!!

These 2 bears were on the side of the road. The bigger one was just on the other side of the road barrier!!