Canada Recap pt 2

While in Canada we did get to do a few things outside the cabin.  Only a few, since it rained so much the entire time Eric was there.

On Eric's last day the sky was finally not drenching us so we called up and asked if they were doing rides.  They said to hurry before it started raining again, so we raced over.  In the 10 minutes it took us to get in the car and drive there it started raining again.  We headed back to the town site, where it promptly stopped raining.  So we jumped back in the car and drove to the stables.  I think they felt sorry for us at this point because they said they would take us out, and gave us all raincoats to wear.  Livi is finally old enough to go on the ride herself, so she was super excited.

Of course she got a giant horse.  I would have been more scared if they didn't make her be lead by one of the guides.

You can barely tell, but Ethan is the one in green with the striped hoodie and Eric is the one in yellow.  We were a very stylish group!

A few days before it was actually a very nice morning.  Eric wanted to go on the hike to the sand-dunes which I grumbled about but reluctantly went on anyways.

It was a very pretty walk, but the humidity was killer and the path was covered in water from the recent rain.  All our feet got completely soggy, but luckily we only got a few bug bites.

Livi immediately dove into the sand and started building sand castles, because her first impulse to seeing any sand, even muddy-ish sand, is the get down and dirty.

Ethan also thought it was like the beach, and started crawling down the dune on his stomach.  I just had to take a picture and then turn away so I wouldn't freak out.  He is probably still finding sand in interesting places from this excursion.

Some of our group in front of the newly remodeled cabin.  Also one of the 2 photos taken of me the entire trip.  Jes was unable to make it in the photo since she was upstairs dying of Cholera, or West Nile, we still aren't sure.

Because Jes was so sick I had to finish the worlds largest puzzle all on my own.  I did finally finish 2 days before we left, but the whole trip we had to cover the table in plastic before every meal so I could keep the puzzle going.  For some reason Mom wanted us to eat at the table instead of all over the living room.  It's like she didn't want to have to clean up after 15 people eating on their laps or something.

The day after Eric left the weather got better which means he had incredibly bad luck, or magic was involved somehow.  It looked overcast, but the kids had a great, warm day to play on the water part of the park.

We have seen lots of animals in the park; deer, sheep, ground squirrels, Steeds, but this year we had a new visitor:

There was a whole fox family, including kits, in the park.  The dad (or mom) would pass by our cabin frequently.  He'd trot by and then a few minutes later trot by with a ground squirrel in his mouth.  The poor thing was constantly being bombarded by the craziest crows, and a few times I wanted to go out and yell at them for him.  He seemed pretty relaxed about it all, and even though he was pretty mangy looking he was amazingly graceful.  I'd still rather be an otter.  If anyone asked.  Or cared.

And The Rain Came Tumbling Down, or Oh Canada pt 1

I don't know if anyone in the US noticed, but in June there was crazy rain and flooding in Alberta, Canada.  We happened to be there when it happened, and it actually started the day Eric got there, so Canada, you can blame Eric for bringing crappy Nebraska weather with him.  It rained like crazy for over 48 hours.  We woke up one morning and they had evacuated the campground by our cabin.  Turns out it rained over 220 millimeters in 36 hours (yeah, I don't know what that means in real terms either), which means it rained half of the YEARLY average in just over a day.  There was flooding everywhere, and it even destroyed and entire town.  CRAZY.

We were lucky to be in Mini-Versailles (my new name for the cabin) and stayed warm and dry, but by the end I think we were just on the verge of voting someone out of the cabin, hokey ceremony and all, just to alleviate the cabin fever.

We were on a walk when we saw this beautiful site across the lake.

Ethan was a good sport about going on this long walk...of DEATH

We ended up getting stuck under trees while literal sheets of rain came down.  Eric had to drive over from the cabin just to rescue us.

The change in the park was remarkable:

Little waterfalls came down ALL over.  Even in the road.

Cameron Falls before

Looks more like Willy Wonka's waterfall, after

The river from the falls to the lake, before

After

Red Rock canyon normally has a river actually flowing through it with deep parts throughout.  Normally you can't make it anywhere near the top without getting soaking wet.

When I went with the kids after there was so much silt and tiny rocks that had been brought down that there were just a few inches of water across the now flat bottom.

Normally the waterfall is quite the site...

Now the bottom is much higher and the waterfall is no more because...

There is a hole punched in the back of the cavern from the force of the water.

The wonderful slide we go down...

Now merely a small dip into a tiny pool.

On-the-bright-side the kids were able to go down the new, tiny water slide all by themselves.

or with a little help in Livi's case.

All in all, I didn't suffer loosing my house, or worldly possessions, but we definitely lost something special in that flood.