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.

ARRRHHHGGGGHHYYYYAAA, or almost back from Zombieland

So we've been off the radar for over a month, and there is so much to do I feel a little overwhelmed. We were lucky enough to spend 3 glorious weeks in Waterton Canada at my parents cabin, and then a week at Aspen Grove in Utah for our family reunion. Before you get mad we didn't call or stop by (or in Justin's case, move into his basement) we spent most of the week in Utah throwing up all over the place (and some of the ride home too!) so you weren't missing much.
I'm not really sure were to start in making you jealous in how awesome our vacation was (although mentioning vomit is sure to start your envy going) so I will start with something SUPER fun we got to do: Red Rock Canyon.

For those of you unfamiliar with Red Rock, shame on you. It is so much fun, and beautiful. It's like a hiking obstacle course up a canyon with a river/stream running through the whole thing. The three younger married couples all went together while my parents were nice enough to watch all the kids (running theme for the whole trip). I love this picture. You can tell how long each couple has been married by the embrace they each use in the pose (Good thing Julia and McKay weren't there! j/k we really missed them, but Julia was having too much fun being a celebrity in China to be bothered with visiting with all of us). It's fun how you have to rely on everyone to make it up the canyon. Most of the way up you end up getting very wet, (Yes, you do, Mom) but James was determined to stay dry the whole way up. Look how well that worked out:James and I surveying this awesome waterfall area. I almost smacked him right off on accident, but luckily he has the footing of a mountain goat. There was this amazing area that looks like a dam where I am sure most people turn around and go back, but not us. We found a hole and climbed up, but that meant we had to climb back down. It wasn't hard, but it was sure intimidating. We (I) made Eric and James go down first to help us from below while Andrew helped us from above. I love how Eric stuck his head in at the last moment and we got this awesomely random shot.In the first video James, Andrew, myself, and Eric decide to try one of the waterfalls. Andrew was nice enough to check the bottom for any sharp objects that may kill us before we went down. It became a running theme "Andrew, go check the bottom." As always he was a very good sport. The other videos are just us having fun jumping in pools of water and sliding down rocks.