"Oh, Canada" version 9.0

I am finally (mostly) caught up from my trip and I am just going to rush through pictures because anyone who cares was there but I want to jot a few things down to remember for when I make my photo album.

Funny story: We learned that you take Livi away from home for longer than 2 weeks and she turns into the Terminator.  She destroys your things, your sanity, and your eardrums. Her tantrums were LEGENDARY.  Livi fell in the bathtub and scrapped up her back on the drain.  I was holding her, trying to talk to Eric (he was at home), and she was screaming bloody murder.  I was trying to calm her down but she was having none of that.  Eric was amazed at her volume:
Eric: "Where did she get hurt?"
Me: "Right above her crack."
Livi: Stops crying immediately, horrible silence for a split second, then she wails "I HAVE A CRACK?"

     It's hard to be 3 and think your body is crumbling around you.  It's hard to be the mom of that 3 year old too!

How can something this cute be so loud?

Bailey got a little scared by the thunder.

Golfing on the most beautiful course in the world!  Doesn't improve our game, though.

Trying to get a group picture.  I had to physically restrain Olivia, hence my tense posture.

Throwing rocks.

All tuckered out after swimming in the stream.

The group at a picnic before taking on Red Rock.

 

James and Jes: A Picture Portrait

One of three pictures taken of me the whole trip.

James' hair had gotten long and he has to cut it soon for school so we tried braiding it just for fun.

Ella and Ethan were so excited to get to ride horses again.  Can't you tell how excited Ethan is?

McKay showed off his mad tight rope walking skills.  We are turning out almost as fun to watch as the Steeds.  Except they put on an honest to goodness musical this year.  It is hard to compete with 50 kids dancing a choreographed dance!  Next year we are going to teach the little ones to walk on McKay's rope while balancing plates on sticks.  Ha, take that Steeds!

Livi always wanted to be with her "Mama Sharon."  She had a break down today, weeks later, because she wants her "Mama Sharon Right Now!"

Thank goodness for Lucy (my second cousin).  She distracted Livi long enough to give us a little bit of quiet time.

My two girls.  So different.

Oh Canada, Pt 4 (last one I promise)

Okay, I'm going to try and wrap up the Canada trip this post. It was just so much fun it's hard to condense everything. Some things I didn't get pictures of like Jes' overly...ah..."enhanced" D&D character, McKay scaring us with stories of cancer from microwave popcorn (we ate it anyways), and the shear number of hot chocolate cups we went through. I do have a few pictures from other highlights though:

Red Rock Canyon: I was amazed my very tired, pregnant sister wanted to go, but it was fun for the three couples to brave the super high water and basically swim our way up the canyon. We even attracted an audience at one particularly embarrassing part that involved sliding down rocks into a VERY cold pool of water (embarrassing because I squealed like a ground squirrel about to be attacked by Baylee). I thought McKay's foot wear (flip flops) particularly brave, but he ended up having better traction than James did with his "specialty shoes."

Horse back riding, a favorite every year. This year was just as beautiful and not as scary as years past (no run away horses!). The most memorable part was Jes getting the shortest, widest horse available.
She spent a BIG part of the ride trying to get her horse NOT to eat.

I didn't go on the "walk" (according to Julia it was a death march) to the sand hills.
My knee did not survive Red Rock and then a horse ride so I was at the cabin drinking hot chocolate (ha-ha). Ethan and Ella liked jumping off the "cliffs" (really a little shelf, but the kids thought they were so brave!).

Taking walks by the lake to cool off. It was unusually hot some of the days so we would walk by the lake to get a cool breeze. One particularly hot day Ebby and Livi decided to wade pretty far into the glacial water and it turned traumatic for all:

Golfing in the most beautiful setting ever:

Park runs at least twice a day:

The best boating day ever. The lake was like glass, and the International boat was just coming back from the US side. We used the wake from the giant boat to push our little fishing boat into a rip roaring ride that had us all laughing in fear, and Ethan getting thrown from one side of the boat to the other. Good times.


Saying goodbye to the cabin, always bitter sweet (although that doesn't really make sense. It was just bitter, not sweet, I didn't want to go back home. If we could just live there year round I would. Eric wants to open a store there, but we have yet to come up with something plausible. Plus the whole 20 feet of snow in the winter is a deterrent.)

Here is a video from the Red Rock adventure. You are at a dam in the river and there is a small hole you can climb through to get to the upper part of the river. The only problem is that, that means there is a very small hole you have to climb down to get back. Luckily we had three strong guys we could fall on if we needed to:

Oh Canada, Pt 3

On a totally random note: I want to hide in a hole. In a text our sweet Bishop's wife offered to teach my Sunday School class so I wouldn't have to go to church tomorrow, I declined (also in a text). She texted back "ok" and then like the socially defunct person I am I texted back "Thank you so much!" Right as I pushed the send button I cringed, realizing how weird a response that was. I could just picture her looking at the text and wondering "wait, so am I teaching her class?"

It makes me wonder if there is someway to use my lack of grasp of the English language (that was a pretty good example right there) to my advantage. Maybe I need my friend Melissa to watch our dog. I just text her "Thanks so much for watching Tonks, you are a life saver!" She reads that and thinks maybe she already agreed and just forgot. Bang, I now feel like I don't need to hang my head in shame, and found a babysitter for Tonks!

On to Canada:
This year the kids made lots of friends, and by "made" I mean they played with people they have met before but didn't remember. Livi found a great friend in my second cousin, Lucy. Lucy is a little older, but since Livi is so tall and talks so well, it didn't seem to matter. Lucy would come over and the two little blond "angels" (used VERY loosely) would play and play, and argue, and then play and play some more.
Between Aspen Grove and Canada we got to spend lots of time with the kids' only cousins, Ebby and Autumn. By the end we had some great, almost iconic moments, like the kids eating icecream on some random wooden steps together, Autumn wanted some too, and we had some less great moments such as Livi screaming bloody murder, me brushing it off, and then an hour later finding a PERFECT bite mark on her arm. I was impressed not only with Ebby's powerful jaw, but the fact that Livi sat there and let it get to that point. It was so perfect and pronounced I think I could have had Alan make a dental impression of Ebby's mouth with it.

Another important friend was Bailey. Bailey is James and Jes' tiny little porkie (Pomeranian/Yorkie) dog. She is probably the biggest reason we ended up with Tonks. She is small, sweet, cuddly and took a real shine to Ella. She thought she was a great guard dog and would "protect us" from the scheming shifty-eyed ground squirrels, and the scary middle-aged vacationers that would pass us on the trails. To her credit, I was never attacked by anyone wearing khaki shorts and a button up shirt (or a squirrel for that matter).

Oh Canada, pt. 2

I've had a rough morning. I'm still beat. Livi is going through withdrawals since the big kids went back to school this morning. Tonks rolled in her own poo outside so she had to have a bath and a blow dry (which seems ridiculous since I don't even blow dry my own hair) and she is still traumatized. Both are pretty clingy right now so I'm reduced to typing with 1 hand.
I wanted to post more of our adventures in Canada, but the shaking puppy on my arm thinks that is a silly idea, so I give to you:

Eric, the Mighty Fish SlayerI hate fish, but I have to say fresh caught glacier lake trout tastes pretty darn good (although tires would probably taste good too if you put that much butter and garlic on them).

Oh Canada, pt 1

I know I have said it several times, but "I Love Canada". There is just something about Waterton that lets me finally completely relax. It is the one place in the world I can feel my mind settle down and my anxiety just melts off.

This year started out as awesome as usual. We had some AMAZING adventures...dum duh duh da (suppose to be exciting music, not saying you are dumb).

First off Ethan and Ella were able to take control of Grandpa's Banana Boat (for a very short, and terrifying time). Ethan loved it so much we were able to get a rare picture : Ethan smiling!

Speaking of rare and undocumented, I give you, never before seen in captivity or the wild: Dad in shorts!!!

The park was just full of water after the very wet winter and spring. Waterfalls were more like water-thrown-over-with-great-forces. My newest bro-in-law, McKay, surrounded by millions of gallons of water and his fan club.

Our group with Cameron (Torrential) Falls behind us. I like how the two son-in-laws were too cool for the picture.

On one of the first days in the park we went hiking up to Bertha Falls which is normally a very relaxing and serene hike. This time we took someone with us who was such a crazy hiker he would run ahead of us, see we were lagging behind, run back to us and urge us on. He was a true taskmaster. I have never been on a hike with someone with that much enthusiasm and zest for hiking. He is Ben, my second cousin, and... he is 4 years old (he is the cutey in the white shirt in the front)!

On our hike to Bertha Falls Livi heard something in the bushes and did the only thing an intelligent and safety conscious 2 year old can do... she poked at it with a stick.

I also threw caution to the wind and let Livi take short rides on the scooters with Eric. She held on really well and I'm sure in years to come we will be at her mercy taking rides constantly to throw rocks at the lake, or go get ice cream, or just check out the perimeter of the cabin.

My Life Is A Half Empty Bottle Of Orange Juice

I had been gone for over 5 weeks and coming back to reality has been a big blow. I don't like a lot of what I have to deal with on a day to day basis (bills, toilets that were installed in 70's and act like they used too many drugs in the 80's, cleaning, debating whether or not to wear my new shoes and be ridiculed at church... you know, the usual). 5 weeks of vacation that cover a wedding, emotional break down, beach, Disneyland, Shakespeare festival, family reunion, and the awesomeness that is Waterton produce way way too many photos to condense in a single post. I feel like I am going through stress relief withdrawals (so...stress overdose? Falling of the "stress free wagon"?) so to ease myself back into life I will post the one random picture from the 326 photos that I have from the 5 weeks.

Background: Waterton is the most amazingly beautiful place on Earth and the ONLY place on Earth I feel no anxiety. The only down side is that everything is 114 x more expensive than in the real world.

The kids and I had gone for a walk and Livi was thirsty. We purposefully went to the most reasonably priced place in the village (meaning they only charge you an arm, but let you keep the leg) to get her a drink. She wanted orange juice. Ella decided she wanted an orange juice. I asked them to share, less I have to dip into their college funds. She was okay with that until Ethan decided he wanted an orange juice too. I asked him to share with the girls, and that didn't go over very well. Even though his face was screwed up and tears were falling I have been told very forcefully that he was NOT crying. Thinking about it I couldn't really blame him since I have seen the inside of the girls cups and I wouldn't want to share with them.

Ella decided that if Ethan didn't have to share, then she didn't want to share either. More tears were shed and I ended up spending $45 for all three kids to get their own orange juices (just an approximate price. I forgot the real total but I feel it was close to that).

We continued walking and made it to the playground where all three kids promptly ran off to slide down the slides and throw rocks in my general direction. When I looked at the table top where our stuff was sitting this is what I saw:

Ethan, who caused all the problems and cost me somewhere around $85 didn't even open up the much debated juice. Ella, who needed her own, took 1 sip. Livi, the only person I really thought needed a drink, proved me right (once again) and drank almost a third. We could have easily only gotten one. I'm thinking of sending them each a bill depending on how much juice was left.

We love to play.....play in the water, ooh hoo.

Last year we were excited to go up to Canada and to play on the beautiful new playground. This year we were met with an even better addition: The Splash Area. Who cares that it is 60 degrees out? Who cares that the water is glacier water? Not my kids! We all had a blast (including my dad and brothers who had a little too much fun).

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

I feel a little overwhelmed with how much I have to blog, so I thought I would do a post-lite. Here are some pictures from Canada that just make me smile (and out right laugh). Baby deer are so cute, and we see them all over the park playing, eating, pooping (Ethan's favorite) and laying by cabins. What I had never seen is a baby deer actually sleeping. Until now: Everyone say "Ahhhh." Can it get any cuter. Yes. Another baby deer came over and was nuzzling the sleeping deer until he woke up, and they proceeded to kiss. Yes Eric, I am sure there is a technical term and reason for this, but I choose to believe that they are kissing, stop trying to ruin this for me.

We loved this sign that is new to one of the trails. It is suppose to show you that deer will attack when provoked, but to all of us it looked like the man and deer were boogieing down to some awesome tunes.

This last pictures needs a little background. There are a couple of cabins across the road from us that are all owned by a big extended family. They have LOTS of little kids running around with no supervision, and by "running around" I mean "scary Lord of the Flies running wild." It provided us hours of entertainment just watching the shenanigans of this little clan. We saw kids go off a homemade bike ramp, an improvised game of darts with sharpened sticks were kids had to run by as they were thrown (I think to weed out the weaker ones), and even a child scale a basketball hoop to climb OVER a trampoline enclosure and do a flip down off of the hoop onto the trampoline.
Then one morning the piece-de-resistance: Yes, that is a child in a lion costume riding a bicycle. It was better than the circus!