Summer Vacation 2010- Canada- 2721 miles

I am finally getting around to catching up on the blog a little. I was called as Young Women President in our ward in August. We  have a little over 35 girls (big ward). So I have been busy! Anyway, back to vacation. We left August 6 and hit the road, experiencing all kinds of weather. Thunderstorms at the border crossing, pouring rain to welcome us into “our home and native land”. Speaking of national anthems, every time we cross the border into Canada, it’s tradition for us to roll down all the windows and sing “O Canada” as loud and quirky as we can! Good times. Although, Dallin and Morgan looked at us strangely. They haven’t seen us do this before, they were too young or, not born yet. They are Yankees anyway. Onward to the pictures.

Here is a picture of the miles we covered in 13 days. Crazy!

 

  

Dallin loved hangin’ out with Uncle Trent, because he had so many cool toys!

Sterling and Rueger

 

First stop, Kimberly, British Columbia. We stayed Nathan’s younger brother and wife, Trent and Corinna. This is their new cabin they built on the edge of town. Beautiful. It helps that Trent is a custom wood worker! Where did they get their drinking water? They walked down the street to the waterfall and held out a pitcher! Best tasting water too.

Next day we travelled through the Rocky Mountains and visited Lake Louise, the scenery was beautiful beyond words. Nathan and I took it for granted growing up. We saw the mountains through our children’s eyes for the first time it seemed. We were in awe too.

           

I LOVE sleeping pictures…so peaceful!

 

We drive for 8 hours to visit my brother and sister in law in Fort McMurray. The first thing he pulls out when we arrive, is, “his” new toy, the quad. Made all the times “How much more minutes.. Are you there yet?.. When are we getting there?” worth it. Dallin asked every morning and night if we could ride the tractor around the yard. All I’m going to say is, I LOVE my brother! He was so good with all the requests. Thank you!

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Pillow fights with PaPa Gabe, Hmmmm, who won? Or who tuckered out first?!

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Brought out the big bubbles one night, had a blast trying to catch them. This one below is the coolest picture of Nathan almost holding the bubble in his hand! Love it.

Uncle Rick and Aunt Donna brought out these little plastic sachets and threw them in the campfire one night. The minerals inside changed the color of the fire! Straight out of camera, no joke. Sooo beautiful.

 

My niece Amber and her new puppy Lady came to visit for the day. She is so beautiful and great with her cousins. She was a lot of fun.

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More of Uncle Rick’s toys. How fun is this?!

     

We drove just north out of town to visit the oil sands. Huge process where they dig out the sand which is concentrated with oil. Then mix it with water to let the sand sink and the oil to rise to the top. Then refine it with other chemicals and ship it all over the world, mostly Texas, to refine it even more for natural gas, plastic products and petroleum jelly. These machines are nothing short of monsters! The pictures don’t do any justice, the reason why they are so enormous is because there is big money in this, and the companies Suncor and Syncrude, need to get as much moved out of the ground as quickly as possible. High demand for this product. So they make everything Swartzinager size to produce more in shorter amounts of time. Crazy.

The next day we headed over to the Oil Sands musueum. We spent the whole day there and didn’t even know it. The kids loved it, very hands on and educational.

     

 

See the pink blur at the bottom of the picture? That’s Morgan. These suckers are larger than life.

 

I saw Morgan walking into the tall grass and couldn’t resist a mini photo shoot! She hammed it up for me!

 

I talked about Ricky having toys. This is Donna’s new toy. She is the most kind, gentle, genuine, sweet, loving person.. until she gets on her chopper. Now she’s bad to the bone! Love ya sis, it was fun taking pictures of you, now I just need to make the bike purple…hmm.

 

It was so hard to say good bye after such a great visit. I miss my brother so much, and any time I spend with him is precious to me. But I LOVE the picture just above, he is such a goof nut, and loves to play. While it’s a sweet pose of the girls, Ricky is goofing off to the side with Dallin. I love you bro!

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Just the boys.

Too bad Deanna and Randy weren’t here. It’s long overdue for a family picture.

   

We had passed too many horses while driving and decided on the way to my parents house, we stopped on a side road, to let the kids out and admire Morgan’s favorite animal closer up. Friendly horses too. One sneezed and Dallin jumped, and fell on his booty. Too funny! Of course it set off a chain reaction and spooked the horse a little!

 

Stayed the night at grandma and Papa’s house. Got up and went for a walk in their little town called Trochu. Very small farmer’s town. One school going from Kindergarten through grade 12. But, it did have this cool  outdoor exercise park. What a great concept! Even Papa showed off for the camera.

We then walked down the street to a community garden santuary. It was beautiful. Lots of trees and demo gardens under different themes. Even had a giant checker outdoor checker board. Soo.. who won?

 

I love my kids. When I see pictures like this, I get a little sad. They are growing so fast. Perhaps, that’s why I love photography so much, it freezes time and creates gratitude of warm memories.

    

HOME…to us. It feels different this time. It’s home, but, only where we used to live. Home is Tri-cities. Home is where your heart is. There is beauty all around, when there’s love at home.. I used to think home was where you lived. Now I know it’s my family, where ever they are, my heart is too.

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How could we forget the mountain goats. They rule the road. They form herds and go up onto the highways and lick the salt off the roads. And they ain’t moving for no one. Here you can see, they just kept getting closer and closer to the van. Dummy’s. This yahoo brushed up against the van and started to lick our rear view mirror. Okay, too close. Even honking the horn and yelling didn’t even faze them!