it's summer time

Usually each summer, we are the family that is always here, filling the jobs that others need help filling while they are off vacationing. This year, we have been the one leaving holes and asking for others to help fill in for us.

The last week in July was grad and Ron was able to get home from marking diplomas in time to change and drive to Red Deer for the ceremonies. Rae was volunteering for Dry Grad, so although she was only in Grade 11, she got to attend as a volunteer. She had a great time and arrived home at 5am, just in time to get a few winks of sleep before we started out on holidays. We piled all our things into our new van and were off!

There was a closure on Deerfoot Trail and we got stuck for a long time. I kept reminding myself that I was grateful that I wasn't in the accident. We attended the third wedding reception in a week down south for a family friend. It was a wonderful reception and there was lots of family and friends to visit with.

We stayed at Matt and Katies' new house and helped them paint a few rooms and got to spend time with the girls. We were able to visit the local swimming pool a few times and also got to visit with my sister who lives in the same town. The kids were able to spend time with nieces, nephews AND local cousins so it was a fun trip.

Some good friends stopped in Fort M. to pick up J so that he could go to Helaman's Encampment, a province wide scout camp to be held in the Rocky Mountains. He was able to see lots of friends and lots of relatives. My cousin was acting as Helaman and Jonathan went up to tell him that he was my kid. It was a great camp and J had an awesome time.

Here is Helaman wrestling his brother- who do you think won?!
I heard over the course of the week, Helaman wrestled 100's of times and did 1000's of push-ups! He had been working out for several months before to be in shape.

And here is another of my cousins with Helaman- sounds like it was a regular family reunion there. I guess there are a lot of scouters in our family!

J's highlights were being ALMOST blown off a mountain by crazy 100+km/hr winds and the boring guy that talked at the firesides each night (who was very funny).

We stopped in Calgary on the way home and saw WICKED. It was amazing and S, Rae and I enjoyed it more than Matt and Ron! I loved the story line and the whole idea that we don't really know or understand other people's motives/reasons for being a certain way or reasons for doing certain things.

We spend a whole three days in Lacombe: fixing the van for the trip, changing tires on the car, making chiropractor appointments and repacking for the next trip: Fairmont!!

It was a great drive; we stopped in Calgary to pick up J who talked non-stop for the next hour about his camp, and then slept the rest of the way. When we got to our villa, J spent the NEXT hour in the shower, enjoying the luxury of running water once more!

C and JD came to spend a few days; Elizabeth and B also came and we had a great time! At one point there were 11 of us there! We were able to play tennis, do some hiking, go to some natural hot springs, drive on some SCARY mountain roads, swim, watch movies, go bowling, rock climbing and play games. It was a great holiday!

We drove back home to spend almost one day at home before Ron and I left for a little holiday on our own....stayed tuned!!