Wall Lake

 

Last weekend we headed back up to Waterton for some hiking.  We ate lunch at Cameron Lake and then headed up to Wall.  Wall lake is one of my favorite hikes.  It is absolutely breathtaking when you reach the lake and it is a fun day hike. 

The WALL!

And yes, we hauled both kids all the way there and all they way back. We are crazy.  7.4 miles later we were wondering if we should invest in some kiddo backpacks. Go figure.

July First

I have now experienced July first from both ends.  A Canadian waiting for the Americans to come double the town's population, and get started with reunions, parades etc. and an American coming to enjoy small town Raymond, family and festivities.  Which is better? Well, my opinion might be biased since I was raised this way but I like it from the Canada side.  It's amazing to live in this little podunk town all year long without anything happening and then see it's transformation on July 1st weekend.  The anticipation in town is almost tangible. 

I love it.  

It was so fun to see Mark's side of the family and hang out bbq'n at Uncle Denny & Aunt Kay's. Good food (Dionne's baked beans were to die for), good company (even the Hutterites couldn't resist the party out back!), lots of laughs, music, dancing, (Uncle Denny has got some sweet moves) all made this years July 1st one for the records.  We had fun visiting with the McInelly clan at Grandpa Bill's & I really loved meeting some new Canadian Rolfson cousins that I hadn't met before.  It gave me this weird feeling that my little family was soon to be the American side coming up to visit them - the Canadian side.  Huh.  I still feel weird about that.  It made me wonder if I would ever feel American.  Maybe in forty years.

Zina had been counting down the weeks until Kate arrived.  

She was beyond excited.

Marilyn keeping the kiddos happy.

Kate, Zina, & Wade

Randy and Dionne show'n everybody up.

Uncle Denny bust'n a guitar move.

Zina and Kate doing the twist & holding hands 

 (which I think they did the whole time Kate was here.)

Wilson was all over the candy that Zina got from the parade.

I bought the kids Canada shirts and, unintentionally, wore white - Oh Canada!

 Mark, thought I was making a statement.  He borrowed a shirt from my brother just to ensure that we were in red, white & blue. :)

The Thomas Clan. Raymond Parade.  July 1, 2008

Traditional July 2nd trip to Waterton. We love ICECREAM!

Hiking to Akamina lake.  The kids + Trisha had fun wading through the creek.  

It was about 7 p.m. but absolutely gorgeous out.

Cameron Lake

Kate and Zina on the Prince of Wales Hotel overlook.

Camping at Crandall

We love to go to Waterton in the summer, and we started this year off by camping at Crandall Campground. It was so beautiful and lots of fun. The kids did great in a tent and sleeping bags.



After we set up camp we hiked to Crandall lake.  This part the kids weren't so great at.  We pretty much hauled them up and hauled them down.  Good thing it's a nice short hike. 

We also hiked to Blakiston Falls. It was beautiful.  I love hiking with my family.  They sing and laugh all the way up the trail.  

Wilson

I just loved this pictures of Wilson. He is getting to be SO much fun. He has the happiest cutest little personality. He is also a very determined little boy. The last couple of days he has started walking everywhere and throwing little fits when he doesn't get what he wants. The funny part is that he'll start his fit and then stop to make sure we are watching and then continue. Last night my mom and Liz were laughing at him during a fit and so he started throwing it for attention...with no noise. It was hilarious.

Lemons or Lemonade?

And here are some adorable little lemons that we tried really hard to make into lemonade - only to find that we like our freedom more than we like our money.  Ok. so the girls weren't really lemons.  I just discovered that running a day home is not for me.  I like to go when I want to go.   And that's that.

Summer Lov'n

had me a blast...

That's just the way this summer has been. Practically perfect in everyway. (Well mostly, we just had to turn the lemons into lemonade.. :) This post (or posts) is a major catch up endeavor of all the fun and "fun" we've had this summer.

1. Writing On Stone
This was on Mark's list of places he wanted to go while living in Canada. Everyone loved it. It could have been a little hotter for me, but it was still fun. We played in the hoodoo's (pronounced who-do), played in the mud, tubed down the Milk river, ate yummy food, and soaked in the sun.

"cheese!"

Wow, Wilson had the hugest grin on his face when he got in the water. It was the perfect mud hole for him and he was perfectly conent the whole time even though when we took him out he was freezing cold!

Tubing down the milky Milk River

I know it doesn't seem like a very nice beach. The water was a snitch high so the nicer sandy beach was covered up and we had to find a spot amidst the weeds. Lovely.

2. Sweet Soccer
The family sport around the Keeler house is definately soccer. So much so that they had to build their own soccer field in the backyard. We have had a lot of fun out there this summer. There are so many of us living at home right now that we have enough (with a few friends to play some sweet soccer.

Here I am attempting to school Mark...

I think it worked... :)

Zina needed Mom for a little time out...

It's nice to be needed. I love my Zina hugs...

How can I resist?

Grandps tickling Zina after she...

decided to cool Wilson down..it was a really hot day after all.

Just a few years yet Wilson then you can be on my team...

Yeesh, only two events caught up to. I'm going to have to be a little more concise...

Desperate Measures

Yes, I know you all think the reason I havn't posted is because of my lovely extra kiddos. Which is partially true - but mostly it is because our computer is on the fritz. Yes, sad but true. And we havn't really done anything about it because the reboot c.d. has been in our storage unit in Idaho. Lovely. Thanks to Kellen and Erin for finding it for us. Now in a couple of weeks hopefully we will be up and running again. Until then, yes I am pretty much to lazy to use the three other computers in the house and post. Let us all pray that none of our pictures, music, documents, etc. on our computer are lost. :) And to be perfectly honest with you all - I am sort of enjoying the constant addiction of blogging, blurbing, facebooking, emailing, etc. being non-existant.