Episode 3 - Oh, Canada!

 We drove and drove and of course stopped in Choteau, Montana for obligatory ice cream and dinosaur pictures.

We made it across the border with no trouble, here we are climbing out the sunroof.  And to follow are several videos I've made since. 

We went up to Okotoks, where Ryan's Grandparents and a set of aunt and uncle and cousin live.  Okotoks is just south of Calgary.  The Calgary Stampede was on and the morning after we arrived was the big parade in downtown Calgary.  So Ryan and the kids and I went off in search of the parade.  We managed to somehow find it, we looked for blocked off streets, found one, parked and walked towards the commotion.  There were thousands of horses, aboriginals in beautiful costumes (aboriginals is what they call the First Nation People, or the Native Americans), cowboys, bagpipers, Mounties, it was amazing.  And they serve free pancake breakfasts all over the city, you just wander in, get a plate and a box of orange juice and get pancakes, sausage and bacon.  With real butter, mind you.  The free breakfasts are a big deal here during Stampede Week, I can't even imagine how much pancake batter they went thru.  We stayed thru most of the parade and Jeff counted over seven hundred horses.  It was really fun and the weather was lovely. 

We had dinner at Uncle Ken and Aunt Willie's house in Okotoks and Ken and Willie convinced Ryan, myself, Aunt Leslie, and cousin Rory to go to their hot yoga hula-hoop class.  We were intrigued.  I am pretty awesome at hula-hooping so I was in and I was surprised that Ryan was willing given his skills with the hoop...  But we went along.  The instructor wasn't ready for us when we got there so she gave us hoops and we started to warm up.  On the sidewalk.  In front of the store.  All six of us hooping away for about a half hour.  You should have seen Ryan trying to keep that hoop up, he was a maniac.  I kept telling him there is a rhythm and it isn't go as fast as you can go.  He eventually got it, in fact, all six of us were hooping very well by the time we went into class.  It just took a little practice.  Class was very warm and we had such a good time, we did a little yoga and a lot of hula hooping.  I got some fancy moves down a little, I could get the hoop up to my kneck and back down to my waist, and I eventually was able to get it going around my foot while laying on the floor.  It was just fun to see all those family members getting sweaty and hula-hooping.  Ryan had to catch his plane home very early the next morning and I was very sad to see him go.  He would be gone back to work for 11 days.

The next day we went to Uncle Ken and Aunt Willie's house here in Okotoks, their house is on a community lake and the kids spent the whole time on the water, there were two paddle boards and a boat and they just stayed and stayed out there.  It was lovely.  Ryan's cousin, Nathan and his wife Rory, her brother who was 12 had a great time with Jeff, and their son Baron and Peter did battle.  Neither of those two boys back down so they butted heads a lot.  The next day the kids and I gathered up Grandma and Grandpa Bateman and dragged them down to southern Alberta with us to meet up with Terry and Arnon and Philip and stay at Uncle Mike's house in Cardston.



Since my camera has forgotten that I like to keep the pictures I take, I took lots of video.  Here we are on top of Bears Hump in Waterton.  It was warm hiking up the trail and the kids were pretty sure they were dying the whole way up the .75 mile hike.  Hikers coming down told us of lovely views and cooling breezes up on top.  We were pleased to find that it was just as lovely as advertised when we made it up there.  Just as beautiful as I remember.  Last time I was here I was with my new husband and we did not have any children and the trail seemed shorter and less steep :)




We had lunch at a picnic area near Waterton Lake and the kids had a great time trying to fill the lake with rocks and driftwood.  We saw these little ground hogs near our picnic table and the kids had to feed them crackers and carrots.  There were signs everywhere saying not to feed the deer (with fun pictures of deer kicking and maiming people), but there wasn't anything saying not to feed these fuzzy critters.  It was naughty to do but so cute.  I like Peter's song at the end of the vid.



We sent Grandpa Terry, Uncle Mike, Jefferson, Peter and Alana home with one vehicle so that Jeffey could go do baptisms at the Cardston Temple with Uncle Mike and Grandpa and Peter and Alana stayed at Uncle Mike's house and rested (they truly needed rest).  And the rest of us went to Red Rock, which is a canyon in Waterton Park.  It was a beautiful drive and the canyon is so lovely.  We had a great time exploring.  I am going to need to know who carved that graffiti though... 



The kids and Arnon went walking up the canyon from the bottom after our hike around to the bridge and they went quite a ways up.  I climbed from the top down a little to get this video and I'm so glad that I did.  I would have missed Leah's tumble.  I love how she just sat there for a while, and that water was pretty cold!!

We toured around in Southern Alberta for a day or two with Terry, Arnon, and Grandma and Grandpa Bateman. We went to Lethbridge and Raymond to see historical family sites, did rubbings on gravestones and took pictures in front of family homes. It was really neat to see all the old places and the kids handled it all really well. Arnon and Grandma B had the kids doing packets with family history, there were riddles and questions to answer about places we went and ancestors and my girls were very very into it!! Leah ended up with over 700 points, Tess had over 500 and Alana had over 300. The small boxes of Smarties they got after every stop were a big help too (Smarties are Canadian candy, like thick shelled M&M's, hardcore Canadians claim to love them more than M&M's). The boys were slightly less enthusiastic but we are pretty sure something good rubbed off on them.



After a brief stay in Okotoks (near Calgary) at Grandma and Grandpa B's we went up to Edmonton to play with Aunt Kirsti and Uncle Brad.  They have a beautiful log home out on an acreage outside the city and the kids were in heaven in their back yard and playing with their sweet kids, Skye and River.  Kirsti is expecting number three in a few weeks.  She is a trooper to have all 11 of us stay with them!  The kids absolutely loved it there, they would still be there now if they could. 



We went up to the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.  It is a beautiful museum with lots of really cool things for the kids to look at.  I took lots of videos but here is the one I will show you.  It amuses me.



We went to church and the kids were crazy wild after, so here is the video we took.  That is little Miss Skye on the left.  She is a doll.



We left Kirsti and Brad's yesterday morning and headed to the Royal Tyrrell Museum at Drumheller (the big dinosaur museum, 110,000 fossils, that sort of thing).  The joint was hopping with people and the museum is vast so I kept counting to six and peeling Alana off the exhibits to catch up to the others (she wanted to read E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G).  It may have stressed me out a bit.  This bubble wall calmed me.



Here is an example of how yesterday was.  We didn't lose anyone for long and I didn't beat the children in front of strangers so it was a success.  We got ice cream cones on the way home to Okotoks and even though it was a long driving day the kids survived...



... Thanks to Grandpa and violent songs.  They love this song.

Ryan will get here late tonight and for that I am so very grateful.  We have had a fantastic time up here but I miss my sweetie. 

Future plans and posts will include more lake fun, Banff, family dinners, and the long road home :)