A Beary Cute Canadian.

And the latest in baby containment devices. There is a contraption called the Learning Tower. Katie hopes to have the Grandpa made version at some point (sooner than later, we hope), but for now we have to make do with the dining room chairs. It works pretty well, besides her not being able to get up & down by herself. She's in & secure, and happy that she can see what I'm doing, and I'm happy that she's not going to get hurt.

Gimme that camera! I want to look at the baby too!

I know, I know. I'm beary cute.

Quick catch up with pictures.

Just a few photos from this month. Nothing too exciting, we tried to stay home as much as possible after our big holiday.

She loves her watermelon. She'll eat tons of it if you let her. Not sure yet what we're going to do about that when winter comes.

She has also rediscovered her rocking chair, and she loves it. Snuggling here with her hedgehog.

Look at all those teeth.

Snuggling with her baby. She lugged that baby all over the place this day. The next day was the big stuffed zebra.
Little bruise on her left cheek from falling off the little step in front of the house. Not far enough to do any real damage, but enough to give her a good scare. Poor kid.

Slipping further and further behind

August 4, 2007
Today was a bit of a lazy day. Lots of splashing in the river, sitting around catching up with everyone, things like that. Naps were had by some. We had the traditional potluck in the afternoon, a bit different than usual since we weren't allowed to roast the meat on the spit, but there are enough travel trailers now that everyone put a bit of roast in their oven and it all turned out great. In the evening (after it had cooled off a bit), Katie helped her Grampa push a wagon around. Her cousin Arie brought some good toys with her. Katie and Grampa also tested out Arie's bike, which Katie enjoyed immensly but not quite as much as the wagon. Have to point out to Grampa that she can't really learn to ride the bike until she can reach the pedals. In the evening, everyone gathered around the firepit (lit by lanterns now that we couldn't have a fire), and some people helped make huckleberry ice cream. Not sure how this tradition started, but it's a good one. We had to take a cranky baby to bed before the ice cream was ready, but there was enough to go around and Grammy brought some to our tent for us.

PS. Grampa, that bike must've made an impression, because she was most excited by the bicycles at the parade on Friday.

Now, pictures!

This camping is hard work. Notice the little twine belt. Every child who has ever been to the campout has had a twine belt at some point. Katie's was because her diaper didn't fill out her jeans like it usually does.

Helping Grampa move that wagon. She was much happier to push than she was to ride in it.

A bicycle, eh?

I think she likes it. Look at those dirty, dirty knees!

Aubrey helping make ice cream.
And that's all the pictures I have from our trip. Sunday was the day to pack up camp and head back to Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa's house, and Monday we all parted ways and headed back home. After the obligatory trip up the mountain on the gondola, of course. Katie enjoyed that very much.

August 3, 2007

Happy Birthday to me! I think that we've celebrated my birthday more often at the campout than not. And that suits me just fine, what better way to celebrate than surrounded by people who love you in a beautiful place.

Today was more lounging and more playing in the river. Very hot, and the first day of the Stage 2 firebans, which means no open flame. All our cooking had to be done on campstoves now, and propane only. Also meant no more long talks around the fire at night. Lanterns just don't have the same effect, so everyone goes to bed early. But there's good news! It's friday, and that means that Uncle Bob is making his Mulligan Stew. Good stuff, that Mulligan. In fact, the only pictures I have from today are of the Mulligan preparations.

Bob browns the meat while Aubrey gets started chopping onions. My Mom in the foreground chopping turnips or some such thing.

Uncle Jim adds his advice, which apparently has Andrew scratching his head. Or maybe he's just never participated in the Mulligan preparations before.

And Aubrey just keeps chopping away. They had her peeling turnips after she was done with the onion. I'd take the turnips anyday.

August 2, 2007

I'm a slacker. I only took 2 pictures on this day. Terrible. At least they're cute.

Today we started out at a leisurely pace with Grandma & Grandpa. We got ourselves ready (read: bought food), helped them get ready, and we all headed out to the river for the family campout. There were a few people already there, but we were the first tenters so we got to pick our spots first. That's never happened to me before! Mom & Dad even made it before dark. We spent most of the day lounging around and chatting with family we hadn't seen in a while. Splashed in the river a little, set up camp, and generally just relaxed. A welcome change from the few days prior.

Katie pictures only today.

First she wanted to go for a walk in the river.

Then she splashed herself and got mad, so Daddy had to rescue her.

Aug 1, 2007

Today we woke up earlier than yesterday, but not by much, thank goodness. Andrew got out of the tent to start loading the truck and was told by the people next to us that a black bear had passed right by our tent just a few minutes before. We're glad we were all asleep for that. Here's a map of Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park if you'd like to follow along.

We started our morning at the Crandell Mountain campsite, site D10, if I remember correctly. Drove out of the park to cross the border, went through that with no problems at all. It really does benefit you to have all your paperwork in order and ready when you get to the crossing. Stopped for breakfast near Babb, Montana at Two Sisters Cafe. I've had better eggs benedict, but the service was amazing, and Andrew & Aubrey said their food was excellent. And I was quite thankful to be served actual brewed decaf coffee. Most everyone up here tries to give me instant when I order decaf. Not long after that, we entered the park on the Going-To-The-Sun Road (the big red road on the map). About 2 minutes after that, we stopped at Sun Point to walk out to the point and take a short walk down the trail to Baring Falls. I didn't take any pictures of the falls this time, but I have a couple from our last trip. Correction, I didn't take any pictures with my camera. I took some for Aubrey though. Also at Sun Point, the only pictures that I took of people I know all day. Ah well. Gorgeous scenery though.

Spotted some mountain goats somewhere between Logan's Pass and the Weeping Wall. Okay, so we spotted a whole pile of tourists out of their cars first, then we spotted the goats. We stayed in our vehicle and got ahead of the pack.

We took another short walk at McDonald Falls, just enough to realize that you can't actually get to the falls from the overlook. Something about a sheer rock face...

We then swiftly exited the park and headed through the wilds of Montana. Seemed like a much shorter trip than the last one. Of course, there weren't any water bombers to watch this time, and we knew where we were going. Took Aubrey into the 10,000 Silver Dollar Bar in Lincoln, just so we could tell her mom that we took her to the bar. And because you just can't drive past without stopping for a peek. Then we left Montana for Idaho and couldn't get to Grandma & Grandpa's fast enough. We were all very glad to see them and very glad to stretch our legs again.

Pictures!

Katie, Andrew & Aubrey on Sun Point. Aubrey is looking for the chipmunk who was threatening to eat our toes because we didn't bring him peanuts like everyone else.

Andrew & Katie. We've decided that Katie likes to ride on Andrew's back because she can hold my hand, but she likes my back better because it's shorter and she can see over my shoulders.
The view to the East from Sun Point. This lake is incredible. It is so clear and so deep. Beautiful.
Looking West from Sun Point. It's hazy because there are lots of forest fires in the area. I'm glad we got through here so early because by the time we got to McDonald Lake in the afternoon, we couldn't even see across the lake because of the smoke haze.

Why did the goat cross the road?
There are 3 in this picture, I think that the one at the far right and the one in the middle were born this year.

Another one. Doing what mountain goats do when they aren't crossing roads.

The ever elusive McDonald Falls.

What do you know?

While I was waiting for a cute video to upload, I managed to resize all the pictures for day 2. So here they are, while I wait for it to finish publishing and become available by link.

Here's the cute video. Aubrey taught Katie a new trick.

July 31, 2007 - From Kananaskis Country to Waterton Lakes National Park

We had a pretty shady, quiet campsite, and 2 very tired girls, so we didn't get started until about 10am this day. No worries though, we only had about 4 hours of driving to get to our next campsite. We took the long route down a forestry trunk road (gravel highway) and saw some extra sights. And lost one of our chairs when a gust of wind off a log truck hit us. I'm sure it's beyond demolished by now, but if you find a black chair with the Alpac logo on it on the trunk road between Kananaskis and Coleman, let us know.

We drove through the bison paddock on the way into Waterton Lakes, as far as I can tell, they're a close to wild as anything else in the park, they just don't threaten cars/campers so much from their paddock. We had supper in Waterton Lakes, at a horribly overpriced restaurant and it was not good food. But oh well. We did take a little walk on the lake and spotted a mother deer with her fawn who came down not 15 feet away to have a little drink. Unfortunately, none of us had our cameras with us just then. Then we had another little bedtime hike and crashed down into our beds.

Pictures again!

Sleepy girl. Somebody forgot to close the valve on her sleeping pad, so she had pretty much no padding this night.

First thing in the morning. The wind at this little lake was very, very cold. We didn't stay long.

This is at a campsite on the trunk road. Aubrey & Andrew took a little walk while I stayed in the truck with a sleeping Katie.

Bison! This is the big bull, with a young bull to the left. Bison calves.

Aubrey in Red Rock Canyon. She actually waded through the water. It was cold!

All of us in the canyon.

Catching up

I fell a bit behind when we went on our holiday. One of the drawbacks, I guess, of not bringing computers with us. Perhaps the only drawback. I do have a pile of pictures now to sort into posts. We'll start with The first day, and I'll try to get to the rest quickly. Too tired tonight to do more than one day. Our friend Aubrey came up for a visit on the 26th, she came on our trip with us. It was great to have her here, we had a great time. Especially Katie, who has been dreaming of having her very own big kid.

July 30, 2007
Started out the day with Andrew's sister and her family. We went to the lake with them and Aubrey got to go tubing for the first time. She had a blast. We had forgotten Katie's lifejacket, but Annita still had their baby lifejacket, so Katie got to go on the boat with the Dads and the big kids. There was also some weenie roasting, and lots of playing in the sand. After we had had enough fun at the lake, Andrew, Katie, Aubrey & I packed ourselves back into the truck and headed down the road to Kananaskis Country. We drove around and saw some wildlife before deciding to stay the night there. We saw a mother moose and her calf, and 3 young deer. The moose calf was definitely the highlight.

Here come the pictures. Some of them anyway.

First up, playing in the sand! She wasn't nearly as concerned about this dirt touching her as she was the dirt later in the week.
Aubrey and Alicia on the inner tube. The guy standing up in the boat is Andrew, holding Katie.

Tired, grubby baby.

Mama Moose. There must've been about 8 vehicles stopped here to take pictures.
And the baby. He was a bit more hesitant about crossing the road.
Who needs bedtime stories when you can take a hike instead? And so funny when you get to ride on Daddy's back instead of Mommy.

The waterfall a short distance from our campsite.

All my close pictures of Aubrey from this day are very fuzzy because she was being a goofball.