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.

Spray park!

Today we went to the spray park with some local moms. Katie had a blast. I thought the water was pretty cold, but she was right in the thick of it. She did go back to play in the grass after about 40 minutes, when she got too cold for sprinklers. When she warmed up again, she went back in the water. And my camera apparently takes really good crisp pictures (that have been sized down for the blog, lol) when you figure out all the options for manual mode. It's not just a point and shoot after all!

This one's pretty fun! Look at the water follow my fingers!

What's next?

This one looks like fun!

Ooooh! This one is COLD!

Super baby and the yucky grass.

Today Katie played dressup with her cousin.

I am SUPER BABY! Don't want to mess with me!

Then we took a long walk around the driveway and she was extra careful not to touch that icky grass.

And she's off

Our day

Today we went to the lake again with Scott, Mark & Kim. Great fun was had by all, especially Katie. She went in the inner tube (with a grownup) twice, once with Kim and once with me. She LOVED it. Unfortunately, there are no pictures. Because although I remembered to bring the camera this time, I left the memory card in the computer, and apparently I can't take pictures without it.

I do, however, have a photo of the aftermath. We were walking around the parking lot while the guys got the boat loaded back on the trailer and Katie tripped over a rock. So I give you, baby's first road rash.

Truth be told, this photo is from after we got home, and she's crying about something completely unrelated. She cried for about 10 seconds when it actually happened and then wanted back down to play again. Everyone thinks she is very brave for wanting to go on the inner tube and for recovering so quickly from her fall.

It's summertime!

And boy is it hot! So Katie had to spend some time in the pool she got for her birthday. She had a great time, and cried when it was time to get out.



Then we went inside and she had a (unopened) popsicle to chew on because her molars are really bugging her. Poor kid.

Where did my baby go?

And where did this toddler come from?

Katie no longer crawls. She has better things to do, apparently. She figured out how to stand up without holding onto anything a few days ago, and since she can carry more with her hands in the air, who needs crawling? Too cute to see those short little legs cruising around the house. Even cuter when she starts dancing to whatever music might be playing. Shaking her little bum around. Very, very cute. Time to start looking for the Salsa Tots schedule.

She's 1!

Some pictures and a brief update.
We now have a 1 year old. She walks, almost runs, and stands up all by herself. She weighs 19.5 pounds and is 29.5 inches tall.

Found my Grampa!

Pounded on my new drum.

I learned that if I make this face after I take a drink, everyone laughs.
Photo credit: Ken L.

A tunnel!
Photo credit: Ken L.

Playing with my new octopus on the way to the zoo.

When I was at the zoo, I petted a pony.
This one is way closer to my size than that one we have at home.
Photo credit: Ken L.

When we got home from the zoo, we found Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa at our house!
I was very excited to see them.
Photo credit: Ken L.

We had a big barbeque with lots of friends over, and we took this picture of 4 generations of our family.
Photo credit: Kim W.

A few days later, we went for a walk and Grammy tried on the wrap.
That made me laugh, it was fun.

Then Grammy's back got sore, so Mommy let me ride on her back for the rest of the walk. I guess Grammy's not used to carrying somebody.
Photo credit: Karen L.

We also got some other visitors for a little while. They're here to get more used to seeing people. The big one is Shalamar, she's Jack's mom, and the little guy is named Gilbert, he's Jack's half brother. They're doing great, and Charlie is loving the company.