Home for the Summer

HE SAID:  
What a great way to start the summer with an annual Canada Day Parade in Raymond with 6 of our 9 Grandkids.   As said in our last post, we took all the Visser grandkids from Winnipeg to stay a few weeks with us in Lethbridge.  The trip across the prairies was great. The kids loved being able to move around the RV including getting into the fridge for a cold beverage and dropping some eggs on the floor at the same time.  Jillian loved the RV so much that once we set up camp in Lethbridge and told her we where going to Halls for supper she ran to the bedroom in the RV and said she was ready to go...she forgot about the car that we were towing in the back.
We booked a site at Elbas Farms just outside Lethbridge. A nice little RV park attached to a fully working farm. The kids liked seeing the animals on a daily basis. The cousins loved spending time together. It was times like these that we miss having our own home again where they all could be together. The RV is just too small for a visit, and unfortuanately, even though the weather was great, the mosquitoes were terrible, making staying outside impossible.
We decided to treat the Visser kids to their first Calgary Stampede including the Stampede Parade.

 We had a great time at both and made sure we stayed overnight so we could get to a Stampede Breakfast. I have lived in Alberta most of my life and this was my first time too. It was a lot of fun and the food was actually pretty good.

It was sad to see the Visser kids go, and we look forward to the next time we get to watch them without mom and dad next year. 

We decided to spend the rest of the summer with the Hall kids and Hayden once a week with a sleep over and an excursion. 

Our first outing was to Fort Mcleod and the RCMP Fort. Again since moving back to Alberta in 1992, we have never spent the time going to this fort and museum. It was really fun. Little Callie even got to be the Honorary Inspection Guard.

One of Drew's many rides.

Our next trip was to Heritage Park in Calgary. Thanks to the Jensen's van we were all able to go together in one vehicle.  I haven't been to this Park in years. There are some new attractions and a lot more rides. Poor Drew wanted to go on all the rides, but Ben and Hayden had other plans. That didn't stop him one bit. I don't think he missed a ride and some he went on more then once.  I really love all the old buildings especially the sweet shop!

Callie in the one room School!

Hayden just robbed a bank!!!

On the Paddle Wheel Boat

Another one of our favourite places to visit in the area is the Birds of Prey centre in Coaldale. For this trip we were joined by Stan and Carolyn and two of their grandkids Josh and Jordan.  We were late meeting them because Drew forgot to wear shoes and we had to get something for his feet. This happened a lot this summer with Callie and Clark also forgetting their shoes on outings. Oh to be a kid again and not having to worry about what is on your feet. Anyway the kids had a great time. 

In August we moved our RV to Russ and Amanda Jensen's driveway as they were going to be gone most of the month and we offered to house sit.  This summer we also house sat for Heather and Jay Dee and Sandy Burbank. We became quite proficient in bouncing from house to house, but in late August we decided to abandon our storage locker and move all of our belongings to Heather and Jay Dee's house. We also took over their basement, and will continue to use their place until we have done all of our travelling. 

We  also took the opportunity this summer to visit our dad's gravesite. It had been a long time for me to have seen my dad's spot and it is always nice to take the grandkids to Ken's spot in Lethbridge. We owe the Visser kids a trip there next time they come to visit us here. 

Stan Tanner and I made some fun trips to Saskatchewan and BC to pick up old trucks for Stan to fix up. Needless to say the trips didn't go off without a hitch of some sort. But I still had fun having guy time with Stan. And of course it was great going to movies all summer with the Tanners. We miss this treat when we are on the road. They are great movie buffs like us.

Well the summer quickly came to a close (but the mosquitoes kept bitting right till the end). We did lots of repairs on the RV and trailer while we where here. The biggest thing was getting our generator working (took two full weeks of getting it right). We were planning on being gone by the end of September, but last minute trailer repairs didn't have us moving west to Nanaimo to the first week of October. We had a great summer but we were excited to be on the road again.

SHE SAID: 

What he said!!! LOL

Missy loved joining us on all the Scottie walks.