Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Here I am on my 24th birthday! :) Justin made me eggs and toast before he had to leave early in the morning. A real breakfast in bed...what a man. Then he came home from work with this AWESOME present! I now own my own nice volleyball. Hooray! The rest of the day we prepared to leave home again and go to Cardston to continue the fun at Echo Lake. So, basically, it is birthweek. I love spreading the celebration.

Here is one beautiful view on our way to Echo. This is right after Logan's Pass in Glacier National Park. A must see.

Awww...

Ooooh...

I opened my present on Friday, ate Birthday dinner on Sunday, and blew out the candles on Monday, all 24. This was a delicious ice cream cake we made. French vanilla cake layered with strawberry ice cream and bananas all frozen together. Mmmmm...I think there are still leftovers in the freezers. Yes.

The Fruits of Our Labor...Actually, the Vegetables!

We've named Zach our Quality Control Inspector for the produce this season.

This one passed!

Justin and I got in our pjs, watched a movie, and shelled over 21 cups of peas!

So hap-pea! :)
(I know, pretty punny, eh?)

The proud sheller. We also got 12 quart size ziplock bags of beans and 5 zucchini! It has been really fun to enjoy the vegetables of our labor!

Echo Lake Montana...Part I

A beautiful view of the lake...and Justin and Zach. Sorry guys, I caught you off guard!

Justin and Zach swimming around in Zach's awesome floaty.

Zach and his Grandpa with their matching hats.


The rise...

...and fall of Justin! :)

Karen, Joanie, and Amelia on a wimpy tube ride...just how I like them. Luckily I am pregnant this year, so I have a legitimate excuse!


Justin and I sporting our wicked farmer's tans while canoing to Turtle Bay. We didn't see any turtles there, but we saw some on the way home.

Zach's first wake skating experience.

Zach's first tube ride!

Woo hoo!


Amelia and Zach going for another boat ride.


Joanie found a turtle by the dock.


I caught him in the act! Ha ha! Gotcha kid. One of Zach's new favorite past times.

How Does Our Garden Grow? Continued...

Zucchini/Squash (1), Cucumbers (1), Potatoes(2), Peas(2)

Carrots (3), Beans (2), Corn (2)

The Calgary Stampede!

A beautiful view while driving from Edmonton to Calgary. I LOVE the canola fields. They are EVERYWHERE! We learned at the Stampede that canola oil is made from the crushed seeds and it takes 50 pounds of seed to make 10 L of oil!
Yeehaw! Here we are, arriving at the Stampede. If you are wondering what the Stampede is, it is "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth." It is a yearly Rodeo event up here in Calgary that I highly recommend. The highlights are the daily Rodeo and Chuckwagon races, but there are also farming life exhibits, animals, and fair food and rides. SO AWESOME! It runs for about 10 days in July.
One of my favorite parts about the Stampede, seeing the piglets! I think they are SO cute with thier little curly tails. I would NEVER want to be their mom though and nurse them! They are vicious! That poor sow! This one had 10 babies!
Another view...
Here Zach is saying hello to his goat twins. They are exZACHly the same age! Zach, meet Ambrosia and Dreamcatcher, your Toggenburg Goat twins!


Zach got to go on a few little rides. He loved the Merry-Go-Round. He got so excited every time we went around and we would try to find Daddy again! Zach found him early this time!
And here he is on the flying bee ride. The equivalent to Disneyland's Dumbo ride of course. Once it started flying, he loved it!
Here is Zach cheering at the chuckwagon races. He was so into all of the events and he LOVED the music! He was dancing like a madman.
Our little caballero! Some day he will be down there riding those bulls. Finally he crashed. Wow, what a day. He woke up again after the races were over, just in time to enjoy some more carnival food. Here we are having a yummy fruit smoothie! Our daily diet at the Stampede was disgusting to think about...remember, we merely sampled most of these things: chicken burger, sweet potato fries, poutine, pop, kettle corn, pineapple soft serve, cookies and chocolate milk, those little donuts, bratwurst, frozen lemonade, cotton candy, deep fried oreos, and a fruit smoothie! I am sure I am missing something, but I want to barf already thinking about that so I am done!

The Calgary Zoo!

At the hotel Zach was helping Auntie Karen brush her teeth. Zach LOVES brushing his teeth.
Here we are in front of the hippo that you can't reall see. It was SO cool though. 2 hippos were in the water. Then they rang a bell saying it was lunch time. The hippos very slowly got their whole body out and u pthe slope to go eat some hay. It was so cool. They are such a strange looking animal. Justin said they are accountable for more human deaths than ANY animal in Africa!
Justin's favorite, the giraffe.
Check this guys front legs out. I guess that is what you do when you are so tall and need to get down low.
The cutest thing EVER! I stared at this baby gorilla for probably 15 minutes! It was so cute and so tiny!

Here is it's mom. It was pretty funny, the mom came over and was trying to bug it enough to wake it up or something. It kept flicking it's little outtie belly button! Back and forth and back and forth. Never wake a sleeping baby!

Us with the Asian Elephants. They had a cute little baby too!
Zach enjoying the view.
Check out those CLAWS! Here is a cute fuzzy grizzley playing with its ball.

Zach enjoying another cool treat on a hot day. A "screamer" (slurpie mixed with soft serve ice cream. Delicious!

Aubree Nicole Crippen has Arrived!

My oldest brother Chris finally has his little princess. This baby is literally a dream baby. Early on in their marriage Sherelda had a dream about her little girl. She had dark hair and they would name her Aubree. 12 years and 6 boys later...she had Aubree! We are SOOOO happy for you guys!
Here are Chris and Sherelda with their little sweet pea. I am sure she will be in A LOT of pink!

4th of July!

I have to say, celebrating the 4th of July in Canada is a bummer. No parades, no fireworks, no bbqs or pool parties...Go figure. To save the holiday, Zach wore his "Property of the United States" t-shirt and I made a traditional flag cake and called all of the Americans I could think of that lived close by to make sure they had done something to celebrate and invite them to our house. My fellow Americans, the Wong Family, came over to eat the delicious cake. Minn Va is from California too! :) Darren is Canadian, the only one out of all of us, but we let him have a tiny piece still. Mostly because he wore such an awesome tie to our little party! And Dad, remember this t-shirt? I wear it every year! Tie-dye 4th of July. Groovy. Thanks, I think. :) The cute Wong girls remind me a lot of my nieces Leneah and Kaela. They are my pseudo-nieces up here I guess. Anyway, I am proud to be an American...

Happy Canada Day!

I love another holiday! This week we get 2! July 1 is Canada Day and July 4 is well, July 4th! :) Anyway, we started out the day with delicious fried "eh"-ggs and strawberry-banana decked out canadacakes...I mean pancakes.
To end the day we had Arnold and his aide Fabian over for hamburgers, chips, grapes, and grape pop-Justin's favorite. Of course there had to be jello involved-also Justin's favorite! This was my first time making a Canadian jello flag. Just a pan of strawberry jello jazzed up with some vanilla yogurt. Easier than the American flag! Anyway, we love summer, nice weather, and barbecues!