Echoooo-echo-echo-echo-echo...

In mid-August, Justin took a week off of his 8 week rotation in Olds to go to one of our favorite places...Echo Lake! It was warm, and beautiful! We were there with Justin's parents and Karen and Dallin. Super fun!  

Zach was especially excited to FISH! He is quite the fisherman. The morning after we got there Justin and Zach went to the causeway and went fishing. Here is his first solo catch!

 



Addie is a very loved baby. They are always wanting to hold her. Looking back at these pictures all I can think of is how much  hair she's lost in the last month! This is tons compared to what she has now. :(

Yay for attacking playing with Uncle Dallin!

The highlight of Justin's trip...catching this 29" Northern Pike! Big, ugly fish! Right off the dock. Creepy.

Those are grandpa's size 12 feet!

What a monster! The kids were super excited. Almost as excited as Justin.

 Big ugly fish.

See the teeth? Yikes.

 
29 inches...I know there are a million pictures, but this was a big deal for Justin. :) These are his proud pictures. As he should be.

This is how every morning started. Watching "The Lorax." My kids had never seen it and loved it! Plus, it was a good way to keep the house quiet since my kids love to get up early. Yuck.

 

So zoned.

Smile kids! Ha ha!

 

My stud going for a ski.

 
Poor Addie hated the life jacket! It was way too big for her. When the boat started going she usually fell asleep though. Having a baby under 6 months in the summer is kind of hard. No sunscreen!!

Just to prove I was there too!

This girl is getting hard to get a straight face out of. The camera came out and this is what she does.







 

 

 

 

Even when I was trying to get a shot of Justin skiing she just kept pulling faces. She is full of personality.

My skiier. I always like to watch Justin play. It is nice to see him have fun. He works hard in church and school and work and family. Plus, I like watching him be so athletic. Woo woo.
 

Kate was literally crying because we wouldn't let her swim. It was early morning, she was still in her jammies, and it was COLD! But she was inconsolably crying so we dipped her! Crazy water baby girl.

 

:)

 

Fishing off the dock...again.

 

 

And I was there for a catch!!

 

 

Look at that cute little fish on the end. That's what Justin was used to catching mostly from the dock...until the monster came! 

And here is the water baby again. She just jumps. Over and over and over again. :)

 

Again...

 

And then there is cute little Kara, posing on the end of the boat. :)

I forget even why she was sad, but I had to take a picture of her because I had my camera in my hand and I wanted to show her her sad face. :( It is pretty sweet. 

This is how I got her to stop being sad. Sing to me Kate!


Zach saw her singing, so he had to have a turn too!


And of course Kara did too. Domino effect. A cute one though. :)

The final picture of the fish. :) It didn't taste the best. Not horrible. But to me it tasted like Echo Lake.

 

"Dallin's Brother" Aaron was at the lake with his family and came over and played all day with us. The kids love Aaron. He is really good to them. I am sad this picture is kinda blurry because they were all laughing and screaming along with Zach.

Yay for Uncle(s).

Becky Quinton was also there with Karen.

My favorite part about them tubing is hearing the scream every time they crossed the wake. Grandpa has stepped it up a notch this year and got them out of the wake. They love going back and forth, back and forth.

Sittin' on the dock of the lake. 

Such a little trooper. My favorite part of this trip happened when I took her into Kalispell with Karen and Cynthia shopping. We were in a shoe store waiting as Karen tried some stuff on. I brought her to the mirror and she locked eyes with herself and started cracking up laughing at herself. She couldn't stop smiling and talking to that cute girl in the mirror. :)

 

And these two...they just chatter it up all the time and are turning into little ladies. With LONG hair. I need to learn more hairdos. And I need more time. ;) 

Silly Kara.

Bama got in the water with Kate! 

 

Fishing again.

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The BEAUTIFUL Logan's Pass in Glacier National Park.

 

 

 

Right before this poor goat got hit. :(
Just kidding. It was a parked truck. :)
 

 

 

 

Cardston Heritage Days!

On my birthday we travelled to Medicine Hat for Justin's Academic Days. He goes to school for 2 days and I stay at the hotel and water slide with the kids. No pics of that because there are no hands for cameras now. 4 kids is busy!!!! They had fun though, and Kara even FINALLY went down the slide on her own (she has before and loved it. Crazy girl.) She only did it because I promised her a pack of purple gum. ;) Oh, bribery. After all the fun in Medicine Hat ended we went back to Olds for a week and then headed to Cardston for the weekend before our big Echo trip. Justin took Zach fishing with some of his cousins up at Waterton Lake. They caught a couple brook trout. Fishing has been the highlight of the summer for those two.

 Grandma cooked up the fish one day. Tails and all.

 

My cute little 3 month old.

That weekend was Cardston Heritage days. They always have a great little parade. The kids love going and getting all of the candy!! Man, my kids are growing up!


Karen got home from her semester at BYU Jerusalem that week!! It was so good to see her again. The kids LOVE her.

The coolest part of the parade was that the 2012 Cardston High School Boys Basketball team were the parade marshalls!! They were the 2012 Provincial Champions. That's saying a lot. These guys beat out big teams from Calgary and Edmonton...from a town of 3,500. A basketball town of 3,500. Anyway, Dallin got to walk the parade route and hand out candy. These boys are superstars in
Cardston.

 

 

 

 

Yeyow car! Yeyow is Kara's favorite color. Even when I am driving by myself (when is that??) and see a yellow car I have to point it out. Funny how having kids changes your thinking and actions. You start noticing certain bugs, colors, certain vehicles...

My favorite thing about this picture is that Aunt Shirley is literally stealing candy from my babies. :) Any time Shirley! :)

 

 

Here is the parade group. Richard and Leslie were down doing an elective in Cardston, so we got to hang out with them and play with their cute cousin Benson.
  

And here is Great Grandpa French with Ada-girl. I failed to mention the most time consuming part of our weekend. The softball tournament! Justin and I both got to play on the team. We just brought our 4 little fans...a.k.a. kids...along with us and they played with some of their older second cousins that were hanging around. Luckily there were parks at every field we went to. in 24 hrs we played 6 softball games I think? We started out doing not so hot, but when it came down to it we went to the semi final game! And I actually was a contributor to the team. Got on base or RBI most times! Felt good. I played softball all growing up, but haven't played since Grade 9, so I am glad some of it came back. Can't wait for next year!!! Although I will have a 15 month old. Busy age. We will see! After the parade and between games we also had a French Family luncheon. Quite the weekend. And I was SO SORE by the end of the day and for 3 days after! Like if I wanted to pick up my legs to move them or cross them or something I had to do just that...literally pick them up. With my hands. Ridiculous! But my 3 month postpartum body hasn't really been doing quick sprinting spurts. Next year I will have to train. ;)
 

Olds, AB Part 1...Our home for 2 months!

So, SAD DAY. My camera was stolen at the pool in Olds, AB. We went there for family swim time and while in there a lady walked in holding my purse and keys. She said the purse was found in the garbage can and the keys in the toilet. Eeew. I looked through and my phone and other things were still in there. I had a thought to leave my wallet at home (thank you spiritual prompting) as I wouldn't need it because Justin was with us. Luckily he put his wallet in the bottom of the towel bag, so they didn't get his wallet. I just figured everything was in it. After a few days I realized I hadn't seen my camera for a few days. I searched the house up and down and didn't find anything. :( It was in my purse. The sad thing is, it could have just been in the trash by the purse and I didn't see it because I didn't take my purse out of the garbage or think to look in it for anything else since I thought I had everything. I wish I would have just taken my purse in. I took my diaper pouch in with me. I should have just brought in the whole thing. Boo. So now we didn't have a camera and to make it worse the last pictures I took on the camera were my 'Before' pictures for a baby weight loss challenge I took with my sister. AH!! So if anyone sees any before pictures of my on the internet, tell me so I can track down the jerk that stole my camera. Grrr. Oh, well. I could still take the 'before' picture now as I have had pretty much no progress! Date is up October 16...5 more weeks to go. I got this.

Anyway, on my camera were also pictures of Canada Day, July 4th, and Gull Lake. Canada Day we went to Raymond and watched the parade with Great Grandma Low. She better come with us next year again because I had some cute pictures with her and the kiddos at the parade! Afterward we went to the Dahl Reunion and ate, visited, and did the famous colored rock hunt that you trade in for candy. So fun. I didn't make a Canada Day cake, but we did have the missionary and some friends over for dinner and I had cut up pineapple and watermelon so I shaped our fruit salad like a Canadian Flag. A yellow and reddish pinky one at least. :)

Fourth of July was nothing special. I love the USA and miss celebrating this holiday to its fullest. I did make a beautiful Angel food cake decorated with blueberries and strawberries though. Flag cake in a new form. Gotta keep that tradition going.

And the last pictureless description is that of Gull Lake! The first weekend we went to Olds we met Maren at Gull Lake. That link takes you to her blog, since I haven't gotten the pictures from her yet. we had a great time there. It was such a great beach day. I love taking the kids to a 'beach.' I was happy to see that there are some lakes that have acceptable beaches. Makes my life staying here in Canada a bit more bearable! :) I miss the beach, but some of these lakes will just have to suffice! Anyway, Maren was in Lacombe, which is about an hour from Olds, so we met up and played. I miss my Edmonton friends!!! Now she moved to Ontario. Right before she moved, Barb and Sarah came down and Jordana and I went up for one last hang out to say goodbye to Maren ! It was so good to see all of those girls again. It had almost been a year since I saw some of them. Justin always asks what we do at those things. Just talk really...and yes, for like 4 or 5 hours! Easy. Miss you girls!

 

The ABSOLUTE BEST thing about Justin getting his 2 month rural family medicine rotation in Olds is that my wonderful friend Jordana just moved there in June!!! Our timing was a bit off as we both went on vacations at different times, but when she was there it was awesome! Especially since Olds seemed to be one of the stormiest places I've been in in Alberta. Everyday it seemed a storm ran through. Great, but not when you are in the upstairs of a rental house with hard floors and 3 stircrazy kids and a baby you can't really put on the ground. We loved going to play with Jayna and Kepler. The choice activity was to ride bikes. And yes, it was here that Zach completed a rite of passage...no more training wheels!!!!!!!!! He has been asking me to take them off, and I finally did one day. It was automatic. I helped him stabilize, let go, and off he went. That easy! Now he zzzzoooms around like crazy. Luckily, there was a park 2 blocks from our house with a path that circled around it.

 

 

 

 

 Good work Zachy boy!





The one and only perk about the rental we stayed in was the well endowed raspberry bush in the back! And luckily we were there for raspberry season! No one was picking them, so I sent the kids out rasberry picking. They loved it! It was a great activity when I wasn't ready to go somewhere yet, but they wanted to go outside. And we loved the fresh raspberries.



Want some? They were pretty cute and would pick berries for the neighbors downstairs and next door.

 

One night Justin had off we went to the movie theater and payed a lot of money to sit an in old rundown theater and watch Ice Age 4. It was in 3D (dislike). We've been to one 3D movie before...Tangled. I never wanted to do another 3D because the kids never really keep the glasses on. It bugs me because I know they are just watching a blurry movie. Not worth it!! But we didn't have much of a choice because it was the only theater with the only time showing that day. They did have one non-3D show the next week sometime. Anyway, Kara kept hers on pretty good, but Kate always pulled them down and looked over the top.



Here is the other thing about Olds...it rains and storms. A lot. And OFTEN! It felt like everyday there was a storm. And if it was raining during the day there was NOTHING to do. We tried the library one rainy day with Jordana and her kids. They were about to kick us out I am sure! Poor kids were so tired of being cooped up. Rec center...indoor playground? Something.

Anyway, Justin took these pictures with his iPhone while walking to his car after work one day. INSANE amounts of water! Luckily his car was on high ground.

 



North of Innisfail there is a cute U-pick place called "The Jungle Farm." I wanted to do the U-pick thing last year and went too late, so I was determined to do it this time. We picked strawberries. It went by pretty quick and was pretty expensive, but the kids had fun. They had a fun boat playset and go cart tricycle things they liked to play on too.



Cute place. They do a lot in the fall too. I'd love to go then, but I don't think we will be coming back up.




A hot night in Olds. When did my baby get so big?? Love squeezing those thighs.

And the only picture of best day in Olds. MY BIRTHDAY!!!! The big 28. Under that beautiful wrapping/tablecloth was my new camera!! A real one. A nice one. I am a bit overwhelmed with it and have a lot to learn, but love the quality pictures it takes!! Thanks hon! Happy birthday to me. We should have put a candle on it.

 

2 Month Old Adaleigh

Yes, I am very behind in blogging...but not for long! Time to catch up. Here are a few iPhone pictures of happy Addie. She is almost 2 months old here. Too cute not to document. She loves her siblings, smiles at them all the time. Still a very content, happy, blob of a baby. Double chin skin is filling out and she is losing her newborn bird legs filling out with lots of squishable chub on her bum and thighs. :) Such a sweetheart. Not demanding, patient, and sleeps awesome. Yes please.