One of the first weeks in September we left our house ONE MORE TIME to stay in Calgary for a few days while Justin had his conference. I hung around the hotel with the kids and visited Alysha and fam. James and Adaleigh really hit it off. :)
Justin's conference was held at Canada Olympic Park. I hadn't ever been there, but it was fun to go and see some of the Olympic hopefuls in their training place. While waiting for Justin to be done, we walked around and found an old bobsled ("Feel the rhythm...feel the rhyme...") and watched figure skaters and some old men playing hockey.
Can you see the white dot on the horizon to the right of the center of the photo? That is the Calgary, AB temple! So exciting! I think this was from Justin's iPhone so I couldn't zoom in, but it looked way closer than this! So the view from Canada Olympic park is much more glorious now. :)
After his conference we joined a bunch of the residents in the resident retreat at the YMCA Camp Chief Hector. Families were invited to come with, so it was a good time to meet some of the other families and residents. We were a bit hesitant to come because we are just sick of travelling and thought that the activities they had planned might not be age appropriate for our youngens', but we went and I am really glad we did! Our kids had a blast. Great opportunities to try new things. Here are the kids outside our bunkhouse. We shared it with 4 couples. There were 3 rooms of 7 bunks each. We had our own room (thank goodness) but in our lodge thing there were 8 kids 5 and under. each family had a baby and it was actually a pretty quiet night!
Justin's conference was held at Canada Olympic Park. I hadn't ever been there, but it was fun to go and see some of the Olympic hopefuls in their training place. While waiting for Justin to be done, we walked around and found an old bobsled ("Feel the rhythm...feel the rhyme...") and watched figure skaters and some old men playing hockey.
Can you see the white dot on the horizon to the right of the center of the photo? That is the Calgary, AB temple! So exciting! I think this was from Justin's iPhone so I couldn't zoom in, but it looked way closer than this! So the view from Canada Olympic park is much more glorious now. :)
After his conference we joined a bunch of the residents in the resident retreat at the YMCA Camp Chief Hector. Families were invited to come with, so it was a good time to meet some of the other families and residents. We were a bit hesitant to come because we are just sick of travelling and thought that the activities they had planned might not be age appropriate for our youngens', but we went and I am really glad we did! Our kids had a blast. Great opportunities to try new things. Here are the kids outside our bunkhouse. We shared it with 4 couples. There were 3 rooms of 7 bunks each. We had our own room (thank goodness) but in our lodge thing there were 8 kids 5 and under. each family had a baby and it was actually a pretty quiet night!
Our cute lil' camper. If you could call this camping. We slept in sleeping bags, so I think that counts. :)
Finding beautiful rocks.
I made the kids pose on their beds. We each had our own. Haven't slept on a twin size bed for a while! So lonely. Luckily Addie slept with me for most of the night.
Justin was in class for some of the day, so we had some time to kill. The activities were only on at certain times of the day. I am glad so many people came and brought their kids too!
The kids trying to "chop" the tree down. And they just saw "The Lorax." Guess it didn't internalize.
First we went to low ropes with "Stew." He became a favorite of the kids. He had a pretty sweet Aussie accent. ;) Here he is teaching the kids how to spot.
See Kara spotting? So cute.
Here they just had a bunch of challenges for the kids to walk across and try to balance.
Stew took the camera and I got a chance to spot the kids. It was fun to spend quiet time with them.
Kate waiting her turn. ;)
They can do hard things!!!! :)
I had to take Addie and feed her, Zach came over and took a picture of me being a mother, in nature.
After the low ropes Justin had an hour off so we went and found the horses. I wish we got to ride them!
We had to be really careful, because that fence was an electric fence! Stew brought us there and just said, "oh yeah, be careful, it is electric." Mostly to keep the other animals out I think. Each of our children accidentally touched it at one time or another.
All of the horses finally clued in that we were giving them the good stuff. Look at that view!
Tee pee...
He-pee.
Ha ha...Caught you. Love you hon. Totally inappropriate. Sorry!
The kids loved Steve...and his beard. He was the group leader out there, ran the show. And he was SO good with the kids! So patient and fun and positive. They all were. This picture cracks me up how she is caressing his beard. Yuck.
Good work Kara! I think this leader's name was Lauren. She was also and Aussie. More than half of them were!
The balancing deck. The kids had a lot of fun with this.
This was by far Zach's favorite activity. He was actually pretty good at it! Pretty sweet shot if I do say so myself!
Stew with his little buddies.
And finally canoeing!
I got to try out my major zoom lens. :)
The Yawneys. :)
Karsten is such a cutie.
AMAZING VIEWS!
Justin's classes finally finished so he went out while I stayed on the dock with the babes.
Think we tired them out?? Ha ha! Signs of a successful trip. It really was SO fun. Tiring, but so fun. I am really grateful we had this opportunity. It was awesome. I thought it would be SO fun as a family reunion. They feed you, house you, and keep you occupied doing great activities. But when I heard how much it costs...yikes.
