Back to Canada

 Summer is half over.  It's impossible and downright WRONG!  I thought that I'd finally get a start on my goal of posting more than I did last year.  One down and two to go and I'll have reached my goal.  I sure do set my goals high!
A few days after school got out, the kids and I set out on a vacation.  Jason couldn't take the time off of work so we had to leave him at home.  It had been since we got married that I last went home.  Sounds harsh, but to drive that far with tiny kids just wasn't in the picture.  My mom would come here or we'd go up to Calgary and meet up with her at my grandmas.  Or we'd drive to California or Wyoming to see my dad and to Vancouver to see my other grandma, but we hadn't made it back to Winnipeg.  We were gone for 2 weeks, drove a total of 3707 miles and had a great time.  The only thing missing was Jason.  He was on a business trip to Denver when we left so we didn't see him for 17 days.  That was hard.

We headed out to Wyoming for an overnight stay at Dad & Gayle's and then headed for Mount Rushmore and a VERY long drive across South Dakota.  There is NOTHING across I-90.  NOTHING I tell you.  It was insanely windy and no where to stop.  We left Rapid City around 10 am and a 2:00ish came to a gas staion in the middle of nowhere (no exageration).  I asked the cashier where the nearest McDonalds or Subway was and he told me it was in Rapid City!  Sorry if you're from there but it was the least favorite drive I have ever made and we have put some serious miles in over the last almost 18 years. 15 hours in the van that day and all 5 kids were amazing.  I couldn't believe it.  I was ready to go crazy but they were great. 

     
                
 
 While in Winnipeg we stayed with my brother Neil's but spent lots of time at Mom's too and when we weren't at her place, she was at Neil's with us.  We visited with people I hadn't seen for 20+ years.  It was wonderful.  I should have taken more pictures in more places and of all the people we saw, but I didn't.  This was at the Museum of Man and Nature (which has been renamed to be more politically correct, but it will never change in my mind!).  I loved going on field trips there when I was a kid.
                                 

 After church on Sunday, we headed out to the cottage for a few days.  It was fantastic.  The kids loved it.  Neil always tells the kids about it so it was really fun for them to see it.  They fished and swam and ate WAY too much food.  That's what being on vacation is all about, right?

 

 When we came back to the city we visited with friends, took the kids to see the "important" places from my childhood and had a wonderful time.  But, all good things must end and we had to head home (which was a wonderful thing too).


We decided to come across the border at the International Peace Gardens.  I loved going there when I was little.  The summer before 11th grade I went to International Music Camp there and had a great time.  How many times do you get to stand with a foot in two different countries?    We also went to the "Geographical Center of North America.  Or as Jason would say, "The farthest you can possibly get from the beach!"  It's true.                                                                

 

 We stayed in Bismark, ND so of course we had to find the temple.  We also saw one mighty big cow.  I bet that could feed our family for a year!

 We stopped at Dad's again on our way home and stayed for a few days instead of just overnight.  It was fun to be there for Father's Day and Dad's birthday.  We went to a beautiful lake to go fishing.  The cute extra little boy in the picture is our new "cousin".  Hopefully one of these days he really will be!

    

 We went to Devil's Tower and boy is that a big rock! We looked but found no alien activity.  There is a big open area called Prairie Dog Town and the kids had a great time pretending to take care of the over population.

On the last part of our journey we stopped at Martin's Cove.  A place where the pioneers got stranded as they traveled to the Salt Lake Valley.  I was there last year when I took the 4 youngest kids to Dad's while Thomas and Jason were at scout camp.  It a great place.  Thomas will get to go on Trek next year for Youth Conference and relive some of the experiences the pioneers had.  On our way home Beth planned out for the "whole big Watterson family" to head up and do a family trek.  I think it would be fun.

As soon as we got home and out of the van the kids all piled onto the trampoline and had a great time.


Since we've been home, we (Jason's family) planned and held a semi surprise 50th Anniversary party for Jason's parents.  It was last night and was absolutely perfect.  Maybe I'll do a post about it and then I'll only have one more post to meet my goal.  But then again maybe I won't!

2012 A New Goal

Only two posts for the year, pretty sad! Maybe I'll make it a goal to do better in 2012. After all, I'd only have to post three times to meet my goal! I'd add a picture but I don't know how from my phone. Happy New Year!

We're Still Around!

I guess it's been a while since I've been on here. Maybe I should fix that. We'll see. For now, here's a picture of the crazy faces that make me happy everyday.

A GOOD VISIT FOR A SAD REASON

I'm so happy for my Grandma. I miss her so much, and some days I still think that I should call her. But, I'm so happy for her. I know that she is so much happier and she is with my grandpa and her parents and so many other people who were waiting to see her again. In spite of the sad reason for our trip up to Calgary, it was a wonderful trip! Jason is such a good husband. He took the kids and disappeared so the rest of us could clean Gramie's room out. Neil went with them the second day. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with my family. The day before the funeral, I went with 2 of my aunts (who really are my mom's cousins, not my aunts) to dress my grandma in her temple clothes for the funeral. I really didn't know what to expect, but it was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was time that I will cherish forever and I'm so grateful that I was blessed with the privilege of perfoming that one last service for my grandma. Jason and the boys were pallbearers and they looked so handsome. About half way through the funeral I had such a calm feeling come over me that everything was really okay. When we were at the cemetary I almost forgot to be sad! All in all it was a very good week, not in spite of the reason that we were there, but because of the reason we were there. I miss you and love you Gramie, but I'm so happy for you.

The Evil Twin?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone twisted one of your children up REALLY, REALLY, REALLY tight in a tire swing? These pictures are the answer to that question. The kids twisted Carter in the tire swing, which is quite close to the ground, so that the botttom of the tire was about as tall as Thomas's head and then let it go. Carter's head was hanging over the back of the swing so all of the blood ran to the top half of his head and broke the blood vessels. When I first saw him he looked like he had the measels. His poor little face was so swollen and purple, but his eyes were still white. Multiple doctors later we were told that everything was fine, but he would look pretty funny for a while.

Enter the EVIL TWIN!
I can't help but laught now whenever I look at his little face. The whites of his eyes filled completely with blood. By the next morning he looked AWFUL! I don't have a picture to do him justice! He wore sunglasses everywhere he went for a little while to avoid the questions, and we get A LOT of questions and comments. Even today we were in the grocery store and a little boy walked by and said, "Mom! It's the boy with red eyes!" Now he loves to freak people out by staring at them with his eyes as wide as he can make them. It's too bad this didn't happen around Halloween, he'd have a built in costume! It's been about 10 days now and his eyes are changing to a kind of orangish yellow color but I think it will be quite some time before he looks like his cute little self. Oh, the joys of having children!

Vancouver Temple

I love the temple! I love to go there and feel peace. Temples are beautiful inside and out. When we went to Vancouver in February, we were able to go see the almost finished new temple. I wish we could go up to the Open House, but I think we've used our allotment of Canada trips in the last 8 weeks. Oh well, at least we got to see the outside of it. We've been able to take our kids to the open house's of the Sacramento and Oquirrh Mountain temples, we love it! I love knowing that our family is forever because of the temple. I also have come to have a deep love for family history work, and not just because of the temple work part of it. I can't begin to describe the feeling I get when I discover a new ancestor or a new fact about an ancestor I already knew about. Seeing a great grandparents handwriting on a census form or finding a birth certificate sends a thrill through my entire body. I love it. Two of the things that I inherited from my grandma were her journals and pictures. I haven't begun to explore them yet because I don't have the time to do it properly. Maybe when school gets out. People ask me all the time what I'm going to do with my time when Emma goes to school... this is one of my answers!

Dance 2010

The girls have had so much fun at dance this year. It's great to watch what they've learned and to see them having so much fun up on the stage. Emma was hilarious to watch at her lessons each week. She is definately her own person and likes to do her own thing. Fortunately, there weren't any distractions at the recital so she did pretty good. We really are done dancing now. I don't want to drive all the way to the dance studio after school or at night next year, so we're done. I know I'm a mean mom, but I think our time will be better spent at home.

I made a really cool movie to post on here, but it didn't want to upload, so sorry! I thought I had finally figured it out, but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought. I guess you can just enjoy their pictures instead.