southern alberta

it has been beautiful here in lethbridge and surroundings. the outdoors have beckoned every day. above we are taking a break from frisbee to play the new instruments at henderson lake.

early in the week we spent the day in waterton with cherri and brad and raquel. the mountains were amazing with all the recent snow still sitting on them. the temperature was about 30 degrees but apparently the water was cold.


fraser had us over for a fire in his backyard and then he and i explored the coulee singletrack. this picture, at the base of the muff dive, is emblematic of the lethbridge biking that i grew up with.

my parents had a farewell dinner on the patio for my uncle morris and aunt alice the night before they left for grand rapids. uncle morris has spent the last 3 months as the interim pastor of the church i grew up in.
and finally yesterday carlynne, dan, my parents and i all journeyed to the southernest of southern alberta in order to introduce dan to the joys of free running in the hoodoos of writing on stone.

we had the full writing on stone experience in one day:

playing in the magic mud

participating in the ancient blackfoot muscle and skin toning mud bath

in keeping with the spa theme, my dad got a haircut

swimming in the lazy warm milk river

and most importantly jumping around the hoodoos. this is still one of my favourite activities, leaping from rock to rock and trying to link up multiple moves. those of you who have had the privilege of running around here know that the sandstone formations are so grippy that you can run right up steep towers and feel like spiderman.
when we were younger we would jump off progressively higher and higher rocks, necessitating army rolls and producing extreme lactic acidosis and ecchymosis the next day. these days i am a bit more cautious, but some daring leaps were still made by dan and myself.

southern alberta has so much to offer. but that doesn't mean we are going to move away from bc... sorry mom and dad.