lethbridge part 1

 the last half of august brought us to sunny alberta.  big sky country.  we spent a week with kylie's mom and a week with my parents.  fantastic vacation with wonderful family and great friends.  the weather cooperated as well, with hot sunny days and minimal wind.

    we did the drive out in 2 days, stopping for a picnic with our long lost friend julie, in revelstoke.  julie won't let me take a straight shot, so this is what we've got.  its a good angle for her.

after picnicing with julie, we drove another hour and a half to golden, where we piled into a motel room and promptly (and thankfully) all fell asleep.  starting in golden the next day gave us plenty of time for stops.  our longest stop was on the bow valley parkway just past canmore.  the jeru creek hike leads up a beautiful canyon and quickly turns into easy rockhopping and scrambling.  ty loved it.

 eating cookies and throwing rocks in the water.  what more could a boy ask for?

 

 

finally we made it to the in laws.

zeke got more attention than he'd had in weeks.  it was so great to hang out with kylie's family.

we spent a lot of time at henderson pool.  it was a bit surreal to look out over a structure that hasnt changed a tile since we were kids hanging out there drinking slushies and getting in trouble for jumping the fence.  julie then obliged my memory by getting in trouble for jumping over the fence.  right in front of her nephews!

brad and raquel made a lot of time for us and we gathered in cherri's yard, at the park and even ditched the kids and went out for dinner.

cherri had an wonderful time hosting all her grandkids.  kylie's grannie made brad this amazing map blanket and cherri broke it out for ty.  he was a fan.

visits with old friends.  neil convinced ty he could control the patio swing with his arms.  fun for hours, or until neil's quads got tired.

for greg's birthday our family joined with brad and raquel's family for a day at writing-on-stone park.  this was one of my favourite places growing up, and it remains pretty high on the list.  funny though... typically i cant do enough rock jumping.  this time i got in maybe 5 jumps and spent the rest of the time herding ty away from cliffs, but it was still just as fun, if not more.

ty immediately took to rock running and even rock jumping.

i got in a few nicely linked up jumps.

ty was pretty good at climbing, and appropriately fearful for which i often give thanks.

raquel lent me her awesome floral print sunhat to ward off heatstroke in the desert.  i wore it all day and honestly totally forgot what i looked like while interacting with strangers.  i think i pulled it off.

we had a picnic in the park.

followed by a walk to the beach.

followed by playing in the sand.

followed in turn by more running in the rocks.  more glamour this time.

kylie and i really appreciated the grandparents' presence and their desire to interact with our boys and read them stories and play with them in the park and generally show them love.

we also appreciated that, while they were showing our children love, we could go out for dinner.  and eat fresh minidonuts with a selection of sauces for dessert.

the next generation