Duck Dynasty (Canadian Edition)

John's brother Dave, his wife Sarah, and their four beeeautiful kids came up to Canada for a visit this week.    They arrived the day after we got back from our big Utah extravaganza, which worked out well because we were all still very much in "partay" mode!!:)

The first thing I want to point out is that they had barely even been here 24 hours before giant, dark green and blue clouds began to billow and form above us.    The clouds seemed oddly reminiscent of the those we saw a year ago (almost to the day!) when John's other brothers were visiting.    We all scrambled to get our vehicles into garages, and/or cover them with blankets, pillows, tarps, foamies, and rubber dingys.   (Yeah...I'm not sure what I was doing there, but don't judge my efforts!)

Luckily, the hail that ended up falling were mere toonie sized things, nothing at all like the tennis balls we got last year.    Boy oh boy though, I bet it makes some of John's family worry about coming to visit us here;)

What also might make them nervous is the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere!
There isn't a shopping mall, rec centre or anything fun to do really within a two hour radius.
  So when family comes to visit, what do we do?

Take them SNAKE hunting of course!!!!
(For the record, I tried to warn them and privately told John that it would be totally lame to take the kids "snake hunting."  But did he listen?   Noooooooooo!;)    Honestly, they probably felt as though they'd stepped into an episode of DUCK DYNASTY or something;)   Geesh!

Luckily, we do live a short distance away from some beautiful national parks, which was probably our only saving grace.   Our first full day with them was spent in Glacier National Park.    The sky was slightly overcast, slightly rainy at times, but we braved the trip anyways.   We drove up to Logan's pass an walked around a bit, before watching a rescue helicopter land to save a man who had fallen in the parking lot.   Of course, we had to stop to eat at Lunch Creek.

John's family often picnicked here as a family.  (Though WE had SUPPER- so perhaps we broke some cardinal rule there?)

It's always fun having family come visit.   I loved how much these cousins bonded after just one day together.    And I also love how (in this photo) my son has my other son in a headlock.  

Awe... See?  Such a loving family we all are!

The real reason that we'd come to Glacier though, I suspect, is so that everyone could do some fishing.

Dave and Sarah's kids were soooo eager to fish!!!!

We went and fished in swift current lake, just below the hotel, which turned out to be a pretty lousy spot.   John was happy to take any of the kids who wanted to go- out in the dingy. (yup...the same dingy I'd thrown on top of the van during the previous nights hailstorm.  Apparently there are a few more holes in it now?  tsk tsk.)

While John (and two very calm kids) drifted peacefully across the calm lake as the sun went down - Dave, Sarah and I stayed on the shore with ALL the others and fixed fishing rods,  untangled line, replaced a half a dozen hooks that had been lost, and tried to appease all those disappointed that there had not.been.one.single.bite.   These kids wanted to catch something!!!!

It was a beautiful day, made that much better because of the awesome company that was with us!!!   

The kids had so much fun together, they didn't want it to end! They wound up having a sleepover, which only ended up being the first of many!  haha.   I was thrilled, as my kids rarely get to see these particular cousins.  

What a summer this has been;)!