Well, we managed to survive the week. The first week of school!!!
The busyness actually began for John last week as he had to start showing up a few days before the students and volleyball tryouts began right around then too. It was a sad couple of days for me as I realized the end of our summertime was drawing near.
The last couple of weeks were pretty superb for us as we tried to take in all the nearby favourite summer places. The mini chuck wagon races...late afternoon stops at Dave's for fries or ice-cream...and lazy day walks down to the creek in search of snakes and fossils. Sigh...excuse me while I reminisce for a while;)
One thing that I'm slightly disappointed about is that we only made it down to Glacier once in August. ONCE!!! Ive got a long list of hikes that I want to do in Glacier (Rainbow Falls, Garden Wall, and I've heard of a Chalet deep in Glacier that you have to hike into...) but this year, we settled for our much loved stroll to Lake Josephine for some fishing. Of course the kids always have to stop at the "elephant tree" for some pictures;) John hiked up with the dingy and the kids ventured out a little further then they have before, and Grandpa was the fisher of the day, catching more then anyone else did!!
We did a lot of fishing this summer. My favourite time fishing was when John and I were alone at Wall lake. I've discovered though that I don't really care for it much when others are around. Too many people to see me tangle up the line, I suppose;) For that reason, when we go as a family, I'm usually perfectly happy to sit back and watch John coach the kids through it all. ...usually;)
Another highlight this summer has been the gardens. Our poor gardens definitely didn't receive the love and care that they normally would during a less hectic summer, but thanks to a wet spring and HOT summer - they have flourished nonetheless! On this particular day we all went over and helped Grandpa with his beans. Fresh Green Beans are the BEST!!!
At some point during the last week of summer, Jewel and Kendall slipped away for a weekend and her kids were able to come stay at our place. These cousins get along so well and I rarely had to pay attention to any of them the whole weekend long! We took them out to St.Mary's and Walley's Beach one afternoon and I'm glad we did. For some reason, NOONE else was at either place and we had the entire beach to ourselves. It was warm. It was quiet. It was so soothing!
Another thing we had to do one.last.time was steal out to Waterton for another attempt at fishing. Sam has been determined to catch himself another whitefish, and we knew there likely wouldn't be another family trip out here until winter! (Though, I'm already planning my own trip out as I type this. It involves an afternoon of photographing fall leaves and lunch at the Prince of Whales! It'll be so dreamy;) ...ANYWAYS, we had a picnic supper, Sam serenaded us with his ukulele, and then I took the girls for ice-cream while Sam and John rowed far out onto Upper Waterton Lake to fish.
At one point we could see them rowing right up to the edge of the lake, way far ahead of us, and it looked almost as though there was a bear walking along the shore right by them. I pulled out my camera and zoomed in for a better look and sure enough, there was a bear eating along the shore, and Sam and John were just feet away from it watching. I was so mad!!!! Not so much because of the safety of it, but more because I was jealous that I wasn't in that boat! That would have made for some great pictures! At 8:00 we all made our way to the Falls Theatre for a presentation on flooding in waterton. That may sound boring, but the presentations were definitely a highlight for the kids this year, and we tried to go to as many as we could.
And what would summer be without Swimming lessons!!!
Our pool renovations were completed by late spring, and for the first time ever we opted for a family pass. I'm so glad we did, because these kids swam any time we didn't have something else going on. They each passed their levels, but Sam and Abby were able to pass off two levels in one session because they flew through the curriculum so fast. (And because their lifeguard/teacher was AWESOME!) Abby was so proud to finish the week with a Level 7 badge and has her sights set on becoming a lifeguard herself in a few years. Sam (as the picture may appear) fine tuned his "walking on water" technique, and also LOVED meeting up with his school friends each day at the pool. Jessica of course has continued to love everything about the whole world, and swimming was no exception. Nate however really surprised me. Like, really! For as long as this kid has existed he has never been a fan of pools. ...or of getting wet in general. This year he did a complete 180 and morphed into a complete and absolute FISH!!! Though he is still nervous around the diving board, he no longer fears anything else. Mission Accomplished!!!
This time of year is always a fun time as we get to turn our focus to our yard and gardens. One evening, Max came over for dinner with a hundred pounds of apples in tow. I'm not exaggerating either. There were so.many.APPLES!!! I knew I didn't have the time to process them in any way, but we couldn't let these delicious morsels go to waste, so we packed up 18 individual bags of apples and delivered them to friends and families that we know. It was the most random night of deliveries ever, but the kids enjoyed it!! haha
I snapped this photo on labor day morning as it marked the last laid back, lazy morning breakfast of the summer. Sigh....we've sure had our fill of John's awesome cheesy hash browns!!!! Bring on the cold cereal and hectic mornings. haha
And finally, the only back to school photo I was able to get. It's so telling of each of my kids' personalities I get a kick out of it every time I see it. This is what happens every time I ask the kids to "smile" and I'm convinced that they have made a united pact together to never.ever look at the camera nicely;) Abby however is just dripping with Junior High attitude and my thoughts and energy have shifted a lot as I begin to consider how I will possibly help her navigate through the next few years.
Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time, you know? Just stop it in it's tracks.
It would appear that things just keep marching on whether I want it to or not. Summers come and go much too quickly now. The kids are getting much too tall, much too fast. I guess all I can really do is try my best to keep up!!!
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