September Highlights

What a special month September was!

One of the highlights was seeing our nephew Remy be baptized. He is such a sweet young man. 

It was fun to gather with my sisters and family to celebrate him. 

Remy had asked both Sam and Nate to speak at his baptism. My lucky boys!

They did a great job and hopefully made Remy feel special.

Notice Sam's aircast? (more on that in the next entry)

September brought a beautiful evening walk out in Waterton with Crystal and our two dogs. 

(Walking Kit and Radar in Waterton shoudl be a regular thing!)

John and I stole away one evening to hike Bearshump. 
I hadn't gotten to do that all summer long. I'm glad we did let this year go by without doing it.

It was definitely very, very, very windy!

Jessica, Sam, and I went out to Waterton one evening to help Jessica practice parallel parking. 

I'm not sure how effective her practice was 

(Sam is definitely a distractive force) but we sure had a fun time!

What do you know, September also brought another great night of Northern Light watching!

This particular show actually had strong lights, that were visible to the naked eye.

I saw them dance!

Watching the sky is definitely becoming a hobby for me. 

What a world we live in!

 

Back To School Photos

If our back-to-school pictures are any indication of the kind of year we are going to have - I think we are in for a wild ride. 

My kids are growing up fast and it has me shaking in my boots!

 Hoping the 2022/23 School Year is a good one for these people that I love!

Edmonton Days with Abby

Near the end of August, Jessica and I helped Abby move up to Edmonton. 

What a fun trip together!

We got Abby settled into her old (but new to her) house.

Jess and I walked to the Legislature building and explored the Muttart Conservatory at night.

We ate at Blaze Pizza and shopped at Ikea.

On our last day together we went to the Monet Exhibit at the Expo Center. (It's kinda becoming our thing;)

Jess was thrilled to ride the UofA bear and then because I obviously felt like throwing money out the window, we even rode the green scooters from campus back to Abby's house.

I really love this city and had a blast showing it to my two girls. 

What a blessing daughters are!

 

Summer Joys

Other summer adventures that didn't get a post of their own include:

Going to the Carriage House Theatre and watching "Little Women."

Meeting with many of our Beazer relatives. 

What awesome people!

Growing a garden and getting to spend absolutely NO time in it this summer. 

Neglected peas, neglected tomatoes, and neglected radishes!

Summer nights in the hammock were what my dreams were made of.

Swoon!

My super cool nephew (Caleb) set a personal goal to bike from the northern tip of Alaska to the southern tip of South America. Like...really?!

He rode through town one summer day and we were thrilled to get to cheer him on as he arrived.

Abby has been home for the summer and, on this day, she revealed to me that she had made the decision to serve a mission. She wants to keep it a secret for a little while, but it is so exciting to see her working and striving toward something. 

It definitely made me want to soak up my time with her even more!

After seeing the Northern Lights in July, I've been trying extra hard to see more of them. 

The last couple of months have provided some exciting shows - this particular one being sometime near the end of August.

Annual Family Photo Shoot

It was such a treat to have Abby home with us for the summer. 

When she is home, I take advantage of that fact. When she is away, I miss her terribly. 

Shortly before Abby was scheduled to return to Edmonton for the new year, I made the fam come out to Waterton for a quick family photo session. 

As you can see - it went well.

The kids cooperated perfectly. 

Smiled at the camera when asked. 

In no way was I frustrated with any one of them. 

They were all unanimously on board with what I had in mind. 

 

Perhaps my sarcasm has gone unnoticed. 

Truth be told, our family photo sessions have grown much too redundance for my kids.

 

Perhaps the only one who really appreciated being out in Waterton with me, that evening, was Radar! 

Eventually, I realized that my days as a photographer of my family were done. These kids weren't going to listen to me one bit!

The rest were taken by Sam:

I see how it is.

Waterton Days in August

Inspired by the girls' Triple Crown Challenge - Sam attempted one of his own ...the BIGFOOT Challenge!

This challenge requires participants to start at the Rocky Mountain Pop Shop (in Waterton) and run to the top of Bearshump, carrying a wooded bigfoot on your back. You're to take a picture of yourself with Bigfoot, and then run back down to the Rocky Mountain Pop Shop and down a 44 oz pop. 

ALL in under 40 minutes. 

Both Jessica and Sam set out to accomplish this feat. Jess was 5 minutes over the required time, but Sam pretty much rocked it. Can we just stop and pause to acknowledge Sam's physical fitness.  

He has worked SO hard to build muscle and live clean. He's kind of inspirational to me. 

Wanna know what else I've found to be inspiring?  

Hammocks, dark clouds, and late evenings watching the sun go down.  

17 years

This boy turned 17 in August. A friend of his threw him a surprise party, and I don't think Sam knew how to handle that gesture. He doesn't like being the enter of attention and it made me smile to see how uncomfortable he was with it al.

But c'mon. This kid is a big deal! 

We tried our very best to celebrate him in every way.

 

Crypt - Crowns officially conquered!

The day after doing Akimina Ridge, the team set out again, this time to complete the third (and final) trail of the challenge.  Crypt Lake. 

I love Crypt. I hiked this one year ago, just before my body fell apart due to Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crypt has become something that I closely associate with that experience. Nate surprised us all by wanting to join them, and I was SO excited to hear how this Fab Four enjoyed this beautiful trail. 

Again- I really can't speak of the fun they had, only to say that they came home raving about the beautiful scenery, the cool lake they all swam in, and the boat ride to and from Crypt Landing. 

I guess we will just have to trust the old adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Speaking of pictures - this one, with these two girls, joy-filled faces, holding their hard-earned Triple Crown T-shirts - says it all.

Mission accomplished!