Horse show and Fish fry

We decided to stay home this weekend. We had a very busy weekend anyway. On Friday the kids went to Tinker Town with their grandma. On Saturday Miranda and I raced in the horse show and Dean and Colton built the floating dock for the pond and raked sand. We invited 40 people over for a fish fry/pond party/ SURPRISE birthday party for Dean. This party would have worked without a hitch had I not fallen off the horse on SAt. and could have helped Dean a bit more with HIS party. It all went great though. We ate tonnes of fish,potatoes,cole slaw,macaroni salad,baked beans and birthday cake. The kids had a great time in the pond.



Miranda and I entered almost all the gymcana classes. We did barrels, poles and a few other fun races. It was Miranda's first horse show and she did very well. She was very brave and trotted and loped all on her own. She won 2 fifth place and 1 second place ribbon. every year at the Horse show I tell myself that I should be ridding like I used to do 20 years ago. This year I decided on the day before that I would do it and borrowed a horse from my friend. Miranda also borrowed a horse from her so we could both show. It was soo much fun to be back on the horse running through the race. Whoo Hoo I had fun. I had so much fun that in the last event I pushed the poor horse a little to much. He rebelled at my pushing and won. I ended up landing on my rump. Well, I guess he showed me. I am way too old to fall off I horse. Now I know. Being competitive can get you a sore ass.



Miranda and Wendy doing barrels and poles

Grand Rapids

Going to Grand Rapids is always a trip. It takes about 6 hours to get there so it is always with mixed emotions that I go. I don’t really like to drive for so long but I love it once we are here. It is quite remote and one of the most beautiful places. The water in the lake is crystal clear and just huge in size. The surroundings are lush and thickly forested. When you leave the rocky shoreline it feels like you are going out to the ocean.

This trip we are meeting Dean’s brother Jann and his wife Tina and their boys Curtis and Randy. They are coming out from Edmonton and meeting us at the lake.
The fishing in the north is fabulous. We pulled in Pike after Pike. My arms were sore after reeling in those massive fighting fish. But oh, what fun. We realized after fishing for a while that in this lake you are not allowed to keep fish over 30 inches and luckily we have a live well so we could chuck them back overboard. We had our limits after the first couple of hours or so but didn’t keep them all. We tried to only keep the ones that were around 25-30 inches so that we could take home as much meat as possible to feed our hungry friends back home. As soon as we have a weekend at home again we will have to have a big fish fry bash.
The second day we went to a different spot and pulled in at least 20 walleye and just as many northern pike. The weather is better here than at it has been at home so we have been enjoying the hot sunny calm days.
As always Dean is the best fishing guide and brought us all to the best fishing spots around so we had the best fishing ever.

Snake hunting in Crows Nest Pass.

Alberta

We had a great time at my dad’s house. We drove up to the waterfall in the mountains and took the hike up the river to check out the falls. We took some great pictures of the falls and the stream. Then we drove through the burned out area that happened years ago when the government wanted to do a controlled burn and it got out of control and burned a big chunk of the valley and mountain side out. It was interesting to see because we had been down there 5 years ago or so and to see what a difference that passing time had made. I was surprised at how little it had grown back. There was nice green grass everywhere but the dead blackened trees were still standing without much re-growth. It was not very nice to look at.

The next day we decide to take in a round of golf. Dad dropped us off at the local golf coarse and picked us up 2 hours later. It was a fun time. Edie made us some wonderful meals while we stayed there. We also tried to help out by mowing there lawn and Colton had fun using grandpa’s battery operated wipper snipper.

On Friday Richard and Connie (Dean’s aunt and uncle) came down to dad’s for a BBQ. They stayed the night and we had a great visit.


Crows Nest Pass is a very beautiful place to visit. It is the next place on our journey. Dean’s brother just moved there and we decided to stop in for a night to see him on our way home. We left dad’s after having breakfast with dad and Richard and Connie and headed south. It is a 3 hour drive south from Sundre and we arrived in Crows nest at lunch time. We filled the day with eating, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, touring the mountains, snake hunting and checking out Frank’s Slide. Franks slide is a place where 100 years ago a huge portion of the mountain broke off and crashed into the town below killing almost 100 people. It took 90 seconds for 90 million tones of rubble to crash down the mountain. It is an awesome site. The boulders we drove by and stood on where the size of houses. The slide goes out 2 km from the base of the mountain.

At 7:30 am we left for the 13 hour ride home. I think we are all done with driving. I know I am

Fun at Dad's house

We are finally at my dad's house. We haven't been here for 3 or 4 years. We spent yesterday just hanging out and we drove over to the next town and did a bit of shopping. The today we went to Ya Ha Tinda. It is in the mountains and we went hiking up a river to a really nice waterfall. There are Elk and long horned sheep in the park.

Opal hunting in the B.C. mountains

One of the reasons that we wanted to go to the Okanagan Valley was to search for Opals. We contacted an Opal shop in Vernon B.C. and they do a tour up into the mountains to search for Opals. So on Monday morning we took the 1 hour drive up a logging road to the top of a mountain and began the search for the elusive opal. In my mind I thought a opal would look like the ones on their web site. Nice and big and shiny. Well, it is not like it may seem. We spent 4 hours in the 40 degree heat searching through rock and dirt and found rocks with traces of opal slivers in them. Not exactly what I had imagined. But I suppose diamonds don't look like they do on a ring either. So we will return home with slivers of opal and I'm sure Dean will make them look really cool.

Hogs and Horses

My cool dude cousin has a hog and a horse. Miranda and Colton each got a ride on the Hog.Then we went to Mable beach and the boys did a little fishing. They caught a rainbow trout that we cooked up for supper along with the Salmon that Auntie Helen made us. It was all so good.