Camping At St. Mary's!

So we got home from Echo, with our trailer, on Monday the 19th of August. We had stopped in Browning on the way home and restocked our trailer with food at the new grocery store there. Then we came home. I just took clothes out and did some laundry. We parked on our road, since we can't get onto our driveway. The town decided they were going to pave our road. Yeah! But it had been dug up since June. Still no pavement by this time. We were staying one night at our house and then off to Little Bow with my family for 4 days.

Richard was looking on line about Little Bow and found out the lake there has blue green algae. I phoned my mom at about 9:30pm that night and told her. It's very toxic and can make you very sick within an hour of contact. So we all decided not to go to Little Bow. I suggested we go to St Marys Dam. They had recently upgraded all their camping spots and they all have electricity now. So we decided to go there.

The next morning I finished putting all our clothes back in the trailer. I had kept the vehicle hooked up to the trailer. We put everything we needed back in and we were ready to go. We had agreed to go first and make sure there were spots. Because it's a first come first serve campground. We got there and there were plenty of spots. I called and mom and dad were on there way with Steve and Stacey's trailer. We just had the two spots and Cam set up a tent in between the trailers and Megan and Trayden set up a tent too. The camping spots were big. We pulled our trailers in opposite of each other so the doors were facing each other. It worked out perfect.

After we got everything set up, we got some lunch on. We ate lunch there and then drove up to the dam to put the boat in. We just all piled into the boat. A bunch of kids went on the tube for the ride to the beach. It was a bit windy out. But still really hot. We did some tube rides and it was crazy. Mom almost dumped me, Megan and Trayden. It was a little scary!! She wasn't even trying. Megan had rented a paddle board, so we all tried that out too. The kids had fun swimming and playing in the sand. We stayed out there until about 5:30pm. Then we went back to the dock and pulled the boat out.

We had decided to take turns with supper. The first night was my turn to make supper. I barbequed some hot dogs, and had some veggies and dip out too. It was a simple supper but good. We ate supper and visited and talked. After the kids ate, they had fun running around or riding their bikes. There was a playground not too far away. They had a lot of fun.

DJ had been waiting ALL day too make a fire. He really wanted to help. That's all he talked about. He actually had a melt down earlier in the day because he wanted the fire in our fire pit, but I had parked the trailer way too close. So we did it in the other one. It broke his heart. Silly boy! I think he was a little bit grumpy and tired. We had been camping a LOT by this point. But by that night he was happy and ready to help Grandpa Paxman. So Grandpa explained how to make a fire and put DJ to work. DJ was in heaven. He loved helping. Made him feel so big! They got a big fire going.

DJ helping his Grandpa make the fire.

They just got the fire started.

DJ giving Grandpa a bigger piece of wood.

Then we had to roast marshmellows and have smores! All the kids were excited for that. We set up everything and let them all come roast their marshmellows. Everyone loved eating their smores! Then we just sat around the fire and talked. We let the kids play for a bit longer before we put them to bed!

Everyone sitting around roasting marsh mellows.

DJ eating his yummy smore!

Brianna eating her smore.

Bella and Cadence roasting marshmellows!

Bella getting Aunt Megan to blow out her little fire!!

We put the kids to bed around 9pm. Then I went for a walk with Brent, Tiff, Megan and Trayden. We walked to the drop off, and watched the water. Then we started freaking each other out, so we came back to the camp site. We sat around the fire and told scary stories. Well, we tried to anyways. It was fun!

The next morning, Richard ended up waking up early and going to work for the day. That's another thing I liked about camping so close. Richard could be there for supper and sleep with us. It was nice. Wednesday turned out to be super nice out. Really hot. We got out to the beach around 11am. We decided to pack a lunch and just stay out all day. So that's what we did.

We got out there and it wasn't too busy out yet. But it did end up getting pretty busy. That's ok though we would just take the boat out with a bunch a people and everyone took a turn doing there thing! Anyways we had a lot of fun. Tiffany met us out there with her 3 kids, Jayda, Kolby and Emersyn. So that was fun too.

Abbi loved playing with Emersyn!! Cadence in the background, laying on the sand!

We all took a turn on the paddle board again. It was a lot easier this time, since there was no wind. I took two of my kids out with me. Richard even loved doing the paddle board. I would love to get one for him. My dad went on and we all got a good laugh with him wiggling everywhere and then he found his balance. It was pretty funny!

Mom giving the paddle board a try.

Dad finally figured it out and loved going out on the paddle board!!

Here's Tiffany and her son, Kolby.

Again, Tiffany and Kolby going out.

Abbi and I went to give it a try!



My girls all went on the Ezee ski. Then I talked Brianna in trying the real skis. I had her sitting on the front of the easy ski, and then the boat went. She popped right up, but the boat pulled her over. I think they started off too fast. Well she forgot to let go of the rope. We were yelling for dad to stop. He did. But it was enough to scare Brianna. Poor girl. Maybe next year.

Abbi decided to give it a try too. She had the opposite problem....she would let go of the rope right when they were pulling her up. It was kind of funny. Then she couldn't get her butt out of the water. We tried a few times, but then she was tired. Again, we will try again next year. I was proud of them for trying. Way to go girls!!

The kids all went for tube rides too. The boat broke down for about 1hr in the afternoon. Luckily it was a pretty easy fix. We switched some fuses around and then it worked. Phew!! I got a few skis in too. I was killing myself trying to get pulled up on one ski. I was getting pretty frusturated with myself. So I would pull up on two and drop as soon as I was up. Loved slaloming on the smooth water. So much fun! Loved it!!

They were switching tube riders out in the lake.

DJ had just finished eating a chocolate pudding and he had a chocolate goatee! So cute!

The time went by super fast. We were out there all day. The kids played in the water and on the sand. DJ and Cadence loved to go find there own piece of shade and set up their towels. DJ loves the shade! Smart boy! We packed everything in around 5pm. We called it good. This time I was smart and took each of the kids out in the water and stripped them down and we got all the sand out of their bodies!! he he! They were so much happier!

We got back to the trailers and Tiffany and Brent had supper for us. Brent had to leave earlier for Court. So he came back with pizzas. Yummy! Again the kids had fun running around and playing afterwards. Mom and dad brought a few games that the kids thought were great. DJ got a little crazy with the one game. We put the kids to bed earlier this time. They were all so tired. My kids were in bed by 8pm. They all fell asleep so fast!

DJ and Cadence playing this rope game!

On Thursday, Richard stayed for the day. We were all excited for that. We did the same thing as the day before. We ate breakfast and then packed a big lunch and headed out. We got to our beach and staked out a sight!! It got super busy that day. Insanely busy. I've never seen Wally's Beach that crazy before.

We got some skis in before it got too bad. I slalomed, and again, it was so smooth out. I was trying to cut deeper. So it was the perfect time to practise. It was a fun ski! Brent and Megan both went on the wakeboard. Brent was doing so jumps off the wake. It was a great day of skiing!

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I love to slalom!!

Brent doing a jump on the wake!

Megan wakeboarding, look how smooth the water is!

Trayden skiing getting ready to drop a ski!!

One of the girls on the Ezee Ski! Cool picture with the mountains!

It was super hot out Thursday too! We were in the water a lot and when we weren't we'd be in the shade!! We had fun playing with Keira too! She is such a cutie! Maureen's kids came out in the afternoon to try some skiing. So I went out and helped the twins and then Mikayla. Taylor got up but only lasted about 10 seconds. Maddi had a harder time, but she didn't want to give up. Mikayla popped right up! It was fun to spend time with them!

Aunt Megan having some Keira time!!

Cool picture of Wally's Beach!

Abbi going on the Ezze Ski!

Keira snuggling with her dad!

Abbi showing us how she can go on the knee board!

Hanging out on the beach!

We sure had fun with the paddle board too! We all took turns taking it out. So much fun when the water was nice and smooth. We had a lot of fun doing lots of stuff with the boat. The kids are getting older now and more interested in doing things with the boat. The Ezee ski was a huge hit. They all loved going on the tube too.

Me, Trayden and Cam on the tube! Tiffany hit some pretty good waves for us!

Richard out on the paddle board, and the boat just coming into the beach!

Everyone coming out to help unload the boat. We always had a LOT of stuff to unpack!

Me taking DJ and Cadence out on the paddle board! They loved it!

We headed in around 5:30pm. Time flew by! We were super busy and had lots of fun. I ran into a lot of people I knew from Magrath! It was super busy! People started leaving around 4pm, so it wasn't quiet as busy for a bit. Mom, Cam and Megan made supper for us when we got back. David and Jill met us at the campground. It was fun to have them be there for the evening. My DJ absolutely loves his Uncle David. They always have so much fun! We roasted marshmellows again that night. That is always a hit!

Sitting around the campfire with Aunt Jill!

DJ and Uncle David goofing around!

Cool picture of the sun setting!

On Friday, Richard had to leave early. So we had breakfast and started packing things up. We were planning on packing everything up and then going out on the lake for the morning. But the clouds were coming in and it was spitting a little bit. We decided to go anyways. We got out there and it was a bit choppy. Not too bad, so Megan and I hurried and got a ski in. Then each of the girls did an Ezee ski. Funny thing that happened. Cadence was on the ski and she thinks it's funny to start dancing around. So it makes the Ezee ski jump around a bit. It was pretty funny to watch. Well she got a little crazy this time and it ended up going over the wake and flipped. So she hit the water. I was super worried that she would be freaking out. But she was laughing! Crazy girl. Then DJ decided he wanted to give it a try. He went on it at Echo. So he got on and we started to go , then he started to cry. So I let go. Crazy boy!

DJ ready to go on the Ezee Ski!

We started pulling him and he turned around to Grandma and started crying! So we stopped!

Then it got super windy out. So we played on the beach. The kids made sand castles and walked the beach with their Grandpa, and gathered some things that were left behind. The beach was kind of a mess from the day before. Then we ate our lunch and headed back. It was a fun 4 days!

Brianna worked hard and made all these sand castles!

Grandpa and the kids coming back with some treasure (or in other words, garbage)!!