Labour Day Weekend!

We had so much fun at St. Mary's that we thought we would camp there for the long weekend. We heard that they book up fast, so I planned on taking the trailer down on Thursday. Well, I probably should of done it on Wednesday! We got there around 1:30pm on Thursday, but there were not spots available. The kids were super sad. I had the trailer all loaded and food all shopped for. So I pulled the trailer down to Wally's Beach just so they could play for the day.

Then I pulled it back home. We weren't sure what to do. I called Waterton Springs Campground on Friday. They had a few spots available. So we booked two spots and away we went. Justin and Tennille came the next day and camped next to us. I am so glad we decided to go.

We set up camp Friday night and I made some supper. The kids rode their bikes around and played with other kids at the park. Then we walked around the camp ground as a family. Then we put the kids to bed.

On Saturday the kids played around in the morning. There were a lot of kids around and they loved to go play with their new friends. It was so nice. We hung around the trailer and relaxed. I read a book and would watch the kids ride around. Justin and Tennille got there just before lunch. We helped them set up their trailer. I got lunch ready and we all roasted some hot dogs. Easy but yummy lunch.

Cadence entertaining Ethan. She was sharing her stuffed penguin!

A squishy family picture. Richard is on the bottom and all the kids are on top of him!

Hanging around the camp site. Here's Ethan, Tennille and Justin!

 Then we drove into Waterton to meet Shelley, Eric, Lisa and her kids at the water park. It was really hot out, so the kids were excited to get wet. We had to wait in line to get into the park for a long time. But we finally made it in! Waterton was super busy that weekend. But we just went to the water park and met Shelly, Eric, Lisa and her kids. It was hot out, so the kids had fun playing on the playground and then running through the spray park. We ran into David and Jill too. They were there with her family. It was fun to visit with them for a while too.


Seth, DJ and Cadence playing in the spray park.

DJ and Seth getting ready to run into the water.

Cute DJ having fun in the water!!

Abbi running by her Grandpa, as he was trying to get her with his towel.

Ethan sitting on his Uncle Richard!

Cadence running by her Grandpa. They played this for a long time!!

We stayed for a few hours then headed back to the trailers for dinner. Tenille made tacos for us. I helped her get things ready and then we all sat down and ate. It was a delicious dinner. Then the kids took off and played. They found some friends that they had a fun time playing with.

The Wolsey's came over and we sat around the fire and visited. We all roasted marsh mellows too. It was a fun day and evening. Then I gathered up the kids and we gave them all a quick shower in the trailer. They were all so dirty. Filthy dirty!! So they all went to bed, nice and clean.

Helping dad make a fire.

Uncle Justin showing them how NOT to make a fire! ha ha!

DJ was beyond filthy dirty!! A true boy!!

Abbi and DJ waiting to roast marsh mellows. DJ was singing a song!!

Goofy faces!! He was being so silly!

We woke up Sunday morning and started to get ready for church. I was trying to keep the kids in the trailer, because I knew as soon as they went out that they would get dirty. So we got them dressed and I had a movie going that they could watch. It was so nice out, nice and warm and no wind. Perfect!! We drove back into Waterton and went to the church. As we were walking to the church I had to take a picture of my cute family with the mountains as a background.

My cute family ready for church!

It was pretty packed in the church. We got there early enough to find chairs in the back. We sat just in front of David and Jill and just behind the Farrahs (they are in our ward). DJ got a little crazy. I had to take him out a few times, he just kept attacking his sisters and trying to tickle them. So they were all a little loud. Sheesh! We just stayed for Sacrament meeting and then we headed back to the trailers.

We had lunch and lazed around a little bit. Then we decided to go for a drive. We took the kids to see the buffalo in the buffalo paddocks. You drive right in. Well DJ and Abbi were freaking out saying the buffalo was going to charge us. They were really worried and I couldn't figure out why. Then Abbi yelled, Like at the zoo, the buffalo charged and hit the fence in front of us. It really freaked them out! I explained that these buffalo were hot and probably laying down, which they were. We saw them all laying down. There was one, just standing there staring at us. One crazy guy got out of his car was getting up close to take a picture. Kind of stupid. Luckily nothing happened. My kids couldn't believe what he was doing.

A fuzzy picture of the buffalo!

Then we drove into the park again and drove up to Red Rock Canyon. It was super busy there. No parking anywhere. So we drove up the curb and parked on the grass. He he!! It was my idea, Richard didn't want too, but he did!! We hiked up to Blakiston Falls. It was very far, but it was super hot out. I forgot our water bottles in the car. So the kids were all complaining about how hot we were. We got there and it was cool to see the falls. I had to show the kids where I fell off the cliff! I will never live that one down! They couldn't believe that I fell that far!

Brianna, Abbi and Cadence at Blakiston Falls.

Brianna, Abbi and myself......I think Cadence took this picture.

Richard and I, with a crazy Cadence in front!

Cool DJ checking out the water falls.

The girls took a picture of this!

This is on the way back down.

Everyone was hot and tired by this point. They did awesome though!

Then we headed back down. We got to the bridge and walked down to the dry river bed. We followed it up the canyon and eventually there was some water. Everyone took off their shoes and socks and walked in the water. Well I shouldn't say everyone a few of my kids walked in the water with their shoes and socks on!! It was a good way to cool down. We had fun playing in the water. We had the perfect spot too. Hardly anyone around. After we were done and walked up further we found where everyone was. It was so crowded with people. Crazy!

DJ going in the water with his shoes on!

Brianna cooling off!

Everyone playing in the water.

Just a cool picture of the canyon...on the other side of the bridge is where most people were.

DJ, Cadence and Brianna!

Abbi had a blast in the water!

Richard with Brianna and DJ!

Abbi got soaking wet! Silly girl!

Richard got splashed by Abbi (probably because he helped her get wet!!)!

Cadence doing a little dance and showing off her wet shorts!

We got back in the vehicle and started heading back down. We decided to stop at Crandall to see if we could find the Farrah's. They told us they were camping there. So we drove around and found them. We sat down and visited with them for a while. The kids were running around playing. When a van came driving up and told us we should gather our kids up, because they just saw a black bear heading our way. So we ran around yelling for our kids. Kind of freaked me out. We told them they had to stay right by the camp site. They weren't very excited about that. But Lisa, got her painting stuff out and they happily painted rocks. It was fun to visit with them.

My kids and Sophia all painting rocks. This kept them entertained for a long time!

Then we headed back to the trailers so I could finish getting supper ready. It was my turn to cook. I put in a roast in our slow cooker that morning. I made beef on a bun. It turned out delicious. It was a huge hit even with my kids. I will have to remember that!

The kids took off playing with their friends again. The Wolsey's came over again after supper. We all sat around and told stories. Some of them were so funny! We were laughing so hard. At about 8:30pm, a trailer across from us, flashed their lights at us. I guess we were being too loud. But it was only 8:30 and there were kids running around and screaming everywhere. It made us laugh louder. Oops!! By 9pm, I gathered the kids and we put them to bed. Then I came back out to talk with Richard and Justin. We were quietly talking, nothing loud and the people in the trailer flashed their lights again. So weird. So I went into our trailer to read a book for a bit. About 30mins later, Richard came running in the trailer. I looked up and he was standing there with a half roasted marsh mellow on the stick. It was hilarious. I guess the people were coming out of their trailer and it scared Justin and Richard. So weird, because I was in my trailer right beside them and I couldn't hear them. The people were old grumps!! ha ha! Still made me laugh to see Richard standing there with his roasting stick in his hand with a marsh mellow half roasted. So funny!

Monday morning, we packed up and headed out first thing. We got home around 10am. So I had everyone help me unpack everything from the trailer. Then I started on the laundry. My parents were headed out to the lake that afternoon. So we had lunch and packed our stuff and met them at St. Mary's. Then we all loaded into the boat and found some beach. David and I went out for our skis. I slalomed and got a good ski in. Then David tried a few times. He makes me laugh. He was up and dropped his ski and it looked like he had his back foot in. He was looking good and then all of the sudden it looked like he was a tree falling. He just fell over for no reason. It was so funny. Cam and I were laughing really hard!! We went back to the beach and then the boat died. Couldn't get it to start at all. So we ended up getting a tow back to the dock. That was our last time out. Hopefully it will be an easy fix.

We got home at a good time and I made supper. Got the kids all showered and cleaned and ready for bed. The girls were really excited for school the next day. We had a short FHE about Father's blessings. Then each of the kids got a Father's blessing. Even DJ! He was so big and sat there so good and listened. So cute! Love my kids so much.

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)!!