Back to Alberta

The family reunion ended. We packed, cleaned some more, gave hugs, accepted hugs and were chauffeured off to the airport by Keith. Just so you know, we had fun.

Rain and Cousins

I think by the end of Monday evening, everyone was growing a little stir crazy. Okay, except for maybe Chris, Kevin, Kyle and Riley (Keith's grandson) who had gone mountain biking. It rained ALL day long, by the end of the evening we were checking weather forecasts and coming up with alternate plans for Tuesday--also slated to be a rainy day.

Zoe, Elyse's youngest daughter, joined us for a few days on Monday afternoon.



I learned a new game--Take Two--played with Scrabble tiles, and now I am on the hunt for the official Take Two game. I also had the chance to revisit the rules of cribbage; I hadn't played in over twenty years. I love games.



We went swimming on Tuesday afternoon. The lot of us caravaned down to the Kamloops Recreation Center and spent an afternoon swimming--still wet, but not cold and rainy wet. It was a great diversion for the kids and probably a blessed relief for Elyse.

Mountain Biking

As stated in my previous post, Chris went mountain biking at Sun Peaks resort all day Monday. It was rainy and cold, but as you can tell from the mud spattered across his face, he had a great time. This is quickly becoming a sport that he truly enjoys.

Riding Horses

One of the thrilling moments for my girls was the opportunity to ride a horse. Except for at the fair going in circles, I'm not sure they've had the chance before. Even a little bit of rain on Monday afternoon didn't deter them. David (Keith's son-in-law) helped the girls onto the horse and Dylan (Keith's grandson) led them around the pasture.







Amy got a second chance to ride on Tuesday afternoon after returning from swimming in Kamloops. She was proud of herself to be able to get on and off Marsman all by herself--all in flip flops!

Amy and Callie and New Friends

Being the oldest grandchild by a couple of years can be a bummer. Amy was excited to meet one of Keith's granddaughters, Callie Rose, and they were often stuck together like glue.



Likewise, we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Keith's daughters and their families. They came up to help with the cattle drive. Such an impressive family. They would normally take up residence in the bunk house, but since it was occupato, they set up tents and roughed it for a couple of days. Their tent looked better than this one though:

Cattle Drive

This really should be Chris' post since I didn't go along, but he can post from his perspective later. Keith and some of his family, brought the cows up close to the ranch house on Saturday evening in preparation for their early departure up to the summer grazing land. I thought we would be hearing cows all night long, but they weren't too noisy at all. We didn't even wake up until they were well on their way early Sunday morning. Chris jumped out of bed and was on a bike within a minute to catch up with them. I headed over to the house to start some breakfast, and after a short time, he was back again. He had come back to dress more appropriately, pick up some food, and bring his brother, Kevin, along. They rode bikes to catch up to the herd again, dodging around slick manure, as they coasted down the mountain highway. It was one of those rare moments in life of experiencing something completely new and amazing.

Born to be a Cowgirl

Misha was born to be a cowgirl.

Flower Gatherer

Hmmm, where to put all these flowers?

Chaps, Hats and Posing

Grandma Ball spent hours sewing chaps and vests for all of her grandkids days prior to the family reunion. Amazing! The kids looked adorable and loved wearing their ranch attire. To create the full cowkid look, she also purchased hats for all the kids and bandannas. Becky spent time making skirts for all of the girls. Who can resist taking pictures of so many cute kids?





This was closer to the beginning of the photo shoot and Kristen was happy to play along:



Not so much fun for Kristen after awhile. But we weren't done yet, a quick clothing change for some of the kids and we're set for more!



Family pictures seem to be a staple of Ball family reunions (not to mention the drama of deciding on what color to wear. Whew!) Keith's daughters and grandkids came out to watch the craziness and each were handed a camera. There were so many cameras going, it was just hard knowing which way to look.

Ball Family Reunion

We were fortunate that we arrived at the Golden Bear Ranch before everyone and had first dibs on the rooms in the bunk house. The main house had two guest rooms, which we had been outdibbed on, and the newly finished bunk house had four guest rooms. One room had a queen bed and a bunk bed. That was my first choice because my kids would have a quieter place to sleep, but my ever romantic husband wasn't thrilled with the idea. He finally gave in to my suggestion that we should take that room with a "whatever" kind of comment, and we moved in. (He apologized the next day as we listened to the cousins who had been sleeping in the main area wake up at 4:30 am BC time).

Main House:



Bunk House:



Becky and Kyle finally straggled in after many of us had gone to bed, having gotten stuck in traffic soon after they left home. With their arrival, we were set for a party. Our hosts, Keith and Elyse (as I am trying to remember to call her), graciously opened up their home to a large bunch of us:



Grandma and Grandpa Ball
Our five
Kevin and Candace and four children
Becky and Kyle and four children
Lori and Sam and one child
Jenni and Kenny and one child

With a couple of rainy days, that was a lot of people to deal with. We played games, read books, ate, cleaned, rode horses, had a talent show, swam, boated at Big Heffley Lake, ate, some of us cleaned some more, played Wii games, had a treasure hunt, went for walks, took pictures, posed for family pictures, and ate some more.

Flight to Kamloops, BC

We left early Friday morning for Calgary, AB for a 12:30 pm flight to Kamloops, BC. Chris' family was holding a family reunion at his aunt's ranch in the mountains outside of Kamloops. The rest of his family was driving up from Vancouver and Seattle, we were fortunate to find a relatively inexpensive flight and opted for that route over another long day of travel. I think our kids might have mutinied otherwise. Even so, our drive to Calgary was about 2 1/2 hours and we raced to be out of my parent's house by 8 am to make sure sure we had plenty of time at the airport.

We parked at Park2Go and shuttled over to airport in plenty of time for our flight. We flew West Jet and Chris is now a fan on Facebook. They were extremely friendly, didn't charge for the one hour, in-flight tv service, and efficient. We were deplaning in Kamloops, eleven rows back with lots of slow people in front of us, when all of a sudden we turned around and 'tada' the way opened up to the rear of the plane. I must admit this is my first time using plane stairs and deplaning from the rear--old hat for Chris. I had to take a picture.





Chris' Aunt Lori--or Elyse as she is now known--picked us up at airport and we were off.

I'm Really Busy Here

It is fun to watch the dynamics between my parents and laugh as they spar with each other. Yesterday, my mom walked in to the kitchen and said, "The radishes need to be picked." The comment was directed at my dad and he quickly responded, "Are you making an announcement or planning to go pick them?" It's a tactic many of us as spouses employ, hoping that the other person will quickly fulfill our implied request. So my mother answered, "Well, you can either go pick the radishes or wash these dishes." My dad: "I'll wash the dishes." Used to be that he would have gone to pick the radishes, but after knee surgery it is a lot easier to wash dishes.

This morning my mother again announced, "We need to do something with this meat." What she really meant to say was I would like you, Gordon, to put these cooked hamburgers in a container and then make sure they are put in the freezer. My dad's jovial response as he sat at the table reading the newspaper: "Are you asking me to do it or just psyching yourself up to do it, 'cause I'm really busy here?"

He washed the dishes.

Wood

My girls are having a great time at my parent's home. My Dad created this wonderful fire pit in his back yard and kindly built two fires for my girls to tend (play in) yesterday. They even volunteered to eat hot dogs twice yesterday just for the opportunity to have a second fire at dinner time. For those of you in 90 plus degrees, it has only been in the 70s here in Alberta, so the fires aren't overwhelming.

I think my dad was growing weary of sitting in the smokiness of the fire last night and was trying to convince Amy and Misha to stop putting more wood on the fire. Amy, ever the one to feel the need to be in charge, began to tell Misha to stop adding to the fire and save the firewood for another day because "wood doesn't grow on trees, you know."

An Amazing Playground

My girls were thrilled to find this amazing playground area at Henderson Lake in Lethbridge, AB. It was brand new and packed with kids. My girls were used to the squishy, recycled ground cover as we have our own "smishy" park (as Kristen calls it), but it seems to be a new thing in Southern Alberta. They were just as happy to help break it in.





Chris playing King of the Castle:

Canada Day

As was our tradition in my youth, we headed to Raymond for the annual Canada Day parade. We picked our first parade-watching spot on the east side of the street so as to avoid the old sunshine-in-your-eyes problem, but we were so cold sitting in the shade, we moved to the other side of the street (plus there was a lady smoking ten feet away! Right next to her little baby! What's with people!)



We warmed up quickly in the west side, but not enough to take off our jackets.

The girls had fun chasing after candy, watching the floats, oohing and aahing over the horses, joking about the Shriners (they are a staple of Canadian parades)...





And for our dutch oven loving friends:



Kristen trying to blow a bubble with some of her candy-grabbing spoils:

A Long Day of Travel

We left for Southern Alberta at 5:39 am on Tuesday morning after a short four-hour sleep. I drove the first three hours because I knew I would be exhausted later. Chris dozed a little bit and then took over the reins in Casper, WY. Our girls were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when we woke them up to leave, but the early hour and a long day of driving finally caught up to them.



As a parent, I always say "Hallelujah" at such moments.

A pleasant surprise for Chris and I was in noticing that our children are much better travelers now that they are older. They don't need potty stops nearly so often and a DVD player is a godsend.

We made the trip in 14 hours and were much impressed.