We also had the kids have shooting practice to see who could come the closest on hitting the bad guy Miles Mugwort and then they dressed up in disguises for picture taking. Finally we had cake–chocolate cupcakes in the shape of a question mark-and then we had the kids hide their gifts so Misha could find them. She received some nice gifts-velvet coloring set, Strawberry Shortcake art set and diary, t-ball set, match game, clue game, and a bubble blowing machine. Amy gave her Madagascar and Grandpa Kline National Treasure. Grandma Ball and Grandma Andrew both sent Misha money to spend as she wished.
We packed up to go camping on July 13 to 15th for our annual “Camping with the Hansens”. I think this is our fourth year going, though we didn’t sleep over the first year. The group has grown and changed a lot just with kids, but we have a lot of fun. This was the first year that we have gone for two nights. In the past it seemed as though it was a hurried event of putting up your tent and pulling it right back down the next morning. This year, we had time to go for a hike to Alberta Falls, relax and enjoy time with our friends. Amy and Misha sleep well in their sleeping bags and on the air mattress, though Kristen was not so pleasant to be with. She would get frustrated when she tried to roll over because of so many blankets covering her, then she would cry and finally I just pulled her into the sleeping bag with me. Still some crying, but I wasn’t jumping out of my sleeping bag all night long trying to placate her.
The girls also had a great time playing with friends, getting dirty, climbing on huge rocks, swinging on an improvised swing, and lolling in a hammock. They would sometimes get out of control swinging in the hammock and someone would go tumbling out onto their head. Amy was looking forward to staying up late each night and checking out the constellations on a walk with Dad. She was so kind as to round up a lot of kids to go along on the walk, who then had to secure permission from their parents.
Our dutch oven experience was a lot better this year. Since the peach cobbler was such a hit the year before, Chris said it was mandatory to make it again. We also had chicken enchiladas on Friday night in the dutch oven-tasted as good as home. We will continue to try new recipes. The joke now is that for someone such as myself who was so anti-camping, I am now the one to keep up with on these trips. Mitch also came up to join us on Friday night for the night. He brought his own tent and was careful to place it far away from the rest of us with our small children.
Saturday morning dawned bright and early with Kristen in our tent. A good thing probably since we had a lot to do to get packed up and on the road again and then on the long road home to Canada. We enjoyed a breakfast with the rest of the group-the usual fare of pancakes, bacon, sausages, eggs, fruit, juice, muffins, donuts-calorie laden and artery clogging for sure. We packed everything up and were out of there.
We thought we could just drop things off, pack up new things and be off, but not so. The girls were filthy from playing in the dirt, and Chris and I both needed to shower, so we had to take time out to clean up. We emptied the van of all the camping supplies, unpacked the dirty clothes, and started filling the van back up. I had most everything packed up before we left for camping so it was just a matter of making sure everything was in that we needed. And we were off...
I think we left around noon and arrived in Billings, MT after a long day in the van around 10 pm. We stayed at the Rimview Inn in a room with a queen bed and a sitting room with a pull out couch. The sitting room had a door and we put all of the girls in there-Kristen in her pack n’ play. They slept pretty well but when one of them woke up in the morning, they all woke up. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then were off again. We stopped in Great Falls for far too long. We picked up lunch at KFC and found a nice park to enjoy our lunch. Finally, we arrived in Stirling around 5 pm. So glad to finally make it.
Mom had dinner waiting for us once we unloaded the van and after that we walked a half block down to the park to let the kids burn off some energy. We passed right by the swimming pool and they were excited to know that it was so close to Grandma’s house. Monday morning my dad got everything ready for the girls to go fishing at the pond a ½ mile away. Misha and Amy had been looking forward to trying. In fact, Amy asked me if Grandma and Grandpa ate anything else besides fish–I think she was a little worried.
Neither Amy not Misha caught anything, though Misha did get a nibble on her hook when she set it into the holder on the ground. She walked a way for a bit and the line became taut. When she came back, with Grandpa and me trying to help her pull her rod out of the holder, the fish must have got away. Oh well, it was exciting while it lasted.
The girls finally got to go to the swimming pool in the afternoon. Sadly we got there at 3:35 and the pool closed at 4 for a grandparent swim. We were trying to decide whether it was worth it or not to let them swim for such a short time when Amy pipes in, “Hurry up, we’re wasting time!” Misha was free, Amy was a dollar and Chris $2. So they jumped in for a bit. Kristen wasn’t too thrilled by it, I think she would be okay if people didn’t splash her, but she gets pretty riled up by splashing. I took her back home after ten minutes and Chris stayed with the girls for the next 15. We decided that they were swimming so well, Amy without any flotation device and Misha with water wings from Grandma, that they could get in by themselves for the rest of the week.
My parents like to eat their big meal of the day at noon so in the evenings we pretty much ate whatever-popcorn, cereal, toast. We were planning to meet some of my cousins in Lethbridge at Henderson Lake at 6 pm (right at dinner time for us), so we just decided to wait and eat after the park. It would be a little late, but with a bigger lunch, we figured we’d survive.
We arrived at Henderson Lake just after 6 pm. Eldon and Pat Sandusky (my mother’s brother) and their daughter Megan were there. Megan has three children Rawleigh, Libby and Rafe. Rawleigh is about Misha’s age and Rafe is just younger than Kristen. We sat at a picnic table next to the playground equipment so the kids could play. I didn’t really notice that they played together all that much, but it was nice to get together. Another cousin, Erin, came a bit later with her husband Greg and son Parker along with Grandma Sandusky. She is 90 years old now and looking pretty fragile. We stayed until almost 8 pm and then decided to get kids home to bed. It was nice to see everyone, especially since I don’t think I had seen my cousins for about ten years.
We went to Burger King for a bite to eat and then to get some groceries before heading home. Grandma helped Amy pull out her first tooth. Amy was pretty anxious, but all of a sudden Grandma announced, "It's out."
Tuesday morning we decided to go to Writing on Stone to play. We used to go there as a family when I was a young girl and loved playing on the hoodoos-amazing rock formations. We packed a picnic lunch and arrived right at lunch time. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. The girls were anxious to get beyond lunch and go play. Mom stayed behind in the van while the rest of us climbed up on the rocks. It was pretty hot so we headed to the river to play. We set up a nice spot on the beach while the girls played and swam. The river was only about two feet deep all the way across. Chris got in and swam with the girls and they all had a blast. They would walk upstream and then float back downstream over and over again. Dad snoozed next to mom, Kristen and I as we sat on the beach. When we finally decided to leave the girls were so wiped out that they slept all the way home.
Wednesday afternoon we decided to take the girls into the discount theatre to watch Ice Age 2. We hoped that Kristen would be interested enough in the movie to sit and watch the entire thing. No such luck. She lasted about 45 minutes and then started to get noisy wanting to be out of her stroller walking around. She and I left the movie and walked around some of the nearby stores. Not much fun for me.
Thursday was Mom and Dad’s day to be at the temple. It was kind of a lazy morning but the girls were able to go swimming in the afternoon. Amy was swimming and jumping off the diving board without a life jacket which I thought was pretty impressive. Misha had her water wings but was trying lots of things on her own. We went into Lethbridge in the late afternoon to go shopping but found that there weren’t all that many good deals and with the stronger Canadian dollar, buying stuff wasn’t such a draw. Although we did go to Walmart, and I found three pairs of shoes to buy and one pair for Amy.
Friday was a long morning of dad picking raspberries and mom and I cleaning and freezing them. The girls spent hours in the afternoon swimming and loved being two houses away from the pool. They would probably get to go more if the pool was that close to our house here in Colorado. Chris and I went for a date in the evening. We ate at a restaurant called Montana’s and then went to a movie called “The Lake House”. Nice not to have to leave half way through it. We drove home the long way through Raymond and watched the beautiful sunset. One of the nice things about Alberta is that the sun doesn’t go down until an hour and a half later than in Colorado, so at 10 pm it was still pretty light outside.
There had been a fire in Stirling and the road home was so foggy. We weren’t sure of the reason why until we drove closer to my parent’s home and notice the smoke plume. We drove to the edge of town and could see what looked to be hay bales on fire. The fire engines were all lit up and every so often they came back into town to get more water. I guess the girls were so excited by the sound of the engines that they jumped out of bed and raced upstairs to see what was going on. Pretty exciting for them.
Saturday morning I convinced Dad to take Mom into town to garage sales. I had been trying to convince Mom that they should go without us, but she wasn’t having anything to do with that. I should have talked to Dad to begin with. I knew they both wanted to go, but I also knew that Chris definitely didn’t want to go. We just hung around the house. I started getting things together as we were leaving directly after Sacrament meeting Sunday morning. Chris and the girls played video games, and Kristen was able to have a nap.
We planned to meet my parents at Ric’s Grill, a restaurant built into an old water tower of Mayor Magrath Drive in Lethbridge. Pretty cool with great views. They had been given a gift certificate and had waited to use it when we visited. The food was good, though Kristen was pretty crabby. She hasn’t been eating much of anything lately. I noticed one day when she was crying that she already had two of her molars in and it looks as though the two on the other side are coming in as well.
I spent the evening packing things up and going through boxes of books, crafts, clothes, etc. that Mom wanted out of her house. Lucky me to be able to bring it to my house.
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