Retiring after 35 years...

After coming home from the Okanagan, we spent one night at home and hooked up the tent trailer to head to Vancouver Island for Garry's(Shelby's dad) retirement camping party. We arrived a bit late as I had to check in briefly at work and our ferry was a bit delayed. Anyway as we arrived they started the presentation for Garry's service in the force. He served with the RCMP for 35 years and was awarded with various achievements. This was his official last day with the RCMP and many co-workers and friends came for this special occasion. With our arriving a bit late and by the time the 'ceremony' was over and we finally set up the tent trailer and had dinner, the kids didn't get to bet till at least 10 o'clock!

The next morning we were treated to a pancake breakfast and we joked with Kyle that the plate with pancakes for everyone was just his. As we started to take the pancakes from the communal plate, Kyle slowlly started to...

burst in to full tears as we were taking his pancakes. He was consoled and seemed to understand that he couldn't eat all the pancakes.

Apparently Auntie is not a fan of this.

A self portrait with her nephews

At night we had quite the fire going, which included a visit from the park host to keep it down, the fire that is not the noise. The 80 year old blue grass band nearby should have received the noise violation!

Here is Kyle being serious...

and not so serious.

Besides all the friends, family and co-workers that showed up, there were also a number of dogs there, at least 8 if not more at times. I don't have pictures of all the dogs that were there, but I did take pictures of dog in our extended family

Keisha

Kody (Keisha' dad and Shelby's parents dog)

Lacy (Shelby's parents other dog)

and Mr Jack Black (Sara and Jamie's dog)

On Sunday we went out for a fishing trip with Bubba, we took the kids as well as Auntie and Unc Unc.

Kyle took a turn behind the wheel, good thing the motor was off.

The kids were helping Bubba and Unc Unc fishing.

and really driving the boat.

Auntie and Aaron

Garry and Jamie were actually catching a lot of fish, but usually it was rockfish or dogfish, which were just returned back to the ocean, but then Jamie with some help pulled out the 15 pound halibut! Looks like nice eating, if I liked fish!

The boys hanging around a fort that Aaron helped to build out of the driftwood.

Sara and Jamie had to leave Sunday evening and this is Shelby and her mom attempting to put their thermorest away with Shelby's grandma looking on, looks like they were having fun.

Garry and his friend Dennis went for an after supper fishing excursion and as they were coming in a rainbow appeared(although we didn't see any rain) and a nice sunset too.

On Monday morning we packed up and headed home, were fortunate to not have any rain on the weekend. It was good to spend time with family and see as Garry heads into retirement to perhaps another career? Time will tell.

Sara just completed a post about this weekend as well which can be viewed here.

As an FYI, all the pictures in the last 2 posts were taken with our point and shoot camera.

Back in BC

On Saturday we left from Edmonton to Westbank, it was a 12 hour drive with the few stops along the way. Once we came into BC the rain started to fall and even saw some lightning on the way. Once we finally arrived in Westbank we were greeted with a nice rainbow out the back of the house. It has been a year since we were in Westbank and there have been a few changes as it has been heavily renovated.

The weather on Sunday was improving from the rain, but it was still a bit cool. We took the kids to the Go-Karts and then to visit Shelby's grandpa (Papa). The kids enjoyed the Go-Karts and Aaron thinks he's an expert driver now.

For the rest of the week it warmed up to what we expect in the Okanagan and being in the pool was a regular fixture for the rest of the week. I finally brought my WP-500 out again after not using it for a while.

I was also playing around with the colour accent feature on my Canon point and shoot, it lets you highlight one colour and the rest is in black and white, I think makes for some interesting results.

On Tuesday we took the boat out with the kids and tried out the 'Big Mabel' It allows the kids to sit on the floating mattress and it's not too easy for them to fall out. They seemed to really enjoy that.

On Wednesday we went to Kelowna to once again visit Ogopogo, something we seem to do every year is take a picture of the kids on it.

At another famous Kelowna landmark.

After they went to the nearby waterpark to cool off.

We came home from the Island last Thursday and spent one night at home only to load up our tent trailer for Vancouver Island for Shelby's dad's camping retirement party. More on that in the next post...

Trip to Alberta

We've had a busy last couple weeks and I have a few blogs to catch up on in the next little while.

We haven't been in Alberta in 5 years, so this year we decided to visit our friends in Edmonton.
We left for Alberta 2 weeks ago today. On the first day, we drove up to Valemount, BC, which is just past halfway to Edmonton and stayed with our friends Rob and Talitha. Rob was posted there as an RCMP officer. He finished his training in Regina late last year and this is his first term as an officer. He is learning the ropes and shared a few stories from his job so far.
Valemount is a nice area, although a bit remote, and the weather was great. We had a nice time visiting with them and and the kids had fun playing with their 2 year old son Colton.

After breakfast the next morning we headed to Edmonton. With Mt. Robson(the tallest mountain in the Rockies) on the way, we made a stop to check it out. Apparently we were lucky to have a clear view of the mountain as it's often covered by cloud.


Here is Aaron taking a picture of me near the mountain.

...and me taking a picture of the kids.

We arrived in Edmonton just after 5pm, as there was also a 1 hour time difference, to our friends Dave and Heidi's house. It was good to see them again and their 2 daughter's Makenna and Kole again.

For dinner we went to a near-by park where we also met up with our friends Jill and her very soon-to-be-husband Lawrence. They are getting married here in Crescent Beach on the 23rd.

The next day we went to the Alberta Legislature affectionately known as 'the Ledge' or is it 'Leg' or 'Lej'? There are a lot of wading pools around the 'Lej' and with the typical hot days Edmonton has all year round it was a nice way to cool off. Here I am trying to get Kyle to pretend to touch the top of the building, he almost made it or I needed to go a little lower with my camera.

Here are the sexy moms at pool side( I think I needed a little fill flash, but oh well)

The next day we found another wading pool, which seems to be common in Edmonton, I don't think I have seen them in BC. Here are Aaron and Kyle borrowing Makenna and Kole's water guns trying to look tough. The boys didn't like when kids would like to get them wet when they were trying to get the other kids wet.

The kids got along great and we really enjoyed our time together. In this picture is also a friend of Makenna's on the far right, but I can't remember her name at this point.

We spent 3 nights in Edmonton and had a great time catching up(and some good laughs too) with Dave and Heidi and the girls. We had fun going swimming, and hanging out. I kept in shape with Dave as we went for a run, a workout and a bike ride, we also found some geocaches too. Shelby and Heidi went out for a shopping excursion one day as we took turns looking after the kids.
We had great weather in sunny and warm Edmonton and glad we made the trek.

Then we drove from Edmonton to Westbank in one day and the story will continue in the next post...