O Canada (and Montana)

Houston
After daddy was done work at BYU we had some free time before he started his new job in Colorado. Because we hadn’t seen mommy’s home for a really long time, we decided to take a long vacation up to Canada and Montana. Our first stop was Calgary to see Uncle Mark, Auntie Laurel, Ashton, Nick and Beckham. We took two days to drive up and stayed over night in Great Falls on the first day. The drive was long but I was a good boy. I had lots of movies to watch and snacks to eat and I had fun keeping my brother happy too!


You can imagine how excited I was to get out of the car once we made it to our hotel after 9+ hours of driving to Great Falls.


The next day we had a shorter drive to Calgary. This was important because Daddy and Uncle Mark were planning to leave for a Man’s Trip that afternoon in Dutch Creek, Alberta. It involved a lot of quadding and a lot of eating with a group of over 20 guys. Unfortunately they experienced some pretty wet and cold weather conditions but daddy and Uncle Mark still had a blast.

Well while the men were out on their men’s trip, the moms and us boys had lots of fun too. We played outside on the trampoline and at the park, we went to Nick’s soccer game, and we even went to a cool indoor park. Every time we went out, we all piled into Auntie Laurel’s mini van which wasn’t the easiest task in the world.

The indoor park must have tired us out because mom found Nick and I lying at the bottom of a slide.

A few days after the men got home, we drove down to Mommy’s home town, Medicine Hat. Below are some pictures from our dinner visit with Great Grandma and Grandpa Campbell. Some high lights were eating a lot of water melon, listening to Grandpa play his saxophone and watching Grandpa fly his new helicopter.

Grandma Schlenker is really good at taking advantage of little time slots of waiting and turning them into fun. She understands that 2-yr-olds don’t really like to wait. This is one example that mom caught on tape. She thought it was so cute!


One other highlight of our Medicine Hat visit was going our to Papa’s farm land for a tractor ride. Mom just loves the endless horizon that you find in the prairies of Southern Alberta.

Damon sure liked when Auntie Deb came to visit. She made him laugh so much, he thought it was appropriate to mark his territory on her…baby style.


One afternoon, we had a chance to hang out with some of mommy’s friends and their kids at Echo Dale! It is pretty much a man-made beach with lots of fun stuff to do. Damon was a trooper and slept for a good chunk of the time. He slept longer on the ground under an umbrella than he does in his nice comfy crib.

That night, after mom and dad put us to bed at Grandma and Grandpa Schlenker’s, they were off to a welcome home party for mom’s friend, Eryn (she just completed dental school in California). It was another great chance to see lots of old friends.

Mom always loves going to church in Medicine Hat because she can see so many people that impacted her upbringing. Plus it gives mom and dad a chance to show off Damon and I. After church, we packed up and headed down south to Ashley Lake.

Damon
This was my first time at the lake and I definitely learned why everyone loves it so much! The first day we were there, the babies (Beckham and I) went with the women into town to by lots of food for the week. The men and boys stayed back and put the new docks in. It was a long day for everyone but each group had great success as well. Like usual, Ashton held me a lot and it seemed wherever I was, the boys followed. It is probably because I am so smiley and cute. Also while we were there, I learned how to roll over both ways. Not long now until I can keep up with my bother and cousins. A few days after we arrived, Great Grandma and Grandpa Campbell came too. Grandpa is always so fun to play with indoors and out and grandma loves holding and taking care of me.
Mom and dad were able to celebrate their 6th anniversary there. What a 6 years it has been!! They went on a romantic boat ride to the Ashley Lake island and buried a time capsule.
The pictures below show a lot of the other activities we did.

One evening, the ladies went out for dinner and a Musical at the Big Fork Play House.

This picture may need some explanation and was quite a memory. Uncle Mark and Auntie Laurel had some friends come visit us at the lake. They were a really nice family and we had lots of fun with them. Right as Auntie Laurel was finishing making a huge dinner for everyone, all the power in the cabin went out! Like I said, luckily we had dinner all made so we ate outside hoping the power would come back on for the night. No power meant no running water as well, so as much as the women hated it, the kitchen had to stay dirty and children couldn’t have baths. The best part of this whole ordeal was after dinner when we organized a mini baseball game out on the front lawn. Everyone participated (except ) and we enjoyed lots of laughs! After all the kids were in bed, the adults had a bon fire and enjoyed watching the neighbor’s fireworks. The power finally came back on in the wee hours of the morning. Mom and I got to experience it because I was being a stinker and she was trying to put me back to sleep.