Summer Travels Part 2a: Week 1 at Ashley Lake

I forgot to mention that when we arrived at Ashley Lake after driving all day, tired, hungry and so very ready to be out of the car, daddy had prepared a delicious meal for us all. He is so thoughtful!

The day after we arrived at the Lake, Grandma Cari, Auntie Lora, Kit Kat and Ryan flew in to spend the week.
Morning dance party

Compliments to Auntie Lora for all pictures!
The new lily pad

Nature walk

Documenting the Angel Face

A friend did these for us. It doesn't get much cuter than this! If anyone wants any of these, just let me know and i'll email you.

Summer Travels Part 1: Canada

The day after this crazy busy time for mom, she flew with with us 3 boys from GJ to Denver and from Denver to Calgary to begin our big summer vacation. So in case you didn't catch that, mom flew alone with 3 young children on 2 flights to get us into Calgary around 10:30pm... yikes! Mom knew it wouldn't be easy and there were definitely some hard moments but I would say considering the circumstances, it went fairly smooth. Cooper screaming for the last 15 minutes of the 2nd flight was probably the hardest part. Everyone was exhausted and there isn't much anyone can do while the plane is landing. Afterward though, one older flight attendant (clearly a career women) came over to us and offered Cooper, my 5 month old baby, a sandwich to help sooth him...hmmm ok? I told her I would stick with the breast milk but thanks anyway. We slept that night at Mark and Laurel's new house and spent the morning playing and relaxing before driving to Medicine Hat. Mom wishes she would have taken more pictures but here is what she got:
A peaceful moment on the airplane brought to you by technology.

Mom's beautiful best friend from high school came to visit. She is really good with babies as you can see.

Fun times at the water park with Grandma Schlenker


Medicine Hat looks good on Damon after a few spills

Grandma also took us to the Windmill Center's butterfly house and petting zoo.


Mom was also able to meet up other best friends from high school for a play date with their kids and then go out with them for supper. It was SO NICE to catch up!! Mom will always love those ladies. Other good times were spent with Great Grandma and Grandpa Campbell and the Halmrast family. Grandma and Papa Schlenker even took mommy out for supper one night while a babysitter watched us. They went to the Beefeater and mom claims she had the best meal she has ever eaten!!
The following weekend we drove back up to Calgary to attend Ashton's (the oldest Schlenker Cousin) baptism.
He is such a great kid and good example to all his younger cousins! One highlight was him playing the guitar while Nick and Beckham sang "I am a Child of God".
That night we slept at Uncle Derek's new house that he had just moved in to.
Houston looks comfy!
The next morning we drove down to Montana to meet Daddy at Ashley Lake. After the previous day and night being a little crazy, this was a long trip with some tired kids (that of course didn't sleep the whole drive!). But we made it! Our stop in Cardston was a nice way to break up the day.

18 Lives and the Book of Mormon

The weekend before we left on our big vacation, mom had the opportunity to play a small role in a huge 5-stake regional youth conference (over 700 youth) held in Grand Junction. The culminating event was a production that has been a year in the making. Mom was in charge of hair and makeup for our stake which included about 80 youth. In the months leading up to the conference mom had been to many meetings regarding the logistics and had organized a couple of hair and make up training nights for the youth. The multimedia production was called "18 Lives and the Book of Mormon". It told the story of a seminary class of 18 students, the struggles they face and how the Book of Mormon helped them overcome those trials (see the trailer here: 18lives.org) . Each stake was in charge of staging one of those stories. We were able to stage Nephi and his impossible task of building a ship. The whole experience was so memorable and literally life changing. One highlight was watching and meet a special guest who cam to play Christ in one scene. His name is Robert Allen and he is famous right now for acting as Christ in photographs from "Reflections of Christ" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQYsxJhv_E). Him and his family are simply incredible. It is hard to explain in words the feelings mom felt as she watched and participated. The youth she spent time with and got to know were so amazing! Soon there will be a DVD of the whole production and she would love to share it with anyone interested in watching it. There were 5 performances and mom was able to get all of us into see one of them which was pretty cool.