Happy Birthday, Granny!

All about Alyssa

Alyssa has been busy so far this school year. She is playing volleyball and running cross country. Her volleyball team hosted a tournament this weekend. It was amazing how much better the whole team is since last year. Alyssa got some playing time and did really well. She spiked a few balls over, hit most of her overhand serves, and got subbed in so that she could pass up some powerful serves from the other team in the final. Her team came in 2nd in their tournament.
Alyssa didn't like this year's school picture so we took a few in the yard.

At MHS cross country works like this. All the kids run in gym class and the top six girls get to run at 2 cross country meets. This year, Alyssa made the top 6, so she ran in the Cardston race. This is her coming into the finish. Her time for 2 K 10:51. She pulled her hamstring (again) partway through the race, descending from a high sidewalk) and had to walk it out for a minute. She still did great. Her cousin, Kaylene finished about 20 seconds ahead of her.
Another shot from the volleyball tournament.

Nuh-Unh!

Technically, it is still summer today. But I saw THIS from my back door last Friday. And, last night I stayed in Waterton with Rob because he had a conference. Nearly an inch of the white stuff fell there. It's just crazy! Just for the record, the average daily high for today is 18 C.

What a load of........

......Gravel!

Our summer project was to take out the grass, tree and top soil on the south east side of our house, build a retaining wall, and fill in the area with gravel. The purpose of this project was to create parking for the trailer, truck and boat so that our street & driveway are cleared off and so that there is room in the garage for the car and van. It also means less grass to mow which makes Alyssa happy. We were lucky that some friends were looking for sod and topsoil, so they came and took both. The gravel arrived on Tuesday and just last night be moved the trailer onto it. The boat needs to be winterized and covered in its protective cover before it joins the ranks. But, halleluiah I got to park the van in the garage today and didn't have to go out in the rain to get in!

Writing on Stone

On Saturday, Sept 4th, our family went to Writing on Stone Provincial Park. It is less than 1 1/2 hrs from here but we had never been there before (except Austin who went with this Gr 4 class). It is in the valley of the Milk River about 45 km from the town of Milk River. The valley is full of geological formations called Hoodoos. They are columns of Sandstone that didn't erode when softer rock around it did. the river valley there was a sacred place for Native Americans and they carved in the stone. The picture below is of a battle scene. There is also a nice sandy beach on the Milk River. We had a fun time walking the Hoodoo trail (about 4Km) and then playing at the beach. We finished the day with a picnic dinner. Another time, if we go, we'l have to do what we saw some other people doing--bring nerf guns and have a nerf war in the hoodoos. They are super fun for climbing! We didn't climb nearly as much as Austin wanted to because the hoodoos on the hoodoo trail have steep drop offs/cliffs in many places. Other hoodoos in the park are more climbing friendly, but exploration of those ones will have to wait for another day.

First Days of School

This is a big year for our family doing back to school, because all the kids are in school now. Preston started kindergarten & Mark Gr. 4. Austin is one of the big kids now at the elementary in Gr. 6 and Alyssa is in the heart of Jr. High in Gr. 8. the "first day of school" didn't really happen exactly. Austin and Mark went for half a day on Monday, Aug. 30th, and Alyssa started on Tuesday after a little orientation on Monday. However, I didn't get any before school pictures of her because she had 7 am Volleyball tryouts on her first day. Preston started Wednesday afternoon. So far everyone is doing well and getting back into the swing of things. Normally, I would feel jipped with school starting a whole week before Labour Day, but since it was cold outside, it seemed to fit.

It is nice for me to be back into morning scripture reading, FHE, dinners together, etc. It is strange though to have afternoons to myself. I both like it and am scared of the time to myself. I guess I haven't been alone much.

Rocky Mountain House visit

After our trip to Kalispell, we hosted the Magrath Swim Meet and had our club year end BBQ and annual general meeting. That was all successful, except that it was very cold the morning of the meet, and warmed up incredibly to be quite nice in time for the BBQ. (Strange weather could be the story of the whole summer). Anyway, later on Saturday the 21st, I took Alyssa, Austin and Preston and went up to Rocky Mountain House for three nights. We stayed with friends, Satermos and Eklunds and got to see lots of people at church and visited a few others. I got to go out to Boston Pizza with some of the ladies on Monday night. On Tuesday, we went to the Colllecutt Centre (indoor water park) with Eklunds. It was really nice to see so many people and our old stomping grounds. I didn't remember to take many pictures, though so we'll just have to remember it in our hearts...Austin and Preston with Liam Bolton.
Alyssa with Lauren Bolton. The Boltons have 2 kids. Alyssa and Lauren were friends as were Austin and Liam. I also really enjoy visiting with their mom. They used to have lots of playdates when we lived in Rocky and we spent a really nice afternoon with them on our trip.
The Satermo kids and our kids. Alyssa and Doree Ann were the only 2 girls their age at church.

Big Sky, Big Fun!

From August 18th-20th, we were in Kalispell. We stayed at Michelle's house, did some back to school shopping and spent the day with them at the Big Sky Waterpark in Columbia Falls. We had buy-one-get-one-free coupons if you bought the tickets to do all the extra stuff at the park, so we had fun doing bumper cars, mini golf and water balloon wars too. Preston spent the first 2 hours not wanting to do anything, but once Rob finally talked him into going down a waterslide (with the threat of taking away his Nintendo DS), he decided he loved it and made me take him down again and again.

Also, last year, Austin was nervous about the slides that you go down in a tube...I think because he fell out of one or something) but this year, he discovered these slides were super fun and couldn't get enough of them. Notice the picture of him carrying that big tube up the hill. He did it over and over!

It's a lot of fun to spend time with the Hemsleys. they even decorated their house and got a cake for me for my birthday which was while we were there. Thank you!