Columbia Falls Waterslides

Alyssa coming of the River Ride slide

Rob coming of River Ride

Mom and Preston

Austin "I'm too cool for this waterslide park"

Alyssa posing for the finish!

From Aug 10-12th, we went to Kalispell to visit Rob's sister Michelle and their family. We took advantage of the good Us shopping and bought the kids' school clothes. The highlight of the trip was a day at the Big Sky Waterpark in Columbia Falls. Last year Preston was too scared to go down any slides. This year he went down the kiddie slides relatively readily, but was afraid of the bigger slides. Somehow about half way through the day, Rob got him to try one of the big green slides with him. Then for the rest of the day, it was a race to get to the top of the hill so he could go again....and again....and again....and.... It was really nice to spend time with our Hemsley cousins too!

Alyssa and Anna's photo shoot

We invited my sister Sarah to stay after the family reunion for a few days with Anna and Paul Bryner (my sister Liz's two oldest kids) and Sam (my brother Mike's son). Sarah will take the kids with her to Utah tomorrow. Part of the purpose of this adventure was so that these kids could get out on the boat with us. However, we have been sorely vexed with cold and rainy weather all week which is about 10 C below seasonal. The kids have therefore mostly been entertaining themselves around the house. On Tuesday evening, Sarah and I took the kids to see "The Ark" in at the Carriage House Theatre in Cardston. It was terrific. I can really relate to one song in particular which went..."I---- hate the rain....It's driving me insane." Anyway, yesterday, somewhat to Rob's chagrin, we left the boys home and Sarah and I took Alyssa and Anna shopping in Lethbridge. I bought them a matching outfit and when we got home, I did a photo shoot of the two of them. Aren't they cute? I have really enjoyed the dynamic of having Alyssa, Anna and Sarah around. We have laughed a lot. The boys mostly do their own thing which involves computers, Nintendo DS, and stuff from some world other than our own. I hope they are all having fun despite our bad luck with weather.

Joe Prete Reunion, 2009

Rob laughing hard. I believe that is either because Grandpa Prete got forced into bidding on a Webkinz for Austin or because Rob bid up Christian on a BYU button for Anna.

We went to the Prete reunion at Red Lodge Provincial Park from Thursday, evening, July 30th til Sunday, am, August 2nd. When we were driving to the reunion and for a little while after we got there it was pouring rain. I had been a little frustrated that the 3 and a half hour drive took over 5 hours due to me missing a turn and a prolonged stop in Olds to get KFC--only KFC had closed down there--unbeknownst to mapquest. However, this turned into a blessing because those who arrived earlier had to set up tents in the pouring rain. I quit raining within half an hour of us getting there. My parents, Joe and Haylee and their family, my nephew Sam and my sister Sarah all travelled from my house to the reunion. Liz and Christian and their 6 kids travelled straight from Utah to the reunion without coming to our house first.

On Friday, the kids played some games in the morning. Then the Roy Prete group went to the Collicutt Centre in Red Deer. We came back to prepare the meal that our family was in charge of and participate in the family auction. The auction was great fun. Sarah bought a bucket of Cows for $25. Rob suggested to Austin that Grandpa Prete would maybe buy him the Webkinz as a thank you for Them using Austin s bedroom while here. They told him they would go up to $35, but when the bidding went above $35, Grandpa Prete decided to keep Austin bidding and they got it for $40. Austin was pretty entertaining through the whole thing. All told the Auction raised $1400 for the reunion. On Sat. am I ran some childrens games for all the kids and later my cousin Matt did Farmyard Olympics. In the afternoon most of us went down to the river and waded in it. We had to leave as the first of a few thunderstorms rolled in. One of the storms brought strong winds and some guys tied the canopies to some pick up trucks with tie downs to secure things so we could have dinner. In the evening we enjoyed a talent show which included everything from 7 year old Madeline Nysetvold performing a virtuoso violin concerto to hand stand pushups, a finger light sabre duel (Austin and Paul) to Anna s HappyLand slide show to Sarah on her biology song.

We got up early on Sunday and got back to Magrath in time for church, all except our heroes Rob and Christian and the twins who agreed to stay back and pack up the tents once they were dry and get the trailer ready to go.

Liz and her four younger kids and mom and dad left this (Monday) morning and Sarah is still here. She will drive back with Anna, Paul and Sam at the end of the week.

Anna is wearing Grandma Nash s hat that she won at the auction at the last Prete reunion.

LUNCHTIME!

Duck, duck, goose!

Boating with the Pretes

Despite having a cool summer and way too many rainy days, we did get out on the boat a little while my family was visiting. My brother Joe and his wife Haylee have some pretty fearless little girls! I couldn t believe it when even both their five year old and their seven year old kneeboarded. All of these pictures are from the boat at Jensen s Reservoir.

My niece Emma Prete, age 7 kneeboarding! Good work Emma!

Emma and her Dad, my brother, Joe, going for a wild tube ride!

Sara, age 5 kneeboarding! You are amazing!

Joe, soooo cool on skis!

I can take your picture before you take my picture. My mom, Carma Prete in the boat.

Gradnpa Roy Prete with Austin on the boat.

Alyssa riding the wake.

Sam Walsh-Prete, my nephew, so stylin on the boat!

Preston, in shades!

Rob lets Preston drive the boat sometimes when the kids are wanting a wild tube ride. Austin asked, how come Preston gets to drive the boat and I don t--he doesn t even know where the gas is. Exactly, Rob said!

Rob's Graduation

Here, finally, are some pictures of Rob's graduation from the University of Phoenix. We spent 3 days in Phoenix with Rob's parents and enjoyed time with Rob's Aunt and Uncle, Hal and Shelley, and their kids. I also got to see my Aunt Betty and Uncle Delrey and two of their kids. It was super-duper hot--about 113 F or 45 C each day, and since it was monsoon season, there was a bit of a wind and lightning storm (no rain) each evening. We ate at some fun restaurants--I recommend Texas Roadhouse and Shane's Rib Shack--and stopped by the Arizona temple. The graduation festivities took all day on Friday, beginning with a campus tour, then check in at the graduation, social time and the convocation. About 1200 people graduated in Rob's ceremony and there were 2 other ceremonies the same weekend. Convocation was held at The University of Phoenix Dome which is the NFL football stadium which has a retractable roof and removeable grass. I thought they did a great job with the convocation.

We owe a huge thank you to Sherylee and Monte (Rob's sister and her husband) who let us stay in their house, eat their food and drive their car while we were there. Not only that, but they were up in Cardston taking care of our 4 kids while we were there. We love you, Kartchners!

It was pretty funny on this trip--we had a lot of pleasant teasing going back and forth, boys (Rob and his dad) against girls (me and Sheron)...true, true, true...over issues such as how far in advance we need to be at the airport, how important it is to bring water with us, whether garmin knew better than the map and any other number of silly things. It was fun, in that sense to not have many responsibilities so we could just be playful. Thank you, Granny and Grandpa Paul for coming with us on the trip. That meant a lot to us! We love you!

So now when you see Rob, and especially if you want to get a really dirty look from him, call him MASTER DOIG!

Primary Temple Activity

A few weeks ago, our ward had a big temple day. One of the events of the day was a primary activity in Cardston that was long enough to allow the parents to do a temple session. The first half of the activity was a "Temple Discovery Walk" where the kids went around in small groups to 12 stations around the outside of the temple. At each station they learned something about the Cardston temple (i.e. history, architechture, stories, etc). At the 9th station KD Wolsey took their pictures. Didn't she do a great job?!! After the discovery walk, we went to the Tanner Senior Centre for lunch and had more activities. The YM/YW and their leaders helped with the activity. I thought the whole day was a great success and hopefully will be a strong memory for the kids.

My garden, early July

When I was in Gr. 8 I did my public speaking speech on "How gardening ruins my life." Since then I've learned to really enjoy gardening and I have especially taken an interest in overcoming gardening problems. So, I'm indulging in posting pictures of my garden as it looked on July 6th. My first batch of beans died with frost. These are the replanted ones.

My corn is the tallest in the neighborhood. The carrots are thick in some places and thin in others. But, I'm sure that has nothing to do with Alyssa being the one who planted.

I started my tomatoes and pepper bedding plants under floating row covers which I left on til about when school got out near the end of June. You can see the row cover on the ground by these tomatoes. The plants are pretty big, and are just starting to blossom.

The whole raspberry patch is like this, thick with berries.

Peas are as high as the fence. The deer haven't eaten any since I covered them with bird netting a couple of weeks ago. Lots of pods have formed already, but they aren't quite ready yet.

Just waiting for the dwarf sweet peas to bloom at the back.

You may know that last year I worked tirelessly on my garden with very little harvest (except for 260 lbs of potatoes). Last year was in a death battle with the weeds and also mulched with grass clippings, leaves, garden waste of all kinds. I did this because the soil was in bad shape, greyish and dry and clumpy with almost no organic matter. This spring I brought in a small load of manure and a couple of bales of peat moss. When I rototilled, the soil seemed much softer and richer. I am very happy that the garden is growing much better this year, and is actually ahead of the neighbors. The raspberry bushes are also heavy laden with berries so I think I will have a good crop of raspberries too this year. I've been continuing to mulch with grass clippings this year and Alyssa thinks that is why I haven't won "yard of the week" because grass in the flower beds looks tacky. i figure when the flowers are thick enough you can barely see the grass clippings and they are excellent for holding in moisture.