Prete Reunion: Holland Falls Hike

The hike to Holland Falls was spectacular and was a highlight of the reunion for those who took the hike. It was about 2 miles each way, the last 1/2 of which was pretty steep uphill. Anna put red licorice in her bottled water, which was completely disgusting...though she said it was pretty tasty. You can see the dried licorice on the side of her mouth.

Some of the views we enjoyed while hiking.

Holland Falls.

Emma at the falls

Mom made it to the top too. Good work, Mom!

The advanced party! These girls were the first to make it to the top of the hike.

Happyland Graduation for Garrett and Pierce

Liz and Christian enjoying happyland graduation

Aly is so cute!

Anna, giving her opening remarks at the Happyland graduation

Emma's speech was classic. Garrett and Pierce need to enjoy their moment on the top before they go to the bottom of the totem pole as the lowest level happyland employees.

"And it was when Garrett and Pierce started coming to happyland that it started being fun for me...and....sob....I'm just really gonna miss those guys..."

Rob enjoying the happyland graduation

The proud parents with the graduates

The happyland executive

Holland Lake activities: Canoeing, Fishing

Dad rented a canoe and several of us enjoyed peaceful canoe rides on the beautifully calm and crystal clear lake. I went a little canoe ride with Alyssa and Anna to an island. Dad and Joe went with the little kids over to the same island to fish on Thursday afternoon. We drove them all over on the boat, and left them there for an hour or two. No fish on that trip. However, dad planned two early morning fishing trips. The first one got rained out, but on the second day, Sarah, Dad and Joe caught several perch. They also got soaking wet and cold, but apparently the fish tasted pretty great.

The first picture in this post is of Alyssa with Isabella on the hammock Joe and Haylee brought. Lots of kids had fun on the hammock swinging more than resting.

Holland lake: Keeping warm and dry..as much as possible

Preston, Pierce and Garrett having a rip roaring game of Toy Story Yahtzee.

Austin, Hannah and Sara. Sara was pretty sick, and Hannah wasn't 100% either. Cold wet nights and cold wet days didn't help the situation much. Hopefully the trailer provided a bit of reprieve for the little sickies.

Our trailer is pretty small, but it is where we had breakfast Friday morning, games Sunday night, and where cold and sick kids could warm up a bit here and there.

In Response to You Anna

Well when my cousin Anna posted her Proud to be American thing on her blog I decided to try and top that with my 10 Things That Makes Canada Better than the US List! so here it goes

1. We don't have Obama as a president!
2. We have an economy that is not trillion dollars in debt
3. Free Health Care
4. We are a multi-cultural nation
5. We burnt your white house down!!!!!!!
6. We have a real Conservative Party
7. The 1st sounds better than the 4th (because that is what Canada is 1st!)
8. WE have better chocolate bars and chips
9. Orr Flag is way prettier
10. And to top that al off Alyssa's here so it just way cooler
Your Proud Canadian
Alyssa

The rains came down and the floods came up

In the last three days we have had over 100 mm (or 4 inches) of rain. (Cardston had even more). This comes at the end of an extremely wet spring, where there was already standing water in many fields. Farmers have been unable to plant many of their crops and even those crops planted in many cases may be ruined because of the standing water. We have had almost no warm weather, and nothing hot and dry in the forecast. My own garden is not growing much at all, and I very much doubt I will get corn, tomatoes, peppers or even cucumbers this year.
I'd like to ask all the Pretes to begin praying for good weather for our reunion.
This is a low quality picture. It is of the Cook fields in Magrath where there are soccer fields and baseball diamonds.

This is our trailer parked in a lake at the storage place. The trailer was already in water before this rainstorm. The ground is so saturated that the water has no where to go. It would take a miracle for the water to be gone before our reunion. We only hope it will go down enough that we will be able to get the trailer out.

This is the school soccer field or lake MHS.

Our own property, thankfully, is raised up and drains off very nicely. In addition, we have a sump pump on our lower deck that redirects water straight into the town storm drains. This is the view from our side yard of our neighbor's shed which is under water.

Cardston 5 Mile/5K family fun run, June 5th, 2010

The start of the 5 miler. There were probably 20-25 runners.

The start of the 5 K race. Austin and Preston have their ears covered, afraid of the sound of the gun. Granny and Aunt Sherylee helped Austin and Preston through the 5 K race. Thank you!

Becky at the finish line. I ran in 42:43 which on that day was good enough for first place woman. My niece, Kaylene, age 13, ran with me for the first three miles, before she eased off the pace just a little. She finished second.

Preston coming up to the finish line. He and Austin (and their helpers) were the last to finish in about 1:03 and 1:04. It was sure a long way for those little legs to go. Austin took his "poké-walker" with him. It said he went over 10,000 steps!

Austin near the finish. Shortest legs, Biggest heart!

The Doig family 5 miler/5 K race participants. Monte was faster than me, and got the medal for being first in his age group. Nathan got a silver medal in his age group too.

It was a terrific race, timed with time chips, and accurate for distance. The adults got real running shirts. Everyone got a door prize, and there were first, second and third place medals in each age group. For being the overall winner, I got 2 tickets to the Carriage House Theatre.

At the end of the race, Preston was so tired, he said "I shouldn't have done this, it was too far." Later, inside, after a jumbo freezie and a bit of rest, they gave out the door prizes. When Preston got his prize (donated by the dollar store) of a spider man activity kit and a Marvel comics cup, he exclaimed "And when I do the 5K next year, I'm gonna get another prize!" It is amazing how a $1 prize can totally change the attitude of a small child.

We missed having Alyssa in the race this year, since she had a basketball tournament that day.