Canada Day fishing

For Canada day we were going to go to the celebration at Hillspring with our cousins,but Rachel woke up puking so we didn't end up going.  They didn't want us to share our germs for some reason! Instead, that evening we went fishing.

First, we tried at our fish pond, but since we didn't have any bites or see the fish jumping,( the only bites we got were bug bites! ),we headed over to Boundary Creek to see if we could catch some pike. We got three bites but didn't catch anything. One got away with Damon's lucky fishing hook.  He was the scout camp fishing guru with it, so he was disappointed.

Rachel and Tyler sitting at the bank of Boundary Creek. The Salt's were nice to let us fish on their land.

                                              

  Jeff getting Lindy's fishing hook unstuck. AGAIN! :)

                                                       

 We fished until dark. The sunset was amazing.

 She was casting so fast, she was a blur!

We live in such a beautiful place.  We feel very blessed.

                                       

Jeff fishing with Tyler.

               After fishing was done we went to Cardston to see the fireworks. They were awesome!

WE  ARE CANADIAN!!!! and PROUD OF IT!!!

Science Fair, Speeches and Van Servicing!

It has been a busy week!

Monday : Happy Valentines Day! I got a dozen red and white beautiful smelling roses from my sweet heart. We went to the Cobblestone Restaurant the Friday before for a cozy meal with the place to ourselves, a nice dinner in front of a fireplace, with music and great company!

We got our van's back window replaced, after a couple of trips to town with plastic flapping in the wind. Then off to Glenwood for dinner and Family Home Evening/birthday celebration for my neice and sister.

Tuesday: 4H speeches!! Damon and Lindy did well on their prepared speeches, the improvs were a little bit trickier. We were proud of their courage and effort. Lindy did hers on skiing and Damon spoke on the many adventures of his little brother Tyler. Tyler's comment was - "When my turn? I a big boy!" He did keep us on our toes trying to keep him off the stage. It is always a long night, but we are glad to check it off!

Wednesday: Science Fair - always a mad rush, getting things set up, taken in, put together. A few nights of little sleep and stress, but . . . in the end both Damon and Lindy won first with their partners Tanner and Clara,in each of their grades. They were excited!

Thursday: Did I mention that we have had our van in 3 times in the past week for repairs? We've decided to name her old Bessie and think we may need to add her to our daily prayers to keep her going! 2 days of wheel alignments, 1 new back window, oil change and 3 tire repairs in the last month. She should be as good as new!!
It was a good thing that we learned some yoga and meditation techniques at our Relief society meeting( the women's organization at church) that night.

Friday - Yipee, we made it to the weekend! We are looking forward to a week off of school. Family week here we come. Jeff is celebrating by going on a winter scout camp - will he sleep in a homeade lean-to or the leaders cabin? Time will tell.

Rachel's Baptism day

On December 29, 2010, it was a special day in our family. Rachel had turned 8 and that means that she is old enough to be baptized. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and to be baptized means that we make a promise to follow Jesus Christ. We believe in baptism by immersion - we are completely immersed in water and come out of the water - symbolic of leaving our old life behind and having a new life as a follower of Jesus. Rachel was baptized by her Dad.

We love our happy Rachel girl. She is a ray of sunshine in our family. She is cheerful and helpful and full of energy and life.

If you go to www.mormon.org it tells a little more of what we believe. ( Mormon is a nickname that was given to our church because we believe in the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ - a book of scriptures that we have along with the Bible.)

Christmas photo fun

Here is the traditional acting out of the nativity, the kids had fun with their costumes. We had a great time at the Payne cousins house in Magrath, great food and company, highly talented acting skills.

Before Jeff was married, he always had to be the donkey in his family's nativity. Now the mantle or the donkey face is passed to Fraser - his youngest cousin. I so loved the donkey mask this year!

This was a hilarious game that apparently is a Payne tradition. Some lucky person gets to put on the old fashioned red long johns - in our case Rachel - and we had 5 minutes to blow up a stuff as many balloons as we could into the long johns. We did good! Good thing Rachel is so skinny - there was a lot of room for stuffing. We had the expert help of Emily and Cody (Jeff's cousin and her husband) as well.

Here was a pre - Christmas picture - my birthday morning with my most precious gifts. The stereo in the box was a pretty good one too.

New Year Update

It's been a long time. We had a great Christmas, even though I got stuck in the "Why is this so complicated, and who knew as a child all that went into Christmas. We had fun, the kids were excited to get new skis, which they have used quite a few times, thanks to free seasons passes this year from Westcastle. I am still trying to psych myself out of my deeply ingrained family aversion and fear of skiing so I can support this new family tradtion.

We got a new laptop, which we opened early since our desktop crashed. It has been a source of joy and frustration as we have tried to use it and have found that the touch pad has some serious issues.

Highlights of our Christmas season:

Christmas Eve in Magrath with the Peterson cousins: good food, good company, fun games at the church gym, and of course the Nativity, especially Fraser as the Donkey, Mary as the cute little sheep, and the always interesting rendition of the 12 days of Christmas.

Christmas Day feast in Glenwood at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's - fun to catch up with the cousins there.

Getting pedicures with the Torrie girls at Jack and Jills and lunch at Cheesecake cafe.

New years Eve party at Ryan and Tonya Torrie's in Taber -- a grand sleep over of 40 or so people.

Rachel getting baptized on Dec. 29. I love the feeling of watching them take this step.

More pictures to come later. . .

Now we are in the throws of facing the extreme weather of the season and trying to get enough vitamin D to feel happy through it all. It has felt like we have had a lot of bad road issues. As I type this now, both the van and the truck are stuck in the driveway. I got new snow tires on the van and I just love them! What a difference. But apparently I got a little to confindant and decided that sure I could take on that hard drift. We have been keeping the tire store busy by giving them 3 flat tires in 3 weeks to repair - always happy to support local business.

January zoomed by and here we are in February, which around here means intense science fair and 4H speech preparations. Heaven help us all! I have to say that I never thought I'd see the day that I would be grateful for Mr. Erickson's junior high science classes in Viking that taught me the scientific method. It has come in handy for helping with kids projects! Lindy and her friend Clara did one on taste, and Damon and his partner Tanner are doing one on plants and exhaust.

I will breathe a sigh of relief when we are successfully through those events.

Jeff is now the president of the Waterton Biosphere Reserve. This week the board was visited by the president of the Canadian Biosphere Reserve. His name is Marc- Andre and we enjoyed having lunch in our home with him and Nora - the coordinator. They were great lunch guests, right down to the hostess gift of flowers and getting down on the floor with Tyler and playing blocks. Tyler insisted on sitting right by Marc-Andre and being helped by him. When I asked him if he wanted ice cream he said - Is that guy having ice cream? I told him he was and he thought that it would be okay.

One last story- we have enjoyed having a kitten around for the last month or so. We had 4 to start with but fall kittens have a hard time surviving around here. So we let Mittens into the house quite a bit with the weather being so crazy. Tyler was quite enamored with the poor little thing. Poor meaning I felt sorry for him because he was dragged around the house in alarming positions that only a 2 year old can come up with. We were continually trying to get him to be soft with the kitty. One day I was sitting on the floor playing with builders and benders with Ty when the cat wandered in. I showed Ty how to play with the cat by rolling the ball around and having the kitten chase it. Ty thought this was quite hilarious and started rolling it down the hall and having the cat run after it. One time the kitten ran back behind his bedroom door without Ty knowing it. He ran down the hall looking for it. I said, Ty this kitty is playing hide and seek. He ran back and just as he came in the door the kitten jumped out at him, and I yelled peek a boo. He was so surprised and then doubled over he was laughing so hard.

Well, we were actually calling the kitten "Resurrection" because we brought him back from the brink of death a few different times, but finally in the end he succombed to his fate. Poor little thing had had enough loving for all of it's 9 lives and dies. Tyler couldn't quite understand why it wouldn't move anymore. The next morning he woke up and called "Here kitty kitty" . I had to explain again that the cat was dead! Jeff had put it into a cardboard box because the older kids wanted to carry it. After everyone was in school, I walked into the entry and there he was , sitting on the deep freeze cuddling the dead cat. I yelled Tyler!!! and got him out of there and to wash his hands fast!

I thought - great, now I have to put him back in the box. I was feeling squeamish by this time and Jeff was nowhere around. So I found some leather gloves and tried to push it back in the box. Just when I thought I'd done the dirty deed, the other end of the box broke through and the head popped out the other end, causing me to scream again. When Jeff got home I told him that the cat had to be buried - pronto before we had any more incidents!

A favorite Christmas Tradition

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt!

My cousin David and his sons Tyler and Benjamin with their beautiful Christmas tree treasures!

Here is Damon's amazing flight on a sled

Coulson, hangin out!

Lindy Lou, eating the snow pose

One of our very favorite traditions is going to the mountains to get our Christmas tree. It is made all the better by a tradition that started about 9 years ago, when we talked Dave and Tami and their sons Tyler and Benjamin to come stay at our house overnight, and make the trek with us. On our first attempt we had little kids and we attempted to have a weiner roast outside in the freezing cold. Their was wet mittens, spilled hot chocolate and grumpy moms to deal with, or I should say mom, I'll speak for myself. The tradition has evolved and now here is what it looks like:

Dave and Tami come Friday night, we snack, eat, laugh and eat and play cards to the wee hours of the morning. This year we enjoyed a fine performance of the men on the wii fit board at 1 am. When one of us can't seem to keep our eyes open, we finally decide that we should really go to bed.

The next morning we all blurry eyed eat a big breakfast and pack up the troops.

We drive to Cardston to meet our other cousins- Ryan and Tonya and their 4 kids and convoy up to the mountains.

This year we had a bit of a tragedy - One of Ryan and Tonya's little boys, Colby, on the first sled run of the day, split his head open on a metal post and had to be rushed to the Pincher creek hospital. Luckily Ryan is a doctor and acted fast to get him their and stitched up.

The men and sometimes the rest of us, tromp through the deep snow, looking for the perfect tree, searching high and low for one that will satisfy picky wives, get the okay, then chop it down and huff and puff their way down to the vehicles, trying not to have a heart attack in the process.

Here's the change in the tradition, the best idea we've had so far. Instead of having a weiner roast with crying children in the bitter cold, we then, pack up, head to Twin Butte to a Mexican restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We fill up on great food, in the nice warm shelter of the little restaurant.

We all go home, tired, happy and in the Christmas spirit. I love Christmas traditions - especially if they involve amazing, fun cousins in the process. Tyler and Benjamin are now teenagers - time flies, but hopefully we keep the tradition alive for years to come.

Birth Brothers

Here they are all together - l-r, Shane, Ryan, Miles and Jeff, Jeff is 9 years older than Ryan.

Shane and Coulson on the hike. Damon and Coulson with their "birth uncles"

Here are the boys by Cameron falls

All of our kids and Jeff with Mary, Ryan, Miles and Shane

Here is the blow me away picture, which is a little hard to tell by the genetic lack of hair by three out of 4! Jeff was kind of relieved that he wasn't the only one that was hair challenged!

Jeff is adopted, and a few years ago we met his birth mother Mary. He found out that he had 3 full blooded birth brothers. On the remembrance day long weekend we had the opportunity to meet them. There is definitely a family resemblance! We enjoyed giving them the tour of Cardston and our ranch. They also were good sports as we treated them to an old fashioned Waterton blow me away experience. We were behind the Prince of wales hotel and our van was literally rocking!! They did get out to brave a picture! We did find an enclosed camp kitchen for our weiner roast - it was almost warm! They are pretty hardy though, being from Winnepeg, Manitoba and all. Their winters put ours to shame. We did brave the weather and hike to Crandall lake. A fun time was had by all - even Mary who unselfishly volunteered to read in the van while Ty had his nap during the hike. It was nice to meet them all.