Canada Trip

Our trip to Canada last summer was such a wonderful experience that I need to talk about it but it has been so long now that I'm sure I will leave out some of the cool details. Kira and Justin were good enough to schedule Pipers baby blessing around our availability. We waited until Lisa was done work in June (she  works with the special ed kids at the high school) and then we headed north. Every time we make a road trip to Canada we let our kids along the I-15 know that they are welcome to come along for the ride. We usually have a full van and a ton of fun but this time only Alycia was able to come but we still had a ton of fun.

On the way up we spent a couple of days at a W.C. Lybbert reunion. Greg & Gaylia, Dixie and Jackie and Byron, Shelley and there kids were all able to get there too so it was wonderful. I will talk about the reunion in another post however. I don't want this to turn into a book. Let me apologize now for the lack of good pictures. I was happy to let Alycia take all of the pictures but now I don't have many good pictures of my own.

 Usually when we go to Canada we try and squeeze way too much into a short week so this time we decided to spend the week at Kira and Justin's home so it felt much more relaxed.

So far we have made it to everyone of our kids baby blessings but for Kira it was always combined to the temple sealing ordinance because all of her babies were adopted. Since Kira gave birth to Piper this was not necessary this time so it was a bit of different experience for us.

In that picture to the left of Kira holding Piper I just have to comment on the baby blanket that Piper is wrapped in. Lisa's great grandma Shaw made that blanket for Lisa when she was a baby and Christened in the United Church. Lisa has kept it and all of our grandkids have been blessed in it. It is quite amazing to think that Pipers Great, great, great grandma made that blanket.

 While we were there we were able to visit with Grandma Leavitt. It was wonderful to be able to see Maurine.

 We also went to a berry farm and picked a ton of Saskatoon berries. I haven't had any of those since I was a young kid. We were supposed to keep enough so Mom could make some jam but I know that for every berry that went in my bucket, one or two others went in my mouth.

 While Alycia was the only kid able to drive up with us, Sarah was working for Kira through the summer. Sam was able to fly up and so we were able to spend the week with Samarah (Sam & Sarah) as well.

 One evening Justin treated us all to this VERY fancy restaurant. It wasn't just a fancy restaurant but one where they make some exotic foods that can't be made naturally but only by using scientific processes.Things like vacuum drying, vacuum cooking and pressure cooking and several other processes that I can't remember. It was very delicious and very fascinating. As we were sitting at our table we watched this sunset.

And of course, if you didn't know, Justin and Kira live on a lake. I don't think there was a single day that I didn't go in the lake. The weather was beautiful for the entire time that we were there and if my memory serves me well, that is very unusual. Alberta weather changes from hour to hour and while they can have some wonderful weather they can just as easily have miserable weather. I consider myself blessed to have had a solid week of great weather.

What a wonderful trip this was. I was sad because Kira and Justin are not planning on any more kids. Not that we need an excuse to go and visit our kids it easy to procrastinate a trip with one. I then remembered that next year Evan and Sydney get baptized so it looks like we will have no shortage of excuses.

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Carrots were originally purple.

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