Thursday 26 September 2013

End with a BANG. (Fun in the Sun, Sleeping in Tents, Fort Steele and Killer Bees)

This past summer was amazing and I feel very blessed. Garth had his best summer yet at work and we are so proud of him and how hard he worked. I am so grateful for the new friendships that I made, and all the good quality bonding time I had with Grant! After our last month of spray parks, girl time and sunday walks around Edmonton, we packed up all our stuff and headed down to Lethbridge to our new place. We literally threw everything into our house, packed up all the camping gear we could find and took off to Wasa Lake (BC)!

Garth's family has been going to Wasa pretty much every summer since before he was born, so he has a lot of memories there. Since Garth's job requires sacrificing his summers, we havn't had the chance to go with the Forsyth family, but we decided that we would end our summer with a bang and head to Wasa for the first week of September!




Our Campsite #88
The most gigantic marshmellows!
Wednesday consisted mostly of driving and then setting up camp. We spent our first night sitting around the campfire making smores (of course). 

The next morning, we had an amazing breakfast (thankyou Garth) and the got ready to head to the beach. We spent a couple of hours there which was super fun. When it started to get cloudy, we decided to head to Lussier Hot springs. I wasn't that excited to leave the beach but I knew we would have plently of time to spend there. The drive up to the hotsprings was terrifying, all I did the whole time was picture us driving off a cliff... I was so glad I wasn't driving. Once we arrived there, I was pleasantly surprised  I had never been so I was picturing Banff, or Radium, but it was a natural hot spring.  There were a couple different pools right by the river. Warm, warmer, and hot pools. Grant and I liked to hangout in the warm ones because the hot one was wayyyy too freaking hot for us haha. He seriously loved it so much and he spent his time flirting with some old ladies across the pool.



The next day we headed to Fort Steele. It is a historic heritage townsite, (I know what you are thinking, but it was 10000000x cooler than Heritage Park in Calgary). It is a town that boomed during the gold rush in the mid 1800s but met its demise when the Canadian Pacific Railway bypassed it for the rival town of Cranbrooke. The town slowly dwindled as everyone picked up and moved to Cranbrooke, until there was no one left. Well anyway, they restored it, and brought in live actors. As you walk around, you actually feel like you are in the 1800s. They had a blacksmith, dentist, doctor, a bakery, a town drunk, a church, a school house, a candy shop, an ice cream shop, horses, court house, houses, a town meeting in the gazebo, an old theatre putting on a show, a train...and so much more. There was so much to see and I feel like I only saw a third of it.



This was the school house, It was really cool because you would enter the class (girls on the left and boys on the right), sit at your desk with your chalkboard and have a mini lesson. You would have to stand up by your desk while answering questions and "got in trouble" if you wore your hat inside etc. It was really fun to make believe for a little while.













I think one of my favorite parts was the train ride!



The next day, it was hot. We spent literally the whole day at the beach. Reading, swimming, tanning, playing in the sand, and playing in the water with Porter and Rigby.






It was pretty sweet because even though it was super nice, no one was really there because everybody was already getting back to school. We had the beach to ourselves most of the time :)






I am so grateful that we got to spend so much time with Neil, Michelle, Porter & Rigby. It was so fun playing with them, and having them come over and hangout with us at our campsite. I adore, adore, adore those boys.




Grant had his first bath in a bucket, it was quite adorable.


On Sunday, after church, Garth took us to Wolf Creek. It was gorgeous, in the middle of nowhere and we saw two great blue herons flying across the creek. Garth wanted to show me this little bridge, but Grant had fallen asleep in the car. We decided to leave him in the car and quickly go look because it was only like 25m away (I think in metres thanks to track). Anyway so we head over to the little bridge over the water, and Garth steps on and then I follow. As soon as I step on, I hear this buzzing sound that just gets louder and louder. I knew exactly what was happening without even having to look. Garth did look, and he saw a swarm of like a trillion bees (okay maybe like 40) come up from under the bridge, and they were buzzing around my legs ( I was wearing a skirt...). One thing I do know about bees is if they are on their own, whatever, but if they are coming up in swarms, you have disturbed them and they want revenge haha. Without missing a beat, Garth calmly tells me to run and we take off as fast as we can away from there. Luckily we noticed so fast and we got away without getting stung even once, and I am super grateful for that. Also it makes me sick to think what would of happen if we did take Grant with us. AHH stopping now. Anyway, afterwards we headed to Lazy Lake and on the way there we saw some paragliders. I am so doing that someday.



The next day was rainy, so we headed to Lussier hot springs again and then hung out at the beach in the evening.


There was a lot of this. He was pooping sand for a week after this trip.








On our last day there, we headed to Kimberly, BC. It is a ski town in the mountains which features a Bavarian style pedestrian mall during the summers. On the way back to our campsite we stopped at a local farmers market for some fruit.



Our first camping trip as a family was perfect. It was so nice being able to relax together before Garth had to go back to school. I loved spending time eating breakfast around the fire in the morning, and playing games, cooking dinner and making smores in the evenings. Half the time I felt like we were in our own little world. 

Garth is a skilled camper. If we were in LOST, I am pretty sure he would be Jack, running around doing everything, building things, saving lives yada yada. I was so impressed with how much he knows about camping and there was no way we could have done this without him. Plus he is freaking sexy when he is chopping wood. So that was enjoyable.





Camping with a baby was a little bit of work. Grant is a pretty easy going baby, but he had his moments.


I eventually gave up and just accepted the fact that he was going to get super dirty and there was nothing I could do to stop it.



Every night we would do our very best to keep him warm by putting on a hat, socks, onesie, sleeper, socks on his hands a swaddle blanket and then we would wrap him up in a really warm blanket. He would still wake up every night  cold and we would end up bringing him on our mattress with us.






He is definitely the cutest little camper I have ever seen.


Such a fun trip! I cannot wait for next time <3



Wednesday 18 September 2013

The Best Two Years.

Garth and I have been married for two years! It feels like I have just met him and yet at the same time it feels as if I have known him my whole life. I have the most loving and wonderful husband and I couldn't be happier! I plan to write more about Garth later, but for now I want to write about our awesome anniversary getaway!

After our wonderful wedding reception 2 years ago, before we left for our Honeymoon, we spent the night at the Sandman Jacuzzi Suite. We were so impressed with how nice it was, and we were super stoked to have a Jacuzzi in our room, it was so fun!


On our one year anniversary, Garth surprised me by taking me back to Sandman Jacuzzi Suite for the weekend. It was so perfect because not only was it meaningful to us, but we got to spend a full 48 hours together!! Due to the nature of Garth's job, the summers are very busy and time together is limited, so it was exactly what both of us needed!


This year, for our 2nd year anniversary, we decided to carry on the tradition in Edmonton. It was a little different having Grant around but just as fun! We ordered room service, watched movies, watched our wedding slideshow and spent lots of time in the Jacuzzi! Even Grant went in and LOVED it. 



 Grant's first Disney Movie



I feel so blessed to be married to this guy. He is my everything and I can't wait for the next 60+ years. 

Oh ya, and then Eternity <3

-A