Rocking out!!!

The other night Jared came in from working to have some supper and while I was getting it ready he sat down and started playing his guitar!! I love it when he does that, he is really good, much better then he gives himself credit for!!! While he was sitting there playing Armin pulled a chair up right next to him and sat down with his toy guitar and started to jam with dad!!  It was really quite a sight to see!!

Time With Grandpa

My dad recently took our kids to spend the weekend with him!! It was the best gift Jared and I have been given!! We've had weekends away but we have never had a weekend at our house without kids!!! We really enjoyed it and it was most definitely something we desperately needed!! We went suit shopping for Jared since his old one (from the thrift store!!!) no longer fits him!! We went out to eat, I won the movie choice and took him to "If I Stay"...sooooooo good, though Jared did say it totally felt like he spent two hours in a hospital watching family members dying!! We were able to finish hauling bales off the quarter the cows so generously moved themselves to a week ago!! And we enjoyed our church meetings without the distraction of our little rug rats!!! Though lots of people did come up to us after to see what we were missing!!!! 

The kids went to the Southland Leisure Centre with Grandpa and got completely worn out, Armin was asleep for the night by 6:00pm!!! They went shopping and to Prince's Island Park where they ran free and were totally in their element!!! Nature and our boys go hand in hand!!! It was a great getaway for them too!!! Thanks Dad for the great, and much needed weekend to ourselves!! And thanks for making memories the kids will never forget!!!!

Girl's Club

Grandpa Glen held his annual girls club with Lily and Emry!! This year he wanted to do something totally different so he took them horseback riding!!! Emry was pretty excited since it is her ultimate dream to own her own horse!! They went on a two hour trail ride in the hills, or the "foothills" as Emry politely corrected me!!! Both girls loved their horses and especially loved feeding them carrots after they were all done! It was a huge hit and I think it will fast become a tradition with Grandpa and his girls!!!

The black horse was named Moon!!! I wonder why?!!!!!

Reuniting With an Old Friend

The kids and I had a great day visiting with old friends!!! We headed up to Okotoks to spend an afternoon at the beach with the Stasiuks!!! Warren and Tanya moved from Champion to Okotoks 2 years ago and we have only gotten together one other time since!  The main reason for going to see Tanya was to pick up a shelf I bought from her but I can't tell Jared that ;) Tanya has started her own little furniture restoration called Sweet Repeats Furniture!!! The stuff she does is amazing and totally my style!!! So she said if we were coming up anyway to get the shelf we might as well stay and go to their community beach!! The kids had a blast and it was neat to see them reconnect with long lost friends!

Emry and Hudson, who are the same age, did better than they ever have!! Their very first meeting involved teeth marks and tears!!! Tanya and were reminiscing about that first day, yet we were thankful this meeting did NOT involve teeth marks or tears!!!! It was so much fun visiting with her, it's like we haven't been apart for two years!! 

Armin played with his tractors in the sand, Calum swam to the dock with Lincoln, and Emry just hung out with everyone, Marley, Landry and Hudson!!! When it was time to go I had a really tough time getting our kids out of the water!! But we left with the promise that we would be back again much sooner!! In fact, in the next couple of weeks since I bought a cabinet Tanya redid!!! 

When we got home I had to help Jared finish up with the baling! I raked while he baled!! A storm started brewing and we cut it very close but we were able to get it all finished!! On my back to the house the sunset was absolutely gorgeous and since I had my camera handy I couldn't resist taking some pictures!!

Best pals, Fender and Gibson!!!!!

Finally a Break!!!!!!

Jared and I have been going to Kalispell since very early in our marriage!!! In fact we went with mom and dad Puzey six weeks after our wee little Emry was born!!! Jared and his dad rode their motorcycles and mom, Emry and I drove the truck!!! When Emry was older we discovered Jared's childhood memory of going to the Columbia Falls water park, and since then we haven't been able to NOT go!!! Emry would start asking shortly after returning home when we woukd be going to Kalispell again!!! It has become a fun, family tradition!!! Two summers ago we asked Dave and Char if they would bring their family so we could all enjoy the fun of the wonderful slides!!  Last summer Char suggested we make a get together for the entire Puzey clan!! So last summer all the Puzey's were able to take a day and go to the Columbia Falls Waterslides, minus me unfortunately because I had to work :( even though they had a blast last year Jared vowed he would not do it in one day again!! Our kids were good but driving 5 hours to get to the slides, sliding for 8 hours and then driving another 5 hours home makes for a very long trip!!! This year Jared and I decided to get a hotel room and make a bit of a holiday of it!!! Myrna was able to ride and stay with us which made the trip even more fun!!!  Our first adventure was seeing an Elk not far from our home!!!

We got to Carston around lunchtime and decided to get some food in us before the longest leg of our journey began!!

 

Friday was a hot and windy day but we still stopped on Logan's Pass to take some pictures and go for a little walk!!! I love Logan's Pass, I love the altitude you climb in a very short amount of time!!!!  I love the waterfalls, the weeping walls, the wildlife, the man made rock barrier walls!!! We stopped at a beautiful waterfall just off the main road and did a bit of exploring and picture taking!!!

 

 

 

 

Once we got to Kalispell we checked into our hotel then ventured out for supper before letting the kids burn off some energy swimming in the hotel pool!! We were the only family at the pool plus a baseball team of teenage boys!!! When we first got in the pool the boys were doing some pretty intense stunts into the pool!!! Our boys were fascinated!!! The teenage boys would put the lounge chair near the pool and then one at a time the boys would run towards the chair and do some sort of flip over top of it into the water!!! After watching for a bit I noticed Calum trying some of their stunts and then he even got a chair himself, but we had to kibosh that idea before he hurt himself!!! 

Saturday morning we all slept in a little making us miss the continental breakfast :( but we got ready and packed our pool bags and headed to McDonalds for breakfast! After we were on our way to the Waterslides!!! It was so much fun with all the Puzey clan there to share in the fun!! We hardly saw Emry as she was hanging out with Leah most of the time!!! The boys were able to ride all the slides by themselves and seemed to love the independence!!! They were able to go on every slide except the straight down one, Geronimo!!! Though Armin thought differently!!! He escaped the warmth of the hot tub and headed toward the little white slide that he could do all by himself, he bypassed that slide and by the time Jared could catch him he had made it all the way up the stairs for Geronimo only to be carried down by the lifeguard!!! Jared found him with his head resting on the steps pouting!!! It didn't take long for him to get over it once he was given some watermelon!!! We slided for almost 8 hours!!! It was a blast!!! The boys couldn't get enough of the tube slides!! 

After the day with all the Puzey's we all went our separate ways.  We had our hotel for another night so we could take our time getting home!! We went to eat at the yummiest place to eat in Kalispell, "Famous Dave's" it is a BBQ joint that serves many super tasty BBQ varieties on top of a garbage can lid!!!! It was yummy!!!

It was a late night but everyone was exhausted and we all went right to sleep!! The next morning we got up and slowly packed our things before we went out for brunch!! We slowly made our way home back over the Logan's Pass, which was a good thing since our van is definitely on its last leg of life. We actually did have trouble near the top of the pass! Jared thinks maybe just maybe the van was vapor locked. It wasn't overheating and it had a full tank!! It was hot and it did have to work quite hard going up the mountain!! We actually decided to stop at the pull out near the top of the pass to take pictures of the mountain goats!! We didn't know anything was really wrong with the van until we stopped!! It was shaking but we had stopped so we just turned it off and got out to look around!! We saw a mountain goat momma with her baby and we got some cool pictures!!! 

Thankfully while we were letting our van rest Jared spotted a tow truck from the top of a trail we were on and with our camera zoomed in on the door to get the phone number in case we would be needing a tow!!!!

After letting our van rest for an hour and half we got in and prayed it would start and stay running!!! Well our prayers paid off and down the mountain we went, our van working perfectly!!! We got into Cardston around 8:30pm and had some supper and then while the sun was setting we stopped to take pictures of the temple!!!! Jared really is a great photographer and got some unique shots!!

So despite the little hiccup on top of Logan's Pass we had a wonderful trip!!! It was a much needed break, but not nearly long enough! I am thankful for my family immediate and extended! I'm thankful for the fun we have when we are all together! I'm thankful we share the same values, and that we all have the same goals!!!