White Trash Awesome-ness!

It's been forever and a day since I blogged. We have been busy. Between adjusting to a new school year, a busy time at work for Jared, and this incident in our little community... our thoughts and efforts have been preoccupied.

A couple weekends ago we went to the Smash Up Derby in Fernie. We went for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. Basically there's a bunch of vehicles, they crash into each other, and the "last man standing", so to speak, is crowned the winner.

First round of cars lining up.....

...during...

(I love that there's a random tire laying off to the side)

We watch the cars demolish each other, get pelted with mud, and everyone cheers!

Some after shots:

It was awesome! Next time we'll come more prepared though...by wearing our wife-beaters and possum hats. We stuck out like sore thumbs ;)

First Day of School

Today we sent our babies off to school. Carter started Grade 2 and Hayley started Kindergarten. They were both so excited and nervous leading up to it. Here's a picture before we hopped in the car to go: (not sure why Carter's making such a silly face)

And here's another picture at the school:

The best part of the whole day was watching little Hayley carrying around this HUGE backpack, haha. Someday she'll grow...we think.

Stay tuned for pictures of the first bus ride tomorrow...

Elk Lakes

On Saturday we took a drive up to Elk Lakes Provincial Park. It's about 70 km north of our town and it's BEAUTIFUL, however the drive sucks. It's a dirt road that is not maintained so we don't drive there that often. Once you get there, you can do a few different hikes to various lakes/waterfalls/mountains/etc.

We hiked to the Lower Lake with the kids. Pretty neat because this glacier lake is what forms the mouth of the Elk River. Even though it's a glacier lake the kids decided it wasn't too cold to dip their feet in.

We played there for awhile...until Hayley fell into the lake. Yep, she wasn't too pleased. Good thing she had mom's extra hoodie to use as a makeshift dress :)

Needless to say that ended our time at Elk Lakes. It was a fun little adventure there and we plan to go back soon....maybe even to do some real wilderness camping!

Random Thoughts

Tomorrow is September 1st. Even without a calender, I would still instinctively know that tomorrow is September 1st. I love Summertime as much as the next person, but (as much as I cringe typing this) I am more than ready to be back into a routine. My poor little gypsy children need regular bedtimes, a wardrobe that consists of something other than bathing suits, and to never see the inside of a vehicle again.

In 19 days, our youngest child turns 5. That means she's starting Kindergarten and I am not entirely sure how I feel about that. Is she even old enough to be in school? How did this happen so fast?

I saw a friend post this on Facebook. As the daughter of a lawyer, I signed way to many "contracts" as a child. And yet, this still appeals to me for some strange reason.

We went to Whoop Up Days in Lethbridge this past weekend and Hayley kept accidentally calling it "Hook Up Days". Mr. Handsomepants and I laughed every time she said it... and may or may not have had a hard time keeping our comments child-friendly.

And last, but not least...this movie cracks me up every time I see it:

Lately...

Out of the past 24 days, I have been home 8 of them. It's definitely Summer around these parts. Here's a (very abbreviated) catch up:

Camping trips:

Watching wildlife up close and personal (only missing the picture of the wolves, yes I said wolves. It was awesome) :

Trip to Sherwood Park where we got to see LOTS of friends and family:

playdate with the Skye and River

"reunion" with a few of the girls I grew up with

quality time with Grandma (and Grandpa, Uncles Joel & Dallin, and Auntie Carly)

Lots and lots of Beach Days:

And a few other random fun times in between:

Hope your summers are all going as splendid as ours has been!

Summer Vacation 2011!!

We have had an amazing past 10 days! Our trip started off heading to Kelowna for the Whidden Family Reunion. This was an extra special gathering for 2 reasons: we got to meet our new nephew, and we finally got to see Dad and Mom Whidden who have been over in Germany for the past 2 years! My sister in law made a sweet family tree cake with all our faces. Great job hey?

A few of us did a little bike trip up at Myra Canyon, on a trail across a bunch of railway trestles. VERY cool views and a good workout, I was so glad I went.

Family Picture time in our matching shirts:

the whole crew

Dad, all his sons, son-in-laws, and the newest grandson Tayson on his blessing day

All 15 grandkids

Papa, Nana, and their grandkids

our family photo

We stayed at Camp Arbuckle, a girl guide camp on Lake Okanagan. It was a perfect place for a family reunion, nice weather, and lots to do. We spent 5 days visiting, laughing, eating, and playing with lots of Whiddens.

swimming at our beach

Cousins: descending order from the 10-yr-old to the one-week-old

After the reunion ended we headed to the coast, to continue our family vacation. We took the ferry to Nanaimo first. The kids liked being on the boat, and we even spotted some dolphins.

In Nanaimo, we played at the ocean. We found crabs, clams and even snakes at the harbor. We also did some driving and explored parts of the Island that we'd never seen before. What a beautiful part of the world.

In Parksville, there was a Sand Sculpting Competition that we got to go look at and cast our votes for our favorite ones. I was expecting to see some little sand castles and stuff. Definitely NOT expecting to see 10 foot tall structures made entirely of sand... pretty amazing!

From Nanaimo we drove down to Victoria and stayed for a couple days. We walked around the downtown harbor:

And we stayed at Jared's sister's house, along with some other "post-family-reunion-stragglers". We all went to Witty's Lagoon Park near Victoria and the kids played on the beach with their cousins.

The kids kept busy catching little crabs, there were literally hundreds of them on the beach

After Victoria we decided to head to Osoyoos, our last stop on our journey. Here's a picture in Sidney, waiting for the ferry, on the dock after eating the yummiest fish n' chips.

Our last stop was Osoyoos. We played on the beach, swam, ate ice cream, etc for 2 days. That was when my camera decided to stop working, so no pictures. Osoyoos was so hot and nice, we could have stayed for alot longer...but sadly our vacation was coming to and end :(

We had such a good time all together as a family, and feeling very lucky to have been able to do this trip together <3