A little break...

 Alex has officially completed the COLTS program! Which meant that he was given a week to rest and have some time off. We started making plans….hmmm where to go? What should we see? Should we visit some friends? Calgary? Lethbridge? Fort McCloud? The ideas were endless!

That is until Alex got sick.

Typical! First real day off for two months and he comes down with a cold.

So Alex slept for two days straight while the girls and I hung around and tried to give him a chance to rest.

By Tuesday he was on the mend and we decided that we would take a daytrip to a place called Waterton National Park where we were promised beautiful scenery, waterfalls and the chance to see some bears!

See? Red barns everywhere!

We stopped at a fantastic place called driftwood lake. It was pretty breathtaking! Not only was there an amazing array of driftwood all gnarly and smooth but there was also the most beautiful rocks in all colours. Elizabeth, Hannah and I played with the rocks for ages while Alex took pictures and Miss L slept in the car (saving her energy no doubt!)

Once we arrived in Waterton we stopped to grab a map and other info about the area. There was so much to see! We drove around the town for a while noting how fancy everything looked (pricey was a better word!) and stopped off at another lake to check it out and watch the goffers! They were so cute, popping out of their holes to squeak at one another J

We drove to a nearby waterfall which was quite epic….

Then off to another Lake.  The mountains surround this lake giving it the most stunning view!

Upon arriving, the girls immediately noticed that there were people out on the lake in paddle boats, canoes and row boats. As you can imagine demands were quickly made to have a go in one so off the girls and I went to ask Daddy if we could have a go in a boat. Alex was busy taking photos of a large group of butterflies. There have been huge bunches of caterpillars all over the bushes here and I should think that these butterflies had just hatched.

Daddy was a go for a boat. We decided on a paddle boat as the girls were keen to paddle (yeah, I can see that happening, NOT.) It was a lot of fun! After about 20 minutes though Miss E had had enough so we got out and the girls and Alex went off for another go in a row boat.

We stopped in at the town in Waterton for some pizza and pasta tea and then skipped across the road to burn off some energy at the local park.

We didn’t have much of an opportunity to do much else the last few days due to all the flooding. Crow hasn’t been too badly effected although the second night of hard rain and storms caused a flood in the office basement which is used as a meeting room and is also where their rockclimbing wall is. Alex and a number of the other staff stayed up most of the night bucketing out water and setting up a pump to get the rest out. It’s been two days more and the pump is still going. The water is also off at the site although we have been lucky enough to still have water on at our home.

The lake out the front of Rea and Sandy’s thankfully didn’t flood enough to reach their house but there is an amazing amount of debris and dirty water to be seen from their windows.

Although the flooding is still bad in Calgary and other places we have been able to get out a little last night and today.

Last night I was invited to a girls night with 3 of the lovely Bryan ladies, Sandy, Ginny and Karen. We got to do a little shopping and visit an amazing chocolate shop! 

We had some really great Indian food for tea and it was an all round great evening.

Bison!

Today, we are out and about in Fernie which is about 40 mins from Crow. It’s a ski town so it’s got a lot of fun things to do such as the swimming pool which is what we are up to right now J

The girls and Alex are having an absolute ball using the waterslide and jumping around in the water. Miss E is really enjoying the water and having some great cuddle time with Dad.

So, what’s up next I hear you say? Well we have a couple more days of rest and then we are off to the Crow 2 site for the first camp of the season! I will be programming (supervising in Australian) with Sandy. We will have about 20 girls aged between 10-13 and it’s a complete tenting site. Toilets are the only luxury item here J The girls are coming with us (prayers definitely required!!!!) and Alex will be working with Rea to do Site Managing.

I would love it if you could pray for the week coming up. The camp starts on Thursday and goes to Thursday the next week. Leaders (Counsellors in Canadian) arrive the day before.

I am really looking forward to it although I am also EXTREMELY nervous! But I am thankful for the opportunity. The theme for the week is SHINE. The studies (speaker and chapel time in Canadian) are going to be centred on looking inside yourself and bringing your inner beauty/talents/gifts out to shine for God. Looking to God to find your worth instead of listening to what the world tell these girls they need to be to be interesting and worthy of acceptance and love. I can’t wait!

Look forward to sharing more with you soon. It will probably be after the camp unless I can finally get Alex to stop for five minutes and chat to you about COLTS. J LOL

Talk soon!

Alex and Joshua up another mountain :)

Here are a couple of Alex's latest photos...amazing hey?