Camping-Candle Lake

Welcome back! Here is going to be another (Long) post for ya'll!

We went camping this weekend with the Low's and my sister Phoenix!! We went to Candle Lake and left on  July 5th (aka my birthday)...........

..............just a note about my birthday nothing exciting happened. I just got stuff ready for camping and kinda forgot it was my birthday myself. Never been a real big birthday celebrator. Daniel did bring me home a frosty though. :) .....................

back to camping.
For those of you that don't know Candle Lake it about.... 4 hours from Lloydminster. So you can understand why this may have happened.

Phoenix-the only one who conked out while we drove there.

Oh. And while driving to Candle we realized we left the cookies in the bed of the truck instead of putting them upfront with us. Silly us. So of course we sent her back to get them. While the truck was moving. :P

ok.. we slowed down. but didn't really stop until  she had already gotten the cookies. She's skilled!

Now our trip to Candle Lake was really uneventful until we got the Meath Park. Now it is pronounced as MEETH Park. But after stopping there to pee I pronounce it Meth Park. ( I only wish I got pictures)

Meath Park Story:

So I really Really had to pee! We passed through Prince Albert and there was no real stops along the highway so we figured we'd keep going and i'd let them know when they absolutely had to pull over so i could pee in the bush or something.  By the time we reached Meath Park (15 mins outta P.A) I was going to wet myself. So Graham being the Awesome driver he is pulled into Meath Park. Normally a town greets ya with some buildings and such and gas station but we just rolled right on in to this REALLY ghetto gas station. They we're all thinking of stopping somewhere else but I really had to go. I jumped outta the truck and walked into the "convience" store. There was really nothing normal about it. The cashier counter had a metal cage around it. I walked in and didn't see anyone in there. Then this really quiet old creepy kinda man popped outta no where. I asked really nicely if he had a bathroom. He said "in the shop"

(shop of what I thought.) I asked if I was able to use that one.
He just kinda nodded and opened a door. Luckily Phoenix and Tiffany were with me at this point and Daniel and Graham had walked in too. So I didn't feel to worried I was going to get killed and buried in a field anymore. There were too many witnesses.
I thanked him politely and walked through the door thinking it be a hallway or something. But no. It was a auto shop. He pointed to the corner on the other side of the shop and said that the bathroom was over there. So we quickly walked through. and cam upon the bathroom door. Literally built into the corner of this shop. On the door it said "Bathroom for paying customers ONLY!"
(Oh boy. I really hope Daniel is buying something.)

I walked in and couldn't find a light switch. It was on the outside of the door but didn't WORK! But there was a light connected up into the rafters (one you would use to look under the hood of a car) and it didn't work either. So I told Tiff and Nix to just wait and not come in while I left the door partially open. Then looked at the toilet. Which was GHETTO! something I would expect to find at a campsite. I mean who really puts a Porta potty in their Shop! Whatever. I had to go. So I squatted and did my thing and ran out. We got to the front and Daniel and a Pop. (PAYING CUSTOMERS NOW!!!!) And Tiff commented on a license plate he had on his metal cage around the counter. it said "I don't dial 9-1-1 I dial 347." Then we call kinda Ran to the truck and sped off.
While I was peeing:
Daniel happened to be talking to the creepy old man. And apparently once upon a time....
Someone robbed a $600 pack of cigerattes from him. and he apparently dialed .347 (aka a gun) and shot the dude. (he didn't die thanks to another customer present).
AKA METH PARK

We made it to our Campsite we reserved without further incident. Minuwaku Beach Campsite 309. It was really poorly shaped. So we moved to 313. WAY BETTER! Set up camp and went to bed. 

The boys making Breakfast!!!

Shortly after breakfast a crazy amount of horseflies and mosquitoes came out. So we built this really sweet shelter out of our sun tent and a tarp. And then we played some games while Phoenix went back to sleep.

It was pretty ingenious our skeeto net tent. And it really worked too!

Well we went to candle lake and so we grabbed our lunch stuff and headed to the beach!!!

BEAUTIFUL!

Daniel is in heaven!!! haha and playing with Zuma

Just chillaxin and I'm trying to get everyone ready to run into the water at once!

Ready set GO!

Notice the boys chickening out??? While Tiff and I Go for it?

But they eventually did join us. Daniel isn't having a seizure but it swatting those horseflies away!!! THEY WERE HORRIBLE!!!!!!

So bad that we dressed up again and left and went to P.A. 

We ate lunch on the way. 

Our lunch and Phoenix's face!!! I am the hoagie master now!!! only one tomato ran away to Graham's feet!

(Keep reading! It'll be worth it!)

So yes we drove an hour back from Candle Lake all the way to Prince Albert to buy a skeeto net. Which would also keep the horse flies away!! We filled up the truck which took forever but played some volleyball while we waited.

Best Thing Ever! I'll do a little advertising here. They are on sale at Walmart for $100 bucks!!!!

*****Side Note****
While we were getting ready to go to the beach I was grabbing the skeeto spray and screen of the sun. As I was coming back up from bending under the table I twisted to come up and smacked my eyeball hard on the water spigot. It seriously hurt.

Kinda swelled up a little.

Some serious bruising. it still really hurts!

*******************End of side note******************************

Tiff is kinda a crazy head and tried to suck up a Reese's Pieces up a straw. and it worked it was melted so much.

We made it back to Candle Lake with our skeeto net and set it up and camp. SO EASY TO SET UP!!!!! and Amazingly wonderful at keeping out the buggies!!!! We made dinner in the crock pot. I mean the Dutch Oven. We made a potato stew dish thing. DELICIOUS!

FOOD!

Isn't it just beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

We figured it had cooled off enough so we would try the beach again.

SO BEAUTIFUL!

Really Clear Water!!!

Getting Ready to get in!

Ever Seen a nurse and an engineer make out??? :P

What's a trip without a jump picture?? Pretty Sweet!!!!!!!!
(Graham, Tiff, Me, Dan) Nix took the picture

Kinda looks like they are holding hands eh??
Oh ya... and we left cause of the bugs again. YUCK!

But a beautiful Sunset!!!

**** The Bugs*****
It was horrible! I have a bazillion bites over me! We had a great trip and apparently the bugs are only this bad the last bit of June and the first part of July. We now know the next time we gotta go camping to avoid the bugs!

This one tried to fly into my mouth after i took the picture. GROSS!

The Horsefly

Yes this is the horsefly again. HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The skeetos at night that snuck into our skeeto net. But at least they  left us alone!!!

*******************End of Bugs***********************

(Your Halfway!!! or just over!! Keep going you can do it!)

So we came back from the beach and made some peach cobbler in the crock pot I mean dutch oven. :P

Jealous yet?

Some hair braiding too!

Tiff brought some sweet powder stuff that turned the fire green and blue and purple. Kinda reminded me of the Sleeping beauty and the colors of  Malicifcant when she uses her powers and such.

This is my favorite picture of the fire!!!

SO COOL!

Well.. that was all just in our first day! Crazy hey??? But the night isn't over yet cause we played some games in our skeeto net!!! What better to play then a board/trivia game of THE BIG BANG THEORY!!!! Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock too!!!

Racking his head for an answer!

Just being a nerd! :P

Okay. Then the Day was over and we all went to bed.

We started Saturday with Breakfast of French Toast! delicious! and then went exploring where we found a place of the lake not far from where we camped where there were NO BUGS! except when Zuma was around. They attacked him!!! tehe. Thanks Zuma for taking the hit!

So clear!

we played with a slingshot too for a while. AWESOME!

And we jumped in the river!!!! Clothes and All! Last one fully submerged owed the other an ice cream cake! Still waiting on it Tiff!!!

Zuma. What a trooper!

Of course we played till we were hungry!!! Made some taco salad and then just chilled in the skeeto net reading our books while the boys slept and nix took a nap in the tent!

You can tell they Really wanted to wake up. 

So we woke them up! It took quite a while! but we got them up and checked out the sand dunes but ended up back at the beach again! Where we played and played for the longest time ever! Mostly cause we kept Zuma dry and on the beach! So the flies left us alone!!! It was awesome!!!! Loved it!!!

We of course we're hungry once again so we made chicken hurry! Ya, we eat in style when we camp have ya noticed? Wait till ya see what we had for dessert!
After we decided to play some badminton!

The best part ever of this was Zuma. He was just chilling in the water off to the side. We realized he had been gone for a while so Tiff called him and he came trottin out of the water with a bottle of budweiser in his mouth. open end in!!! SO FUNNY! we missed getting the picture but got some others.

Dessert Saturday was LEMON MERINGUE PIE That's right. Who wants to come camping with us now???

Ok. I promise we are almost done here with our sweet camping expedition!

We had a tangy time with this stuff! drank so much of it!

Well we packed up and headed out Sunday Morning. We moved pretty quickly too considering we ran out of bug spray and we had to take down our skeeto net! So we moved quickly and headed out. We were all pretty darn exhausted so it didn't take long for us all to crash at one point or another!

He's cute!!!

We had to get some aqua along the way and find a place to eat lunch. I don't know about anyone else but I was FAMISHED!

So we found a ghost town (Hafford) and bought us some Water. Then went on our way to "The Crooked Bush"

Hafford

The backroad we took to get to the Crooked Bush.

look how thrilled we all are to find out we can't have a fire here. how are we supposed to cook our smokies??

Walking through the crooked bushes

Doing the limbo!

It was kinda cool!!!

But we were Starving. So we found a backroad.....

And then we finally made it home and got to shower and clean everything!!! :P

AWESOME!!!

Congratulations if you made it to the end. If you just looked at the pictures you probably missed out on some awesome stories!

Who wants to come camping with us now???
We eat well and have lots of fun!!!!

Week of Canada Day

What a week! So much Family and Friends, laughs and giggles and SO MUCH FUN!
Just a warning now, this is going to be long. enjoy the pictures!

Tuesday June 26
We had a bank appointment to sign some papers for our house! yippe! So i got to stay in Vermilion while Dan worked. Good arrangement I thought. I shopped around and checked out what was in Vermilion! You would think I would know since I went to school their for 6 months. I went to this place they call the Community Cottage or something like that. It's like a value village or salvation army. I just went to their used book section and got myself two good books for $1.00! thats right! 50 cents a book! AWESOME! So then I chilled in a parking lot until Dan was done working.
We got outta their by five and headed on our way south! I love driving south!
I drove most the way while Dan took a long snooze!!! Just after the Sheerness mine (forty five minutes past Hanna) we started getting some rain. Then All of the sudden WABAM! it was a monsoon! Not even kidding. Water was spraying every where. Down the winshield, up over the car! There was a little bit of hydro planing going on.  It was pretty intense! You couldn't even really hear each other in the car!

Crazy hey? After About 5-7 minutes of this we got.......

THIS!
Pretty sweet hey? Talk about good ole Southern Weather... If ya don't like it wait five minutes!!!

SO BEAUTIFUL! I Love Southern Alberta!

And it was about at this point that I realized I left my camera on the kitchen table. So I used the Iphone and my mothers Camera! :)

Thats about all the adventure we had on the way day! We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Stevens in the KING SIZE BED! oh YAY! best bed Ever. One day i'll do a blog all about that! It's AWESOME!

Wednesday June 27

We woke up early and went into Cardston to sign more paper work for our house! Then hit up the temple! I Love the temple! Best place in the world! 

I got to meet my cute new cousin too! ADORABLE!

My nephew got baptized!!!  It was beautiful! Even though we were on baby duty it was wonderful! Even heard one nephew said it was his turn next! He's 3. :) At least he knows what he wants! haha

So we are driving back from Lethbridge on the back highway road into Raymond. Daniel is going about 130km/hr. Typical speed up north. Bad speed down here. Well anyway he's just a going when all the sudden cop lights flick on. Daniel says, "AH, SH**!" I guffawed and laughed. The cop never turned around to pull us over. Then I realized what Dan had actually said. but by then i was laughing anyways. man did we get lucky! Thank you Suburban behind the police car!

Thursday June 28

We replaced our Windshield.
To fully appreciate this story you gotta see the old one.

See all those cracks?? (yes i used this picture earlier!) You can't see it but there was a huge crack right in the line of vision of the driver if you were me! haha it sucked! (especially when i drove through this storm!)

We've been wanting to replace it FOREVER! but it was $350 plus up here in Lloyd. So we found a guy down south. $241.50 done deal! spend the other hundred to go visit family and friends for a week. DONE!

So here's the view now

LOVELY!

Then we just hung around magrath as it is the place to be! :P haha Saw some friends I haven't seen in far too long and got some icecream and went on a walk with some amazing people. The Prince's! Oh how I love them and miss their faces! haha but it was awesome!

Friday June 29

We figured we'd split up our time between Magrath and Raymond so today we spent it in Raymond. We hung out with his grandparents and then rounded up Darcy Sonya Seraphina Rose and Julie Brittany Dawson and Danielle and went to the Raymond swimming pool! AWESOME! That was a fun place! haha.
It was a perfect day! not to sunny and just a little bit a wind. I only thought once that I should put sunscreen on our backs, which rarely ever see the light of day. But that thought was swept away with the wind. I shoulda listened to myself. Dan and I got toasted!

This is two days after. Doesn't look to bad but oh it is bad.
He even got some sweet zebra stripes on his front. But I can't upload that picture. :P

 Here's the rest of the gang from the pool:

Brittany, Dawson, Seraphina

Sonya holding Julie
Darcy and Rose in his lap

Dawson giving little Julie a kiss. :) 

My Wonderful Man and I

Saturday June 30

SEA DOING AT WALLY`S! What else needs to be said except it was AWESOME! and may have gotten some more sun then we shoulda. but it was awesome! we kept our backs covered to prevent worse burnage! and remembered the sunscreen!

The gang that came. We`ll most of us

My niece Maddy even got on!

nix and Ty

Phoenix Wishing should could go out on the Sea do.

It was such a blast and SO SO SO relaxing. We were out there for 5 hours or so. LOVELY! Dan and I headed back around 5 to get ready for a shindig we had at 7! I even got a little cat nap in and was awoken by Dan spraying me with Aloe vera. Not a nice way to wake up. haha

At 7:30 we headed over to Josh and Janene Nemeth's! Ya the party was starting at seven but in my memory nothing ever started on time! Guess things do change when ya move away for a year! We had a banana split potluck! it was lovely! haha oh ya and Hot dogs. Josh made us some home made icecream! delicious!
Makial and Brittany Lowry were there with Ben. and of course they brought the strawberries.
Soren and Mani and their little boy Asher.
Olivia and Shawn Perry
Lindsey and Brad Prince
Dan and I
Jonno
and lil nemeth aka Jared. haha

It was awesome. We were laughing and talking until mid night. Oh so fun. Gotta have more of those parties when we come down! once a year is not enough! To bad I didn't get any pictures. (FAIL!)

Sunday July 1

Went to Magrath to go to 4th ward cause that's where it's at! I got to see lots of faces I haven`t seen for a while! Love my home ward! kinda miss it a little too.. but just a little.
We made lunch for everyone at G&G Stephens. Spaghetti with turkey. DELICIOUS! I got to watch the Court Jester with Danny Kaye in it. AWESOME! one of thee best movies ever!
Then we headed into Lethbridge and watched the last bit of the Lethbridge Highland Dance Association. Oh how I miss dancing. It was cool to see them though. Then of course it was games night at Stephen and Janessa`s!
And of course we showed up early to get all the kids riled up before bedtime. It`s our job as Aunt and Uncle!

We played "cover your butt". It can get pretty intense and threatening... especially when you are with this Clan. Holy.

Monday July 2

CANADA DAY FESTIVITIES! 

That's right we had them a day later cause we're cool like that!
We had to wake up early and go to Cindy and Gerald's to make breakfast for every one. 5 lbs of bacon later....

Gerald instructing Daniel in the Art of cooking Bacon and the fine workings of the Propane cooker.

Everyone enjoying themselves some bacon and pancakes!

The Parade!

Then of course we had a BBQ. Again, great food and crazy people. :P haha

Just sitting around talking

Ryder hiding out from someone. 

Kaden and Preston. debating on running through the sprinkler

rose

Seraphina and Ryder plotting something

Kenzie

Ryder is a stud. haha

Rose and I chilling in the Hammock.

Brittany and Athena

Gerald relaxing in the shade after all the cooking

The Lazy Bum's hiding from the Sun.

Cute Little Kesler. Just lost his twin above his eye a few days ago and still as Happy as can be

Dawson.

Dawson and Rose

Kesler and Uncle Daniel

I just thought this was too cute!

We had to leave way to early for my liking but it was such a fun week! I got an AWESOME tan line.

My Arm and a part of my body that NEVER see's the sun. AKA my stomach

It looks red in the pictures but is now totally not! I look forward to improving it Even more when we go Camping with the Low's!


Well if ya stuck it out this long Congrats! I did warn you it was a lot of stuff. Mostly Pictures. And there will be more to follow as we've:

-Now bought a duplex

-Are going camping

-coming up on my birthday and 1 yr Anniversary

-Are starting some home Reno's

-who knows what else will come.

Stay in Tune!!!!

Summertime!

It's FINALLY HERE!
It took some time. but it is here and I am loving it! Yeah, the heat is exhausting but totally worth it!
What have we done so far?

FRIDAY JUNE 22-GAMES NIGHT/HOT TUBBING
Went out to Hunsperger's for Dinner and games. Now typically we play your normal games and laugh our guts out. (no kidding). But we decided to add some additional fun and blow up there bounce house! I haven't jumped in one of those in a long long long long long long time! It was so fun! The men of course played until blood was drawn. :) That's how you know you are having fun!
then we played a sock war game. I came close to winning but unfortunately I didn't have long socks and pants on like Kalinda. Oh well, rematch another day. :)
We hot tubbed after. So fun. just talking and laughing.
:)


JUNE 23 -BRANCH PICNIC
We joined with the Vermilion branch and had a picnic at the provincial park out there. BEAUTIFUL WEATHER! so much food and fun and games and visiting! I really didn't think I was out in the sun long enough to get burnt. I'm pretty sure I hid in the shade. guess not cause I came back with a slight burn. But Mr. Outside everyday (aka Dan) didn't get nothing except maybe a shade darker. Oh well. Just a reminder for me to put on some sunscreen for the summer fun ahead! haha too bad I don't go all mexican-like, like my little Sister. sheesh.
Later that afternoon Daniel went and reffed Lacrosse. I sat at home and...... have no recollection what I did. :)  He came back and we headed out to Bennett's for the first of the summer BONFIRE! okay... not really a bonfire. but fire in a pit! We roasted some weiners and mallows and made mountain pies!!! DELICIOUS!

JUNE 24- SUNDAY
Nothing to exciting.

oh wait. lacrosse is done. :) Rugby not so much. haha Game in two weeks! sweet! :P

JUNE 25- MONDAY aka WORK DAY
Now typically I work in a school with a student. But today they had a field trip planned and I got to go along! Now I totally wish I would have had such sweet field trips when I was in school! They went horse back riding! I guess when there are only 7 students you can do sweet stuff like that. :)
It was such a beautiful day! I haven't been on a horse in... two years or so! Wow did I ever missed it! I loved it. haha I was even considered one of their "experienced riders" AWESOME! I caught a couple of horses that had minds of their own and wanted to take a student into the trees with them. And another one that was going to just leave their rider behind. haha.
Best thing ever?  MY BUTT DOESN'T HURT! :) :) it's from all my years of practice!
Oh.. but I did forget the sunscreen... again. Crap! haha my chest and arms are a little toasty!
First thing I'm doing tomorrow? Buying Sunscreen!

Now I'm getting the house ready so that we can leave tomorrow and go to Southern Alberta for a whole week!! :) :) SO EXCITED!

-Nephew's Baptism
-Canada Day
-Signing Papers for our house!
-Family fun!
- Phoenix is coming back with me for two weeks to hang out!

OH I LOVE SUMMER!


ps. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I didn't have my camera on me at ALL! FAIL! don't worry. I will for the next Blog Post!

Rain Rain

How Fun Does That Look?
To bad my Neighbor Buddy is sleeping and can't puddle jump with me!

 Later Later

Oh and the Thunder is Rolling in now with the lightening! 

I just sat outside and watched. 

:)

Happy Father's Day!!

I once bought a brand new camera.

This is what I found on it after I left it on the table for five minutes.

I once bought a cell phone.

 I found a very similar picture on it.

I use it as the caller ID photo that shows up when my Dad, Greg, calls.

If you're really special you might have seen one with his big toe. 

that one makes you barf.

Now you all may wonder what this has to do with Father's Day.

It's just to show you that I have thee weirdest craziest awesomest Dad out there.

What kind of man do you know that is brave enough to re marry a woman who has six children.

Six Daughters! Two of which we're hitting close to those lovely teenage years.
Added with his five there were 10 girls.
He knew he was outnumbered.

He knew his Sanity would be lost.

I am grateful everyday for this man.

for his bravery

his strength

his courage

his determination

his faith

that allowed him to take on my family and add it to his own.

When your little you're told that girls often end up marrying men like their Dad.
For a while I didn't want that.
Then there was Greg.
He may have some weird idiosyncrasy's
Like:
Needing the driveway shoveled every time it snows(even just a little bit)
Needing to have a pitchfork to eat with at dinner

Needing to always have the remote even if he is just going to sleep through the show

Needing to whistle along to every song played on the piano

Needing to complain every time about the "unfinished piano song"

Needing to have his spits for every road trip no matter how long

Not wanting us in his bed warming up his side of it
His addictions to TV series that last about a week or so (sometimes a month)

Giving you only one rule at a time while playing a game

taking pictures of his fingers and toes just so he can watch your reaction

And I still wanted a husband just like that.
Because, 
He loves God and the Gospel

He honorably holds his priesthood

He is kind to my mother and all us girls

He loves all of us

He wants whats best

He never yells

and he's got a little twinkle in his eye whenever he's up to something.

Then I met Daniel.
and he's so much like my Dad 

that all I can do is roll my eyes
and hope that he doesn't start taking pictures of his digits on my camera or phone.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Things!

All done school.

Working.

First Paycheck.

Buying a home.

Saving for Kitchen Renos.

Saving for a sweet summer Vacation.

Camping Trips.

Cars working.

A wonderful husband.

Lots of good friends.

A big wonderfully chaotic family.

Nieces and Nephews.

Grandparents.

Cousins.

Aunts and Uncles.

Parents.

Siblings.

Trips home.

Games.

taking pictures.

hiking.

Spring.

Summer.

Sunshine.

Wonderful uplifting church music.

Food.

Rain.

Water fights.

Blankets.

Pillows.
Pillow Fights

Cuddles and hugs and kisses. EVERYDAY!

And the chance I have each day to be alive and grateful for every simple thing in my life. Yeah, we all have bad days. Frustrating days when you just want to kick a cat! I try to just think about the simple things in life that make me smile. It's not really a hard job. I have a wonderful man who makes it a challenge everyday to make me smile and laugh. There is no point in going through each and everyday without laughing or smiling.
So make it a challenge. Smile and Laugh. It's worth it.

That's all folks.

What makes you Happy?