Chief Mountain

Alas, it's December.
 Blogging has fallen to the wayside as things like lessons / school work and child rearing / house cleaning take more and more of my time but here's to trying to catch up a bit as I feel like we've done some fun things this past summer!

Andy and Ewoud did another climb this past summer. The mountain on their radar was Chief Mountain in Montana. It has an impressive face and interesting history and folk lore.  It can easily be seen from Canada and we "go by" it on a regular basis while driving thru the south-west corner of the province.   It is in the Blackfoot reservation. Chief Mountain has been a sacred mountain for hundreds of years. The first nations people have an oral tradition that near the end of days a great white god would appear from the top of chief Mountain and upon his departure, the mountain would crumble and be destroyed.  Because of this, they had to get a permit to be allowed to climb here.
The black foot legend is here! Enjoy:)

Beautiful days of normal

One of the goals of my heart is to enjoy the small things in life and appreciate the beauty in everyday.
And this past July was a beautiful month.  My heart could sing everyday for the normal we could enjoy.   Home and family is a beautiful thing when loved and appreciated as God intended it. To His glory and to see His goodness.

Here are a few pictures from small events that I enjoyed watching during our daily grind.  I'll admit more are of the girls this year than the boys as they were usually further from the house building forts and "barns" or drilling in the shop on the newest/greatest invention. They also enjoyed alot of biking, making their own "Tour de Purple" (instead of Tour de France).  

Marla reading to herself.  She takes the time to very quietly sit and enjoy books.  I wonder what her little brain is thinking.

One day I happened upon Abby trying her hand at drinking like our puppy.  :) She was totally in her own little world.

Coffee every morning with the best man of the house.  Marla gets right in there.

I get to garden daily with these little helpers.  I love watching their little faces as they seriously pick raspberries or peas while I weed.  Sometimes they shovel and dirt gets flung all over the place but the mud between their toes is a sign of health and happiness. 

Enjoying an after supper walk around the canal loop.

Water table refreshment on a hot Sunday.

And sometimes, you just gotta sit and eat as much popcorn as you can before the big boys join in :)

I think most of the month of July was spent in bathing suits and the kids got pretty brown! Our days went like this: swim, eat freezies to stay hydrated, swim again, work a bit, swim and find dad who condones ice cream at any time and then possibly swim again.  Pretty great life. 

<above>  Kittens never get old.  Having something to love is important for a child. 

<below> Bedtime shenanigans.  I like the kids to be washed up after supper so they can go clean to bed. A few times going to bed felt like such a waste of a gorgeous day so often we went back out to play some bocce ball or have coffee on the deck while the lawn irrigation did it's thing.  Little girls in matching pjs with happy faces bring smiles all around.  Princess 1 and Princess 2. 

😄 someone thought getting wet yet would be a blast before bed. 

And finally ending the day with a story or four.  💕

 Every day is a gift and everyday we give thanks for the warm little people that bless our life.

Grandparent visits

The end of May and beginning of June brought visitors twice. First Beppe came for a week, as was noted previously, during the time of the 4H show and sale.   Abby thought she had found a gaming friend for life so when Beppe left there were many shed tears over the loss of her new companion.  💖  When family doesn't live close by we get the unique opportunity to have family over for longer time periods and also for more occasions than people who have family close by.  Breakfast, lunch and supper for days mean a lot of intimate time together and so you can really get to know the person who is over as well as I'm sure they really get to know us, wrinkles, the need for grace and love and all the rest of the good, bad and ugly that makes the world go round and a family a family.  Abby is used to this now and has big emotions when people leave. I'm sure she would love everyone to just stay here and we could all be one big happy family all the time.  Kind of like a colony :) 

Walk for Life fundraiser in Lethbridge

Great Opa and Oma came in June for a long weekend as they passed thru Alberta again on another trip to BC.   The day after they arrived we were treated by them to a breakfast out at Smitty's to celebrate their wedding anniversary. (I'm thinking their 59th but I could be wrong)  That was a fun treat although going out to eat with five kids these days seems like a lot of crowd control :) It was impressive how game they were to deal with us all.  I guess Oma did raise 8 children of her own.

We also enjoyed a campfire and s'mores one evening.  Beautiful way enjoy a long summer sunset. I love how Opa and Oma are so comfortable with having kids around.  They get right in there and we all feel at home. We sang some songs and told some stories and jokes.  Before we knew it it was past our bedtime. 

On Monday when they left to drive on we went with them a ways down the Crowsnest Pass to the Leitch Collieries, which is a collection of structures and remains from a coal mine and processing plant dating pre WW1.  At the time it was state of the art and massive, most of it built and never even put to use, and now rests as a Historic site. We'd never been there so this was the perfect opportunity.  We also went a few kilometers down the road to the Frank Slide site and spent a bit of time walking  around before the rain started and we went our separate ways.  We are always so grateful for these visits from Opa and Oma.  We pray God will continue to grant them health that they may continue to be a blessing to those around them.

These two thought using Oma's umbrella was the epitome of cool.