Just so you know, the sledding was a bad idea.  Waaaayyyy to cold.  We made two trips down the hill and quit due to painful toes and fingers.  Oh well, we tried.

Ok, I got totally distracted from my blog by facebook. Then remembered there are many more friends not on facebook. Sorry about that guys. You can all blame Amy for that.

Winter has set in. We are experiencing -23 celcius and lots of snow... as you can see in the video. I just wish you could feel it. It wasn't quite that cold yesterday when the video was taken. But today is and they want to try to go sledding. I will let you know how that turns out.

love you all

I know it has been a while and i have yet to update you on vacation. For some reason I just haven't made the time to download those pics yet, but it is coming. Now we are settling in to school and preparing for the cold weather. My heart goes out to everyone back home in Louisiana. 90 degree temps with so much humidity and no electricty is aweful. That is easy for me to say I as I sit here in 50 degree weather and my toes are cold.

As some of you already now, we have been visiting chruches again. We are liking Springs Church, but still waiting for God to confirm. Tonight I will go to a Getting Connected class which will tell me more about the church. I am looking forward to it.

I will be dropping my car off at the body shop next week. Please Lord, don't let it take to long. Oh yeah, you don't know about my car, because I haven't told you about my vacation. We hit a deer. Just as we were leaving Montana going into Idaho the darn thing just stood in the middle of the road until we got right up on it and it jetted in front of us. Messed up my front end and blew out my ac. See I do know what it is like to be without ac. Please remember we drove 7 to 8 hours a day for two days to get home. And the sun always seem to be shinging on me. It was hot.

I can tell you about the best part of my vacation. Seeing my wonderful friend Suzanne in Seattle. That was a blessing straight from heaven. We had a fun few days together. I know I have one picture on my computer of us sailing in the Puget Sound. That was a first for me and I think her too. I had a blast. And would have even if we had done nothing but sit in our hotel room and visit. Thanks Suzanne!

For those I haven't heard from in LA. Let me know how you faired.

Jasper

I just went through all of the umpteenmillion pictures we have from the Jasper trip. Do you know how hard it is to choose which ones to show you? There are so many beautiful ones. The whole drive to Jasper is a picture opportunity and Bryan took full advantage of it. We were completely surrounded by mountains for the 5 hour drive, which actually took about 8 hours with all of our stops. We were tracking our elevation with the gps. Our highest was just under 7000 feet. We could not even count the waterfalls we saw. Some were right on the side of the road, which of course we got out so we could play in them. Well, not really in them because the water was so cold. Just about every time we stopped Brock found something to climb. You can see that in some of the pics. Some waterfalls were off in the distance on the side of a mountain. There were lots of lookouts we stopped at. And then there were a couple of waterfalls where we had to parked and then walk to. Those were the big ones. Water rushing down into large canyons it had created. Wow, it was amazing. Bryan got some on video. You can watch it. Then there were the glaciers. Huge slabs of ice on the mountains. It was pretty cold up there. There farther we went the colder it got. At one point we saw some snow flurries. Not much though.

Well that was our Jasper trip. It was fun and of course it was nice spending some time with Mavis and Louis. It was alot of time in the car. Anytime any of you back home want to come make the trip we would be glad to do it again with you.

Now we are planning our vacation. We will be leaving next weekend for Glacier National Park, in Montaan, for 3 days. Then we will be heading over to Seattle, Washington, which we will get to spend a few days with Suzanne and Clint. I am sooooooo excited about that. Then we will take a few more days to go to Vancouver and back home through the mountains. We might even do some camping along the way. I am a little worried about the bears though. We never had to worry about that back home.

I can't belive the kids will be starting school just two weeks after our vacation. At least we will get to do some of our school shopping in the states. Everything is so expensive here. Can't figure out why either. Oh well, not much I can do about it.

Be blessed my friends!!!!!

Alison

PS Brook G. I am so glad you found me. We need to get in touch with each other. Email me! Rachel says hi.

The Rodeo is Coming to Town

Bryan's parents, Mavis and Louis, came in for 2 weeks. We had a great time. They got here during Stampede, the big rodeo/carnival/show of the year. The one night we bought tickets for was the one and only night it rained. We wanted to get to the park early so we could play games and ride a few rides before the show. Mavis and Louis were going to wait for Brayn while the kids and I went to play games. Or first game was the water gun game. Were you hit the bulls eye to make the little man go up, first on to the top wins. Well, as soon as the game started to hail started flying. Those little pieces of ice can really hurt. There was no shelter and Sydney started to freak. So of course I became her shelter. We had to make a quick decision to run for it. As I have heard so many times here in Calgary, "if you don't like the weather, just wait 20 minutes." So we walked around one of the many exhibition halls waiting for it to stop raining. Once it stopped it was game on. We played every game available. Brock and Sydney aquired a lot of new stuffed animals. Like they needed more. Brock and Bryan rode a couple of rides. Sydeny did not want anything to do the rides, but my little man rode the mega drop and loved it.

Finally it was show time. We got to see the chuck wagon races. Talk about intense. Each race had 7 chuck wagons and each chuck wagon had 6 horses. Those poor drives where completely covered in mud. Yuk! Then after the races they put on this huge show. Singing, dancing, the works. They even had fire works at the end.

I have a lot more to share with you all but I am going to break it up. Here are some pics from stampede. I will tell you about our trip to Jasper in the next couple of days.

love you all

Alison

PS. yes that is us wearing jackets in July

Oops, sorry so long.

I know, it has been a long time. Summer has finally made it here. Brock and Sydney finished school last week. They did great and are ready for grade 4 and grade 2. That is how they say it here. Its not 4th grade. Just another one of those wierd things. But for the first week of summer vacation we have been taking it easy. Stampede starts next week and Mavis and Louis will be here in a week and a half. We have tickets to go to Stampede one night. We will get to see the chuckwagon races, a big musical show and fireworks afterward. They also have a fair and exhibitions going on. This is kind of like a 10 day western fling. The funny thing is that for the kick off just about every place in town has a Stempede pancake breakfast. Not just restraunts, but churches, businesses, and kind of organization you can think of. Everything goes western. It should be fun.

We will also be taking another trip into the mountains while Mavis & Louis are here. We are going up to the Ice Glaciers. I am really looking forward to that. The Ice Glaciers are fields of ice. It is suppose to be a beautiful ride up there. About a 3 or 4 hour ride???? I am just glad I am going to have some familiar faces around. I have to admit I have been a little home sick lately, but it will pass I am sure.

We went to Callaway park last weekend. It is alot like Dixie Landing (no Blue Bayou), but a little bigger. It was fun. It was a beautiful day, though I had to wear a sweatshirt. For all the people back in Louisiana, can you imagine going outside in a sweatshirt right now? You would problably pass out from heat exhaustion. It has become a bit warmer now. Yesterday was about 80, and when the wind blows you feel like you are in the desert..... hot and dry. Then it cools off again. Yesterday was wonderful, somewhere around 70- 73.

I do have some very depressing news. Well for us that is. Not only are there mosquitos here, but them come out with a vengence during the DAY. Brock even asked, "I thought mosiquitos were nocturnal!" Both Brock and Sydney have some pretty bad bites on there back from playing at the wading pool at the Tuscany Club. We have to keep bug spray closer than I ever have before. Daytime, who knew.

I have to cut it short today. We are going somewhere. I would tell you where, but I don't really know. Today is Canada Day. Bryan is off of work, so we are going to find something to do. I will be sure to bring the camera and let you all about it. I won't wait so long this time. I promise.

Thanks to all of you who write. I love you all.

talk to you real soon.
ali