LAKE POWELL June 30 - July 4 2010

Here we are at Lake Powell in Page Arizona. We all wanted to take a family vacation before Blake left on his mission. The Goodman's (Carly's in-laws) go to Lake Powell every year and so we were invited to tag along.  It had been a very crazy and hectic prior few months but I am so glad we took the time to go.  Here we are hiking up to "Rainbow Bridge" 
Blake, Grant and Joel knee boarding!  Grant LOVED this and he felt like KING of the LAKE!  The boys were so good to help him.

Steve doing his job as the flag guy! :)

Joel and Grant boogie boarding.  Joel is amazing on the water.  He can do it ALL and he is GOOD at everything!  This was so fun to watch.

Carly and Grant Jet Skiing.  You should have seen them playing freebie off of the jet ski's.

Blake on the Jet Ski.

King Grant knee boarding...notice Carly hanging on for dear life!  :)

Blake, Camille, Carly and Joel...Four at once.

The Newlyweds

This was so funny to see Tex in the Water! He actually did pretty good.  Tyler and Kaylee could only spend about a day and a half with us because they were in process of moving to Texas for Medical school and they had to be there before school started for Tyler.  We HATED to see them go but we will take any time we can get!

On Sunday after church we took a boat ride up to Rainbow Bridge.  The water was a bit rough but the ride was BEAUTIFUL!  It is amazing how grand rocks can be.  The color and view were truly stunning. It was a bonus because Kay (Carly's mother-in-law) was raised and joined the church in Page and she knew a ton of  history and about the area.  In Fact her dad had worked on the huge Dam there. 

Carly, Grant, Blake and Joel.

The hike.  Boy was it HOT! Arizona HOT!

One of the things the kids loved was feeding these huge fish. I was sure they were going to pull one out of the water.

All of us at the dock by Rainbow Bridge.  Joel's Mom, Dad, brother Seth and sister-in-law Katie were all there.  They had all of the toys and know how and they were so kind and gracious to all of us.  Carly married well.  They are wonderful people.  We sure enjoyed spending time and getting to know them.

Joel was tyring to do the latest thing...I think it was called surfing! HA  He actually had a surf board and would get behind the boat...and when he was in the wake of the boat he would let go of the rope and "surf".   He is amazing.  However I was a bit nervous about this new sport.  He was way too close to the motor of the boat for my comfort!

My boys and their fruit snacks!!

Tex the Dog..boogie boarding!

Kaylee saving Tex from drowning!   We hated having Tyler, Kaylee (to Texas) and Camille (to Stadium of Fire to See Carrie Underwood and EFY) leave so early from vacation but we were all glad we took the time to do this. It will be a full two years before we will all be back together again.

I am so grateful for my kids!  It was so fun to see them interact as adults.  I have been blessed with wonderful kids and in-law kids!

Exploring Banff With The Kids. 6/2010

We were thrilled when Tyler and Kaylee were able to come to Calgary a few days after we had moved into the house. They wanted to see where we were before they had to head to Texas for Medical school. We broke away from Boxes one day and headed to Banff to show them around. Here we are with the tame?? Mt. goats. You know those crazy families that are on Funniest Home Videos...that stand next to a WILD animal and the animal starts to charge the people?? Well I was so sure that would be us. Especially because Blake was trying to pet them! Blake and Camille on the hike. The Forrest floor was covered solid with the beautiful green moss. The picture does not show the intensity of the color green. beautiful!

Tyler and Kaylee in front of the beautiful lake.

The two sillys (there is a story behind that) I will post it on funny things they said.

What a beautiful hike. The wind was so strong on this bridge it was a little scary as it was so high up.

Do they look friendly??

In Banff at the famous waterfalls.

Again.

Blake loved this car in Banff and wanted to take a picture.

It was a great time and so fun to have the kids here even if it was a short visit. They left the next day to head back to Utah. Blake and Camille went with them to help Tyler and Kaylee move out of there apt and load the moving truck so they could head to Houston for Medical school. Steve and I stayed behind to deal with fixing the non diesel car that had diesel in it! :)

Our First Purchase and My Meltdown! 6/2010

Of course before we had even unpacked all of the boxed Steve and Blake were scouting a new JOHN DEER tractor mower. I think that the entire reason that Steve wanted a place with land is so he could buy a John Deer. It is his Toy. Blake of course was just as excited as Steve and all he said he wanted to do before he left Canada was to mow the lawn! Ha Here Blake and Grant are doing just that. I am sure Steve would love Blake here now to mow again.

The boys mowing.

The day after we moved in as I was draining the bath tub the ceiling downstairs started to leak!!!! You pay several times as much money for a house in Canada as the one we had in Texas and THIS!! It was a very stressful time and the plumber charged me $1000 to fix the pipe and cut a whole in my ceiling...

Camille and Blake were great help in painting two rooms..this one that was bright RED and one that was bright BLUE. I will show pictures of the completed rooms later.

So... the move was stressful. Between the move from Texas and closing on the house here which by the way is so different then the way we do things in the States (it was a nightmare), to the leak in the ceiling and trying to get Blake ready for his mission. I was pretty much done. Oh did I mention I put Diesel gas in my non diesel car?? OK don't call me Barbie. Things are so different here and they word things different and the nozzle FIT ! I almost ruined my trip to Lake Powell. Thankfully I didn't destroy my car and they were able to get us on the road only one day late. But by then I had had enough and I finally sat down and cried my eyes out! I was long over due for a good cry and I took full advantage of the opportunity!

What doesn't kill you will make you stronger....well I was feeling maimed! :)

NEW NAME CONTEST

Well it is hard to be Texas Williams Family (maybe we could just add on to the name?) when you are living in Canada. So we need a new name. Post your ideas. The winner will win a free weeks stay in Calgary in the month of January. I hear it hits 40 below here. F or C doesn't really matter..That's COLD!:)


NEWS FLASH:
Heidi Rawe wins the the "New Name" contest. We actually used a combination of her suggestions. See comments. The new name describes our new adventure without loosing our beloved Texas roots!! Thanks Heidi. Come on up. We can't wait for you to visit. Bring the whole family!:) We love and miss ya'll! Eh.

The flight to Canada 6/16/2010

We were all so tired when we finally boarded the airplane to Calgary. What is the old saying..."A picture is worth a thousand words" Camille says it best! We love you darling girl. ;)

Farewell Texas 6/2010

The entrance to the neighborhood we called home for 10 years in Keller Texas. It was a bit painful to see my house look this empty. When it was all said and done..it didn't feel like home anymore. Funny how that happens.

The moving truck. Everything we owned fit in that truck. We were uninsured for two days while our truck was in route. That is a scary frustrating story when you have time. I prayed hard that all would go well. In the end it is all just "stuff" but I was so thankful it all made it safe and sound!

Our truck driver Andy with Grant and Steve. He was a great guy to work with and was just part of the family for a couple of weeks.

It was a pretty nice truck. Hardwood floors and all.

We sure loved this place. It was home sweet home to us!

Good by Keller, Texas.

Farewell Fitzpatrick's and Williams Families 6/12/2010

It was so nice of our dear friends to throw us a farewell party at the home of Ray and Krista Morrison. Honestly there had already been so many nice things done for us that I was ready to crawl out of town but this was a really fun send off! Here I am with my dear talented friend Dina Fitzpatrick. Their family moved to Pennsylvania the very same day that we moved to Canada. It made it a tiny bit easier to go knowing that Dina was leaving too. She is a dear friend and I learned so many great things from Dina. "Miss Presentation" as I called her. Steve, Grant and darling baby Owen. Watching the show. it was so hot!

Krista surprised us by having the Tongans come and dance for us. It was quit a show and a lot of fun.

Dear friends: Kathy, daughter Stephanie, Alexis, Angi, Me, Tracie.

More of the show. This one was my favorite. Too bad it is so blurry.

The crowd watching the show.

Steve and our dear friend Leslie Rousseau.

They gave us a memory book with a short note and picture from each family in the Ward. It was a labor of love that took hours to put together. I am so thankful to have this book. I have shed tears reading this more than once. I have even caught Steve doing the same. What a priceless gift! Thank you everyone.

It is hard to believe that this is all really happening. We are leaving our beloved Texas.:(