Blue Star

Norque Ski Resort near Banff  holds a cardboard sled race every year for fun.  The YM in our ward entered the race last year and we went to watch.  Grant loved it and wanted to participate in the race this year.  Camille and one of her friends Jordan and Grant all worked to build this sled.  Grant named it and we just prayed that it would even move at all down the hill.  He recruited his buddy Jordan to ride down with him. 

Grant and Jordan before the race.

 The boys got a ton of attention because they were the youngest contestants and had the cutest sled!  :)

The local newspaper taking pictures of the boys...
Yep, they were in the Banff Paper.

The YM and Grant and Jordan

Steve with the boys. 
I am sure that if Steve could have fit in the sled
he would have gone down with them.

Getting their award

In the first race the boys started out great but then the sled turned and they rolled it.   The last race was called the free for all and all of the sleds (about 20) raced at the same time.  It was stunning to see the Blue Star shoot out of the gate and win the race.  They were going so FAST that I was a bit worried about them.  They finally came to a stop after running into a makeshift fence.  The crowd cheered the boys on and they got the biggest reaction at the awards ceremony.  Steve and I laughed about it the whole way home.  Grant is ready to start making the sled for next year!

Once In A Lifetime! 1/2012

We have all been so excited to be getting a temple in Calgary! It has been fun to watch the temple  progressing.  On Jan 12th they were scheduled to put Angel Moroni in his place of honor.  We got up early on a COLD Thursday morning and took the kids to see this big event.  Grant was thrilled to know that he was seeing something at the age of 7 that no one in the family had ever witnessed before in their life time. 

The colors were just this beautiful!

The temple is right next to a LDS church high on a hill!
 It will truly be a beacon.  The nice part for me is
that I can see the temple out my kitchen
window.

Dad and Grant turing to ice cubes...

I am grateful that we were able to witness this.  I will be even more grateful when we have a dedicated temple in my backyard this fall!

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas was very different for us this year.  The married kids were on schedule to go to their in-laws for Christmas and Blake is still in South Africa so it was just going to be the 4 of us.  It would be the first Christmas not to have everyone home (other than missions) I almost dreaded the thought of it.  Steve was feeling the same way so we decided we just take off and travel.  It was too much driving for a week but we did a ton and saw some beautiful things.  We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning, ate breakfast and loaded the car.  We were off!  We traveled to Kalona, BC that night and then headed to Vancouver Island Christmas day.  We stayed at a little beach front cabin.  It was cold but beautiful.  We ate at a Japanese restaurant Christmas night as that was truly the ONLY place open.  It is a fun memory.  We woke up the next day and went skiing at Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island.  It was Grant's first time and he was a natural!  Then we took a ferry back to Vancouver and drove down the coast to Cannon Beach Oregon.  It was a beautiful little community right on the beach.  It was however cold and RAINY!

Camille and Grant Christmas Eve
 in their Christmas PJ's

Crossing into Washington.  I don't think you know how much this
 sign means to you when you are living outside the US.
 Every time I cross the boarder I feel liberated.
 Weird, I know but it is truly liberating for me!
It makes me want to break out singing the
National Anthem. :)

On the ferry.  It is like a mini cruise ship.  Ha

Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.
 Camille took this picture of us.

Camille and her friend Austin in wet suits
heading to the water.



The wind was so stomg on the coast that these trees show it. 
Camiile took and edited this picture.  

 I didn't take near enough pictures of all that we did.  It was not a very traditional Christmas but I think we are all glade that we did it.  It made Christmas bearable not having the older kids around and we have a good memory to boot!

The Drop In Center 12/2011

Our Ward Christmas party was centered around service.  On a Saturday morning the ward split up to divided and conquer.  We were scattered all around the city and at the church doing service of all kinds.   Our group was assigned to the Drop In Center which is a organization that feeds and houses the homeless.  Our family usually goes to serve at the DIC once a month on a Friday night.  It is a great experience for all of us.  This day was fun because we had so many ward members with us.  We prepared 600 cheese sandwiches, sliced pounds and pounds of roast beef mixed up drinks and anything else they asked us to do.  After a few hours we all met back at the church for a simple lunch and watched a video of all the of service that was preformed by ward members that day.  It was great activity and one that I hope we can do again.

Grant was in his element.  He loves to go to the DIC.

Camille being festive before the work begins.....

Readers Theater "The Night Before Christmas" 12/2011

Grant Preformed a Readers Theater at school right before Chrsitmas.  All of the Grade 2ers (as Grant calls them) preformed for their parents.  The music teacher always does a fablous job. Grant loves to sing and we love to watch him! 

Micheal Yeck Our Favorite BYU Football Player!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been SO much fun for us to watch Micheal Yeck play football for BYU this year.  I don't think we could be any prouder if he was our own child!  To quote Blake "That's my boy." We have been lucky enough to be able to go to a few games this year but we have also been glued to the TV.  The funny thing is that we spend so much time saying "there he is...did you see him....number 77... that we can hardly watch the game.  If the Yeck's didn't think he would play a game...I would tell them to have him stand by Bronco so we can at least see him on TV.  Ha  These are the picture that Grant would take so we could email them to Blake. 

   

It was a lot of fun to re-hash the games with Barbara. (and Tyler of course the family BYU football fanatic!)  They are pretty proud of their boy and well they should be!!

Andre' Rieu 9/2011

Steve got free tickets to see Andre' Rieu from one of his co workers.  I know what you are thinking...WHO is Andre' Rieu!?  We didn't didn't have a clue but we decided to take the kids and expand our minds to something new.  Just for the record, he is a world traveled Dutch Violinist.  I have even seen his CD's now that I know who he is. 

During one of the songs a TON of fake snow was dumped on us.
It kept Grant busy the whole evening!



Half way through they had people get up and Waltz
in the isles.  Yep, that is Camille and Steve if you
can believe that! 

All of us.

It was defiantly an "older" (yes older than us) crowd. But I have to say it was a quirky but excellent show. Even the kids enjoyed it! It was a fun family outing.