Busy Wasps

Our neighbour has the most amazing garden and she approached us in the spring asking if we wanted to use it. She's got too much going on to take on the entire garden and so we totally jumped at the opportunity. Her husband rototilled it for us and she made sure all the automatic underground watering was ready to go and all we had to do was plant. It's been so great!
We were over there a few nights ago when Brayden spotted a wasp nest in the apple tree beside the garden. Our neighbour was on her way out of town and left us with wasp spray after we offered to get rid of it while they were gone. Ryan went over there last night and sprayed the crap out of the nest and I guess he could hear it buzzing like crazy. Today we went over there in the afternoon to take it out of the tree and pulled the nest apart. Inside were all these wriggling larva growing. Gross. Now it's onto the next nest, it seems like there are about a half dozen nests started between the two of our places. I had always thought that they were territorial and didn't start a home where there was one already started but it looks like i'm going to have do some further research. How do you stop wasps from building their nests around your house?

Heritage Park

The kids and I met up with Auntie Kait and Uncle Matthew for some good old fashioned today. My sister had been wanting to do a Heritage Park day for a long time now and finally the scheduled day arrived. The kids were excited but I have to admit that I was a little hesitant and had low expectations. It seemed like I would be spending a lot of money for a lot of nothing. Sounds fun, right. Well guess what!? It was fun, and I got a lot more bang for my buck then I had anticipated. Apparently they just changed their admissions to include everything inside the park (with the exception of food) so we got to ride the train, the boat and the amusement park rides at no extra cost. There was more to do but we hadn't allotted enough time to really get the full experience and what really surprised me was that I would totally go back for an entire day.
The very first thing we did was hop on the train and head to the boat. The timing was perfect and so we didn't have to wait for either. The train ride was fun as we passed the ranch and saw all the animals and they had these cute old men as the conductors. The boat ride was beautiful and it was relaxing to just look out over the water and see so much green.

From the boat ride we booked it to the bakery where we bought some lunch goods. I splurged and bought a loaf of sour dough bread and bribed the kids to eat it without olive oil and balsamic to dip it in with fresh chocolate chunk cookies. We sat down to eat just off Main St and the older kids raced through Uncle Matthews obstacle orders while Madison forced down her lunch. At one point Kait joined in on the races and eventually had to forfeit due to summersault dizziness.
The amusement park was next and each of the rides has a plaque that explains the history of the ride and when it came out, for example: The caterpiller was made in 1929 with courting couples in mind and was so popular they couldn't keep up with the demand. This was probably due to the fact that not long into the ride a big cloth covers goes around and covers the ride so that if you wanted to make out and kiss your companion you wouldn't have an audience. I think that you would really have to work for that kiss on the ride because it was really quite bumpy and Madison jerked around quite a bit. There is nothing wrong with a man having to work for a kiss though....
On our way out we walked through Gasoline alley and admired the old cars and how they changed over the years. Our last stop was a little Big Rock Brewery show room where the kids learned that Hops were used to make beer.

Like I mentioned before, it was fun and I would definitely go back again for an entire day. The kids enjoyed it as well, their favourite part was the rides of course!

Who Says Facial Hair Is Only For Men?

I'm not sure what's going on with Brayden but I think us ladies are totally making the moustache look good!?

JCK

Today the kids and I went over to Auntie Kait's home to meet my new nephew, James Compromise Kliewer. They had been talking about getting a dog for a little while now but couldn't find their perfect new addition. They settled on a breed and picked out a red lab a few weeks ago and then waited until he was old enough to come home with them. When they went to pick up their James they ended up coming home with a different pup (a brother of original James) and I'm pretty sure they made the right decision with this new James. He is just so adorable.
He was sleeping when we got there which was a good thing because when he woke up the kids were ready to exhaust him. We went outside and watched JCK puppy run after the kids and go nuts for balls. Madison wasn't so impressed with the puppy nipping going on and had quickly forgotten that we went through the exact same thing a year ago with Banks. She was having an off day anyway due to vaccination soldiers marching through her body so she just laid around in the sun. Syd and Brayd however couldn't get enough, even when little JCK was trying to go to sleep they wouldn't stop touching him. He ended up having to hide in the very back of his crate behind a little barrier and away from little fingers.

All Good Things Must End

Sunday morning I woke up with a lot less energy then my kids did. I don't know how they always seem ready to go but I just could not talk my body into functioning. Thankfully it didn't seem like I was the only one not in a hurry to get started and we got to sit around for a little bit before getting breakfast ready. One of the kids got out the bubbles and they started running after them. Just watching all these kids run around giggling after these bubbles put a smile on my face. Life is good.

After breakfast the adults separated from the kids for a little church lesson. Beattie church ended with a performance from the kids telling us a story from the Book of Mormon. I'm pretty sure that my kids favourite church lessons are Grandma's when we camp and already are looking forward to next years lesson! Who would love to make weapons and play war?

By the time church was finished the sun was out, it was nice and warm and I was ready for a nap. One of the Beatties had to leave for a bit Sunday morning so we lounged around while we waited for them to return. We weren't going to get lunch started without them and so we packed up the best we could so we would be able to leave not too long after we ate. We had a longer drive home then the others and we don't drive very fast with our set up but thankfully with all the food consumed over the weekend I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to worry about cooking dinner.
I turned into a zombie and just laid in the sun so I was grateful that Chris was willing to play baseball with my kids! I'm pretty sure that this was Maddy's first time ever swinging a baseball bat! Thanks Chris.
Ater gorging myself once again on amazing food we cleaned up camp and everyone got loaded up and we started towards home. It was a pretty boring drive with the exception of the crazy storm that crept up on us, blinded us for 1 minute and left us with them amazing double rainbow!

Not Just Your Ordinary Saturday

So how many things can you fit into a second full day of Beattie fun? Loads. It's not like the previous posts are enough to keep us busy, we're talking about keeping 17 grandchildren busy all day long so they keep out of mischief. Uncle Dustin was kept busy giving rides in his Ranger, the kids couldn't get enough of it. The young boys (and Ryan) rode dirt bikes and Aunt Leslie taught the girls about wild flowers!

Ryan's sister hosted a dance party and handed out streamers so that we could dance in style! It took a little motivation for people to get into it so Leslie and I did a good job of rocking out!

Apparently I really enjoyed Leslie's moves and felt a little threatened by her awesomeness so I took to jumping off the trailer in an attempt to one up her:

Lesson learned, she is a way better dancer then I. It was a blast and I'm not 100% on this but I'm thinking that maybe Leslie and I had more fun then the kids.

So how do you know that your day has been a success? Dirt and bruises is a pretty good indication. I remember my chins being covered in bruises all summer long as a child and it's reassuring in a strange way to see them on Sydney. You have to be running around, climbing, falling and playing outside to earn bruise and dirt marks like that.
In summary our Saturday was jam packed with fun and variety. I have no idea how the kids were even standing at the end of the day. They had such a great time running around with their cousins and doing things we can't do on an average day. Feeling super grateful.

Quad Ride

Late in the afternoon Ryan and I went on a quad ride with his parents and Derek & Meg. It seemed that the skies were a little less hazy from all the wild fires burning and so the views were so beautiful. Ryan wanted to go down to where we had been Trek Ma's and Pa's 10 years ago (10 years ago! Yikes!) and so off we went.

We stopped a few times to take in the view and for Ryan to show me the dead cow they had found the previous day (romantic, right?). When we got to the clearing where Trek was we found our little spot that we had set up for our family. We had kind of tucked ourselves into the trees so a lot of people didn't even realize that there was a camp set up there, it was perfect. We were able to locate our little camp fire spot which was super over grown and very well hidden but a cool find!
From our Trek spot we drove up to a small clearing filled with these amazing wild flowers and this beautiful landscape. It was so nice to just get away and be reminded how beautiful the area is that we live in. Sometimes I forget, especially when I drive into Calgary and all I can see is this sea of houses. This untouched place was a welcomed break.

Our last stop was probably my favourite. It was on the top of a hill and Chief Mountain looked so big (even in the reflection of Dereks shades). There was a small clearing next to the path filled with all these pretty colours from the grass and wild flowers. Amazing!

Ka-Boom

One of our activities today was shooting at exploding targets. Fun, right? I've only shot a gun one time before and that was years ago so this was sort of a new thing for me.
To get us started my brother in law set up a target for us and ear plugs were passed around. Ryan was one of the first to go and he was a pretty good shot. His hit on the target produced a lot of smoke which is always a crowd pleaser and after the little explosion you could clearly see the damage to our make shift target.

It was fun to watch everyone get up and take a turn shooting at the target. The kids all took turns watching through the binoculars to see where the bullet went in relation to the target. Brayden seemed really interested for a while but I'm not even sure if he stuck around long enough to his mama shoot. I have to admit it took me a half dozen shots to hit the target. The most disappointing part of it all was that on my 5th shot I hit the corner of the target and the exploding insides just dripped out. I tried again but when I hit the target the next shot it did nothing. It did feel good to say that I hit something but it sucked that I didn't get to hear my explosion or see any smoke. I think it made up for it when Jess hit her target and pretty much our whole board exploded because of the leaked goodness!

After we were done with the target they brought out a few guns that were bigger and louder for clay pigeon shooting. I could feel the shots from those guns and even with the ear plugs in, it was loud. Ryan shot while I was busy with Madison and so I didn't get any pictures of him shooting but he did shoot every clay pigeon they threw out for him. It's always good to know that he'll be able to protect us in the zombie apocalypse. Ryan and I were able to take a few shots together. My brother in law did a great job teaching me how to stand and position the gun for my shot! He also told me that even though there was going to be more of a kickback from these guns then the previous, my gun had less of a kickback then the one Ryan would be using. Somehow I interpreted this as no kickback and thankfully I had that gun snug up against my shoulder because as you can see by the picture, it was more a kickback then I was expecting!
FYI I totally missed the clay pigeon.

Swimming Hole

I think that one thing every good camping spot needs is a swimming hole, especially when it's hot outside! This year we all piled on quads and rode down to the creek, set up some camp chairs, stuck our feet in the water and let the kids play. It was a very pretty spot with a lot of green trees, clean water and places for the kids to explore. It wasn't too deep either so I was able to relax while the kids splashed around with everyone. The girls tried to find pretty rocks and built structures with the bigger rocks they found while the boys tried to make splashes throwing big rocks and sticks into the water.

I had gone upstream for a little walk and to take some pictures and when I returned I noticed that the boys were missing. They weren't playing in or near the water anymore and I was pointed in the direction of the quad path. I walked up a little ways and saw these boys scavenging the ground under a lean-too. The boys explained that they were finding paint balls and each of them showed me their stash.
Meanwhile, just down stream, the girls were still searching for rocks and building little tables. When they completed one little table they just started looking for big flat rocks so they could build another. They spent so much time making the one table and some of them became a little upset when it was time to leave because the tables had to stay. Boys and girls are just so different.

When I walked upstream a little bit I just couldn't capture how pretty everything was. I tried but it just didn't look quite the same!

Friday = Fun Day

I don't even know where to start with all the fun we had today. The weather was amazing right from the start of the day. The kids woke up and were ready to play. The boys were on their bikes riding around and I loved watching Brayden ride with some other people who were at his riding level. It also gave him a good opportunity to use his new gear he got last year for his birthday!

There was a nice loop for the boys and their dirt bikes that went around a group of trees and met back up at the campsite. It even had a little hill that they go up or try to use as a jump. It was perfect and they would just hop on their bikes when they wanted to ride and parked them off to the side when they were done.
Those that weren't on the bikes seemed to enjoy watching and waiting for them to come around the corner or just had a good time playing in the long grass. Uncle Dustin seemed to always be willing to take them for a ride in the Ranger and they thought that was super fun. Madison seemed only a little worried that they got stuck once and it took a while for them to get out. Sydney had later told me that we should always have a cell phone with us in case we stuck while riding on something. I'm glad to see it was a safe learning experience for them!

Ryan took a bunch of kids on his dirt bike with him for little rides and Madison is a huge fan of dirt biking with dad. I just wish we knew how to motivate her to learn how to ride a bike because the whole "you can't ride your own dirt bike until you ride a pedal bike" thing is not working for us. Any ideas?
We had a bunch of other things going on as well. Ryan was face painting, a few of the kids were playing pass and Derek set up a badminton net and got a game going there. Sydney seemed to love the affection her little cousin Claire was giving her and did a good job following her around making sure she stayed somewhat out of trouble. Claire never stops so it's a hard task following her around. Her hugs and big smiles make it worth it though, 100%.

It was obvious to me early in the afternoon that this reunion was going to be a success. How can you tell? By the amount of dirt going on and the lack of people caring about it!