We all agreed that although it is always nice to be home, we left a piece of our hearts at our land. It was a BEAUTIFUL! I'll will tell more about that later - I am going through my pictures and I will post some, starting at the beginning of our trip. I have hundreds of pictures and am thankful I took them - they become the "diary" of our trip.
Steven will often remind us, "Never despise small beginnings." In a way, that could be the theme for our trip - it applied in so many ways.
We started off last Friday morning and headed north-west: into the Canadian Rockies. As we headed towards Jasper, we stopped one place along the way - Bridal Veil Falls and Panther Falls.
This is Bridal Veil - the creek that feeds this tumbles from another 1100+ feet up the mountain.
We walked back to view Panther Falls - you can walk right up to the precipice and look over a sheer cliff with the falls shooting out from the rock beside you (I didn't try it, nor did we take the little ones!). The stream (torrent) that feeds the falls is amazing. We walked along it as it whirled and roared through its rock channel. Both these streams come right off the snow pack/ice at the top of the mountain.
At the top of the pass, we stopped to view the ice fields. The glaciers are huge! It was odd to be so warm standing in parking lot (note Emily's bare feet) while looking up at these sheets of ice!
This pictures shows our new trailer. It worked well for us as it was easy to pull (I even got used to it and I have never pulled a trailer before) and it held all our STUFF so the van was less crowded.
As we drove north-west, the mountains opened up into a beautiful, green, fertile valley, surrounded by rolling, wooded mountains with the taller, snowy peaks beyond. Leanne warned me that I would want to move here - and she was right! It was an amazingly pristine and beautiful place.
We were very glad to drive into McBride - after ten hours on the road!
We followed Dan's (the pastor) directions to the church and met Dan and Marilyn again - after 17 years!!! I loved seeing Marilyn and getting to visit after all that time - and getting to meet her two boys! More on that later, though.
Dan showed us the way to our host's home - Bud and Irene Froese. Again, I am amazed how God has people everywhere - and these folks were definitely His people! They were so hospitable to us! They showed us the way to the cabin they were allowing us to use - just down the hill from their house and an easy (and gloriously beautiful) walk. They had supper for us which they had so sweetly made gluten free. The chili was even made with venison - so we felt right at home. :)
A stream ran below the cabin with a couple logs across for a bridge. This water came right off the mountain and it is so pure, they can use it for drinking right from the creek! This is the way we walked to go up to both the big house...
...and the little house. :)
This is looking toward the Froese's home from near the cabin. The Froese still had two of their five children at home: Roberta and Wayne.
The view from the Froese's garden. It was clear that these were hardworking people - they farm about 1000 acres, raise buffalo, have a large garden (actually several), ducks, horses, etc. They even hatched duck eggs and had the little guys residing in their bathtub until they were big enough to move out to the pond.
I have some more pictures of the Froese farm, but onto what we did Saturday morning. The town had a parade and the church had a farm-themed float. They had the kids jump on and join in - they had fun being a part of the float which actually won first place. :)William sat on a little toy John Deere tractor on the float with Graeme behind him to keep him from falling off the trailer.
Well, that is as far as I have gotten in my pictures. I will post again - of the kids singing and our time visiting with new and old friends. :)
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