Trip Pictures #2

Last post I left off as the kids were joining the parade...and here they are as they passed us on the rout. The girls had fun holding all the little kittens and such that were brought as props for the float.

Here is Marilyn watching the parade with her youngest son, Marshall.
Marilyn is one very special girl! We worked together nearly 20 years ago at our local IGA grocery store - actually, our families knew each other from before that. After Marilyn and Dan married and finished Bible School, they moved away to pastor a church in northern BC. Dan's sister, Leanne put them in contact with us again for singing...thanks, Leanne! It was such a blessing to be there!


After the parade, the kids got set up in the park. It didn't work for them to be in the shade and it was a hot day...but they drank lots of water and it didn't bother them.



This is standing back in the park area - the kids are singing just to the left of the picnic shelter. Out of site to the right is a kids park and concession stand. To the left is a tent with a BBQ going on. People milled about - some stayed the whole concert, others came and went. Many of the songs had a strong gospel message...who knows what seeds where planted?


After the concert we headed back to the Froese farm. We had a bite of lunch, Steve and I laid down with the little ones for a nap, the older children headed over to the house to visit. They helped feed ducks, water trees and visited. I walked up after a while and enjoyed getting to know Irene a little.

We headed over to Dan and Marilyn's for supper. Marilyn made a delicious, gluten free dish of Salsa Cinnamon Chicken - it was a surprising mix of flavors, but very good!
We had such a GOOD, hear-to-heart visit...just like we had been close all these years! How does that happen? I wonder if it just because we have the same Saviour?


For the evening, we were invited by this lovely couple...



...to jam with some family they had visiting. We enjoyed this and met some more wonderful people. It was a lovely evening, even though it did get rather late (especially for us folks on Alberta time). It was a special memory.


This is the view from their deck...

Then it was back to the cabin for night. We made a corporate walk to the outhouse as Emily is scared of bears. ;) On the way, Jeremy spotted this toad and Emily just had to carry it back to show Daddy (who was already in bed).There was lots of laughing, teasing and family camaraderie as we got ready for bed and settled down for the night.

More to come in a later post....

Trip Pictures #1

We pulled into home Thursday afternoon around 4:30 - all safe and no vehicle trouble (other then a rock in the windshield). I thank the Lord for keeping us all those miles!

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. :)