Our Travel Blog

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Driving Miss Donna - what does this mean? Whenever I want to go somewhere, if Don is home he will usually drive. He always says he is driving miss Donna! This blog is for our travels, usually with our truck and fifth wheel trailer, but sometimes in our other wheels. When we are not vacationing check in for updates, although less frequent, about our life at home and our wonderful family:)

Monday, August 15, 2011

Life as We Know It

Well look at that! More than 2 months since my last post. It seems these things go one of two ways, either I post steady, or not at all. And trust me not posting over summer only indicates how fast it went by so far and how much fun we have had!

June flew by. I was on the road so much for work, and the weekends offered no solace from that. We went camping with Lindsay and Jeremy the first weekend. It was supposed to be our annual quad trip to the Six Lakes area north of Fort McMurray but unfortunalty outside forces caused us to replan. This was a severe year for forest fires and that area was really affected. At that time the trails were closed and nature was fighting to survive. Hopefully we can go back. But as I say we did go camping at a beautiful campground new to us on Beaver Lake called Fish'n Friends. We all went golfing one day and that was fabulous. Otherwise we relaxed and ate, the normal camping protocol.

The next weekend we were in Fort McMurray helping Lindsay and Jeremy move into their new and absolutely beautiful house. They took on some renovations as they were moving in and worked hard to accomplish them. The result is spectacular. So proud of you guys!

No sense staying home, so the next weekend saw us on a road trip to Ole McDonalds Farm near Stettler with Tracy, Cal, Blake, Emerson and Reese. This is a spectacular place for families. Although we faced a lot of rain that weekend, we still had a great time and look forward to next summer there. Gosh we love those kids:). It is so much fun seeing the world through their eyes, everything is exciting, even marshmallows. But really marshmallows still do it for me as well!

I cannot even remember what we did the last weekend of June. Maybe sleep?

The approach of the July long weekend saw us on the road again, this time to Saskatchewan to combine a family vacation at the cabin with our family (Tracy and Lindsay and all) with a special SMith Family event. We rarely visit the Smith family cabin, but enjoy it immensely. Our family spent many summer vacations there as the girls grew up.  It is at Marean Lake.  Our little family of four has grown to nine and hence Don and I took our trailer and slept in there.
This time together as a family is so special as I am sure anyone our age with family can attest to. We had the best weather imaginable. And again just enjoyed and relaxed so much.
The trip ended with Don's parents 60th Anniversary. The whole family gathered at mom and dad's house for an afternoon of visitng topped off with a great meal. It was relaxed and comfortable and I'm sure enjoyed by all!

So now it's mid July and we aren't done yet. Our third grandchild, second granddaughter Reese, was baptized on July 17. It was a great family day and she was beautiful!

The next weekend was one of relaxation at home. Through the week we had our friends Ron and Bev drop in on their way home from vacation. Ron just had to celebrate his birthday with Don! We always have such a blast with these guys, and they visit often. For that we are thankful!!

We also fit in attending the wedding of Stepahnie Marshall, now Stephanie Ball. Steph's mom Sharon is one of my dearest friends and Steph is our daughter Lindsay's close friend. Lindsay was in the wedding party:). The weekend wasn't busy enough so we travelled to North Battleford to celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday. Crazy lady still works, but good for her I think! Why not if you can and enjoy it? Must keep her young!

Almost done here....

On Tuesday Don's cousin Stu, partner Susan and friend Rick came for a visit. While we worked a couple of days that week, they explored the urban life of Edmonton, then off we went on a quadding/camping trip. We travelled the Iron Horse Trail and the Peace River Trail, both part of the TransCanada Trail System. I had some mud fun! Gotta love that. What a great visit with fabulous folk. We just don't see enough of them and are glad they came to spend some down time with us. And we really needed to get those quads out this year. If you are a quadder try those trails.

Last weekend (August 13/14) Lindsay and Jeremy were here and again we had some great visits. We visited the St Albert Market, and Lindsay spent some time with her sis while Jeremy celebrated his brother's upcoming wedding at a stag.

This weekend we are headed to Saskatoon to celebrate our nephew Aaron's wedding.

So that brings us up to date! I won't even tell you about all the traveling both of us have been doing for work. Numerous trips to Fort Mac ( added bonus of seeing Linds and Jer), down to Drumheller, etc.
September has some exciting adventures coming up and some wonderful announcements, but I need to leave something to talk about later!

Thanks for joining us!