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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, September 4, 2017

Summertime with the Smiths

I always find as August approaches we start thinking about our September trip.  Is anyone else like that?  But it feels like you are wishing other days away.  This summer since we don’t “travel” afar, like the coast or south, etc., I wanted to focus on spending time with the kids.  Mason will be in preschool when everything starts up again, and it gets harder to fit ourselves into their days.
So in addition to being with the Cameron family in Idaho, and all the lake trips we’ve already had together, here is our August.

It all started with Heidi staying with us for the remaining 2 weeks of her family’s vacation in the States.  That’s a long time for a pet to stay at a kennel and/or travel in an RV but be confined through the day when everyone is out exploring.  Both our grand dogs are excellent guests, and having Heidi over I knew would initiate a bit more walking than usual.  We are pretty sure she made up some pee breaks just for the walk.  LOL

Connor and Mason had a sleep over one Saturday and as always they are beyond entertaining with watching them play and just their everyday interactions!  Lucy didn’t stay with them, but Heidi kept the floor clean.



When the Camerons came home we returned Heidi and took dinner in, excited to hear the kids descriptions of their adventures.  There were lots of stories.

I went with Lindsay and the boys to the Whitecourt Rotary Park.  What an amazing place!  They have this river that you float down in tubes and we had the perfect day for it.  We joined our friends Sharon and her daughter Stephanie and kids.  Sharon and I have been friends since we moved to Stony Plain 20 years ago, and our daughters grew up friends and are now mom friends.  It’s always great when we get together.  I don't have the photos of that day, Lindsay does.

A couple of days after that Don and I went fishing with Todd and Sharon.  Our lake of choice this summer has been Lac St Anne.  Jeremy found a great boat launch which is about 2 km from their cabin near Darwell.  It is an easy launch to access, the water levels were perfect for in and out, and lots of boat trailer parking.  Of course it’s also nice that it is minutes from Lindsay and Jeremy’s.  Anyway, we met the Marshalls out there and had a great fishing day.  We caught several Walleye but none were the size our tags allowed.


On August 13 we headed to Buffalo Lake to camp with Ken and Brenda.  For a few summers we have been getting together for a few days of camping.  They offered to come out to Alberta this time.  We found a great campground and if we’d had the grandchildren it was a perfect location.  We were right on the shore of the lake with an amazing view.  Of course we didn’t need the playground, we took the more adult approach of a few beers, a few shopping trips and lots of quiet visits.


Lindsay suggested visiting Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin so one day we loaded the boys and snacks and off we went.  What a great place to take boys to!  Anything that flies or has wheel was here.  The day went by too fast.  Definitely should be a stop if you are ever by, as the amount of pictures show!




That same week all of Tracy’s kids were in camp so I helped out a bit by picking the girls up at their camps.  Reese was in a City of St Albert day camp at Servus Place and Em attended the U of A Ringette camp. Maybe because of my years running summer day camps with the Town of Stony Plain, I an pretty picky about the structure and what I observe in camps, and both of these were excellent.  And the girls loved them, which of course matters most:)

We really needed one more lake day/boat day and were hoping the weather would co-operate.  Turns out it did.  Grandpa and the kids all enjoyed a few spins on the wakeboard (yes Grandpa does donuts), and many rides on the tube.  Then we headed to Lindsay’s cabin and tucked the boat away.

The next day Tracy and I took the kids to the Ukrainian Village, another wonderful venue in our region that I had never visited.  They have a lot of potential there, but we were visiting on off season so some attractions weren’t available.  But overall it too is a great place to visit.  The grounds are beautiful, and the feel for the pioneer’s life is awesome, as the hosts are all in costume and period.  The school was neat for the kids to see, as the principal was in attendance, and asked Blake and I some difficult math questions!

The last day of the month found the Cameron kids having a sleepover, as Tracy had her first day of work on September 1.  We were headed to the Stecyk cabin as a start to our September vacation, so the kids came with us and Tracy and Cal came out to pick them up and have dinner.  We stayed for 2 nights, rode quads and relaxed.  The weather didn’t cooperate for the boat, but we enjoyed our peaceful time there.

 

On Sunday we headed out on our coastal vacation.  We love the west coast, specifically southern Washington and all of Oregon, so that is where we are headed this time.
I’m not sure how energetic this vacation will be so don’t get too excited about upcoming posts, they may be as slow as I am hoping to be.

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