3,542 miles of smiles: Part 2

Our final destination point on this trip was Calgary Canada, where Paul's brother Jeff lives. We made it, and I think we did it with style. One of our first points of business when we arived was to go 5 pin bowling. As you can see, it was a hit! Paul's dream, while we were in Canada was to go curling, but turns out, there is nowhere to go curling in June. It's just a winter sport. I saw some real tears when we found this out. I'm not sure if we would have even gone to Canada had we know that before hand, but we made the best of it anyway

I love Holli's hair!

The little kids used the ramp

Even Dottie had a blast



Here is the whole Crew. We had the bowling alley all to ourselves. I guess that's how it is when you go bowling at 10 AM

Another day, Jeff and Jocelyn borrowed bikes and trailers so we could go on a bike ride/wiener roast in Fish Creek Park.

Cash did not want to get out of the trailer

This is the day we went to Banff. This is the beautiful Lake Louise. It took my breath away!

Gus took this picture. He is an artistic genius!

Here are the beautiful people who we went to visit: Paul's brother Jeff, his wife Jocelyn and their two girls, Holli and Alise. Love these people!

We had a picnic lunch by lake Moraine

Lake Moraine

Isn't the color of that water amazing!

This was a common sight along the way

Here is a picture of us on the back patio of the Banff springs resort. You can stay there for a small fortune...maybe some day

Here is another day at the neighborhood lake. A lot of the communities in Calgary have these lakes with beaches to play on in the summer, and in the winter, they use them for ice skating.

The kids had fun making rivers. Here is Cash relaxing in the hot tub they made

Paul and Jeff told the kids that if they let the dad's throw them in that they could have ice-cream when we went home. They all did it, but Holli really didn't want to. She wanted the ice-cream so bad that she suffered through being thrown into the water. What a brave girl. I also would do just about anything for a bit of ice cream

Later, we buried the kids in the sand. As you can see, it was not Alise's favorite form of recreation. Even her soothie couldn't make her happy

these little kiddos looked so funny all stuck in the sand. I think some people thought we were a little mean burying the screaming babies, but we needed this picture, and it was well worth it!

Holli and Max were the pioneers

same day, same lake

Here is Dot at a park in Helena Montana on our way back from Canada

We stopped in Salt Lake again on our way back from Canada so we could take pictures with my Grandma Gustafson. I saw my Grandma 4 times the week before but kept forgetting to take pictures. My grandma is 92 years old, and has lived in the same house in Down town Salt Lake City since she was 2 years old.

I love this smile on her face. She is really the best grandma. She made some really great childhood memories for me and my cousins.

Then we were off to Grand Junction Colorado to do some ranching with Uncle Andy and Aunt Andrea. Andy and Andrea just got married a couple of months ago, and my kids think he is awesome because he is a cow boy.

They all took their turn riding a horse

This is our attempt at getting a picture of all of them together. Pretty good I think

Gus and Max sitting with Uncle Andy down by the creek

Cash playing with aunt Andrea

Here we are when we arrived back in Flagstaff on the 4th of July. A bit of a sorry looking bunch. We definately wore the markings of being on the road for almost 3 weeks.

Our 1987 Buick Century Wagon got us safely there...and back. She was a gem the whole way. The boys are holding the throw pillows that I made to match the roof of the wagon. This was such a memorable trip for me. Everything a long the way was even more fun than we imagined and we were all sad to come home to hot Phoenix Arizona.