How many times can I say "fun" in one post?

For the first couple days, Brad was at Young Men's camp. He had lots of good stories to tell when he came back. I stayed in Taber and celebrated Canada Day with bike rides, barbecues and swimming at the Taber pool!

This isn't even all of us...

Wednesday we did something I've wanted to do forever, like since I knew it existed: We canoed the Milk River! It was one of the funnest things I have ever done, ever! It was beautiful, challenging, interesting and plain fun all at once. We took Jesse and left Afton and Breanna with Brad's sister Amy. 

Posing at Poverty Rock

This part was just plain FUN! Body surfing in our life jackets. We did it several times, it did make me a bit nervous with Jesse in the water but I always caught up to him and we managed to out-swim the current and get back to shore.

We make a good team.

There were snakes all over the place. This one was a bull snake Brad's brother Matt coaxed out with a paddle. It could have been a rattlesnake though, we found those at the Burial Caves. I took Jesse to get a good look at the rattlesnakes, he was scared and didn't want to but now he's glad he did :) Personally I love snakes. I'm not sure why but my Mom says it's genetic as she used to pick them up and scare her friends with them when she was a kid.

Now here are the burial caves. So basically, Native Americans would bury their dead in the holes of this rock. They say rattlesnakes live there to guard their spirits and there are lots of rattlesnakes. There are lines carved into the rocks inside the holes to indicate the age of the deceased. We're not sure, as far as I know, how many years each line represents. There's also carvings in the rock- mostly men with weapons and shields. You know they are men because they literally drew a penis on them represented by 2 dots and a line in the middle. Call it decorations on a loin cloth, I will draw my own conclusions :) It's seriously just amazing. I would like to spend more time exploring there sometime, and just thinking. I've always been fascinated by Native American history.

This part was especially fun. We found quicksand. I sank up to my hips and the kids were up to their waste in mud. 

The next day we went to Echodale Lake and spent the whole day in the sun. We had a blast, but on the way home I found out that my best friend's daughter and Afton's bestie had been in a car accident, with some of Brad's cousins' children. It was so scary. I was pretty emotional and overwhelmed until the next day when I found out she was okay, with just some broken ribs and a bruised lung. She's home now. It was some of the best news I've ever heard. I would have been totally devastated if she or any of the other children had been seriously injured or worse.

And finally, on the last day we went to the Taber parade and the kids got lots of candy. It was super hot so we also did some swimming in Grandma's fun back yard. 

   

 I'm so grateful for this family and all of our fun adventures. What a great start to summer!!