Camping and Powerlifting

This has been a truly amazing week. Our family camped in Waterton as we usually do. We stayed for 5 whole days and spent time as a family soaking in the beauty of God's creations and breathing the clean mountain air. This week lifted my spirits.

It started with the powerlifting competition I have been preparing for for months. I had a blast! I was the only girl and that was okay. Training for something like this as a busy Mom can be gruelling. Some days I was so tired it took everything I had just to lift the bar of the rack. For most of my training I felt like my bench press max would never increase and I realized halfway through my training I wasn't hitting parallel on my squats. I had to decrease my weights and do practice squats once a week from then on. It all paid off the day I competed. All of my lifts came up easy and I took 4th attempts on all three. Even the 4th attempt was easy! And I lifted more than I thought I could on the squat and bench press. For my deadlift I went for a Canadian record and couldn't lift the bar (although it bent), but it was okay because I know if I continue I'll be able to do it soon! I ended up with 192 on the squat, 115 on the bench and 242 on deadlift (which was pretty easy).

Then we left to camp for the week! I have to say, we had the most amazing weather. I felt it was a blessing from God and I thank Him for it.

Heart shaped pancakes and bacon cooked over the fire.

This is about half way up the hike up to Wall Lake. I can't get over the beauty of the red rocks against the green moss and the shadows of the trees. So here's the story. We woke up that morning and Afton said her tummy hurt. She was limp and wouldn't eat. Looking back it seems a bit crazy but we didn't even think about not taking the hike. Instead Brad carried her the entire 5k up and the entire way down. When she got tired of being on his shoulders he carried her in his arms and she laid her head on his shoulder. Brad was pretty much my hero this day. 

Approaching Wall Lake

Oh this smile of Afton's. I simply can't get enough of it. It is one of the true pleasures of my life. Brad and Jesse and Breanna went off to fish and Afton and I found a nice green soft patch of grass in the otherwise bushy terrain and rested. Poor Afton, but we really bonded.

Wall Lake. If you look really carefully you can see tiny Brad in his red hat and Jesse and Breanna fishing. They didn't catch anything for a long time, so finally they gave up and started heading back. As they walked back I heard Jesse yell, "look Dad! I see a fish!" So he cast and they caught it, then let it go again. I hated the horse flies on this hike and the way they hunted me and I will never hike without bug spray again :( 

 

One thing I will remember about this hike is Jesse whittling this rock into a sharp arrowhead. He worked on it the whole way up and down.  

When we got home we made a delicious chicken dinner in our dutch oven my Mom gave us for Christmas a few years ago. It was SO goooooood...but poor Afton said "I'm going to bed", and she really did. She fell fast asleep at about 6:30 and didn't wake up until the next morning. She sure missed out though, the whole chicken and veggies were delicious.

Brad makes the most AMAZING marshamallow-roasting fires. He makes a huge fire and then after the kids go to bed the fire dies down and all that's left are these hot burning coals. They give off a ton of heat. I love the crackle of the embers and I could watch the red-hot coals for hours, the way they dance.

The next day Afton perked right up and we headed up to Red Rock canyon. It was the first year we could climb all the way up with all of our kids. It was a nice hot day, the perfect compliment to the icy, icy cold water

This is just a gratuitous picture of my beautiful daughter. Too much?

A slide! Let's go down it!

Such beauty.

Later that day we met up with family. We love them to bits and everything is more fun with them around.  

On our second last day we really went big and hiked Crypt Lake. We went with some of Brad's family and the older cousins.  His Mom did it too which I loved, I'd like to be able to do those things when I'm her age. 

This is an 8k hike with 2300 feet elevation and some pretty steep and intense cliffside hiking. The recommended age is 12. I knew it was serious because as I looked around at the people we were boarding the boat with, they were all dressed in serious hiking gear. Boots, windbreakers, poles, hats, camel backs, you name it.

This hike was truly beautiful and worth every moment. I kept breathing in deeply and letting my eyes soak in the majesty of it all.

 Jesse and the other kids pretty much blew me away. They stayed near the front of the pack the whole time and maneuvered the cliffs like champs. Jesse thought the cave was awesome and wasn't even scared when he was holding onto the cable. I was trying to keep up to him the whole time! When we were approaching the lake he saw this big wall of rocks and said, I'm gonna climb that. Brad was not happy but I told him to let him do it. He scaled it and met us at the top and I was a proud Mom.

At the top we ate lunch and then Jesse was asking to go over to the glacier. We heard a loud crash and saw that part of the glacier had broken off. That made me a bit nervous but we walked over there anyway. The snow was so slippery and sloped into the lake. I was with some of the kids and was so nervous one of them was going to slide right in all I could think about was how I would rescue them, I kept looking for the nearest shoreline. When we got there Brad, after some coaxing from the kids, got on his swimsuit and jumped off a cliff into the COOOLLLD water below. It was pretty epic!

My legs were numb 

Look at the colour of that water. I heart it.

More danger on the way down overlooking the waterfall in the previous pictures.

Things started getting difficult about halfway on the way down. Brad and I were both in our minimalist shoes, which I did not regret until about 3/4 of the way down-ouchy!! Our poor feet on all those sharp rocks. I didn't feel nearly as bad for myself as I did for Jesse though. Mama bear kicked in when I saw that he was getting heat stroke and we had no food or water left. I kept stopping to pick him thimble berries hoping to give him a bit of a boost. And it was a sacrifice believe me because they were few and far between and soooo dang delicious :)  For some crazy reason we had taken the hard way down to catch a glimpse of  Hell Roaring Falls. Looking at it now, yes, they are beautiful, but I wish I hadn't done it with those poor kids. I will have to write a story with those falls in it to make the pain worth it haha.

We got to the bottom, Jesse and Brad jumped off the dock into the lake as we waited for the boat, and we all took off our shoes and rested our feet in the lake. Cold water never felt so good.

We finished our week on Friday lounging by the lake while the kids played and taking them for ice cream. As we were walking back to the car it started to rain. It was so refreshing. I quickly walked over to the lake, put my hands in it, looked up and thanked Heavenly Father for our Mother Earth and how she healed my soul this week.