Yesterday By Callym

Dear Friends, 

 from Callym,

Today we left Calgary and went to Cowboy Trail.  We went to the Big Rock and climbed onto it. We saw a big dog that looked like a wolf and I was a little scared.  We took some pictures and then kept driving to Frank Slide. 

 When we got there we ate lunch by snacking. Twinkle was in the car...

 

We went to the interpretive centre and here are some things I learned.   

It happened in 1903 and lasted around 20 seconds and it covered half of the town.  The rocks went all over the town and sadly many people died.  It was really cool and we learned that some people thought a flood happened, freight train came thru or an explosion in the mine happened but it wasn’t.  What really happened was that the mountain was not stable so it came crashing down one day.  They still think the other side will fall and are keeping track of it.  

Here we are learning about how the Earth moves.

And seeing a cool map of the area with lights to tell you what is what.

 After that we went to the gift shop and Oscar and I got a bottle of gold and I also got a bug fossil and Oscar bought a tree pencil.  After we went to Fernie for lunch. Here is a photo my mom found on the wall about Twinkle!

Slocan!

 So, we made it to Slocan. It was dark, & going over (& down) the pass was a little intense, but we made it safe & sound. Carol & Lyle have the most friendly dog, & the boys were so SO happy to play with a puppy again.

We got in pretty late (830pm BC time). But everyone waited to have dinner with us! Carol made delish thai stirfry & it was so yummy! We hung out for a bit, but we were all so tired.

The next morning we woke up to snow! I heard Ozzies voice first like it was Christmas morning
*gasp* "hey guys, look outside, it's snowing"!!!
I got up & went for a run with Callym, it may look cold ~ but it was beautiful out. We ran over 2 km with Sable. It was a really great way to start out our first day in the mountains!


 After our run, Carol made Waffles with Blueberries from scratch. YUM! We decided to go to Anisworth HotSprings for a nice relaxing soak. The drive up was amazing, we must have driven the entire way thru the clouds.

 Here's another funny sign at Anisworth. I especially think the "no Chanting" was funny!

 They don't have lockers at the hotsprings, so they give you this big bag to put all your stuff in, then they hold it for you. I wanted to take photos out there, but with all the steam & dripping hot water I just couldn't.
But it was really cool there. There was a warm pool (37 degrees), the HOT caves (real caves where the hot springs come out of the mountain *42 degrees), & the cold plunge pool (6 degrees). Most of us went to the plunge pool a few times,  but only Oscar slipped in & got completely dunked!! Crazy Oz! Swimming thru the dark, hot caves was pretty cool tho. It's really was a relaxing way to spend the day (& after all the driving we've been doing, we deserved it!)

 Always bored in the car, here is a drawing Oz made.

 Here's a cute house/boat on land we saw driving along the Lake. Cool eh!

Right now we're just making homemade pizza for dinner & we may just play some cards tonight. The plan (so far) is to drive out to Penticton tomorrow, see my cousin & spend the night before we get to Vancouver. We'll see how we feel & how the weather is in the morning. I will leave you all with this Hilarious Photo of Chris that Callym took. Hope you all have a great night!

& We Enter the Mountains

Leaving Calgary was a sad thing. We loved hanging out with the Lathrop's. It was just so fun & felt so right!
The boys gave Sophia quick hugs before she had to run off to school

We packed up the car & headed straight WEST!!! (you know it's the right way when you see these...)
GORGEOUS No???


The boys got Twinkle settled & cuddled in between them,

 And I finally took a turn at driving!

 We've forgotten to take photo's of the km we've gone, so here is where we are at as of the outskirts of Calgary. Crazy eh!

 If you don't know, there is a pretty famous rock outside of Calgary called "Big Rock", so we stopped & took our photo & did some climbing.

Once we got closer to the mountains we started seeing the beautiful colours of fall.

 I have to admit that at first I thought all these yellow tree's were dead, but I was wrong (yes Chris, I admitted it, & yes I will even admit that you were right ~ Chris said that he was pretty sure these were the only needle tree's that actually lost their needles). Anyways, it was super pretty!
We stopped in the CrowsNest Pass & showed the boys Frank Slide. I think they really enjoyed it, they thought the story was really sad, but they learnt a bit, so that was nice. (you can read Callym's post here about Frank).
I had a feeling of my Dad being near all thru the CrowsNest. Here's a photo of a place he knew well (& where people knew him well too!)

We also stopped & took a family photo with the Biggest Truck, (can you see us? compared to the truck we are pretty tiny0

& Callym took our photo of the Phone booth we used to call our folks nearly 9 years ago to the date, when we got engaged at Frank Slide....

Once we got to Fernie we were starving! Here is a cute note we saw up on the wall! I laughed when I saw how much they charged for moving a table!

 I really have missed the mountains. There is something about the sides of the highway covered in rock that make it feel special driving.

Today, By Oscar

Today when I woke up, it was the most amazing thing. I opened my eyes & it was

SNOWING!!!!!!!!

I got dressed & ran outside to make some snowballs & a snowman. I had a snowball fight with my dad. Then we came inside & had yummy waffles. After we can back from the Hot Springs, I was worried that my snowman was melted. But guess what????

IT WASN'T!!!!!!!

So, I asked my Uncle Lyle if I could shoot paint~balls at it. He said Callym & me could!!!! We shot his nose off & shot him in the face, in the stomach & shot him everywhere. It was so much fun. It was the first time I shot a gun with paint~balls in it. I'm glad my mom didn't freak out! Hope you like the pictures. 

I miss you all & hope you are having fun.

Oz