We've Been on Holiday

That is what they say in Canada and I think it is lovely!
Nate and Peter and I spent a week in Canada mid-July and we loved it. We split our time half in Banff National Park and half in downtown Calgary. It was a very nice break from the Oklahoma heat and the flat brown plains that surround us.

Did it seem like a different country? Yes for a few reasons. *1. There are two official languages in Canada – French and English. So nearly everything is printed in both. Freeway exits were not just “Exit” They were “Exit/Sorte” , at the grocery store most packaging has one front labeled in French and the other front in English. All around us we heard people speaking in French. It was fun.

*2. Like most of the civilized world, they use the metric system. This meant temperatures reported in Celsius (get a jacket – it’s only 18 degrees) , speed limits posted in kilometers per hour (“whoa, we’re going 90 and everyone is passing us!”), and hiking distances in kilometers (this was good for my self esteem as it made it sound like I was hiking much further that I actually did). I had a hard time getting used to it.

*3. The Canadian accent was pretty cool. After just 15 min. off the plane I had already had 5 people say “Eh” to me. They use lovely phrases like “Are you off on holiday?” and say Calgary with a lilt, and have washrooms instead of bathrooms.

And *4. The Canadian Rockies really are AWESOME (as in awe-inspiring, not just cool). The mountains are so tall and rugged. Apparently they are younger than the Utah/Colorado Rockies. And the cooler temps kept everything lush and green. It was beautiful. This awesomeness attracted foreigners from all over the world – Europe, India, the Middle East, China, Japan, America, etc. (although one lady from Ohio talked as though everyone else were the foreigners, not us Americans. Apparently we own the beauties of Canada too.). We loved seeing the fashions, and hearing languages from all over. We got a good chuckle from watching an older traditionally-dressed Muslim woman rinse her dentures in a cold mountain stream.

(and the Beavers there are huge ;0)

We loved visiting our maple-loving neighbors to the North. Thanks Canada

I know Nate will want to give you a full travelog but I thought I would put in my two bits. Look for more info to come soon (with tons of pictures).

Winter Quarters & Omaha

Sorry that we're just now posting about things that happened so far in the past, but we really are going to try to catch up on our blog. It's just been too hot here to do much of anything, even blogging.

Anyway, over the 4th of July weekend we decided we wanted to get away from home and do something fun, so we packed up the car and took off to Nebraska! Okay, so I don't usually think to mention Nebraska and fun together in the same sentence but we sure had a great time. We drove up on Thursday night after work and stayed in Council Bluffs, IA, which is just across the river from Omaha, NE. It was our first time with four kids (of our own) in one hotel room - the first night did no go so well! But after sleeping for a relatively short amount of time we were all up and ready to go explore the sights.

On Friday we went to the Omaha Zoo. It was amazing! We saw a bear about 20 ft. up in a tree, a fish feeding frenzy, a male gorilla on the other side of a couple inches of plexiglass, some lemurs, giant grasshoppers, hair-shooting spiders, and some cute kids. Here are a few pictures:

Eating lunch with the animals.

Some wild animals on a train.

A particularly ferocious animal in a golf cart.

A pride of lions sitting by some statues.

Oh wait, those are the cute kids (and their especially cute mom).

The next day we went to the visitors center at Winter Quarters. That was actually the motivation for our trip.

Each of the last two summers we have lived in Oklahoma, we have gone to Nauvoo. We decided this summer to see a different part of pioneer history. There is not as much to see at Winter Quarters, but it was fun to have the kids dress up and walk around while Talmage pulled his very own 1 ft. high handcart (sorry, no picture - duh, what were we thinking?). We learned that each family coming over from Europe on the ships only got one bunk to share. I don't know how well we would do for longer than it took to snap this shot:

The older kids also got the chance to try pulling a handcart carrying a 400 lb. load. It moved pretty easily on the carpet, but then the sister missionary that was leading us around the visitors center put two small rocks in front of the wheels and had the kids try to pull the handcart again. Even with mom and dad helping, it was pretty hard. I can't imagine pulling a handcart over far more and far larger rocks for far farther (is it okay to say that?).

Near the end of our visit, we watched a movie about some of the hardships the pioneers went through while they were in Winter Quarters. One part of the movie showed a mother kneeling by her baby and crying, and then it showed a grave marker with the words, "Here lies our dear son, Peter." That was a little hard for Leslie!

After the kids had had enough of the visitors center we drove around downtown Omaha (and accidentally got caught in traffic for the Justin Beiber concert that was going on). We found a fun-looking art gallery with a sculpture garden that we decided to explore:

An entire villa formed out of bushes. How cool!

I'm not sure if you're really supposed to let your kids climb on this, but if there's no one to say "no", what else do you say but "yes"?

On Sunday we drove to Lincoln to go to church with my grandpa's sister. Afterwards they had us over for a very delicious lunch! I learned while we were there that she had been the manager of the Nieman Marcus restaurant in Chicago for a while. Who knew? I thought Nieman Marcus only sold diamond-studded broaches and helicopters and things like that. The food was definitely worth a million dollars or so! (Sorry, again, no pictures, but they wouldn't do it justice anyway.)

That evening we drove all the way home in a torrential rain storm and slept wonderfully in our own beds. What a great trip!

Camp Sparkle: destination Bartlesville

Every year my family gets together for a few days to enjoy "Camp Sparkle" (SPARKLE is our family motto, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day). This year we were lucky enough to host everyone at our house so they could meet Peter. They came for Memorial Day weekend and were able to be here for Peter's blessing day. It was so special.
We were only missing my two brothers (one is on a mission and one had just started a new job. We got to have my parents and my three sisters and their families. We had a total of fifteen people here. We loved every minute.
We took in some of the sites around Bartlesville, like WoolARoc, and the Tulsa Zoo, and the Kiddie Park, and downtown Bartlesville. And also had a lot of fun just hanging around the house and yard. The kids explored the creek, caught frogs & crawfish, and picked lots of peas (which grew just in time to share with cousins).
We loved being together. Some of my favorite things were the impromptu variety show on the patio, the adults date night downtown (dinner at the "Two Sisters" with my three sisters!), and watching everyone enjoy the kids.

We had such a great time! We felt so lucky to have the whole family at our house. WE hope they had fun and didn't mind the heat and humidity too much. It was another fabulous Camp Sparkle - we can't wait for next year.