Trip Home

Well, we made it home. Actually we got to Lethbridge about three this afternoon, and did some errands before coming home. It took about an hour, maybe, longer to get home than the all day marathon last Wednesday going out. We took Jen and Dan's suggestion and followed Hwy. #5, the Coquahalla or whatever Trail. It was a very beautiful drive and we enjoyed it. We had never been that way before, so every place and town etc. was a first for us. We spent last night in Golden, and ate at this restaurant that didn't look all that great, but the food was excellent. We got to Golden about nine last night. We had planned on staying at Kamloops, but we got there at six thirty and figured we could be in Golden before eight, which we did, but eight Vancouver time, as we passed through the time change between Kamloops and Golden and arrived at nine mountain time. We left Golden about nine thirty this morning, and we by-passed Calgary by taking the 22 to Black Diamond and then driving east past Okotoks to High River where we had Dairy Queen for lunch. Hey Coopers, you wouldn't recognize south Okotoks along that highway now. There were huge subdivisions past the Okotoks turnoff, along the north side of the highway, and even a big new mall with all kinds of stores plus a Costco. Amazing, but I guess we haven't been there for a few years now.
We're thinking of heading to Edmonton Thursday night to see the Patricks especially "Little Pete".

Saturday activities

It was a typical Saturday, lots of lazing around, watching tv, and wondering what to do. Madison was gone for about four hours at a stake Activity Girls program, and Clayton was gone all afternoon at a laser tag birthday party. Dan was called into work at the last minute, and was gone all day.
That left Mom, Me, Jen, Mac and Spencer for most of the day. We went shopping at the mall, walked the trails at the salmon hatchery, and walked down to the village and did some grocery shopping and looking around.
Once everyone was home in the evening, we had a nice pork roast supper with all the works, spent some time at a park with all the kids and then had mango ice cream for desert.
The weather was on and off rain and sun, but it never got to awful, just a little damp and cool.We're having lots of fun with the Coopers, and are glad we came!!!

Sunny Day

Well we had a great day Friday!!! It was a little chilly at times, but the sun came out quite a bit and it got fairly warm, about 10 Celsius I think. We went to Lynn Canyon Park where the suspension bridge is, and crossed it (even me who is afraid of heights, this can be done by looking straight down at the bridge decking, and resolutely walking forward). We had to cross it twice actually as the bridge was the only way into and out of the park hiking areas. We went for a hike to the bottomless pool, a hike that goes through the old forest of redwoods, douglas firs etc, and tons of moss and such, it was very tropical almost. Lots of people on the hike too, and four rambunctious kids who kept getting to close to a very fast moving river. We actually had our camera with us and Mom took a few pictures. We went in the visitors center and they had a pretty good display area about the animals and trees and communities in the park area historically. We ate lunch there sitting at a picnic table soaking up the sun.
We left there and then spent several hours at Barnet Park walking along the coast of the bay, looking for shells and just enjoying the view and watching the kids have fun. The tide was in , so there wasn't a lot of beach area, but enough to walk on the sand some. We also watched a fellow crab fishing, and he caught a few smaller crabs. There was also a huge tanker ship being moved through the bay by tug boats, and that was interesting to watch.
Spent the evening chez the Coopers where we had chicken, fries and pizza for supper. A very nice day!!!

First full day in Port Moody

Well, I read Jen's account of our fist day, and I agree that it did rain, especially in the afternoon and early evening......
(You have to remember though that even though it was raining it wasn't cold, so the weather doesn't put an end to all outside activities. Think about the days you've spent at our house when it was snowing all day, or the wind was blowing a hundred miles an hour all day, it's usually so cold and miserable that all outside activities are automatically cancelled, and a long day is spent cooped up in the house.)
Back to our day. We slept in and played the tourists, we got up about 8:30 and found out that the continental breakfast ended at 9:00, so I had to hurry down and get us muffins and orange juice before they locked the doors to the eating area.
We finally left the room about 10:00 or after and went of course to a Home Sense store or something like that. Then we went to Dan and Jens, where we all piled into their van and went to IKEA,(minus Dan who went to work for the morning). Bev got a couple of things there, and Dan joined us about 12:45 and we had lunch at IKEA, hotdogs and pop and cinnamon buns.
The men and boys went home in the van and played Mario on the Wii for a couple of hours (it was raining cats and dogs by then), and the women and Madisson went to Superstore for milk (and an excuse to get away from the menfolk).
We all went to the movies for the matinee at 4:30 and we saw "Rango". Not really what we expected, more of a teenager to adult cartoon movie, I think we were about half the audience.
Had hamburgers and all the fixins for supper at Jen and Dan's, and spent the evening watching tv and the kids going hyper.
All in all a pretty good day with grandkids who seemed thrilled to have us around (it got them out of school), looking forward to Friday!!!!!(Theres no clouds in the sky yet this morning compared to yesterday.....)
Bev thinks I'm writing to much.....

PORT MOODY

We made it here yesterday about 8:00 PM Port Moody time, or 9:00 Welling time, so it took us about 14 hours as we left at 7:00 AM Welling time. We stopped 3 times for gas, once in Crowsnest for only 15 dollars worth to top up before we went into BC, once in some place for 35 dollars worth, and then in Hope for 42 dollars worth, and we got to Port Moody from hope with still 7/8 of a tank left. We got pretty good gas mileage I think.
We stopped at the Subway in Creston for lunch, and one other time in Osoyoos for snacks. I guess about 13 hours of driving, not bad actually. We've been asking ourselves why we haven't come out more often, as it's only about as far as going to Salt Lake.
I guess Fort McMurray isn't as far, but thats another story. (cold and desolate and Mallory says there's so much to do). We'll probably make it up there sometime.....
Of course, it' raining out here, and the forecast is for RAIN all weekend. So much for a warm sunny week away. Should have gone south maybe.....
But we're looking forward to Clayton's baptism on Sunday, that's so exciting.
We're having fun, hope you all are too.