Canada Trip

We're home now from a great trip to Canada. Pam and the kids flew up a few days before I did. I was stuck back at home working which is never as fun as vacation. :) We try to make it up to Calgary at least twice per year and have been about that for the past few years. The highlight, of course, was visiting with family and watching the kids enjoy playing with cousins. There was a lot of swimming to be had, too.

Josh having fun with cousins on their water slide

Another highlight of our Canada excursions is a trip up to Banff National Park. We love to hike and enjoy being out in God's country. The mountains are majestic and there are lots of lakes to see and throw rocks into. Joshua was keen to find plenty of sticks along the trails. We spent one night in Banff, too.

In the village of Banff there is a candy shop that we never miss either. I'm not much of a candy or sweets person - but as you can see from Megan - most in the family are.

The Bow river runs through Calgary and Banff. We took an afternoon to have fun on the river with a canoe and paddle boat. Blake did some great rowing, the girls not so much. There were a lot of ducks out and about. Abby and Meg loved the little babies.

We all arrived home safely early this week. Pam and kids a day after me - again that work thing. The kids did well (I hear) on the return flight sitting two and two across a row with Pam behind. This week we've been able to enjoy more cousin time with both Aimee and Melissa in town.

Swim Summer

One of our big events for the summer has been swim team. I never liked swim team as a kid. A lot of that probably had to do to starting as a 13 year old. That was way too late and especially so because I probably was 10 year old size. I only lasted that one summer. So ..... beginning last year we had Abby, Meg and Josh swimming on the team.

Josh is actually a "Mini" which means he has lessons and is now swimming. He refuses to swim anywhere except the shallow end where he can touch, though. Monday we were at the pool in the evening and we were the only one's at the pool ( so no one could hear the screams). Being a big meany, I tossed him into the diving part of the pool and he swam his way out. He wasn't pleased but now reports that he can't walk in 9 feet but he can swim in 9 feet.

Josh with Mini coach Dexter

Abby

Meg

Abby and Meg have also been getting more and more confident this summer. Megan missed nearly all of last year with her broken arms but has been catching up to Abby this year. Last week at their swim meet they both set PR's in both free and back. Abigail is at 29.57 in the free and 29.25 in back. She loves backstroke and it's actually kind of odd to be faster in that. Megan did 32.27 in the free and 33.93 in the back. By comparison, last summer Abby was about 45 seconds in the free and Meg about 1 minute so they've made a ton of progress.

Family Reunion

The first week of July we spent some time in Oregon at our biannual family reunion. Back in medical school and residency we missed most of these gatherings so it has really been a treat to go the last few times. We all had a great time and no one got sick (which has happened in the past.) Our drive up and back was uneventful and as a bonus we got to stay and visit with Pam's sister Jackie.

Blake reports his favorite part was riding his bike around everywhere. The week before, Blake had gotten a new bike for his birthday (only 6 months late). It was a big step up as he's never had hand brakes only and gears to shift. We did a bit of practice on the sport court before leaving but he really came into his own at the reunion. The first day there he did a somersault down a short bushy hill but was unhurt and I think that gave him a bit of confidence.

Classic

Joshua loved playing with sticks and hanging out with cousin Bradley. Meg's favorite part was swimming. Abigail liked everything. One of the days the kids had a treasure hunt and we had to take some pictures.

One afternoon we couldn't find Joshua. We had seen him wandering off but now didn't know where he was. Pam and then I took turns on Blake's bike riding all through the camp but couldn't see him. Finally a cousin happened upon him asleep in their cabin and I had to take a picture. Their cabin was right next to ours so it looked like he got mixed up while trying to find his was back to take a nap.

Disneyland for the day

Quick trip down to Disneyland for the kids. I was working so Pam and the kids were accompanied by my mom and Kellyn with Drew Larson. They reported having a great time at the Happiest Place on Earth. It was a long day, though, as they were walking around the park until late into the evening.

Rock Walls

With the house down and junipers out, we're delighted with our new rock walls. We decided to go with a lighter stone which has turned out very nicely. It looks like it was just hewn out of the quarry and dropped off in our front yard.

As a side note, Orinda just isn't the same town as I grew up in. A new group of teens has surfaced and I've recently dubbed them the PP gang. I haven't decided if I like the "Porta-Potty" or "Potty-Pushing" name better, though. For three weekends in a row, our porta-potty was tipped over by this nefarious group. We seem to have outsmarted them for the moment, however, with a few stakes holding it down.

Yosemite Get Away

To celebrate our 12th anniversary, Pam and I decided to hike Half Dome. We'd heard of a few other people doing it and we definitely thought it sounded like fun. Back at BYU, we'd climbed Mt. Timpanogos twice - summitting once - and enjoyed the climb-a-mountain-at-night adventure.

We left home Friday afternoon on our way to Yosemite and stopped in Modesto for some dinner. Driving a bit blind, we wandered around Modesto until until getting the bright idea of calling our friends who'd recently moved from there. We got some nice restaurant ideas and had some of our best nachos ever before driving the rest of the was to Fish Camp. I had only started looking for hotels about 2 days before and everything in Yosemite valley was booked so we ended up at the Tanaya Lodge.

We had planned to get up at about 4am but after getting upgraded to a suite when we arrived (they were about full as well) we felt like we needed to enjoy our room and "sleep in" until about 5. Pam and I reached the trail head parking lot about 6:30 and took a quick picture at the base of the Merced (I think) river before heading up.

We took about 3 1/2 hours up and another 3 1/2 hours back down and got a few fun pictures on the way. The final climb up to the summit is assisted by some cables placed in the mountain side. It's quite steep and my favorite part was coming back down the cables. There were a few others on their way up so I had to stop a few times but otherwise I ran down the whole section. Fun, fun.

Here we are a the two falls we hiked past. Vernal falls is the picture above and the "Mist" trail passes close enough to get sprayed like a light rain. On the right is the higher up Nevada falls.

Deconstruction

Just after Memorial day we started our ambitious home addition and remodel. I'll leave the talking to the pictures. Estimated time frame is 10-12 months.

Before, with the Junipers that Pam "loves" so much.

Getting started building a road on the side of the house.

Bye bye Junipers

Deconstruction fully underway