Calgary Trip Days 3-5

Saturday morning, we drove up to Calgary. We saw several places in Joseph's mission and had quite a fun time. Calgary is a beautiful city. The Bow river runs right through the North of the city. The park that we are at is absolutely beautiful and is on an island on the Bow River.
We went to the Calgary Tower, which is much like the Space Needle in Seattle. They have a glass observatory which you actually step out onto. You feel like you are going to fall. We tried to get some fun pictures to illustrate our vertigo.


On Sunday, we went out to Banff. We didn't really know what we were doing except driving on the highway. We saw signs much like those we saw in Glacier, except they didn't say "Watch for Deer" rather "Watch for Pedestrians", and we saw them. 'Wild Pedestrians' crossing the road at the most unlikely places. Before we knew it, our two lane highway turned into six lanes, with us being in the left-most lane. There was a booth for us to pay for our entrance to get into Banff in the left five lanes, and one through lane for those that aren't visiting, but driving through to B.C. We didn't know how much it cost, or what to do. Cathy made the decision to smuggle ourselves into the National Park. So, Joseph flew from the left most lane to the right most lane. We don't know how we didn't get hit, and with all the gravel that we threw up, we hope we didn't crack too many windshields.

After we got in, guilt hit us and we turned around and left the park. It was okay, because our time was limited. On our way back into Calgary, we stopped at the Cananda Olympic Park. We saw the bobsled track from the famous movie Cool Runnings (we also saw the Jamaca bobsled at the Ranchman's).

We decided that while we were there, we oughta do some ski jumping too.

We returned to Lethbridge that night, and the next morning, after one more visit, we headed for home.

Canada Trip: Day 2

We were glad to leave the Flamingo Friday morning. We went to the Cardston Temple, and had an amazing experience. We went to the first session, which they start in the Terrestial Room for the elderly and handicapped. So we were unable to see the other three rooms, but we asked for permission to see the other rooms between sessions and were shown the Creation Room and Garden Room. It was really neat!

We then drove to Lethbridge. We stayed with Tom Snee and talked over dinner. We also went and met with a couple of people from Joseph's mission and Joseph gave Cathy a little tour.


When we were leaving the temple, there wasn't anyone around to take our picture so we decided to take one ourselves. So, the picture on the left doesn't have any water in it, it is the hood of someones truck. We hope they never find out that we used their truck as a tripod. We did go back to the front gates, and someone took the picture, which is on the right, for us.

Sid

A common and friendly phrase that we heard quite often from Sid, the neighbor across the street, "Glad you're my neighbor!" We loved Sid, and he always took good care of us. Sid passed away this weekend. Our hearts are saddened deeply at the lost of a beloved friend. Sid taught us to always reach out and to serve your fellow man. Despite his own faults, Sid emulated the Savior and had a deep concern for his neighbors. We hope that we can be like him and reach out with love to our neighbors and associates. Sid, we love you and miss you! "We're glad you're our neighbor!"

CanadaTrip: Day 1

We left for Canada May 14th at 5:00 AM. Nine hours later we made it to Glacier, it was the day before they were opening, and so we were able to drive portions with no one else around. It felt like a ghost town.

We were so excited to see this sheep. We saw a sign warning us about the sheep, but didn't think we would see one. We stopped on the side of the road and took this picture. A park ranger drove passed us while we did it, and gave us a funny look. We soon found out why...


...The road curved around, and on the other side, these sheep were scattered everywhere. This picture doesn't do it justice because there were at least 40 sheep. It was quite funny.

Below is elk that we saw, though the picture isn't that great.

If you look closely, you can see a deer in the trees. When we saw the deer, we stopped and watched it for a bit. Then it took off parallel to the road. We were able to follow along side it for sometime. It was really cool.

We then left Glacier, but before we got to the border, Cathy realized that she had changed her name on her license, but not on her passport. We were worried what that would mean at the border. Sure enough, we were stopped and asked to go in. It was an intimidating experience for Joseph, but Cathy remained calm and even carried on conversations that probably shouldn't be talked about at the border like the black market, smuggling, and drugs. Luckily, we made it through unscathed.

That night, we stayed in Cardston. There are three hotels in Cardston. We picked the one that didn't look the greatest, but wasn't the worst either (on the outside at least). It also ended up being the cheapest. We found out why when we walked into the room. We should have taken a picture, but forgot. We survived however.

Hair Cut

Joseph finally got a hair cut. Cathy was willing to buzz his head, and it looks a bit better. We used some of the hair cutting tools that his grandma gave us. Though it looked goofy it helped a ton with clean-up!

Our First Christmas

Our first Christmas was crazy! It was so much fun spending a lot of time with our families. We were so blessed to have missed the worse of the storms that week! We first went down to Joseph's family's, and enjoyed playing games and going to Temple Square. We then headed for Tremonton and stayed with Cathy's family. This is where we opened our Bosch Mixer and Grinder. Since then Joseph has been a mad man experimenting with the Mixer. He even has our little 5 year old neighbor asking for his cinnamon roll recipe.
When we had a break in the weather we made a quick trip up to Idaho Falls to visit Joseph's Grandma Belnap. We had a very Merry Christmas spending lots of time with the people we love and creating traditions of our own.