Living it up at Ashley Lake

Well, it was another wonderful Summer with the highlight of course being our time at Ashley Lake!  We just can't get enough! Every year we make so many wonderful memories there, so prepare yourself for picture overload.  It was hard to even narrow down my photos to this few of them to put in my blog!
  We got started early in the season this year, while the water was still a little chilly, but that definitely didn't stop us from doing anything!! When we first got there, the fish were migrating through the creek beside the cabin, and Lee and the kids were able to grab the nasty sucker fish right out of there with their bare hands!  Crazy!  Scarlett sure thought it was cool to hold a fish.

The kids always love the hot tub, especially at the beginning while the lake was still warming up!

And it was fun for us to put all 4 of our kids on the tube this year!  So fun that our youngest is now old enough!  To be honest, it was REAL nice not to have a young baby this year at the lake.  No naps to wait around for, and we could spend most our day playing in the boat.  The kids were pretty good at "self-entertaining" so it was way more relaxing than it has been in the past!

Love this picture of my beautiful baby girl!  Scarlett was seriously in heaven!

And Dakota was a sweet sister to help take care of her, and of course she absolutely loves being in the water! Dakota also happens to be an amazing climber, and was super excited that Grandma and Grandpa put in a climbing rope as an addition to the cabin this year!  Dakota climbs it like it's second nature to her!  I tried to get her to teach me her technique, but unfortunately it was not as natural to me!!  I sucked!!

Grandpa got a new boat this Summer - sad to get rid of the yellow Malibu that we all loved so much, but the new one was definitely not a disappointment!  It was so much fun to wake surf on the huge wake made by the new Surf gate!  And pulling up a skier was a breeze.

Scarlett spent hours playing with Lego this year too, it was great!

So fun to swim with Grandma when she took her daily swim!!

We overlapped a day with Jocelyn and Jeff's family so that we could all do Fireworks together on the Fourth of July!  It was short, but the cousins had a blast being together!  Love these sweet girls!

We started out the 4th with some Sparklers, which Scarlett thought was just great! She just kept saying "AGAIN!!"  More fireworks!!

 Then when it was dark enough, Lee and Jeff put on a great show for us on the dock!  They worked hard to plan what order to do things, how many to do at the same time, where to aim them, etc, and both burned their fingers, but said that was the price to pay to have a good show! It was a ton of fun. They let the kids pick some of the little fireworks and helped them to light them off.  I love these pictures showing their facial expressions of amazement and excitement!!

 

 Especially this one of Scarlett, it cracks me up!!  She seriously was running around saying "That was AWESOME!!!" "More Fireworks"!!

 We also enjoyed some bow and arrow target practice, some quadding, and some great Lily Pad action! The kids spend hours on that thing, it never gets old!  Especially when Grandpa or Daddy gets on it.  The best water toy ever!
  
  Love Scarlett's face expression in this one!  She totally loved it.

 My favorite thing (besides being behind the boat myself) is sitting in the boat and watching my kids do stuff on the water!  It seriously makes me so happy because I love it so much myself!  It is so fun to see how much they improve and learn each year!  Scarlett liked it too, but fell asleep on me occasionally!  And I didn't mind a bit! So sweet.

 The other new thing we discovered this year was that we could pick Huckleberries just up the hill from us!  We discovered it by accident kind of when we went on a walk with Grandma and Grandpa, but soon decided we needed to get some bowls and come back for more!!  And we did it again multiple times after that!  The kids all said it was one of their favorite parts of the trip!  We made Huckleberry pie, and syrup, DELISH!!

 Every year we seem to find some frogs around the cabin, and this year was no exception!  There's Griffin holding "Little Jeff" as he called him, and Dakota kissing the big nasty frog! EW!

 And of course who could forget Mexican Horse shoes? One of my favorite games, and this year Mason got big enough to compete with the adults!

 We also overlapped a bit with Ashlyn and Jeff, and it was a lot of fun too!  The kids sure love to bug Uncle Jeff and get him to chase after them.  He kept threatening to throw them in the water, and eventually followed through with it... it may not have had the response he had hoped.... oops!

 Thought this picture was cute of Mason, he often doesn't give a "geniune" smile for the camera!

 And here's our little climbing baby, taking after her big Sis!  She's being "Spiderman" as she says!!

 Lee decided to teach the kids how to use and Ax and chop wood this year... not really something I agreed with, but he seems to think it has to be done since he was using an ax at their age when he was a kid!!  Griffin sure loved it  In fact, he was kind of obsessed with it and wants to own his own Ax.  Crazy kid.

 He posed like this and said "Mom, take a picture of me doing this!" Obviously pretty proud, but the pose cracks me up!

 We got out the blow up hamster ball thing too!  I think it's pretty cool although I get too much anxiety over confined spaces to actually try it myself!!

 And of course my Dad can't resist blowing his mouth open with the vacuum blower! Ha ha. Classic!

Poor Lee, had tore his ACL in basketball in June, and is still waiting for surgery... CRAPPY!!  So he wasn't able to waterski this Summer at all! He was pretty sad about that, but at least he enjoyed being the official boat driver, and learning all about the new boat!!

 He also did attempt the Wake Surf carefully with a knee brace!  He maybe wasn't as careful as he should have been, he still attempted 360s, but luckily no harm done!!
 
He also decided he NEEDED to buy a Spear Fishing rod, even though I told him continuously that he would never catch anything, but he was determined to prove me wrong, and of course wanted to find a new sport to replace waterskiing! But guess what? Surprise, surprise, he never got a fish!

 I loved the wake surf behind this boat! So much fun!!

I figure a family that tubes together, stays together.  Love my family!!

 Lee also taught the kids to make their own fires!  They made some nice Log cabins and Teepees, but I think Dakota was the winner... even though the boys both say that they were.  And actually, I still think that Grandma is the best Fire Maker ever, and will keep her title!

 This was Family Home Evening around the fire!

Mason was the official Boat Lifter, who spun the wheel to lift up the boat... it was actually quite a tough job, but he was awesome at it.  Until Grandpa decided to buy an automatic lift.  Now it comes up with the push of a button!  But we miss the wheel :(

 Mason sure did well this year with his wakeboarding.  He always starts out the Summer scared to even get up, but by the end his confidence was up, and he was even trying to jump the wake a little!  He had some decent jumps actually!

He also surprised and amazed us all when he decided he wanted to try pulling up on one ski and slaloming this year.  He got it his second try and we were all screaming with excitement!  He even crossed the wakes!!  Atta boy!!

 Dakota did great too! She skiied on the "big skis" that weren't tied together!  Did great even though it looks like she was going to do the splits!  She was also a great little wakeboarder!  Didn't quite have the same nerve as last year, but she was still the most daring of all our kids.  She did some little jumps on the wakeboard too.

 And Scarlett learned a new trick this year too! She finally learned to swim by herself in her lifejacket! She used to be so afraid every time we let her go, but now she is totally proud of herself and asked to go swim all the time!!  It was really cute.
 
 As for our Griff, he sure acts tough and talks the talk, but.....

He started crying as soon as we got him ready to go and try skiing, and even though we were forcing him to do it, he just would let go of the rope on purpose so that he wouldn't have to do it!

 But eventually with enough bribery and coaxing, we got him to try skiing and wakeboarding, and he was a natural!!  He was always still a little nervous to go, and he certainly didn't want to stay up too long, but he was good at it.  He would let go after about 30sec to a minute and say he was SO TIRED!! Funny kid.

 Another highlight was the first of the Annual "Man Competition".  Lee and my Dad competed with Bow and Arrow (this picture below is my Dad pointing to the arrow in the bullseye pretending it was him who shot it), rope climb, frisbee golf, swimming underwater, and Chess.  It was a lot of fun for us all to watch!

 Here they are about to do the swimming competition.  That one wasn't even close!  My Dad seriously went about 5 times farther than Lee did underwater!!

But we all knew my amazing husband would pull it off in the end! Ha ha.  Here's my Dad's photo that we took to put on the Wall of Shame.

 Don't worry Dad, we still know you're amazing!  And to prove it, he did a cool waterski trick with Dakota!  He got up on skis with Dakota wrapped around the front of him, then gave her the rope to hold and had her lay back with her legs around him.  AWESOME.  She had a blast.

And here's their cute victory picture!

And guess who else was jealous and wanted to practice the trick with Grandpa?  Scarlett's definitely got potential! Ha ha

We were so sad to leave and close up the cabin for the winter.  But here's one more picture of the best view you will ever see.  LOVE it.

Piano Lessons and Soccer Wrap up

Mason and Dakota both took piano this year from Pam Lacusta and loved it (for the most part!) Getting them to practice was occasionally a challenge, but they did really well, and had a great recital at the church at the end of the school year.  They also all took Soccer since we were able to schedule them all on the same night - it was wonderful!  I don't have any pictures of soccer this year though... guess I forgot to take them! Looking forward to Summer and a break from all the activities!

WE ARE SPARTAN!!

   So we finally did it!! Back in the fall, we signed up for a "Spartan Race" to do on May 10 in Montana with a group of friends.  We anxiously and nervously awaited the day, and tried our best to train and get in the best shape we could!  And it was a good thing we did, because this race was TOUGH!!  It was over 4 miles, most of which was VERY steep hills / mountains!  And scattered throughout were various obstacles we had to get through.  Most of them, I found somewhat easy and even fun!  I was very nervous about the obstacles, but they turned out to be almost a "break" from the rough terrain and steep incline.  The straight ups are what killed me!!  There was a huge section of rolling / crawling under barb wire in the mud, it was so fun, I felt like I was in a movie.  And we had to climb a lot of things, carry logs and weights on our shoulders, wade through waist deep cold mud puddles, push over tree logs, do some tough monkey bars and roll under bridges. The only obstacles I couldn't do were a rope climb which was near impossible for girls, the knots were so far apart on the ropes, plus I am scared of heights so I wasn't even close!  Also there was a javelin throw and you only get one shot at it and it has to stick in the target without falling out.  Dang it, mine fell out, so I had to do the burpees!  If there's an obstacle you can't do, you have to do 30 burpees.  We made a last minute decision to stay with our spouses and THANK GOODNESS we did!!  It was an amazing bonding experience for Lee and I, and I was so grateful to have him encouraging me and sometimes dragging me along the way!!  He pushed me hard and helped me out whenever I needed it including doing half of my burpees!  At the end, I was so overcome with emotion and love for him, and was SO proud of myself for getting through it, and especially for doing as well as I did.  I finished the race in 1hr 30 min, which turned out to be in the top 18% for girls and we beat all of our friends. I could never have done it without him!
The race day was a little bit rainy, and quite chilly in the morning, but that turned out to be a real blessing!!  We got so hot doing the hills and stuff that we would have died if it was hot out!!

 What a fun group of friends we did it with, we all had so much fun.  We hung out the day before in Kalispell, ate out, did a little shopping, and hot tubbed at our hotel. (It was the Pratts, the Wants and the Irvines).

These pictures were taken during the race and posted on their website!  Kinda fun to see us in action!

This was us jumping over the fire at the finish line!!

 I can't even describe the RUSH we felt when we finished this race!  I didn't think the medal would excite me that much, but it seriously felt so good to earn it!!  It was such a rewarding experience and now Lee and I want to keep doing these races together.  We already signed up to do a "Spartan Super" in Red Deer in September.  We will see how it goes!  It's twice as long so I'm kind of nervous!!

 My amazing husband!!  I seriously love him so much.  It was so fun to do this together!!

Horsefly - The kids finally got to see Daddy's hometown!

 So as soon as I got back from my girls' trip, we left the next morning on the long trek to Horsefly BC for Lee's Grandma's funeral.  I have only ever been there once shortly after Lee and I got married, and the kids had never seen it, so it was a great opportunity to show the kids where Daddy grew up. It was also a good chance for Lee to see it one more time since really there wont ever be a reason to go back there again.  I just love the Horsefly sign, it's a classic!  Their mascot or whatever you call it has got to be the sweetest one I have ever seen!

 Horsefly had really emptied out and things were all starting to shut down and be sold, including their little church building!  It was up for sale for $125,000.  Pretty sad that now that all Lee's family have moved away, the branch has been totally wiped out.  It's amazing to think that they had enough of them to form the branch and get a building in the first place when he was growing up!

  Got some sweet pics with the Horsefly mascot on the Community Center!  I love it!

 And then we visited Lee's old school!  It went from Kindergarten to Grade 9.  He said before that school opened though, they had to take an hour bus ride to the school in Williams Lake!

 And last but not least, we visited the house and land where Lee lived.  There is a whole new house on the land, so taking a picture of it just doesn't do it justice, but this is a picture of his land.  It's looks quite pretty with a river running through it, and the cattle grazing in the background.  Lee's house was a tiny old hunting lodge that was really run down and sure didn't have much room in it.  I don't know how they raised 6 kids in it!  I guess that's why they all spent so much time running around outside on their land!
Anyway, if you're wondering why I didn't take more pictures of the town, I actually did take pictures of almost everything there is in the town.  Horsefly is puny!! It was great to see it though.
The funeral and hotels where everyone stayed were actually in Williams Lake.  It was sure fun to see most of Lee's family again, it really felt like it had been a long time since we've seen most of them!  We all had fun going out to eat, swimming in the pool, and hanging out.
It was a beautiful funeral, (although REALLY long), but lots of nice things were said of Lee's Grandma Pitcher, she sounds like she was an amazing woman.  She stayed very strong in her standards and was a great example to them all.  The grandkids and great grandkids all went up and sang Families can be together forever, and it was really emotional.  All of Lee's brothers and even his Dad were crying.  It was very touching to watch.

Afterwards, everyone met up at Grandma Pitcher's old house to go through her stuff and take any sentimental items they wanted.  Lee's uncle Neil got out the guitar and sang some old memory songs.  It was great, and man, our girls just LOVED it!  I haven't seen Scarlett stand that still since... well, never actually!
It was all a good experience and I'm so glad I was able to come and bring the kids.

Girls trip to Vegas!

So it seems I have created some form of tradition of going on a yearly girls trip with some of my friends!  What a wonderful husband I have who is always supportive of me doing this, and who doesn't even seem to worry about how much I spend... it really is fun to get away for a few days and enjoy spoiling myself... I know I probably don't deserve it!

This year I went to Las Vegas, and with a different group of girls.  I had originally booked my trip with 6 other friends, but just days before the trip, Lee found out that his Grandma had passed away and that the funeral was to be held while I was gone!  Obviously I wanted to be there to support him, and to help him out with the kids at the funeral!  So instead of having to cancel my trip altogether, I was fortunate enough to be able to just move it up a few days and to tag along with some of my other friends!  It sure worked out well.  Vegas was beautiful and had great shopping!  We didn't spend a lot of time on the strip (tried to stay away from the evil!), but did check out the sites one day.  For the first few days it was just me, Kimberly and Chelsea, and we had a lot of room to ourselves and enjoyed some quality time shopping, eating, sitting by the pool, and watching a free magic show.  Then we were joined by Jody, Shannon and Robyn, and we had a blast for the short time before I had to leave!  I feel so blessed to have such great friends!  These trips are great for really bonding and building strong friendships, and they also make me love and appreciate my husband and kids even more!