William and Angela Part 3

Yesterday's adventures included breathtaking views from the Hoodoos trail and the loop around Lake Minnewanka, but after riding 20 miles over all types of terrain (and being rained on during the last hour of the trip and almost freezing), William and Angela decided that they needed a gentler activity for this morning.  So far they had seen elk and/or caribou, deer, bighorn sheep, marmot, and numerous types of birds, but they were still hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear.  They decided to paddle by canoe from the Bow River up to Vermillion Lake in hopes of finding some more wildlife to admire.

A few minutes into their trip they came across this deer feeding near the banks of the river.  Can you see him hidden in the grasses?

It took about 20 more minutes for the two to reach Vermillion Lake.  The mountains formed a bowl around the lake, so that no matter which way you looked, you always saw cliffs and peaks.

After taking lots of pictures and general silliness (though nothing so silly as to cause them to capsize in the 8 degrees celsius water), they decided to be own their way back down the river.

All of a sudden Angela noticed a furry ball on the side of the river and they immediately did a U-turn to get a closer look.  Do you see their furry friend hiding under the bushes?

Right when the canoe was within striking distance, the muskrat looked up at them and casually dove into the water.  He started swimming right towards their canoe, which gave Angela a little start, but before she knew which action to take he had disappeared under their canoe never to be seen again.

 Can you find him under the water? Look closely...

It wasn't long after the muskrat ordeal when they saw a bird soaring high overhead.  They noticed immediately his white head, and both stared in amazement at the Bald Eagle playing in the heavens above.  Though they watched him play for many minutes, soaring this way and that, they weren't able to take a reliable photograph.  So...you just have to take their word for it.

Well, that was the end of the canoeing adventure, and I am sad to say that neither William or Angela ever spotted a bear that day.  Nonetheless they were happy with the wildlife they came in contact with.

After returning the canoe, William walked back up the mountain, past the tee-pee, to the conference center to listen to presentations and prepare for his own.  Meanwhile, Angela decided to take one last adventure on her own.  As soon as the Sulphur Mountain bus drove through the town, she hopped on, and enjoyed the view to the Upper Hot Springs.

The Upper Hot Springs are natural mineral springs that keep a consistent, year-round temperature of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is a historic site, and so Angela played the part by renting a historic swimsuit to wear.

Then she climbed in the pool and enjoyed the hot springs and an amazing mountain view.  She floated on her back, then on her stomach, and then did a few twirls in between.  All in all it was lovely and quite worth the trip.

 Then it was time to meet back up at the conference center to listen to William perform his paper, and support him as he received the Gilbert Fite award, which was a whole 'nother adventure... full of close encounters with the unpredictable creatures known as "agricultural and rural historians."

When the dinner was over, even though it was 8:30, they still had two hours of daylight left, so they took a meandering path down the mountain, and then a lazy stroll through the town, and said good-night to Banff.

 They went to bed with a happy, yet sleepy feeling in their gut.  They would miss the Australia of Canada (something they joked about because so many 20-30 year-old Australians live and work in Banff. Most of the servers and salespeople were from down under.)

Cheers, Mate.

William and Angela Part 2

On the next day, William and Angela traded in their easy riding cruisers for a pair of fancy front suspension mountain bikes. They started off by the Bow River. 

They kept on riding up the mountain to get a better view of the castle. 

They kept riding up, and stopped to lean against a fence.
They wondered who else might be the residents of this kingdom?  

It was a beautiful kingdom.

Calypso Orchids live here.

And Indian Paintbrush.

Angela looked across the river and saw a castle. 

Time for lunch.

Bighorn Sheep live here. Sometimes in groups. 

And sometimes all alone.

They rode up, and up, and up. 

Elk live here -- or are they reindeer? -- two calves and one cow. And somewhere a bull, though we did not see him. elk bugle 

a marmot looked on.  

William and Angela

William and Angela were traveling in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada in a little town called Banf.  They decided to set out by bike in hopes that they might find a small mountain peak to ascend and admire the view.

Finding the perfect peak was a difficult decision since the snow-capped mountains surrounded them on every side.

After much deliberation, they finally agreed upon ascending the short peak to the Banf Conference Center where William would later be presenting a paper and receiving yet another award.

They were both huffing and puffing the entire 1/2 mile to the top, and at one point they even needed to stop next to an Indian tee-pee to take some deep breaths.  Thankfully, they were unseen by the natives, and were able to continue the trek to the top.

The top was not so much a top as a middle, but it was the end of the road, and as you can see from the map below, the Conference Center is sprawled out along this little peak.

The road that took a good twenty minutes to ascend only took a few minutes to descend.  It gave both William and Angela such a thrill that they agreed to rent mountain bikes for the entire day tomorrow.  If they are lucky, they may even catch a glimpse of a bear, cougar, bighorn sheep, deer or elk...  Stay tuned for more news from their adventures.

Painting Rocks

The other day was for painting rocks.  Big sister painted a turtle and a ladybug, while brother painted entire rocks.

 But being the independent artist that you are, you said, "Ha!"

And you busied yourself with a new project.

And when you were finished you entreated me to admire your work.

 Thankfully brother was there to prepare the pool...

Dear Hubry

I was thinking how it's been difficult to have conversations while you've been gone since we both have different things going on in the evenings different nights, and you only have 10 minute breaks during the days.  I thought it would be lovely to write you a letter and send it to the hotel, but I wasn't sure you would get it in time at this point.  So, I thought I'd surprise you with a letter on our blog (if you find it):)

I've been very blessed by our peace (especially mine) since you've been gone.  I know this is in answer to many prayers, and I definitely feel like it is a testimony to God's grace, as I've not always felt this peaceful while you're away.  (Just to be clear, I still want you to come back) :)

I've been noticing a few things about myself this week.  One humorous thing is that I do not like to empty the dishwasher.  We know this, right?  I have no problem loading the dishwasher, but there's something about waking up in the morning and feeling like there's a job waiting for me to do.  I am realizing the extent of my distaste for this task in that I have yet to use the dishwasher the whole time you've been gone.  Every dish has been washed by hand, neatly stacked in the dish drainer, and as soon as possible put away in the cupboards.  I feel so happy going to bed knowing that the job of emptying the dishwasher is not waiting for me first thing in the morning, showing me how behind I am...

The kids received an unexpected package today.  It was our usual 5:00 walk to the mailbox, and it was Bro's turn to open the box.  To everyone's delight, there was another key inside the box.  After much squealing we discovered a package from Missy J.  We treasured the package on our walk home, and sat down together to open it.  Inside was a sweet letter thanking Songbird for her Valentine's cards, and then three (I'm assuming hand-knit) stuffed animals - one for each of the kids.  Well, that pretty much made their day and they spent the rest of the evening making / finding clothes for their new friends to wear and serving them "dinner" on the dress-up box.

Today Songbird chose Green Eggs and Ham as her book to read, and she read it to me while I worked on our June calendar.  I was struck with how far she's come with her reading - so much less dependent on my help.  It has taken so much work to get to this point, and today she asked if it could be time to do her reading, and even said that reading was her favorite thing.  I couldn't help but cast a hidden smile.

Yesterday Elsbeth came over so I could go running.  She worked on puzzles with Songbird and Bro while Raindrop took a super nap.  When I came home I took Songbird running with me.  She was so eager, saying how she was going to make it all the way to the power lines this time, how she felt so wonderful, how she wanted to go running two - no three times today - how she was feeling soooo great.  I had to remind her that it took a lot of breath to talk so much and she might want to conserve her energy for the run.  She was running faster than me (quite proudly) and at one point said, "Mom, I go in front, remember.  I'm faster than you."  She puts her all into whatever she is feeling :)

Bro has been wanting everything to be "just so."  He really wanted to go running with me, too, but he couldn't get over the fact that his shoes did not look exactly like mine, and his shorts did not look exactly like Songbirds.  It was quite paralyzing for him - so much so that the run never ended up happening. On the other hand, I've been noticing some softening in his heart with some of the areas we've been talking over with him.  He's been quicker to listen and respond, and checking himself with some of the complaining and whining.  He's also been praying at every meal something like this, "Jesus, help me to love my Mama and Papa and Sisters, and please help baby Nate to gain weight."  He still wears his kilt every day and night, in case you're wondering :)

Raindrop has been cutting two teeth and chewing on her hand a lot.  She's been really fussy at times, and hilarious at others.  She's been walking around the house saying, "hot" and "oh deyor" (oh dear) and wo,wo,wo,wo,wo all day long.  Today while I was making the calendar she was sitting across the table from me "playing" with all the ink pads and stamps she could get her hands on.  When Joy arrived for lunch Raindrop was pretty much covered in green and silver ink, naked form the bottom down, and stamps were strewn all over the floor.  I looked up and smiled, "welcome into our beautiful chaos."  She was so gracious to offer to come and be with us for a while, and I really enjoyed her company and getting to know her better.  Speaking of Raindrop, she is with me as I type, avoiding an impending poop. :)  She also has a cold, or else it's part of the teething issue - who knows.  Hopefully she'll go to bed early tomorrow night when I'm hosting Bible Study.

For me, I've really been soaking in James' words via this week's sermons on communication and worry - especially the communication one.  Have you listened to it yet?  There's a lot of good stuff there that I hope we can talk about more, but it's interesting how Keller says slander is not a form of lying, it is a form of murder.  I especially found his description of a "judging spirit" to be helpful.  You know you have a judging spirit when you have a fault-finding habit of mind, when you criticize someone and they are destroyed or crushed, when you enjoy telling people about their faults or hearing about them second-hand, and when you go beyond the facts and impute motives all the time.  I am hoping to spend more time dissecting this.  As Galatians 5:6 says, "we are to speak the truth in love." His encouragement is this: on the cross the truth and love meet.

Aside from this I've been spending my time at night (and sometimes into the early morning hours as I haven't been settling to bed well) on little organizational tasks, paying bills, reworking chore charts, watching Call the Midwife.  I know we shut it down after the first episode, but people keep recommending it to me, so I thought I'd give it another go.  I'm actually liking it.

Tomorrow we're off to a picnic at Wolf Neck with the Williams.  I am hoping for glorious weather and visible Osprey :) Oh, and today we discovered Forget-me-nots growing in between the yards.  We were all excited to spot a new wildflower...

Much Love,
Wifey

New York

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of accompanying Hubry to an award's banquet in New York City.  It was made possible by my amazing friend, Tammy, who offered to babysit all three of my children for three days!!!  You can read about their adventures over here at her blog if you're interested :) http://lifeasiknowit-tammy.blogspot.com/2013/05/okie-fest.html

The last time we had gone on a trip alone without the Littles was exactly two years earlier.  I was pregnant with Raindrop, and I accompanied Hubry on a research trip to New York and New England.  Little did we know that we'd be moving to New England one year later.  Anyway, it was fun going back to the Big Apple together to celebrate the Big Peach.  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The trip itself was not restful, as the city exudes busyness and importance, and Hubry and I were both feeling a bit nervous about the impending celebration.  Yet I am still so thankful to have been alongside him.  I am also sooo thankful that his sister, Charlotte, came up for the event as well.  She was such a rock for me at the dinner - someone to lean on and hide with.  I have decided that "mingling" with an open bar and a room full of historians is not my cup of tea.  But Hubry seemed to mingle with the best of them with ease (though he says he didn't actually feel at ease).

The dinner itself was much better, aside from the fact the Hubry was seated across the table from me and Charlotte.  Very, very weird.  We couldn't participate in any of the same conversations because we were too far away from each other.  Charlotte saved the day again because we were together and she's such a fearless conversationalist.  Hubry did a wonderful job with his 5 minutes of remarks, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who was awarded a lifelong achievement in the field of US History, was most inspiring.

The next morning we met Charlotte and headed over to the Cloisters.  It was such a quiet, restful spot in the middle of such a busy city.  I wish we had been able to spend more time there, but alas we only had 1.5 hours or so.  It was also sweet to visit with my cousin and her family again, and to meet some college friends for a delicious Italian lunch.

Of course, I didn't take any photos of us all dressed up, but I did take a lot of pictures of the pretty herbs at the Cloisters :)  I am so thankful for Hubry, and astounded at God's grace to him through the Allens Nevins Prize...