Canada, Day 1

We left Minot for Canada on Sunday morning.  First stop was the International Peace Gardens.

 First, we checked out the playground.

 The left half of their body is in Canada, the right half is in the USA

 Our international smooch

 The flowers were all in full bloom.  I think these were my favorites.

 Jonathan checking out some of the quotes in the Peace Chapel

 The boys viewing the 9/11 memorial.  These metal beams are from the World Trade Center

 My daisies are not quite this abundant

 While at the Peace Gardens, we made small talk with a man from Winnipeg.  (He had a dog that the kids wanted to pet).  He told us we should stop at Spruce Forest Provencial Park on our way to Winnipeg.  So we did!  We were being spontaneous.   It was one of those educational hikes, where there little stands throughout the trail with information on various plants as well as the history of the area, which is Aboriginal.  In the above pic, Eric is viewing 'dwarf mistletoe', which is a disease that affects many of the trees in the park.

 This was at the beginning of the hike.  Since we were in Canada, the trailhead map was labeled with kilometers for distance instead of miles.  It was 1.6 km to the sand dunes (the big draw of the portion of the park we were at).  I had to do 'running math'...if a 5K is 3.2 miles, then 3.2 K would be a little under 2 miles...we thought Megan could handle it (she tuckered out quite a bit at the Peace Gardens).

 We chose to take the 'challenging' option of the hike, which included some steep climbs.  The kids all took the 'crawling' hill.  Don and I took the one that had some makeshift log steps placed along the hill.

 Finally made it to the sand dunes!  The sand was very soft.

It was a very worthwhile side trip.  After leaving the park, we connected with the TransCanada Highway #1, which took us to Winnipeg.  We ate a yummy supper at the hotel restaurant, then splashed around in the pool.  We had a kids' suite, so there was a separate bedroom with 2 sets of bunk beds and a separate bathroom for the kids.  They loved it.

Minot birthday

We celebrated the boys' birthday in Minot on Saturday.  Grandma had a Skylanders cake for them.

Check

One thing on our summer To Do list is ditching the training wheels on Megan's bike.  Mark that one as a check

The boys roller bladed while I ran/walked along her side this morning.  I had to use a bit of tough love, as she wanted to rest every 5 revolutions of her pedals.    She'd get quite mad anytime I would let go of her.  It took a bit, but she did it!  The deal has been when she can ride 100' by herself we would get Dilly Bars (that's how we celebrated when the boys ditched the training wheels).
We had several 'so close' moments prior to her success in the video.  She would stop pedaling just when she would balance.  She told me she stopped because I wasn't cheering or encouraging her enough.  That is why I am laying the praise on a bit thick in the video!

Cook Farm

Saturday evening, we all gathered at Jerry and Ione's farm (where Tom and his family now live).  The kids and I were debating whether or not to head to the farm after our time at the lake.  We were pretty tired from the day before at the lake, as well as all the fun of fireworks and birthday activities the previous days.  We were getting ready to decide our plans when Jonathan heard that KFC was catering the meal at the farm.  To quote Jonathan: "That's a game changer".  So, we headed to the farm.

 A few of the great grandchildren of Bob and Irene Cook.

 Jonathan holding Karter, who is a week older than Kayla.  Karter made the trip up from Texas for the reunion.

 Eric and Camden

 My Mom and her siblings and sibling in laws.  My Dad is the only one missing in this pic.  Counting my grandparents' years of marriage, there are 441 years of marriage in the Bob Cook Family.

Eric found this crushed egg shell by the playset.  He asked me to smell it, telling me it smelled like poop and rotten eggs.  Um, no thank you.

Megan and Janaya.  Janaya is one year older than Megan.  They are good buddies.  Wish Texas was closer.

 Megan did not want a kiss from Uncle Whitey

 Marlene had lots of fun yard games for the kids to play

I asked the kids who they had the most fun playing with at the reunion.  Their answer was Carter and Kylie...the cousins that live in Bismarck that we rarely see.  We all agree we need to get together more frequently!

 Just missing Don in this picture!

The Cousins and some spouses

Maesse cabin

The extended Cook Family met at Todd and Shelly's cabin last week to celebrate Jerry and Ione's 50th anniversary.  The kids immediately went into the lake when we arrived at the cabin.  Jonathan came out of the water a few times to play kickball.  Megan left the water a few times to play with Kayla or the Barbies she brought.  Eric only came out for supper.

 Jonathan and his cousin Sam chilling out

 Eric loved the tubes!

 Megan and Kayla.  Kayla got to dip her feet in the water a little bit

 The boys and the 2 Samuels went 'tubing' behind the paddle boat.  The tubers kept giving the paddlers the 'go faster' sign.....

 Janaya splashing in to hte water

 Sunset

 Megan and Courtney watching for fish

A rare moment when Amy wasn't making Kayla cry

We stayed with Grandma Miller at the Cormorant Inn that night.  The kids immediately laid down on their beds!  All that lake time wore them out.

The 4th

The 4th of July is our favorite holiday as a family, which means it's really the only holiday Don likes and gets excited for.  We have our 4th of July traditions down to a T.  I don't even have to make 'to do' lists....we are that good at it.
We started our day, as always, at the Mandan parade.  We parked in pretty much the same spot I always park in.  We set up our chairs on Main Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave NW on the south side of the street (as always), and we were joined by the Flemmer/Jorgenson/Helm families (as always).  New to our group this year was Jess and Huxley (hey...we aren't so stuck on tradition that we can't let others join us!).  We were missing the Miller side of the family this year, just like last year....something that was not unnoticed by the boys.
After the parade festivities, we gathered back at our house for swimming, food, and fireworks.  It was the first time the Flemmers joined us for post-parade festivities.  We had the boys' b-day cake a day late with our supper.   Our 4th tradition is to grill pizzas for supper.  We also typically have cocktail meatballs during fireworks, but I was too tired to make em this year, plus, we were all still stuffed from supper.  Jonathan may have cried a bit when I told him I wasn't making them.

.  

 Sno cone cupcakes.  Thanks Pinterest.

 The Loot.  So fun to live in a town where we can light off fireworks!

 Jonathan and Eric teaching the young Flemmer girls how to play with explosives

 We lit off the parachutes in the lot behind our house.  Our trees have gotten too big to do this in our backyard

 BFFs

 Dual Roman candles.

 Megan is comforting the girls.  Their tears are fake and dramatic

Huxley watched the fireworks from a distance.  He was a bit scared.  

 This is Huxley's first year seeing fireworks (2011).  He must feel safe at the stop of our steps

Megan keeping Huxley safe.  Love this pic.  I can still hear his "oooooohhhhhh" when I look at this picture.