Tents. Scooters. Bears? Canada! (part two)

Day two and three were just as jam packed with activities as day one (which was last post) Our Canadian adventures continue!

We started our the second day of our trip by visiting the Cardston Temple.  We went to an early session and it was such a great start to our morning. That temple is so pretty! These are pictures I stole off the internet, but I couldn't resist! Our plans for the rest of the day were to go find a campsite in Waterton and set up camp. Then go to downtown Waterton and spend some time there. Our plans shifted when we found out the camp sites in Waterton had all been booked. So we had the idea of just camping on the ranch! Which turned out to be even better than we had expected.

 

We drove around the ranch looking for a good place to camp and we found a little grove of aspen trees with a great view of the mountains! Perfect! We brought the quad with all the equipment we needed to build a campsite. It was hard work! I had never done anything like that before. Just find a place to pitch tents and start building a campsite! Dad will be so proud of me......

 

We had some issues with the braches hitting us. A majority of what Ashley and I did was de-thorn, de-weed, and de-branch the place. 

 

Go Casey! 

It's so beautiful! haha

In line to get some ice cream! 

Yummmmm.

Just hanging out in Waterton. 

 

Ready to go see Red Rock on the scooters!!!

Cuties! 

Back at camp, our fire pit is awesome!

Home sweet home. 

Games!

Tin foil dinners! 

I can pretty much guess what is happening in this picture. Ashley is probably freaking herself out a little bit, thinking about the coyotes, wolves, and bears. Well all three of us girls were actually! Steve and the guys kept reminding us that there probably aren't any bears or wolves on the ranch. Maybe coyotes, but we shouldn't worry about it.  It was somewhat reassuring except for when we heard many noises during the evening...mostly cattle and for sure a bull. But still I think the guys were a little cautious too! Our game playing helped, and it always feels so much safer in a tent!

Gooooood morning!

Ashley did NOT sleep well, we totally got that! This is her explaining her awful night listening to cattle and horses come into our camp, not to mention a good number of coyotes howling. Paranoid Ashley is not a happy Ashley! Jonathan had a restful night on the other hand. haha.

Casey sad to leave! Or sad to be awake, either one.

When we got home that morning, we started talking to Steve's parents about our camping trip and how it turned out better than camping in Waterton.  Among other things, we weren't in the mountains so we didn't have to worry about bears or wolves! When we got to that part Brad just smiled and told us that he see's bears and wolves at the ranch pretty frequently. UM WHAT?! So all of that reassurance was pretty bogus, and looking back now I can sense that Steve knew it too! At least the guys took all the precautions "just in case".  We all thought that was pretty funny afterwards.

This was our last day in Canada, we spent our Sunday going to church and relaxing the rest of the day and playing games. Cami and Brad were such great hosts to our little party and we appreciated their great welcome into their house! We had a fabulous trip! Seriously one to remember! 

Guns. Gophers. Canoes. Canada! (part one)

Here we are again, another trip up to the Great White North! Lucky for us it didn't snow this time! Kidding. In fact we had the BEST WEATHER I have ever experienced coming to Canada. Steve even said we were there during the best week out of the whole year. It was so warm and I dare say even hot at times! Plus there was absolutely no wind! Which is a huge thing for Cardston (it is mercilessly windy there) Besides the fabulous weather, we experienced rolling green hills sprinkled with hay-bales, clear blue skies, huge mountains covered in evergreens, and some cool wildlife. We had a lot of activities planned, and in three days we checked everything off our list.

 The awesome part about this trip was that our really good friends Casey and Lindsay came with us! Also Ashley and Jonathan! They all hadn't been to Canada and got tired of us ranting about how pretty it is up there. So they decided to see for themselves, and I'm so happy they did :)

Steve's family's ranch. We spent a lot of time here. 

Playing with the ranch dogs! They really liked us. When we were driving on the ranch they ran right next to and in front of our car! We nearly ran over them, but they really wanted to see what we were up to!

Hunting Gophers!

I have never been shooting, let alone hunting! This was my first time doing both and it was SO fun! 

Gophers are really bad to have on ranches so it was okay for us to hunt them.

Linds defeated the hay-bale. They are hard to jump up on!

This guy was Jonathan's nemesis. He was going after him for a while, but then I shot him! Haha Jonathan was so mad, but he ended up shooting my gopher later. So now we are even. 

 

Yeah, he didn't feel like picking it up....

Time to quad it up! 

 

After shooting we headed up to Waterton to go canoeing! Waterton is a national glacial park in the mountains. It is gorgeous here! It also has this little tourist town that has an eastern European feel to it. I love it!  

This lake is partially in the United States (strait ahead where the glaciers are) So canoeing out of Canada and into the U.S was pretty neat!

Wow....

Whoops! (not)

 

They got him back pretty good. 

Again, the weather was more than great! Seriously no wind?! The water could not have been more glassy.  

Ashley and Jonathan spotted some risky fun....so we decided to join! Except the person who claimed the most risky rock was me. Just look at the size and angle of that rock! Seriously even turning my head made me wobble, but luckily I didn't fall in. But the worst happened and Lindsay decided to pose for the picture and SHE FELL IN! The water is freezing, but she was a champ and thought it was so funny! Hey at least we go the shot before she fell in! 

Lindsay after she fell in. Cool pic huh. 

Paddle five! 

 This guy was sitting right at the edge of the American side of the lake. Um pretty awesome right? We canoed so close to him and just watched very silently. It was so quiet it was amazing, and we were just watching this massive eagle. But then he leaped off the tree and flew over the lake. We literally heard his wings flap so powerfully as we watched him fly away. It was something that could have come strait out of a national geographic film! Probably one of the coolest things I have seen.