A Tale of Two Cameras Part 1: Digital

We lost our pocket-sized digital camera somewhere (I think in Montana) last winter, so we have relied on the kindness of others to share photos for occasions where we weren't willing to put the SLR at risk, like say, scout camp.
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But last weekend we really needed (don't lecture me on needs vs wants) two cameras, so I pulled out my dad's film camera for my day with the little girls and Ken took our digital camera with him for his hike with the big kids.
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Here is the remainder of our long weekend as told by the digital camera. (I don't have a knack for naming things - I know some of you would have names for the cameras but if I tried, and I didn't, all I would come up with would be *Digi* and *Filmie* so it is better that I leave that kind of thing alone.)
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The big-kid hike was to Crypt Lake. This hike begins with a ferry ride across Waterton Lake from the town. Ken, Jaclyn, and Steven all emptied their Camelbacks by the end of the hike - it may have had something to do with the 35'Celsius weather we had that day.

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(Chloe decided she wanted to make postcards from our photos, and now I can't reverse the editing that added text to this picture.)

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Here Jaclyn is climbing up the ladder to enter the tunnel. I'm not sure if the tunnel comes before or after the cliff with the cable bolted into the mountain to help you not fall to your death - I've never done this hike myself. I think Steven is giving us the 'hang loose' signal.
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Ken exiting the same tunnel. The tunnel continues to shrink in height untill tall guys like Ken have to walk while crouching at the end.
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Ken doing a little fly fishing at the top.

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Later in the evening, after we had reunited from our separate adventures:

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We spent a lot of time restraining Flex on his leash. We did let him off-leash once in awhile, but the deer in the area are known for attacking dogs (not even kidding) and it stressed Carmen far too much to have Flex out from under the protective care of his retractable leash.

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Saturday night we went back down to the lake for more dinghy time. (Oh, that's right, you haven't seen the film photos yet: you don't know there was dinghy time earlier - this somewhat replicates for you what it was like for me to wait for the pictures to be developed -have you forgotten what that is like? I had.)

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No pictures from Sunday. I'm either suppressing the evidence or we really didn't do anything. Believe what you want to believe.

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Monday we went to Red Rock Canyon. The water was so murky from the mudslides earlier in the week, and the day was much cooler. I really didn't think the kids would want to wade their way up the canyon. Did they? Didn't they? Can you stand the suspense till I post the photos from the film camera?

Jumpstart to the weekend

We took an extra long one this past weekend (5 days for Carmen, Chloe, and I).
By Friday night we had already:
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Cooked . . .
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and eaten campfire food
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including tin foil cherry pies!
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Stayed up late throwing sticks into the lake.

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Hiked,

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and rested.

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Then we met up with old friends at the top of Bear's Hump who came prepared with peanuts. (It is such a no-no to feed the wildlife in a national park! The people we ran into are locals and it seems they do it all the time.)
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Spotted our first of six bear sightings.
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We also went to our peanut-toting friends' ranch where Carmen rode horses, Steven made a kill (grape Crush), and I shot my first handgun (crazy).

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Friday night we went out to eat and then saw a local production of *Singin' in the Rain* where we adopted our new favorite tongue-twister:

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Moses supposes his toes's are roses, but moses supposes errrrroneously!

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One Sunday Evening

Jaclyn felt crafty,
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and ready for school to start.
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So she embroidered and applique'd new subject labels onto a binder from last year. I think this one used to be for French class (the previous label was Sharpie-d onto the spine).

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I am enjoying her blending of Arts & Science. (It's cracking me up a little.)

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Telephoto Lens

(file under essential equipment for parents of older children)
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I borrowed my mother-in-law's telephoto lens this week for two reasons:
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1. To avoid embarrassment. (ie: Is that your mom???)
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Jaclyn signed up for rowing this summer. (Ken's reaction: 'How Ivy League of her.' )
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2. For my own personal safety. (ie: Not getting tackled.)
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Steven made the Bantam team last night! (Equipment hand-out tomorrow followed by a practise. We're arriving early to make sure this year Steven gets a helmet that comfortably fits his melon.)

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Now or Never

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Our new baby:
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Well, at 5'10" she's no baby, but I'm keeping the leather booties on her foot pedals for now, regardless.
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The piano doesn't belong to Jaclyn, but the timing of buying it does. Jaclyn completed her RCME Grade 10 Piano with First Class Honors (84!) and is now preparing for her ARCT Performers Certificate which will likely take her 2 years to accomplish.

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Why would I buy a grand after she moves away to college?

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(Unless I bought it 2 years from now to keep her home for college.)

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(OH!)

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(Too late now.)

A little Stampede entertainment

(the other side of Chloe)



I only caught a snapshot, but her aunt has video. It gets entertaining around 35 seconds and then really everything after 1min15secs. She drew quite a crowd!

Chloe's baptism

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The most anticipated baptism in our house, without a doubt. Chloe says she waited for this day since she was six, and I'm sure it's true. She pulled the executive secretary by the hand around the building until she found her dad so that they could set up the baptism interview. She planned the baptismal service in her 'book', and then called her aunts, uncles, and grandparents to ask them to participate as she had planned.

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And yesterday she was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her dad.

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We had wonderful support from the ward: our home teachers were there, a past and present primary teacher of Chloe's, a friend from primary, as well as the primary president.

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Congratulations, Chloe. We are proud of you.

Road trip(s)

Ken at Ride the Rockies a few weeks ago

Today Jaclyn and I are off to YW's camp, and Ken is taking the rest of the kids to celebrate Canada Day.
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Happy First of July everyone!

CAMP CHLOE

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Chloe celebrated her birthday today (a couple of weeks early) with her friends before they all head off for summer vacations.
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We invited them to CAMP CHLOE for the afternoon. (Love the dollar store.)
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Carmen and Chloe and Jaclyn worked hard all morning getting ready for the camp. Here Carmen and Chloe pretend to roast marshmallows on the Oreo Sippers campfire cake.
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The campers were so delighted to make their own trail mix and shake it up in a ziploc before we headed out for our hike.
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We walked together to Fish Creek. The hike back up the hill earned them their hiking badge.

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My Alberta rose.
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Jaclyn taught camp songs to the girls while Carmen prepared the nature scavanger hunt. Jaclyn and Carmen were the best camp counsellors!
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I printed out the scavanger hunt list onto paper bags for each of the campers. (I'm sure I saw this idea from someone on my sidebar . . . )

Once the campers found everything on their list they earned their nature badge. You totally couldn't do this party with boys who are really going to be cub scouts one day - the value of the badge would be totally lost.

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Ojo de Dios - a classic camp craft. Later Carmen made a mini one for a necklace pendant with toothpicks and embroidery floss.

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Erica was only serious about the craft - silly for everything else, of course!

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The cookie campfire was difficult to blow around - leaving Chloe with 4 boyfriends, much to her horror.

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And of course the final gift had to be opened with her teeth. It is funny to me when the kids create their own traditions. I really don't know where this came from?

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Happy Birthday (Party) Chloe!

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See you next year!

Just when I think I can't love our school or our teachers more, they go and do something like this:
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As we pulled out of the parking lot today on our last day of school all the teachers stood at the corner to wave and call good-bye to us as we drove off. I almost teared up over it - I can't imagine what it will be like leaving this school for the last time seven years from now.

Most Dedicated

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Last night was our jr. high awards night - Steven kept me hopping in and out of my seat with my camera throughout the evening. He was awarded the Phys. Ed. Award, Jr. Boys Basketball Most Dedicated Player, Citizenship, and a drama award for sound tech. He was also recognized for being an honors student and got a certificate with 26 winnet (participation) stickers.
I love that the Phys. Ed. award is an 'academic' award because it is an honor for the top mark in the class. (Although until this year I sorta thought it didn't belong in the academic awards. Ha!)

Outstanding Female

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(We like to think so)
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A few weeks ago Jaclyn was notified by the school that she had been nominated for Grade 10 Citizenship, Grade 10 Outstanding Female, and the Principal's Award. And then, days later, someone from the awards committee gave me a call and invited me to the academic awards ceremony for grade 11 because Jaclyn would be receiving the French 20 Award, a grade 11 subject she studied this year.

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We weren't invited to the grade 10 academic awards ceremony, which was held an hour earlier, but we decided to attend anyhow to cheer for Jaclyn's friends.
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Well, it's a good thing we did, because they don't have you stand at the front this long for the French 20 award. I had to scramble for my camera when Jaclyn was honored as the Outstanding Female for Grade 10 in academics and school & community extracurricular involvement.
They just forgot to call and invite us to the Grade 10 Awards.
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It was awesome, actually, because it was such a surprise, and I couldn't stop laughing about it all through the next hour at the grade 11 awards. I'm glad Jaclyn is such a good friend, and maybe good sport, that she would want to go to an awards ceremony she didn't think she was involved in. I would have been choked to have missed this!

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Pancake Breakfast

One of our favorite school teachers is heading to Africa this summer to inservice local educators on teaching methods. As a fundraiser for her trip our school put on an early Stampede Breakfast for $5/plate.



Carmen was the only kid in our family to hear the announcement that the fundraiser was a western theme. Chloe jumped at the chance to dress up, and was even more delighted that Carmen's out-grown boots were up for grabs. (The fringed vest has made several more appearances at school since then.) Steven was not so excited to dress western - he was a little concerned no one else in the junior high would even know, let alone act upon, the 'boots-optional' dress code. So he played it safe. (If you took his sisters out of this picture would he look western at all? No, he would not.)

Jaclyn got sick this week, which shouldn't have come as a surprise considering she got sick during finals week in January also. (From now on she is starting a COLD-FX regime at the end of each semester.) She wrote her last school final today, but has her Royal Conservatory Grade 10 piano exam tomorrow morning. The Royal Conservatory is a nation-wide music education and examination standard in Canada. Quoting your Royal Conservatory grade might compare to quoting your SAT score. (?) (I don't really know if it compares at all.) (It's the closest thing I can think of, but we don't have ACTs or SATs or the like here.) Mostly I just threw in the comparison because I bought Jaclyn an SAT prep book this week and I wanted to tie it in somehow. She's planning on going "somewhere warmer than here" for college so we are rapidly learning about American college-entrance examinations. It is crazy to think that 6 months from now my baby could have an SAT score.

Steven has no exam writing in his immediate future. In our junior high if you achieve honor roll in a class you don't have to write the final exam, and he is completely exam exempt! Yee-haw! (to stay in keeping with the cowboy spirit of this post) (although my real reaction was: Hallelujah!) Today was his last day of classes - he will spend the next week-and-a-half trying to sleep through Carmen and Chloe getting ready for school in the morning. Although, I'm thinking maybe I should get to sleep in and he can see the girls off to school. (Just checking to see if you're reading my blog, buddy.)

I'm so done with school

My stress level and frustration with homework is suffocating me.
It is time for summer break!
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Homework in June is not as fun as it looks.

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Today I scrubbed a thousand feet of tile grout

But last Saturday I got dressed up and went for a walk in the park with my family.
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We met up with a talented photographer, Tere (say: Terri). She has an adorable personality and made the family photo shoot really fun. The kids were happy to do it (that's how good she is) and they're volunteering to do it again next year (shocker!).
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As amazing as Tere is, she still had to deal with pulling together six people into natural poses and smiles. I don't know about your family, but in my family that's a challenge.
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It was easier to get good results with smaller groups. (da girls)
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Me and my man.
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Da boys.
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Individual shots went the best:
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Jaclyn
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Steven

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Carmen
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Chloe
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Another stab at a family shot.
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And we're done!

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Next time I'm going to have to hire a videographer to capture Tere at work: "Work it baby!" "I luove it!"

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