Catching Up with Chris and Paula!

After an exciting week with Lisa and Grant and a fabulous time Stampeding, we spent the weekend together at Grant’s mom’s trailer in Sundry. With a great playground and lots of space for bike riding, the kids thoroughly enjoyed tearing around and having the freedom to come and go as they pleased while the grown-ups hung out together. In the afternoon, we took a leisurely walk down to the river where we all through sticks for Kipper and enjoyed watching him as he tried to swim back to us through the strong current. After wading in along the banks, the kids decided it would be more fun to lay down in the gentle current and float downstream. Braedon and McKenzie had so much fun, that they returned the next morning with Shawn to try out the boogie boards. In true Dillon fashion, we capped off a great day with a couple rousing games of Euchre. Shawn and I are proud to say that the Ontario crew held strong and beat the Calgary folks two games to one!

After hanging out on Sunday and stopping in to visit some of Lisa and Grant’s friends on the way back to town, we arrived at my step-brother Chris’ house late on Sunday night. Although Chris and I spent most of our teen years living together in Oro, until this week, we had not seen each other in almost 10 years and were both really happy to finally have time to catch up. Chris’ kids Seamus (13), Kiah (9) and Emma (8) have enthusiastically welcomed our guys into their home and we have all enjoyed watching the kids connect and interact with each other. On Monday, we loaded up both families and headed out to Drumheller where we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum. It was fascinating and combined with dinner out was a fantastic way for us all to get to know each other. Although the dinosaurs were amazing, it was probably even more fun to watch the kids as they bustled piggy-back from exhibit to exhibit in groups of two and three and shared their discoveries with each other.

On Tuesday, we hung out as a group at Chris and Paula’s home in Calgary and enjoyed a day of sunshine in the back yard. The elastic guns that we picked up way back in Colorado continue to be a big hit, and the adults managed to balance conversation with the constant need to duck in the face of an invasion. After much provocation, Shawn and Chris finally retaliated and I got to watch a very humourous and impromptu “Battle Royale” take place in the kitchen and living room. On Wednesday, Shawn and I took the kids to a nearby water park and we all had a blast riding the waterslides and challenging ourselves in the wave pool. Yesterday, we headed to Heritage Park, a local western pioneer village. Although the history and exhibits were all really neat, I think what we all liked best was that most of the shops in the little town are still actually operating and that we were able to purchase some yummy baked goods at the bakery and to take home some sweets from the general store!

This morning, we plan to reconnected with Lisa and the kids for breakfast and another visit and will spend the weekend hanging out with Chris, Paula and the kids before departing on Sunday for Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump in Southern Alberta. We are continuing to have an amazing trip, and are finding it hard to believe that we will be home in just over three weeks. Wow!

Tammy