Life in Canada

Jill, Hanna, Lucy, Carly ready for church on our first Sunday in Canada.
They even sang "O'Canada" in church that day.

Moving to a new place is like jumping in a cold lake. It is refreshing but it takes getting used to and sometimes you start to feel warm and other times you want to get out.

But mostly things are great in our new life.

*We get to hang out with family.

Grandpa Buck giving wagon rides behind Speed, the donkey


Austin, Carly & Grandpa Buck

Celebrating Leighton's birthday with DELICIOUS ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.
Leighton would have been 32.

Grandpa Buck & Grandma Martha hanging at our house on a Sunday afternoon

Carter, our cute cousin that never stops talking

*We are closer to the ranch that Austin goes to where he trains horses. This summer we all went for branding week.

Jill at the branding where she got to hold "the bucket" of Rocky Mountain oysters

Jill and Hanna at the branding

Austin holding down a calf at the branding

*Jill and Hanna went to basketball camp at the high school. They really had tons of fun, made new friends and played hard. Jill got an award for Best Shooter. We are working on converting from Mustangs to Cougars. It's rough.

*For Canada Day, I took the girls and we left the ranch and went to Elkwater to swim in the lake. It was super fun. That night we went to a small town of 4 people (Orion) and watched fireworks. People come from all around to watch. They were impressive for a small town.

Jill and Hanna at Elkwater on Canada Day

Lucy in the sand at Elkwater

Carly at Elkwater

*We found the perfect short term place to live. It is an old farm house that has been updated (new carpet and paint) and it is right outside of Cardston but we are out on a farm with lots of room to roam. We look out at the Cardston Cemetery. Plus we have fabulous landlords that are nice, take good care of us, let us use their hot tub and Waterton pass.

Our cute farmhouse we are renting

The view of the cemetery from our front window

Hanna and Roxy

The view of Waterton National Park that we see on our way to church. Our church is in this picture in a hamlet called Leavitt. We are in the Leavitt Ward. Guess what our Bishop's name is? Bishop Leavitt Guess what the Relief Society President's name is? Sister Leavitt Guess what the Young Men's president's name is? Brother Leavitt

A Message to Me Today

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard,
Tis not so, All is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward, if we now, shun the fight.
Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, Our God will never us forsake.
And soon you'll have this tale to tell, All is well, All is well.

The Big Move

The time finally came for our big move to Canada. With very mixed emotions, we packed up all of our stuff and left Utah on June 21, 2010.

We had many good-bye/last chance get-togethers:
*A trip to the Homestead with my family

*A boating trip with my K-1 roommate friends

A super warm day - can't you tell?

*Going out to breakfast with my aerobics friends

*Jill and Hanna had their school friends over for an evening with lots of laughter and screaming

*A quality dinner with MC basketball friends (Crosbies, Stewarts, and lots of MC basketball girls)

*A hot dog roast with the Summers at the river bottoms in Paradise

Bonnie Summers & Lucy roasting marshmallows

We were given many going away gifts (which were totally a surprise) such as an
afghan, cowboy quilt & pillow, tons of treats and coloring books for our trip. THANKS!!

We had lots of help to pack and clean, and by noon our horse trailer and Buck & Martha's horse trailer were loaded with no room to spare and we were ready to roll. My van was also packed to the roof.

Packing/cleaning crew (part of them)

We left a little room for Carly in the van

The trucks & trailers (our version of U-Haul)

We had an exciting trip to Canada.

First, Grandpa Buck got pulled over for speeding in a construction zone because his truck has no speedometer, which was so ironic because his truck doesn't go over 55 mph, so we enjoyed a slow version of our trip north.

We stayed the night in Dillon, Montana and enjoyed swimming and Pizza Hut.

The next day Grandma Nunn was helping Kaden (Sarah's son who came with Grandpa & Grandma) get a blue raspberry slushie when the machine splurted blue sticky all over her and the floor. Later that day she was standing next to the truck when Carly kicked a black cherry shasta can off the truck that exploded right by her.

When we were almost to Cutbank, Montana, we hit a rain and hail storm like I have never seen. It was really coming down. It was scarey to drive in. The poor dog, Roxie, was in the back of the truck and was drenched.

A picture Jill took during the storm - we were following Austin.

We finally made it to the border.

We had to stop at the U.S. side to export our vehicles (a complete story by itself, since we only realized a few days before we left that we needed to complete the paperwork for this - thanks to a few tender mercies and a day of tracking down paperwork, we got it sent in on time).

I was totally shaking as I handed Officer Bugg ( a stout, African American border patrolman) our paperwork. Luckily, no problems and done in just a few minutes.

Then to the Canadian Border. The two border patrol workers were angels with guns (Austin called them). One lady was from Buck & Martha's old ward and one from their new ward. They were helpful, kind and professional. They said we were well-organized and prepared with all of our paperwork. A little more than an hour later, we were Canadians.

As soon as we got to Grandpa & Grandma's house, Hanna said, "I want to go home."