Catch Up

Jill started her high school rodeo career. If all of our kids enter high school rodeos, we will go to high school rodeos for 14 years. Her first rodeo was in Pincher Creek - not her best rodeo ever.

Jill turned 15 years old! We had steak and potatoes and then went to Waterton for ice cream cones.

Grandpa and Grandma got home from their mission. 

After a few minutes of being home, Grandpa said, "If Nauvoo wasn't so far away, I would go back." It is a huge adjustment to come home from a mission. Reality isn't quite as fun as Nauvoo.  They gave great Sacrament meeting talks about their mission.

Hanna had a great volleyball season. Her team improved a lot with their great coach Coralee Williams.

Austin and I went to dinner and a movie for our 17th anniversary. 

Spartan Race - Calgary

In February when we signed up for the Spartan Race, it sounded like a good idea. Austin even thought it sounded fun. It was a crazy summer with a trip to Nauvoo and moving to a new house, so going to Calgary for a day to run a race seemed crazy. But it really turned out to be a fun day. Austin and I did run or bike in the mornings to train for the race.

The Spartan Race we signed up for was a 5k obstacle course.

This is our Cardston race friends. We all signed up together as a team called the Wind Warriors.

Our awesome cheerleaders - and Hanna.

I rocked the spear throw. My spear stayed in the hay bale - luck really.

The race had way more mud than I expected. I thought there would only be one or two mud holes. There were lots more than that.

Austin stuck with me through the whole race. It is really much easier to do some of the obstacles with teamwork.

As crazy as it sounds, it really was fun. Almost everyone who ran it said they would do it again.

Our Dream Came True

Ever since we got married, we have dreamed of owning a house and land. Our dream is finally coming true.  We had been living in Austin's parent's house while they were on their mission. We starting watching for possibilities, and then Rod Olsen told us to call about this house. It wasn't even for sale. Harry and Sue Olson bought it to live in when they came from Calgary to work at the temple. Now they work at the new temple in Calgary. After weeks of fasting and praying for Harry and Sue, they decided to sell it to us. 

It is the perfect location, only about 3 miles out of town, only about 1/2 mile off the highway on a quiet road with only 2 other houses. It is surrounded by trees and it is at the base of a hill - great for living in a windy place. We have a lake and a pond on our 60 acres.

The house was built in the 50s but Olsons had renovated most of it, except the kitchen cupboards. Someday I will get new ones.

Here are pictures from the day we moved in...

There are a few projects we need to finish - like the basement ceiling.

The view of our lake from our front porch.

Plus an awesome treehouse!

Jill and Hanna needed a new ceiling installed and their room painted. We did finish that project before we moved in. Thanks to Brad Sommerfeldt for helping us with the ceiling.

Our guest house - now everyone should come to Canada and visit us.

Hanna had a back-to-school party with her friends. They played mantracker on our new land. Jill, Austin and Payden Olsen were chasing them on horses.

Carly was a biking mantracker.

We love our flag poles - one for the Canada flag, one for the American flag.

Jill took this picture of the sunrise the other morning from our front window. We have two owls that live in our trees.

Every day we wake up and are so thankful for our house and land. We know it is not coincidence. The Lord truly blessed us.

A Trip to Banff

Austin had to go to a teacher's conference in Banff National Park, so we got to come. The conference is through the teacher's union so they get a generous amount of money to cover their expenses. Some try to use as little as possible so they can keep the rest. One principal came by himself and camped in a tent to save money.  We went with the option of taking the whole family and spending the whole allowance.

We rode the sky tram to the top of the mountains. It was beautiful.

We heard about the hot springs in Banff so we went there. I thought it would be a long activity. It is just a hot tub where you are only suppose to stay in for 10 minutes. I said we were going to stay for an hour so we could get our money's worth. That ended when Carly threw up because she got too hot in the water.

So we went back to our hotel swimming pool and played. 

Banff is really a beautiful place with a TON of tourists. We ate at Spaghetti Factory and Chili's.