1st Day of Fall

Today is the first day of fall and I am sure it is the first day of the year that there has been no rain in the 7 day forecast. Just sun. Thank goodness. We might actually use the word hot by next week. We'll see.

We live right next to an Indian reservation so there are lots of Natives at the schools, and we have some met some really cool Natives. So yesterday Jill came home and said she had all of our new Native names (we helped her with a couple):

Carly BareBottom
Lucy LikestoWearShorts
Hanna LeavesaTrail (we always know where Hanna has been because there is a trail of stuff)
Jill LongintheJohn
Kaylynn GonnaStartaNewDiet
Austin RunningHorse

School lunches have also taken on a whole new meaning in our new life. First, I have two more people that need to take a school lunch, Austin and Lucy. I haven't had to make Austin a lunch for 7 years. Next, to buy a school lunch is $4 per person per day. That's really not going to be happening. Then to top it off, Jill brought home a note that said there was a student in grade six with severe peanut allergies so no one can bring anything with nuts. What? No peanut butter sandwiches. We have to get creative. I have started making muffins once a week (not even Jiffy muffins from a box). It really has turned out to be okay because we have to put some effort into being prepared for lunches, so we are not scrambling every morning to find something for them to take.

We are down to 5 more days until payday. 85 down, 5 to go. Something I hope we never have to do again. THANKS to everyone has been generous to us and given us aid!! We appreciate you.

Jill gets to go do Baptisms for the Dead for her first time tonight. She is excited. It is a tradition around here for the parents to come on their daughter's first time, so I get to go and help Jill and Austin will baptize her. Plus, we are taking some family names from Karma. It will be great!

Let the sun shine!!!

Oh, Canada

What were we thinking?

September 16 - Catching the bus: FOG

September 17 - Catching the bus: SNOW

People tell us that this is not the usual weather pattern. We are trying to look on the bright side of the weather we have experienced so far:

We have not had to use the word "hot"

I only turned on a sprinkler twice in the 3 months we have been here and our grass is totally green

None of us have had hay fever/allergies (which we usually do in August and September)

Still....... Snow? Not cool.






In other Nunn news, Jill turned 12.

It is crazy to think I have a daughter who is as tall as me who is going to Young Women now.

On her birthday, it was the Leavitt Fall Fair (a.k.a. ward party), so she invited 2 friends to come with us.

First, we went to Mountain View to buy penny candy.

Then we went to the Fall Fair. It was great...hot dogs & corn, cotton candy, ice cream, games, fish pond prizes, etc. It was a great birthday party.

Carly is TOTALLY 2

Carly loves to wear funky clothes and change outfits often. Lately, she will only wear dresses to bed. Before this stage, she wore her swimming suit and life jacket at all times.

She follows me around all day while the kids are at school and talks and talks.

We are happy to report that she is successfully potty trained!! I hope to never buy another box of diapers.

14th ANNIVERSARY
Austin and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary.
First, Buck & Martha took us out to enjoy a steak dinner in Lethbridge a few days before our anniversary (with some gift certificates they got for Christmas - it was nice of us to convince them to finally use them.)

On our anniversary, we rode horses, fixed fence and put in a new floor in Grandma's laundry room. Then Buck & Martha took us all out to Chinese food in Raymond.

Austin did buy me red flowers.

It was great, but we are hoping for a greater celebration next year!!!

A New School Year

Another school year has started and so far everyone is happy!

Jill & Hanna like their teachers and have made friends. I am glad we were here for the summer so they could meet friends at horse camp and basketball camp. So far school in Canada is going great!

Jill (Grade 6) & Hanna (Grade 4)
First Day of School
(notice I didn't say 6th/4th Grade, we are Canadians now)

One of my favorite new features is that Jill, Hanna and Lucy get to ride the bus, and we get front door service. I am standing with one foot in my door when I took this picture. The bus comes right up our lane and around the loop to pick our kids up and drop them off. They are the last pickup stop on the way to school so they don't have to be on the bus for very long.

Lucy's first day of Kindergarten

Lucy goes to school all day Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Friday. She has been so excited all summer about starting school, and she loved her first day. Her teacher is Mrs. Allred, and she is going to be awesome. The first day Lucy came home and I took out a big packet of papers I was supposed to look through and they were half soaked. Lucy said she couldn't get her water bottle lid on all the way. Then I am looking again in her backpack and pull out a slimy piece of candy. Lucy got a cookie at school with a Hershey's kiss on it. She took off the Hershey's kiss and put it in her backpack to save for later. Darn water bottle.

I didn't take a picture of Austin, but his first week of school went well also. On Friday afternoon after a week of his new job, he was telling me that he really likes the school and the kids and the teachers, and that he does have a few ideas that he will implement over time to make it even better.

Thank goodness for a good first week of school in a new country:)


In other news, we went to Taber Cornfest with Austin's sister Sarah and her family. We really had a fun time.

Lucy, Kaela, Jill , Julia with cornheads


Carly and Lucy on the dragon roller coaster ~ Carly did not love it


Sarah and Julia getting ready to ride the Salt N Pepper Shaker

Carly & Carter flying in their airplane


Lucy & Kaden in their airplane

Carter, Kaden, Lucy watching Carly & Annie Jo drive around and around

We also watched an awesome motorbike show where these crazy guys rode their bikes up a ramp, jumped over a truck, did tricks in the air and landed on another ramp.

Last of Summer Stuff

Summer has come to an end. My kids and husband start school on Monday. I think Lucy is the most excited.

Here are a few highlights I haven't posted yet:

unofficial Relief Society Horseback Ride

I got invited to go on a horseback ride to the community pasture with some quality ladies from Leavitt. Eleven of us met and had a really fun horseback ride. We went up, down, crossed lots of creeks, saw the Montana border and ate lunch.


Across this fence is Montana. We took a few pictures there, had a near horse wreck, dropped someone's camera into a fresh cowpie (that is supposed to be a secret) and then went on our way. A little while later, a helicopter flew down the border line. Good thing we didn't try to sneak across.

This is my horse Cheno. He did great. He did leap across the first few streams. Glad I didn't fall off.

Auction

Buck was the auctioneer for a couple who is downsizing so they had an auction to sell all of their tools in the shop, yard tools, some furniture, and lots of stuff. We spent a whole day helping set up and lay everything out. Then on the day of the auction, Austin was Vanna White and held up each thing that was for sale while Buck auctioned it off. Martha and I ran the office. Sarah was the secretary by the auctioneer. I downloaded a free trial of auction software the night before the auction, but it worked awesome. The books even balanced!!!
Buck (red coat) auctioning, Andy Fuller (family friend in cowboy hat was the assistant auctioneer, Austin (leaning over in the dark blue shirt) picking up the next "treasure" to sell, and Sarah (in the truck) writing down the buyer and the price

Jill got a bidder number and was watching the auction. She turned to talk to her cousin, and Grandpa Buck took it as a bid, so Jill ended up with this special box of items for $2.50. She was kind of mad she had to pay for it, but we had a good laugh about it (toilet seat cover, 2 empty boxes of chocolates, a broken porcelain eagle, stained tupperware bowls, etc).

Tea Party
It is Grandma Nunn's tradition to have a tea party with all of the grandkids every year. They eat cookies, drink juice and tell their goals for the next year.

One of Lucy's goals was to help her Mom make cupcakes (which we actually did today - check). She started a trend and so by the end there were goals to make pancakes and brownies, too.

Waterton National Park

We can see the mountains of Waterton National Park from our house, and it only takes us about 30 minutes to get there. So we have taken advantage of our neighbor's Waterton pass and gone 3 times.

Waterton - Take 1

The girls and I went for our first Waterton adventure.

The deer were everywhere in the town of Waterton and not afraid of people.

We saw beautiful waterfalls.

We rode the shuttle to Red Rock Canyon and played in the creek.

Waterton - Take 2 - Heritage Day

The first Monday of August is a holiday in Canada, and I bet most Canadians don't even know what the holiday is called besides "The Long Weekend." They are excited to have a 3-day weekend in the summer. We celebrated the holiday by going to Waterton with Austin's parents.
We had lunch and threw rocks into the lake.

Then we headed off on a hike to Bertha Falls. Then it started to rain. After a few minutes we decided to turn back. By the time we made it back to the car, we were drenched. We made a memory.

This is our after-hike photo when we were soaking wet.

Waterton - Take 3 - Family Reunion
All of Austin's family was together for a few days,and so we went to Waterton for fun. We had lunch by Waterton Lake and then went on a hike to Crandell Lake. It was beautiful and we got a good workout.

All of the grandkids with Grandma Nunn
(don't forget Annie Jo's imaginary fish in her bag)

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