Betteridge Family Reunion

Whitefish Lake, Montana. Ever heard of it? I hadn't, before my dad told us that's where we were all going to camp for our reunion because it was about as equidistant as camping goes between Tacoma, Salt Lake and Edmonton. Looking it up on google maps led Chris and I to believe we'd be at po-dunk campground practically in town and we tried to lower our Fun Expectation Meter.  But apparently Whitefish is one of the premier vacation spots for these parts, including southern Albertan's because EVERYONE we mentioned it to around here in Edmonton said things like "we LOVE Whitefish Lake" or "I learned to swim in that lake" or "I went there every year as a kid" or "I'm going there this summer, too!"  Every other car we saw there had an Alberta license plate.

It was SUCH a fun place and the campground was perfect. 4 out of the 5 sites we reserved were all touching and we didn't have to cross any roads to get to the bathrooms/showers or even the lake! There were 31 of us all together: 16 kids from 4 weeks to 9 years old, 14 adults and 1 teenager.

Camp cooking for this specific group size and age pool was daunting but Tiff and I were in charge of meals and tried to plan simple meals, and then simplify them some more. I assigned small groups of adults to be in charge of each meal and clean up. I think it turned out pretty well except I didn't assign Todd enough meals to help with, but he rectified the oversight and helped with every single meal. We had costco pizza; pancakes, eggs, and sausages; cheese, crackers and tuna; hawaiian haystacks and smores; muffins;  PB&J sandwiches; hotdogs, salads and dutch oven cobbler; french toast and bacon; bagels; cheesy shells, salads and berry crisp.

The circle of camp chairs in the picture above extended allllll the way around the fire pit back to Charlie and there were many periods of every chair being used. Ashley and Radene brought some activities for the kids. One was this cute paint and rock turtle mosaic.

Our first full day we just hung out at the lake/beach. We rented two paddle boards and had fun trying them out.  It was amazing how even the little cousins got the hang of it...although they hardly weigh anything and probably couldn't tip the paddle board over if they tried.  There was this 11 year old girl hanging around our group, which was fun at first, but as she vied for and usurped turns on the boards and raft and other toys it got kind of old. It was pretty funny. 

pictures coming soon

The next full day we wore our matching shirts that Todd and Tiff designed, took family pictures and drove 45 min East to Glacier National Park to do a little 1 mile hike. 

Jared and Ashley's family

Justin and Radene's family

Tiffany and Todd's family

Our family

Sarah and German, Hailey, Mom and Dad, Jordan and his gf Stefi

In Glacier National Park we went to Lake McDonald, ate lunch and skipped rocks while we waited for everyone to get there. With such a large group our attempt at a caravan quickly fell apart and at least one car was bound to get lost. We skipped rocks for a long time.

It must be stated the Chris did the MOST AMAZING ROCK SKIP that eyes have ever seen.  It was incredible. The rock seemed to never leave the water's surface for more than an inch and yet traveled at LEAST 100 feet. Seriously. Everyone who saw it was speechless. It was unbelievable.  It inspired a sort of rock skipping competition with categories ranging from longest, most number of skips, longest skip, highest jump, longest pre-skip distance etc.

I love these pictures of my dad, so I had to put them on here.

The less than 1 mile "hike" was a wooden platform  that looped through the forest passing by a waterfall and pretty weeping rocks. It took over an hour with stops for pictures, crying kids, and a bathroom break.  In the middle of it, Charlie says to me, "When are we doing the hike?!" I replied, "This IS the hike, isn't it pretty!" Charlie astutely whines, "This isn't a hike! A hike is a hard thing up big mountain. This is not a hike"  hahaha. Funny boy, he's thinking of the hikes I took the kids on in Jasper the week previous. 

One of my favorite parts of the reunion was getting to spend more time with Jordan and his girlfriend, Stefi. She seems really nice and fun and teases Jordan a lot...which he totally deserves. He also totally deserves a sweet girl and Stefi seems to fit the bill perfectly. Aren't they so cute?

After the hike we drove a bit further through Glacier park on this really pretty road called Going-to-the-Sun-Road. It was such a nice time to have the kids buckled, still and sleeping and it was the perfect chance for Sarah and German to get Gwen to warm up to them! She's shy around people she doesn't know(especially men) and it takes some effort but a good relationship with her is SO rewarding. She can be such a cuddler and is very affectionate. 

We got back to camp in the middle of thunder storm and although we knew it might rain and tried to get camp ready for it as much as possible before we left, it still got some things a little wet.  There was a break in the rain for a half hour or so in which we erected some tarps to provide relief as we made and ate dinner. It was actually a really fun experience and didn't dampen anyone's happy mood. (har har)

The next day we rented a speed boat, tube and wakeboard. We took turns going out in small groups and staying behind at the beach. Charlie was brave enough to try tubing with Chris! This is one thing we can check off our boys too-often-whined-about-list of "We've never ridden in a... -airplane, -helicopter, -train that goes choo choo, -speedy boat"  

(pictures coming..)

Most of the evenings were spent trying to get the kids to sleep! After that happened we maybe had some energy to sit around the fire, or in one of the screen tents to try and keep out the bugs. (They mostly worked but there still were plenty of targets for the electric bug zappers, Jared brought....often the most victims were Daddy Long Leg spiders...those things were everywhere!) We passed around brown paper bags with different kinds of black licorice like some adults would of liquor. "Lemme have another taste of that kind from Denmark..."  We also played games like NINJA DESTRUCTION (so fun), risk, horse shoes and card games.  

It was SUCH a fun reunion, despite the hardships of camping with little ones. I don't think I would've changed anything. I'm such a cheese ball when it comes to being together with family especially siblings.  I don't think I could ever get enough of them. 

Jasper/Banff

I have a few minutes ahead of me while the kids finish watching a movie before we put them to bed, so I thought I'd take this time to blog about our time in Jasper/Banff:

Chris went with a group young men/ boy scouts to ride almost 300 kilometers across 5 days from Jasper to Banff.  The divided into 3 groups (fast, medium and slow) and had one leader at the front and back of each group to prevent boys from going too fast or too slow or being too stupid.  There was only 1 head-over-handlebars wipe out and so I think most people consider the whole event a success! Chris switched roles and groups but mostly stayed with the fast group.

The kids and I drove out just a few hours after Chris and camped in Jasper for 4 nights. My friend Terri and her son who is Alec's age, Jonathan, invited us to "camp" with them in these new canvas tents/cabin things and stayed with us for the first 3 nights.  We saw this huge elk on our drive out.

Our first night there we took a gondola up to a high mountain outcropping to see most of the valley and the town of Jasper, shaped in a J.  It was sooooo fun. There was snow still on the boardwalk at the top and we got brave enough for a short excursion along the rim for a bit.  Then we went back to 'camp' and Terri and I figured out how to get a fire going for smores.

Bright and early the next morning (Gwen's birthday!) we drove down the Colombian Ice Fields Parkway - the gorgeous rode Chris and the boys were biking down - to find and bring them ice cold lemonade and popsicles.  It was SUPER hot, in the 90's.  We brought cupcakes and a present for Gwen to open to try and  celebrate a bit as a family on her actual day.

Then Terri and I took our kids back to Jasper to swim at their Rec Center pool. They had this big waterslide and all the kids went down it! I sort of tripped a bit coming off my first ride and was holding Gwen and Charlie and sorta dropped Gwen and in my scramble to pull it together I scraped my knee pretty bad on the SUPER spiky pool floor. It was a bummer and prevented me from walking straight and swimming in any of the glacier lakes for the rest of the trip.  But its all good because Gwen didn't drown! We finished off her birthday with ice cream cones.

We saw some waterfalls that I can't remember the name of, and drove up a steep, hairpin-turn road to hike a  short bit on Mount Edith Cavelle. We saw a glacier up close and the pool the kids through rocks in still had ice burgs floating in it.

We were lucky to have the weather be so warm so that the swimming in the glacier lakes felt awesome. The kids swam like little fishes (with lifejackets on) in Lake Annette. They are so proficient with their life jackets on it is so nice not to worry too much about them in the water.

To finish off our whole extravaganza with Terri and Jonathan we went white water rafting! I've never been before and we asked lots of questions to the bookers and guides to make sure it was safe enough. It still was a bit scary to make the decision but I felt good about it and it sounded like lots of fun so we went! Gwen cried on the first big splash and our boat driver was TOTALLY AWESOME and expertly maneuvered the raft to shield our side from any big dips/splashes. The boys were the most obedient they've been all week by holding on tightly to both ropes and leaning in whenever I asked. Little Charlie holding onto my shorts with his head practically between his knees is a memory I hope I never forget. The river was pretty swift with a lot of extra water but Gwen actually managed to fall asleep for the last 30 min half.  (I was too focused on holding onto my kids AND the raft that I didn't get any pictures but Terri did and I'll get them and post them here soon)

I wasn't too ambitious after Terri and Jonathan left us. We took a long drive to Lake something or other and ate out for dinner.  I had to switch camps due to some reservations glitches for the last night, but I actually really liked the second canvas tent.  The kids and I all had showered to take up even more time before it got close enough to dark around 11:00pm to put them to bed.

The next morning we checked out and drove the WHOLE parkway to Banff in a hurry so we wouldn't miss Chris finishing! We did make one little stop when we spotted a brown bear off the side of the road. I tried to not copy the other tourists by getting out of the car but we all still wanted a better look, so we climbed out of the sunroof and stood on the van.

Finally a family reunion with Chris!! We missed him some incredible amount and were so please to see him round the corner and come riding up.  Even more happy to hear that he wasn't hurting anywhere, not even his back.  We hurried home in hopes of finding our house NOT flooded, unlike so many others in our ward, due to the heavy rain/hail storm the day before.  (it wasn't)

The only bad thing about this whole experience were the mosquitoes. We got eaten alive!! Seriously.  Our first day we spotted a guy with bites all over his calves and felt so sorry for him. Well, that was us by the second day. Poor Charlie had it the worst, I think.   All the kids were not in their best moods being so sleep deprived by the bright, late nights that during most dinners the amount of mosquitoes flying around their faces (even during the day) made them burst into tears.

Regardless, I think I would do it again....I think.