Thursday, August 21, 2014

Trip to Cardston

We had been trying to get to Cardston for a visit for a long time.  David's back issues prevented that, so two months after his disc surgery, we drove out there for a quick visit.  We put a foam in the back seat where he could lie down and rest his back, and we made more stops that usual to walk a bit.  We stopped in Spokane in the downtown area and walked around their park.  It is a really cool place.  Who knew.....all the times we just drive straight through hurrying to get somewhere else.




This is called the Garbage Goat.  It has a vacuum attached to its mouth, so it can suck up garbage when you push a button on the rock.  Kids love it!  

 We stopped in Yahk, BC to see if we could visit with Uncle Dan Henry and any of David's cousins that might live around there.  It took a little searching, but we found it.  It had been YEARS since we had been there for a family reunion.  Uncle Dan was there and his son, Ross, lives with him.  They were splitting logs and stacking them for the winter.  Uncle Dan is 96 years old!  He offered to drive us aroundhis property in a little 4 wheel-drive open sided vehicle. (should have taken a picture)  We drove to David's cousin's place (Bruce) where we had a nice visit with he and Mavis.  Then we thought it was getting too dark to drive that thing through the forest back to our car, so we hurried to finish up visiting so he could take us back....but he wasn't finished with his tour of his 93 acre property!  So in the dim light of sunset, he was driving us all over the little bumpy roads and trails showing us stuff.  It was really fun! I'm sure it would have gone longer if we had more light.
 Cousin Bruce showing David his old Kawasaki.
We showed Grandpa and Grandma our big bubbles.  They got a kick out of that.  In their earlier days, they certainly would have made some of their own!

 Bonnie was taking pictures with her ipad and they were checking them out.
 Here's a little game of Krokanole , one of the few games Grandma can play, and she good!

 The next morning there was a pancake breakfast for anyone to enjoy, so we did.  It is good to get Grandma out of the house to do things, and get moving, even if it is hard for her.

 In the afternoon Grandpa, David and I went to the Miniature Chuckwagon Races!  Janet stayed with Grandma.  Grandpa was so excited and it was really fun!  The guy above was the announcer for the event.

 It was sunny and hot, and we didn't have hats like everyone else, so we made these, and still didn't have hats like everyone else!  It worked though.



Grandpa wore my hat while I went to look at the quilt display so he could sit on his other hat for some padding.  Next time, he'll remember his lawn chair!

David and Ken Walton....they used to be the same height.

On our drive home, we saw this small marmot, or large gopher, on our little walk at an abandoned train station.

 We decided to take a little detour on our way home through Washington, and go to Leavenworth.  It is a Bavarian- German town touristy place.  It is really cute.  Love these hanging baskets!  How do they do that?

 We got some icecream, and a pretzel and walked around for a while.  Beautiful drive in and out of that area!! Winding roads and rivers and high mountains!  fun drive!  Fun trip!

 Little villages in the Chritmas store.