Waterton 2010

This summer we spent a fabulous week in Waterton, our old playground from many years ago. One of our first priorities was to throw some rocks in the lake and hang out on the beach like we used to. The temperature never got above 62 degrees all week, so it was not exactly bikini time.

Next morning we hit the trail bright and early for good old Bertha Lake.

We all made it to lower Bertha falls bridge in pretty good spirits. Can you spot Barry?

Here's Jerry and Heather's family on the creek bridge at the lake.

David was the best fisherman. some others had fun playing in the snowbanks.

Moses and Wyatt making friends with the neighbor behind the cabin.

They decided to not try to get too friendly with these neighbors.

Everyone had a good time at Red Rock Canyon, and got very wet.

Many years ago we got this charming picture of Lisa on the Waterton Lake beach, so we decided to try to duplicate it with Matthew.

Is this cute enough?

Bear's hump at sunset. What a thrill!

Biking around Waterton is always fun.

The Taylor family reunion was a smashing success. We had about 80 cousins there!

Matthew the Magician was a big hit.

Visiting the old Taylor farm. This barn is over 100 years old.

The highlight of the week was our trip to Crypt Lake. First we had to cross the lake in the shuttle boat.

Then a long, fun, steep climb.

This has been called the most beautiful hike in Canada.

There were 4 spectacular waterfalls along the way.

This the 22nd of July, and there was still ice on the lake, but the fishing was good.

Jerry's family are all strong hikers. But no one wanted to go very far the next day.

So we had fun paddling around Cameron Lake.

I think this is the same old dinghy that we used to own.

JJ and Alex had a faster model.

Wonderful Waterton still makes my heart beat a little harder whenever we go there.

It really took a lot of effort to get everyone there from far away, but I'm sure that everyone felt that it was well worth it.
We will never forget this trip!

Another great family reuninon. Mike and Heather and their kids have been here this week.

And as always a grand time was had by all.

there was riding

and golfing

and all kinds of hilarious hijinks.

Lisa and boys are here for the weekend. We had a nice time at the horses, in the gully, playing games and whatever.


Moses is getting more confident on the mountain.

We made this biautiful south Fork/ Big Springs ride and he did really well.

Lisa can still teach him a few things.

Dick Thomas and I have played together in the Riverside Country Club 2-man best ball playoff for 19 years now. We have lost in the first round 17 times! But in the other 2 we went once to the final 4 and once to the final 2.

Well today we played our first round for this year. After 17 holes we were tied with a pair of young hot-shot business men. Then on the last hole, a par three, one of our opponents was on the green in good shape with a makeable birdie putt, and we were both in trouble. I was in the sand on the left, and Dick was short of the sand on the right. It looked like we were going to heading home having lost in the first round for the 18th time, and Dick even grumbled something about how at least we wouldn't have to go on playing in the rain, (it had been raining for about 8 holes, and he's a fair weather golfer), but remember what Yogi Berra said- "it ain't over till it's over!" So Dick walked up and hit one of the most amazing shots of his life. It looked to me like he caught it a little thin, because the ball shot across the sand and then came down really hard on the green. It looked to me like it was going to squirt right off the back of the green, but it took one bounce and then dove right into the hole for a match winning birdie! The other guy then missed his putt, so that's how we won and we're still alive in the tournament. Who knows what will happen in our next match!

This weekend was our annual spring Rough Riders' ride. Here we are setting up camp on the San Rafael River.

We just had 5 riders this year, which is the number that we started with 20 years ago.

Our first day ride was Cane Wash, one of our favorite tracks.

There are a lot of smooth sandy stretches where we can let the horse out.

I had to pull my hat down to win this race!

As usual Sylvia's pies were a big hit. I got the last piece of pumpkin with some luck at hot dice!

On Friday we took off down the San Rafael river with the intent of going all the way around the north side of Mexican Mountain and finding our way to "Swazy's leap".

It had been 15 years since I had been there, and we had come in from the other side before, so I had a little trouble finding it. As a matter of fact, we overshot it by about 4 miles on the first pass, and about 3 miles on the second.

But it was spectacular, rugged country so we all enjoyed the ride.

Can you imagine trying to raise cattle in this desert like the Swazy's did back in the 1880's?

It takes 200 acres to support one cow!

Finally LeGrand and I made it to this famous site. It was here that Sid Swazy was challenged by his brother to jump his horse across this 14 foot wide gorge that had a 54 foot drop to the river. As you can see, LeGrand's horse is not too eager to try, but Sid Swazy's horse did and won him the prize of 6 heifers.

I often tell this story to illustrate the principle of commitment. There must have been some moment when Sid said to himself, and his horse, that they were going to do it, they were not going to turn off or balk, and they were certainly not going to go half way. They were going to go all the way and that was all there was to it. There are some times in life when we need to make similar commitment's; such as accepting a mission call, getting married, going to school or many other worthwhile challenges.

The river was the only source of water for our horses, and also served as our bathtub.

Todd just completed the Iron-Man run 2 weeks ago and you can see what it did for him!

The Iron Man race is a two and a half mile swim, a 122 mile bike ride followed by a marathon 26 mile run. He did it all in 14 hours! He had to get up at 4 am every morning for 9 months to train. Way to go Todd!

My calling in the church this year is to teach the 16-year-olds. It has been an interesting experience to try to bridge the 2 generation gap, especially in studying the Old Testament which is about 200 generation gap but I have found that there are some things that are interesting to them. Food is one of them. So on the lesson on manna, and the bread of life, we got into a discussion on nutrition, physical and spiritual. I decided to take a couple of photos of some of the marvelous meals that Sylvia fixes for me.

Jerry finally has recovered from his wrist surgery enough top try golf for the first time in about 6 months. It took him a few holes to get into the groove. He shot a 46 on the first and a 36 on the second 9!

We played with uncle John and uncle Den.

After the golf on Friday night we had a Mothers' Day celebration at PF Chang's.

Barry is finally a civilian! Congratulations Barry.