July 5th - Letters To Eachother

Arnold's email - July 5th:

We got up at around 6:30 and went up to find Grandma, we told her we were going to the mountains, so she started packing up some snacks, and we had some breakfast and off we went. It was another long drive, but K held up well, he got really excited as we moved into the mountains. We stopped a couple times to throw rocks in the lake or walk a little bit.

Eventually we reached Banff and soon thereafter we got to Sulfur Mountain, with it's gondola. Kyler and I wandered around a bit and found a bathroom, Grandma lined up for tickets. Soon we were shooting up the mountain on the wire, K was really interested in how the whole thing worked. When we got to the top, Kyler was a little disappointed that we were at the top already and he didn't get to climb to the top. Then he saw the walkways and stairs to the cosmic ray station, and we were off, Grandma stayed at the chalet, but Kyler wanted to climb the path and stairs to the top of the other peak. I was more then happy to go walk with him, so we headed across. As we went we saw chipmunks and birds and climbed up a rock face or two near the trail. eventually we made it to the top and took a picture that we decided we should 'share with the whole world'. So I posted it on facebook.

After some Looking around, we walked all the way back to grandma, then she showed us the goats she had found, even a baby goat or two. Then we went to the top of the building and looked out from there. Then down again and wandered around the building and into the woods a little. after a while Kyler said he was hungry, we proposed lunch at the bottom, but Kyler asked that we eat up top, so we decided we could. So we had some food, a hot dog, a beef dip and a grilled ham and cheese. After we ate, Grandma and I expected K to be ready to go down, but not so, he decided he wanted to go up the other side again, so off we went. We got about 3/4 of the way and K said he was done and that we should go back, which was fine. We returned to the main building and got grandma and we headed back down the mountain to our car.

We headed onto the road again for the trip home, we stopped at a couple roadside stops, and Kyler wadded through a bit of a lake and generally had a good easy trip for a while, then I took the wheel and drove for grandma and we just cruised for a while. We ran into some bad traffic at a construction zone and had to stop for nearly 30 minutes, which really bothered Kyler. When that cleared Kyler was pretty happy, and we taught him about lines on the highway as I passed some of the cars that had built up in front of us. After a bit more Kyler fell asleep and we drove nearly 2 hours without hearing from him. eventually we got home, and went and got Mcdonalds and brought it home and ate, then a little bit of wii, and it was off to bed already. Going to be another early one tomorrow.


Miranda's email - July 5th:

This morning Q didn't wake up until about 7:45am! I was shocked, completely shocked!! But it was nice. We played in bed for a bit then did a bathroom break and came home. We got out everything for breakfast (fruit, cereal, milk, bowls, spoons, cups, ect) and had a wonderful sugar filled breakfast. For example Q had cornflakes, fruitloops in chocolate milk and a glass of chocolate milk! This boy is crazy.

Once breakfast was over we cleaned up a bit and Q and I went a bit into "piro mode" and made a fire from the last piece of wood! we burned an old macleans mag and some old paper from something else and the cereal boxes from breakfast. Then we got ready for the beach. We packed the sand toys, towels, got into our bathing suits, packed something to drink, some koolaid packs and some goldfish and we were off. Oh and our phones and mom's waterproof camera.

We walked down to the beach with everything we would need (and the big umbrella and our blankets) and found it to be SO super windy. On our way up there Q was complaining his finger hurt. I told him I would look at it as soon as we got there. Sure enough he had a VERY long sliver. Think from the top of your pinky to your first knuckle. It wouldn't move if you pushed the bottom and I couldn't get enough at the top so I opened the umbrella, started a blankets down and Q said he wanted it out so off I went. I went back to the trailer and tried the "spare keys" on top of the overhang where mom had left them in case we lost the other ones at the beach. I tired every key right way and upside down, in every door. Nothing worked and I was sweating SO bad. I went back and got the keys from mom and went back again. Tried all the first aid kids and came up with an exacto knife, 6 band aids, a long piece of metal, tweezers and some alcohol swabs. And down I went again. I also brought along the Zen so Q would have something to watch while he got the sliver out.

I did my best to distract him and it didn't seem to work. I played the movie we talked about things on the movie, talked about things on the band aids (we found some with Dino's on them) and a few other things.It took 3 tries and finally mom got it out. Some serious squirming but it was out! Immediate relief. We moved the umbrella one more time, put some sand around the outside edges and got the blankets "semi" clean from the sand. Q wanted to watch more of his movie so we put it on and he laid back with is head on the life jacket. We had fun! Then he slowly moved to the sand (at the end of the blanket so sort of on it as well) and hung out there. He did go a bit in the water but not too much. Mom got in a few walks and we hung around. We dug a hole to water, sunk Q in it and built a water slide, foot bath and eventually we made a rock garden. We packed up around 12:30pm or so. We got to the trailer and got everything ready for lunch. Had lunch and cleaned up. We were going to do a trip to the bathroom but halfway of getting changed out of his bathing suit into his clothes Q had to pee so buck naked (except 1 shoe) he came outside and peed in the middle of the campsite, haha!

We cleaned everything up, packed up the trailer and everything we needed and we were off. We went to the garbage area first and I tossed our garbage and our recycling and off to the visitors centre. We got to look at a few of the animals and hang out there for a bit. Mom got us both t-shirts and then to the washroom. We we to the bathrooms and then into the bus again. On the way there Q fell but didn't cry! I'm so proud of him!!

We got him in the bus, buckled in and we were off. We weren't 2 roads from the pinery and he was out. We just chilled for the hour ride back. We arrived at home around 3pm or so. Q was still sleeping so mom did a few laps in the pool to get the sand feeling out and I unloaded a few things right at the door of the trailer. Then I went in the pool and mom unloaded a few more things from the trailer and then I joined in. Eventually Q woke up and went inside to watch chuggington on DVD for a bit. WE got everything out and I started a load of laundry and went in the pool for another 5 minutes or so. I eventually headed upstairs while he watched a DVD and had a shower and got into some clean non-stinky clothes.

I came down and went over to grandma and grandpas to visit. Dad called around 5pm and told me he was coming to get me. We sped over to get the car from the place that closes at 5pm! It was 10 after when we got there. Dad gave me his CC and I went to get some gas... 75.75 later!!! I got home and could hear a weird sound. So dad came out to look at it, Q came out to hear it and Mom came out cause she had to go and get Sarah from work. It ended up being the spare tire was a little lose so dad fixed that for us before we left. I went with mom to get Sarah and when I came home I loaded up the van (after having the 5.00 pizza for supper). And you know how most of that went... loss of keys, issues, random things...

We finished loading the car and the bike and now it all sits there waiting. I'm excited to be ready to go. I just have to add in the new clock, my clothes up here and a few in the dryer and the computer and phone and camera and we are set to go. Dad said to bring home the chocolate milk and I might with some diet coke but who knows.

Q watched a bit of rio on the zen then said he was tired and off to bed. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep!