Baptism

This Fall the girls decided that they were ready to show the world (or at least those present in church that night,) that they wanted to follow Jesus' example by being baptized.

They were given really cool tshirts to wear over their bathing suits and shorts - neat keepsake!

My cousin's son, Pastor Grant Weber, performed the baptism. His parents and grandparents became believers after watching my family go through the deaths of my mom and dad. Knowing that they became Christians as a result of something so sad - well it's true that God works all things for the good of those who love Him. God has a purpose for all things and while having my parents die when I was only 9 was crappy, to see Grants family walking with the Lord and now for Grant to have baptized my girls; well... that's awesome!

When the girls each entered that water with Grant he asked for our family and friends to stand in support. There were at least 50 people who stood including Lynda, Karen, Anna, Julia, Jeff, Lindsay, Cadence, Shepherd, Joshua, Great Grandma & Grandpa Rempel, Nana, Poppa, some of the girls friends and their families and several of their teachers.

Summer photos 2010

We saw so much beauty this summer I just have to share some nature pictures with you. We spent close to a week at Dutch Lake (in Clearwater, BC) and Wells Gray Provincial Park. The park is known for its magnificient waterfalls and we visited 5 of them - Moul Falls we did twice (those are the falls that us girls walked behind).

We were driving to a look out area and I had closed my eyes in weariness. When I opened them I spotted this black bear about 10' off the road. I ensured everyone in the truck knew ("BEAR, BEAR, BEAR!")... Scott stopped the truck, we put our windows down (Emily got a good hold on Roxy) and Mel and I snapped a bunch of pictures. The bear couldn't care less that we were so close.

The stairs were to help us get to the bottom of Moul Falls. So pretty amongst the greens, don't you think?

To the left you'll see Moul Falls. This is the set (why do they call them a 'set' of falls when there's only one?!) that we walked behind - some of us with our shoes on hey Mel?

And finally, Spahats Falls. The erosion is quite something to note in all of these pictures - whether it be at the top and bottom of the falls or just the bottom, there's some amazing power here. We also visited Helmcken Falls and do have the pictures to prove it. The editing ability of this blog is not allowing me to change settings and therefore I'm leaving that photo out.

On the left you'll see Dawson Falls & the Mush Bowl is on the right below.

Here are the lilies of Dutch Lake. What I've not included are the pictures of the Painted Turtles which live in this lake. If you gently moved your hand in the water (from the dock) the turtles would think it was lunchtime and would surface to have a better look. What a treat!

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Summer 2010

It's odd to be updating our blog now, 6 months after summer vacation began, but it's fun for me to go back through the calendar to remember the excitement of the year. We've been blessed - another year of more than 30 nights of safe travel as we camped in the

1) Kananaskis - about 30 minutes from our home is a small, quiet, well treed campground complete with a river (did I mention we have a lab?) and a playground. The name of the place that we've camped more than any other is Gooseberry (not that I've seen a single gooseberry bush there ever). One weekend Scott's brother and 2 youngest girls camped in the site next to us. We'd never camped together before and it was fun all around. Scott's parents visited each day.

2) Moyie Lake Provincial Park, located in southeast BC, just south of Cranbrook. Canada Day festivities were small but we did light sparklers at the campground!

3) Hope, Idaho - we reconnected with friends we'd made at the same campground 2 years earlier and enjoyed the 4th of July festivities. Kaitlyn took to tubing behind a friend's boat while Emily mastered the paddle board. Emily entered herself and our lab, Roxy, in a dog show and won BEST OF SHOW!

4) Revelstoke where we had a great time connecting my cousin Melanie & her husband Bob. A highlight for the girls was taking chickens from Bob & Melanie's coop and holding the willing birds on their laps while they sat by the campfire. I didn't know if anyone would believe us - I have pictures! :) We also enjoyed the climb to the summit of Mount Revelstoke (well, the last km of the climb...) where we stood in flip flops and sandals in the snow. It's a beautiful view of a small portion of God's amazing creation.

5) Vernon, BC, where I lived from age 6-10. We camped at Ellison Provincial Park - my sister Melanie met us and camped with us too! The campground is beautiful, which is typical of BC's Provincial Parks. We toured a bit of the town, enjoyed the Saturday evening service at the church we faithfully attended as kids (Vernon Alliance Church), and spent many hours on the beach or in the lake. Melanie, Emily, Roxy and I went to the offleash dog beach at our campground and long story short, another dog attacked and bit (held onto Roxy's left ear for 2-3 minutes). It is still very fresh in my mind and it's affected Roxy in that she's not as eager to meet other dogs. She's not at all agressive; perhaps more timid if anything. The offending dog had taken a lunge at another dog the day prior but they'd been able to call her off before anything more serious happened. They told me that they'd be putting their dog down the next day. Roxy got checked out and was given antibiotics for an infection; her immunizations are up to date so we're thankful we've kept on top of that. She is very much a part of our family - we love that dog!

6) Clearwater, BC - we stayed at Dutch Lake, a small, non-private (sites close together, very few trees) but beautifully set campground. The lake was a 20 second walk from our site and in one area was covered with flowering lily pads. If I had seen that part of the lake on their website I would have looked for another location but having seen it (and the area which we swam in which was clear of the lily pads), I'm thankful that we stayed there. There were at least 2 resident loons swimming on the lake calling... what a tranquil sound. All 6 of us (Mel & Roxy included) enjoyed the swimming, food (as always), and exploring.

Clearwater is located on the south end of Wells Gray Provincial Park which is (so I'm told) well known for it's waterfalls. We visited several amazing falls and one day Mel, Roxy & I hiked to one of them. Mel decided that she wanted to cross the river (shallow and about 15' wide), up the embankment to the other side. She took off her socks and shoes and set out. The rocks were very sharp and the water 'fresh'. I watched her and snapped pictures as she reacted to the beauty and power of the waterfall. She found a trail and ended up walking behind the falls... and out the other side right beside me. (Insert maniacal laugh here) I wanted to see what she saw... with my socks and shoes on and mostly dry I retraced her steps in the opposite direction. AMAZING. When we returned to the campground we told the girls about it and they came with us the next day and also went all the way behind the falls and out the other side. We were soaked from the mist but what an adventure!

7) Jasper, Alberta - I can't recall the name of the National Park we stayed in (Scott was sure it was Wapiti but after waiting in the long line up of campers, trailers and motorhomes to get checked in, we realized we were at the wrong campground). Anyways, I think they're probably all just as pretty as the one we stayed in; at the base of Whistler Mountain. We took the tram to the top of Whistlers Mountain and every now and again the rain clouds would part enough to give us a panoramic view. You can take the tram to it's dock or get out and walk further - we chose to see more. We shared the hike with others, two-legged and four. A very large marmot walked between Kaitlyn and I - it was about 3' in front of me. Just as when we were on Mount Revelstoke in the snow, I was able to get to a snowy spot and 'share the love' - AKA, throw the snow at the others.
Also while in the Jasper area we did another hike through Maligne Canyon and thanks to the erosion saw a number of drops in elevation which showed off the waterfalls. The last time we were at this location Kaitlyn was about 7 weeks old.

Disneyworld here we come!

We were blessed to be able to travel to Orlando, Florida during Easter break. We spent 2 weeks in a rented house which slept 10 people, had it's very own pool at the back of the home, and cost a mere $100/night. My sister Lynda and her husband Les spent a week with us.

While there we visited Disneyworld's 4 parks and 1 of their waterparks (twice!). As we celebrated our anniversary while there L & L looked after the girls while Scott and I went to a spa and relaxed... then went out for lunch. It was time well spent. As a group of 6 we visited Tampa briefly - it was nice to get to the Ocean. We also spent a day at Kennedy Space Center and from our rental house watched the launch of STS-131, a shuttle on its way to meet the International Space Station. That was a very cool experience and likely easier to see when it was pitch black dark - it was an early morning launch.

We'd never experienced Disney aside from the movies so this was a good thing to say that we'd done, and it was good, but we feel no pressure to do it again.

Snow Tubing at Norquay

On Jan 30, 2010 we had a great family day on Norquay Mountain as we spent the day snow tubing with our good friends, the Wulders. Here's the idea - you sit in your tube as it's attached to the lift pulleys - it pulls you up to the top of the run where you quickly get off and out of the way. There were 3 lanes, with dividers of 2' snow banks. At the top of the run you have the option of grabbing onto a friends tube and also you can ask staff for a push. It's an amazing rush - so much fun.

Well at least it hasn't been yet another year since I've communicated via our blog. Perhaps I should rename it to the Crawford yearly chat?
It's a lovely day today after several days of temperatures much cooler. The next few days should encourage most of our snow to melt. I have just finished reading the previous post and now I am moreso envious of those that I know that are soon heading off to Hawaii for spring break. We would love to be going again but it's not happening this year. I don't think I would choose to go somewhere tropical during the summer but wonder what that experience would be like.
This summer we'd hoped to pack up the kids, dog, truck and trailer and wind our way as far south as San Diego. None of us have been to Disneyland so we'd set aside 1 week to spend in that area. The economy is a little emotional in California and perhaps it won't be long until we are feeling it too. We may shelve that trip for this year but will likley enjoy a longish road trip all the same. We've looked into heading to Vancouver Island and because of the length of our truck trailer combination we'd have to pay $250 to take the ferry EACH WAY. I think it's a bit of a rip off but if we consider the trip we'd originally planned on, we'll save more than that in fuel anyways... and we could spend a couple weeks on the Island easily.
Another option we'd looked at is heading to Northern Saskatchewan. We've heard from so many people just how beautiful it is there - I just have trouble believing it as the Saskatchewan time that I've put in was mostly between Swift Current and Regina... if you've been in that area you'll understand.
We'd welcome any suggestions from the avide campers among us.
Back to Spring Break talk - we have no plans. Scott has to work his regular rotations with EMS which limits our adventures to 3 days away which we'd be blessed to have. Perhaps we'll head to Fernie and put the girls into 1/2 day lessons, then we can leave the hill and go into town or enjoy the rest of the day on the hill with them. Another thought I had (well, I've had several) is that we could go to Edmonton and visit Karen, Craig and family or have them meet us at "The Mall" (AKA West Edmonton Mall)... sounds like a recipe for spending money... Another thought is to head to Vancouver or even Victoria but we'd want Scott along and 3 days isn't really enough time. Perhaps I can grab Lynda and the girls and load up the van and head State-side for a shopping trip... why do all of my plans include spending? Perhaps I should just stay home or hit K-Country.
We've been enjoying many trips to K-Country over the past 5-6 weeks. A couple of the times we've been scouting out campgrounds that we hadn't before visited which was nice too. It will be great to try out some new places and knowing that they're so close which enables Scott to be able to come join us girls (since we'll have most of the summer off...).
Take care,
Jennifer

I'm back! After more than a year of not writing and a few days of not being able to remember what the URL for our blog is (that is so sad - it's such a challenging blog name...) I'm ready to try this again. When I last wrote it was at the end of Spring break 2007. We wrapped up Spring break 2008 a couple weeks ago and this time we didn't stick around Alberta or even Canada; we were blessed to spend 2 weeks in Hawaii. Our first week was on Oahu and we visited and experienced many wonderful things and had such great family time. Some of the highlights include renewing our vows on Makapu'u Beach, beach combing (Kaitlyn collected a shell and wore it on the end of her finger as if it were her nail... a few hours and a visit to Pearl Harbor later we returned to the rental car to discover the shell wasn't empty but was the home of a hermit crab! The girls both screamed but I had a good belly laugh watching them react.), swimming with the dolphins at Sea Life Park, Polynesian Cultural Centre, Perry's smorgasboard (a highlight for all of us - we even tried Mahi Mahi fish prepared 2 different ways - had to pay the girls each a buck to get them to try it but they did!), Hanauma Bay snorkeling & the hike up Diamond Head Crater. Believe it or not we still had some time to enjoy our beach at Waikiki and the pool at our hotel.

Our 2nd week was enjoyed on Maui. This island is a slower pace with less people but certainly no less options for enjoyment and activity. A couple highlights here were the helicopter island tour (the north coast - saw Tom Cruise's home that he enjoys 1 week/year, the Road to Hana (and the many waterfalls that you can't see while on that road), the rainforests (and what I figure look like large broccoli trees), the Iao Valley (another rain forest), acres and acres of sugar cane and some pineapple and the Haleakala Crater (our pilot said it could erupt at any time though that wasn't evident from our view). Did you know that when the sugar cane is ripe they light the crop on fire? It takes a lot of water to get a crop ripe so when the light it the only parts that burn are the parts that are undesirable like the weeds; the sugar cane would still be 70% water.

On another day we drove the "Road to Hana". We'd heard mixed reactions about this drive but we went into it knowing it wasn't about Hana but the road to and from there. There are 617 hairpin turns & 54 one lane bridges before arriving in Hana. We continued past Hana because we'd heard of something called the Seven Sacred Pools (actually there are more than 7 there but that's what they're called). We started this journey in the rain (seemed fitting that as we drove through the 'rain forest' it was raining) but we were glad to see the sun come out - the girls and I took advantage of this and jumped into one of the pools with a waterfall at our back. This was a treat.

We went on a snorkel cruise but because Scott had been kissed a little too hard by the sun on day 2 of our Maui adventure he thought it best to stay out of the salt water. This worked very well because the girls weren't quite ready to trust the snorkeling adventure and they weren't too sure they wanted to see what was swimming around them. Good thing too; I'll get to that in a minute. When our boat was pulling into it's first destination (Molokini Crater) it was rushed by dolphins - WAY COOL! Some people who try snorkeling tend to jump into the water and put their flippers to work. Here's a tip; relax, float and watch intently. Many things are missed when you hurry while snorkeling - float and stare at the same coral for a bit; you'll be surprised what starts to move. And that's when I spotted the eel. Umm, that's also when I spotted the shark.

It would be learned later that one of the predators for green sea turtles is the shark. The location of our second snorkel spot was called "Turtle Town" (in front of Tiger Woods house on Maui). I'm so glad that the shark was below me and in front - there were about 20' between us; and thankfully he was going the other way. Had we been eye to eye you would have seen the water level on the Pacific Ocean drop about a foot as I would have inhaled it!

There were adventures on the boat too - we saw the humpback whales; one flapping his fluke in our direction and we saw a momma with babe floating. The captain put the 'microphone' into the water so we could hear the whales talking to each other - WAY COOL! We stopped at a bouy on our way back to the harbor and it was explained that when the boat is there the sharks aren't thus freeing the turtles from a fear of being, well, dinner. This freedom is the perfect time to come on up for 5-6 breaths before descending back to their hiding places. Sure enough; we'd spot one, then another, then 2 more and so on. I'm glad that Scott and the girls at least got to see things like this. Next time hopefully we can all snorkel together.

I'll have to come back and add photo's later; for now the computer is just a titch to stubborn.