All weekend long the kids were in planning mode. They were planning concerts and dinners for the pleasure of the adults currently in this household. Saturday was concert day. They spent the day writing and practicing songs. Preparing food. Making tickets. Perfecting the plan for the 3:30pm invited-guests-only event.
First up, was making homemade icecream.
At 3:30 sharp, we showed up with our tickets.
They had set-up at the top of the playhouse by adding planks to make a stage. Malakai was the stage curtain guy. It was a well-oiled machine.They converted skipping ropes to microphones, and performed us three songs that they had written themselves, singing and playing the ukulele beautifully.
During the concert they had us eating snacks that they had made.
The next day they gave us tickets for the backyard restaurant they had created. At your service, ladies and gentleman……Chef / Waiter Ashton, needed a little break from all the hard work.And a few last minute touches while waiting for the guests to arrive.Can I see your ticket please sir?Much variety on the menu…..The waiter with his note pad, expertly fastened to his ‘belt’The Kitchen (aka garden shed). They even ate their meal tucked away in there while we ate ours outside. They might have breached a few health regulations!And that homemade icecream! Chelise wanted the leftover licks.Phew! That was hard work. They needed some play time. They sneaked past the barrier on our unfinished deck for some trampoline time.
They somehow worked around all the mess and chaos that is our backyard at the moment, because of deck construction. I am constantly impressed with their ingenuity, their ability to work together and the fact that they can be kids doing real kid stuff.
I had high hopes today, that this little excursion was going to be awesome. We spied this amazing waterfall just off the logging road when we were driving down from the radio towers a couple of nights ago. It seemed to me that it had all the ingredients for a fun family outing AND would satisfy me greatly with wonderful photographic opportunities. It looked like the perfect waterfall. The volume wasn’t high, and the water cascaded into a beautiful clear, deep pool that looked so sparkly and inviting. It looked as if you could climb up and stand in the waterfall, jump off the rocks, frolic in the pool etc etc. And did I mention that I was looking forward to taking pictures?!
We scrambled down to the pool and I climbed around the edge and set myself up to take photo’s. And then not much happened. The boys ran around after a baby bird, the swimming lasted about 30 seconds (not even) because the water was so cold, and when I asked Kent and Neika to climb up by the waterfall, that proved to be rather treacherous because of loose, slippery rocks.
From looking at it, I thought we had found a little Hawaii at home. We had stumbled upon Fernie’s best kept summer secret right??!! And then I had to deal with my own disappointment that it wasn’t really swim-able because this isn’t the tropic’s after all, but rather the chilly waters of the Canadian Rockies.
I think it would need to be 40 degrees for two weeks, which even if it did happen, the whole forest would be on fire before it was warm enough!
Wowsers! What a milestone! Statistics say only 50% of marriages survive, so I think that marriage’s that weather the storms of life and make it this many years are pretty awesome, and definitely worth honoring. Part of the way I wanted to do that was through pictures. Congratulations Gran & Papa 🙂
We drove up to the radio tower on the mountain behind us for a picnic dinner, with both sets of our parent’s.
The skies were ominous with both the smokey skies from wild fires, and a threatening thunderstorm
We got all packed up from our dinner, did some wandering and just as we were loading up to go, there was the first crack of thunder and almost immediately the downpour began. The storm hammered about us, and as we came around the end of the range it stopped and the sun came out. It looked amazing!
We drove a little further and rounded a corner, and I yelled out to stop the van…..It had been so hot that the road was steaming from the rain, and the light was coming through the trees…..gorgeousness that I need someone to run down the road for me so I could take a picture 🙂
I was playing around with dramatic light photography, as Kent was putting the duvet on top of them and then whipping it off.