Road Trip to Fort St John

On August 20 we decided to go to see my Aunt in Fort St John.  She has been up there a year an a half and was thinking of moving back down to Didsbury and working remotely an so we figured we should go up there while she was still there.  We planned on leaving earlier but then the boys came out and then I had 2 clinics and finally we had time.  I took a lot of pictures so its gonna be kinda a long post.

We thought we should do a few things on the way up there and I suggested the Giant Egg, Neil said its way out of the way so no big deal we can go another time.  Then we looked at the map and its prett well straight north of us so we went there our first day, was less than 3 hours, lol and we thought was so far.  It was totally worth seeing, really big, in a really nice park setting and it moves!

Then since it wasn't very late we decided to keep going and we spent the night in Spruce Grove, was hard to find a hotel but we did and did some shopping and had supper, not to hard a day :) The next day we were heading to Grande Prairie to meet up with Neil's cousins wife and kids, been a long time since we seen them so we figured it was time.  On the way we went by Mayerthrope and decided to stop and see the RCMP memorial where the 4 were killed a couple years ago.  Its good, everyone should see it, pretty sad day for RCMP and everyone else as well that had to happen.  The memorial was cool, all 4 RCMP statues were different.  Then we stopped to use the washroom at Little Smokey (not much of a town, but as we were wandering around we saw this hand ferry across the river, Neil wanted to try it but unfortunalty it was locked up, looked like a good fishing spot though (if I were a fisher)

After we left the family the next morning. actually they left us to go to work, lol.  We were driving to the UFA for gas and we saw a giant sundial so we stopped at it, time was right even, I wonder what they do for daylight saving time?  Then onto Beaverlodge where everyone was so excited for us to see the giant beaver......well I dunno, they had him at the end of a gravel parking lot and he looked kinda mean (and he was plastic)  Kinda cool but not really just a big mean beaver, lol.  And then coolest of all was the curved bridge on the old Alaska Highway.  We saw a sign saying it ans somehow I read covered but I thought that was weird up there and then we found out if was a wooden curved bridge, how neat!  And then we made it to my Aunts house finally.

She had a few things she wanted us to see, one was Charlie Lake it was by a restaurant we ate at on Friday night (really good!) and it had a memorial to a bunch of US soldiers who died on the lake when they were building the Alaska Highway.  It was winter and their boat overturned and most died, a few were rescued buy a local guy in his rowboat.  Amazing how many people we have told and they have never even knew about it.  Then she took us to see Bennett Dam, that was cool, huge and made of dirt!  And then on the way back we toured though Hudson Hope, a pretty town with pretty views.

The next day she wanted us to go see a neat overlook of the Peace River, but as we were like 2 miles from it they were doing road construction on the bridge and wouldn't let us get to it :(  But we did see the neatest log church, the Beatton River, which was cool we could just drive right up to it no big touristy spots, and then a lookout at the end of 100 street and we went to Taylor to see the sand sculptures.  Then it was home time for us even though I'd have liked to keep going Neil wanted to go home.  We stopped to take pics at the border and then on to Heinz creek to see the giant rail spike, even though we really just wanted a snack we saw it accidentally, and to see Neil's other cousin, her hubby and 1 of their kids at their farm in Grimshaw.

Then the next day on down to the Shaftsbury ferry and through the town of Falher which is honey Capital and then the wierdest things, the UFO landed in someones yard and then by Whitecourt we saw area 51.  That was unexpected.  That evening we also stopped by to visit Sherry and Martin, that was cool I think I should stop in everytime we go by and this time it actually worked.

And then we stayed the night in Stoney Plain and then came home after stopping at Leduc #1, the first oil well in the province and taking the Bleriot Ferry and viewing Horsethief canynon which we had heard of but didn't know where it was and then as we pulled into Drum we saw a dead dinosaur being taken away and they didn't even cover him :(

So after 2384 kms we finally made it back home, was a good trip next time I wanna go right up to Alaska, but that's gonna take some convincing of Neil yet.  Whew each day probly coulda been its own post, I could write so much more, but thats gonna have to go in my home scrapbook I guess.

Jill's Clinic

After the last clinic I had the a couple days off and then another clinic even closer to home.  Its a neighbors daughter who runs a barn near Turner Valley called Baron Barn and she comes out every year and does a clinic for both kids and adults and so I thought it sounded fun and so I went.  Since I couldn't take Razz being sore, I wasn't ready with Dee I really wanted to take Bailey and so I did but also threw Jess in the trailer.  I was glad I did, I rode Jess cause there was lots of kids there that were pretty young and I was worried Bailey woulda scared them, lol she scares me some days with her excitability.  She scared Tristan when he was out here, she come running into the corral at full blast and run past us and went to turn around and tripped and almost fell and then got up and stood by us like nothing happened.  I laughed at her but the dirt she kicked up had him worried she was wild.

So I rode Jess and she was good as always even though I knew we were gonna do some rodeo stuff and other stuff we dont usually do but it was gonna be good for her anyways, and at that rate I dont need to ride her afterwards cause she would be in shape.  During the breaks I just let her graze, she liked that part ;)

We started out with 14 people which I thought was a lot but it was good, she had us moving lots we hardly ever sat around.  We started with circles, she really likes circles with all they teach.  We used a lot of cones, walked, trotted and loped through them.

We did goat tying, or rather the kids did goat tying on the ground while we rested.  They did 3 days on the ground and then on horses the last day.

On the third day a neighbor lady was watching and so I asked her to take some pics of me, that was kinda cool but I notice my legs are a lot farther forward then they seem like they should be.

This girl has her cute old horse that was so perfect.  I love this pic cause she finally got her horse to curve around the barrel and was listening to Jill and they both look so happy!

And this boy on his cute little paint horse, he just started riding a few weeks ago and wanted to go in this clinic and he loped for the first time ever, he was super happy, his poor horse, lol hes gonna lope all over from now on :)

And this girl come the last 3 days, she was a little young to listen, she mostly just wanted to be there to ride her horse.  She was super enthusiastic and she loves her dog so her mom put him on her horse.

This other girl on her paint, he was a handful and boy was there improvement in her at the end, its kinda cool to see.

And the other kids were cool too, its so cool how enthused they were about learning from Jill, she made it fun.

And the adults from the group.  I learned a lot and I think the others did as well.

The last day we did a mini gymkhana because we planned to do a trail ride but the bugs were just miserable and woulda been worse down by the creek where we were planning to ride out.  It was a lot of fun even though I never do that stuff.  I learned I can ride in a 22 second barrel pattern, and a 34 second pole pattern.  And then the kids did goat tying and us adults did goat undecorating.  We pulled the ribbon off their tails.  It was pretty funny, the first time we got about 30 feet away and that was as close as Jessie was gonna get, lol so that's where i had do run from.  The next time we got closer and the third time super close!  It was hugely amount of fun a lot more than I expected.  All in all was a lot of fun, I wouldn't hesitate to go again and already have planned to go next summer.