More Canada

As is the case, the best vacation of the year has occupied more posts than any other this year.  It continues with some horseback riding and a trip to Elbow Falls!

Carleigh was soaking it up on the back of Bodie, who is the safest of all of granddad's horses.  There are a couple of funny stories here but my mind goes back to when Bri was 3 years old or so and Robin and I went to Canada to visit - They were living in the Lochend house at the time and Dad took Bri and I on a horseback ride down the back dirt road for a mile or 2.  When we turned around Dad's horse got spooked and it took off bucking - dad couldn't hold on for the 8 second and got bucked off.  Bri and I were sharing Bodie who thankfully was a bit calmer.  Bodie bucked for 4-5 seconds though it seemed like forever as I was holding on for dear life and the thought of getting bucked off with Bri sharing the saddle with me was very scary.  We rode it out but not Dad.  He eventually got up from the grassy knoll where he found himself - chased down the horse and got back on.  He was bucked off again a few minutes later.  I think he wanted to shoot that horse - As we walked back to the barn dad very clearly made it known that he wanted no-one to know about this.  Of course as we arrive at the house, Mom and Robin met us there and little Bri yells "Hey Nana, Granddad got bucked off!"  Groan from granddad…

This day was much more calm and the kids were all able to ride the horses without event - After they rode the horses, they took turns riding the ATV with me.  That was a lot of fun cruising around Granddads 80 acre ranch as fast as we could.  We started a fire and grilled meat for nana's dinner later that night - Classic Santa Maria style Tri Tip and Hot dogs for lunch.

This was a day of opposites - love this pictures - Caty is super happy, Drew is Ho Hum and Carleigh could care less about being here - that was at first - but it got better.

This was another valley that was completely washed out from the floods - there were picnic tables up on normally untouched areas in the forest that had been completely washed out and buried in mud slides.  Trees from way up river were carried downstream and made natural small dams.  Unfortunately for us, many of the fish from these usually fertile and natural rivers including the Elbow river and the Bow river were washed up onto the banks and died - the numbers fell off so steeply that there was no point in trying to fish.