Herald Provincial Park
July 5-13, 2013

We got away a day early for camping but didn't want to drive all the way to the park that night so we stopped in Merrit for the night.  We had some pretty special accommodations, cheap and quiet!

The WalMart parking lot!

The view was beautiful!

They still have the same frown!

Jake has frowned since he was a baby.  It's usually when he is thinking of something and Dave does the same thing.  

Nicole, you are letting your dad do your hair?  What?  That never happens.  Nicole is pretty particular about where the pony tail lands on her head.  It can't be too high and certainly not too low either.  

Dave just brushed it.... 

The flower shot of the camping trip.  I love daisies. 

The kids had a boat building competition going on the first morning.  They had to make the boat with bottles, pop cans, wood pieces, nails or tape. 

Matthew was feeling a bit discouraged at first until his dad helped him out a bit.

The building station.

What's with the 9 year old boys....
Zeb got help from his mom.

Nicole.... bark, tape and beer cans.

Matthew.... wood, pop can, straw, tape and nails.

Jake.....pop cans, tape and what a poser he is.

Zebedee....water bottles and tape.

Alexis....a block of wood, tape, a leaf and a bottle cap.

Rod....with his fabulous floaty!  Think it will hold you as you raft down a river?

Ready to go.
Who's would be the fastest?

On your mark....
Get set....
GO!!!

...and they are off!

Alexis' was gone in a shot.
Jake and Zeb had to keep flipping theirs over.

Matthew lost sight of his pretty much right away.

They found it the next day, flipped over halfway down the creek. 

Nicole helped hers along and then it too was gone.  Then she lost one of her flip flops, which was eventually found the next day in the search for Matthew's boat.

In the end, Alexis' boat kicked some serious butt with Jake and Zeb chasing after her.  Nicole's boat was officially 4th and Matthew's came up last in 5th.
And Rod's boat....well... he didn't try it in the creek!

Water fun.  Nicole and Alexis are 3 years apart but they have a special little friendship that gets better and better as the years go on.  It's kind of like an older/younger sister relationship. They spend a lot of time together doing the girlie thing while the boys are off and about doing their thing.  You can tell that Nicole is older but that doesn't seem to matter when we are camping.

Jake is clearly the big kid...the teenage kid but he has plenty of time to spend with his brother and sister and Zeb and Alexis.  It's so fun to see them all interacting.

Ahhh, happy hour on the beach.  It really doesn't get any better than this!  Thanks for being the one who can't sit still Rod.  We really appreciated those cool afternoon drinks on the hot, hot beach!

I know, the mountains and the horizon are sloping....

Dave sent this picture to a friend who was hard at work while we were having a grand time on the beach.  Just a tad bit mean....

Watermelon on the beach is pretty yummy too.
Rod cut it...

It was so hot....  I was in the water a lot!

This is our second campsite.  I forgot to get a picture of the first site.  We didn't book ahead for holidays this year as we really didn't know when we would be able to get away.  Two days before we left we managed to get the site beside Rod and Linda but couldn't stay there the whole time so when this non-reservable site opened up a few sites down we moved.  This site wasn't as big but we made it work.  The tent was too close to the fire pit to have fires so we just did that on Rod and Linda's site.  Jake and Nicole enjoyed the huge tent and Matthew was quite content to have the whole bunk area in the trailer to himself.  He did sleep in the tent one night with Zeb but they liked their comfy beds in the trailers better.

The park wasn't full while we were there and it seemed as though we had the whole lake to ourselves.  We even managed to get the same beach spot every day!

Matthew and Alexis always seem to gravitate towards each other at some point in time.  They play super well together and really seem to enjoy each other's company....Matthew's happy to play tamely in the water as he's not the water rat that Zeb and Jake are.

You're so special with your parasol Jake!

Relaxing....that's what we do best!

We have tried every summer for the past few years to get Matthew on the wake board but have not succeeded.  This year, after some serious bribing.... we managed to convince him to give it a try.

Yup, you've got it Matthew....keep those arms straight.

Looks like he's doing it on his own....

...just what did I get myself into?

...and they are up...

Bribery....

The deal was...if you go up with Uncle Rod on the wake board you will get a big bag of Nibs just for you!

Dave's turn...

Jake LOVES to wake board and couldn't be out there enough.

He tried and tried to do a 180.

Yup, I got some 'air' too.

I pick wake boarding over skiing although skiing is fast and fun!

The kids discovered Sudoku this summer.  I had to fight to get my puzzle book on the beach.

Knee boarding.

She made it over the wake!

Zeb doing some driftin'.

Jake's turn on the knee board.

He's got the drifin' moves too.

Matthew and Zeb...cooking up some sort of plan....

Target practice?  Hmmm....

Snow balls?  In the hot summer sun? What?
Rod and Linda were in Alberta before they came  to Herald and they visited a glacier.  While there they thought it would be funny to come to the beach one day while camping and get us with some snowballs.  The only problem was that the snowballs turned into ice balls after being in the freezer so they were pretty much dangerous.

Dave was brave enough to stand in the target that Rod had made and luckily was quick enough to move out of the way of Zeb's sharp shot!

Nicole, you dare to stand there?

Alexis must have been pesting Uncle Dave or she wouldn't be in this predicament!

I think she's trouble....

What's with the boys in this family.....they like parasols?

Jake, Nicole and Alexis collected firewood.  They would check the campsite posts to see when people were leaving, look to see how much firewood they had and then as soon as the people would leave they would scavenge the firewood left on the site.  Then each afternoon, as people were getting back to their sites they would sell the firewood to them.  They made a pile of money yet too!

The boat we had so many fun hours in and behind!  Thanks Rod and Linda!

Rod, getting some pretty good air.

Zeb....gets some good air too!

More wake boarding tricks.

She did it!  She can zig zag in and out of the wake!

Didn't I say she was trouble?

She got Rod but it sure looks like he got her back!

She was so shocked that Rod would get her wet and even more shocked that he would actually get her towel wet too!

She won't give up....
What a pest!

I'm so sad I didn't get the picture before this one.  Dave thought it would be fun to sneak up to Rod as he was pesting our children but just as Dave was right behind him, Rod stepped out of the way and Dave went in without Rod!

Matthew and Zeb with their pile of cash....
The others collected and sold firewood but these two collected empties and made some good money this way!  Thanks to Rod and Linda for hauling it all back in their boat!


And that's it, the end of our first summer camping trip.  Oh....to go again!  Can't wait for August to come!