Grace is 65 today!

Today me, Britt, Mom and Dad went to help Grace celebrate her 65th birthday.
She was in a great mood for her birthday today! Britt snuck a couple pictures with her phone of Grace and her flowers and balloon...then I pushed the limits and said we should get a picture with her and the new little stuffed dog we brought her...




We spent some time watching her TV (which she never listens to the sound) and she saw some footage of destroyed buildings from Hurricane Katrina...She said "what a mess" and was very surprised when my Mom didn't even turn her head to look or comment on the mess!

Turned out to be a great visit. She said that her cousin Faye was also 65, but that she hadn't sent Faye a card. Mom said maybe she could send her one when she had more time!!
She said that Faye's not like Inez so she wouldn't care (she also thought we had flown there with Inez's plane).

Kelsey sets a new family record

Last summer 2009 I took Tyler, his cousin Dylan and friend Geeno
to Banff & Koontey for five days of camping and hiking. One of our hikes was to the top of the Gondola in Banff on Sulfur Mountain. The sign said to budget 2 to 5 hours to reach the top
depending on your personal shape and conditioning. We did it in an hour and half and were pretty pumped and excited.

It was a long winter for Kelsey to sit at the supper table and to listen to our bragging every night. She insisted that she could do it faster and shatter our record. We told her the mountain was no place for a girl and the path was straight up and quite dangerous. Besides she was much too young. Knowing all along when she makes her mind up there is no changing it, so I spent the last several months in the gym running on the treadmill on incline, secretly dreading the day when I would have to tackle that climb again!

On Saturday August 07, 2010 Kelsey shattered the old family record and made it to the top of the mountain in one hour and 12 minutes. She beat me by 3 full minutes to the summit. In some alpine Olympic sports 3 minutes off the lead might not get you into the medal round. As you read this, please don't give Kelsey all the attention, after all, I set a new record of one hour and 15 minutes, shaving 15 minutes off of last year's record pace.

In all fairness to Kelsey she could have set a better pace but I was holding her back because the Bears were bad and I had the only can of bear spray. It was once we could see the top of the Gondola I turned her loose on a dead run straight up. As you can see in the two pics above the stress and anguish on my face says it all!

When my kids were born I never dreamed of the day that I would be racing them in their teen years to the top of the Rockie Mountains when I would be in my mid 40's. Even though mentally I don't feel old, the mountain teaches me different. When I got to the summit this year totally out of breath and soak and wet from sweat I was very happy to have only three children and not four. I also thought how its going to be a very long winter in Saskatchewan around the supper table.

As Appolo Creed said to Rocky in the final scenes of the movie Rocky "There ain't going to be no rematch."

As you can see in the final photo we took the easy way down off the mountain.
Your the Best Kelsey!!!!!
Love Dad

Pickles!!!

How sweet it is to see Mina working on her pickles!
She has not been feeling great this spring,
but we are so thankful she is
feeling somewhat better and her
and her wonderful sister have been
busy pickling to carry on her
great pickle recipe!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Larson!
Sometimes when you have a summer birthday
it takes awhile to get everyone together for cake!
He and baby Abby Larson share the same birthday...August 6th.

Who's the blessed man