Junior Forest Warden Camping Weekend

We had a MARVELOUS time this weekend!! The lake was GOR-GE-OUS. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it in fact.

We had the use of a private facility. Mine and another family went Friday night, while the rest of the JFW was due to arrive Saturday morning. It was lovely to have the place to ourselves for one evening.

Soon after we set up our tent and got settled the dad of the other family started fishing with the kids. Ds wasn't into it very much but Dd seemed to really take to it.

Ds and a buddy taking in the view.
Ds loved this teeter totter.

I like our new tent. There's plenty of room for all of us.

Part of the area available to us for camping. You can see benches circling the fire pit and the shelter at the back that we used as a makeshift kitchen.
Dd fishing at dusk.

(if you click on the photo to enlarge you can see all of the mosquitoes heading for her!)

The water was just like glass.
We saw a lot of beaver and muskrat. I love my mom's camera, but I am missing the zoom on mine.

Saturday...

One of the activities with the children was a pond (lake) study. They all enjoyed examining the creatures they scooped out of the water.

One of the leaders in our group is a very knowledgeable ecologist. He took the kids on a walk through the bush educating them about the different plant life.

We spent sooo much time in the canoe which was wonderful and peaceful. We enjoyed seeing wildlife and spending time together.

I managed to twist around and take a photo of Ds, his friend, and his friend's mom. I've never learned to steer a canoe (don't make fun!) so this kind lady went with us. We had a great time together.

The one and only thing that put a damper on the weekend were the darn mosquitoes. They were like little kamikazies. Repellent nor smoke from the fire did nothing to deter the little buggers. So besides pictures we have many MANY bites as souvenirs from the weekend.

Time to relax

While Adrian, Ds, and the rest of the crew from our JFW club joined in on the Skills Challenge this past weekend and spent more than three hours trudging through the bush, Dd and I spent the afternoon by the lake. I volunteered as a judge and that is where I was stationed. Poor me! ;) Dirty and exhausted teams would periodically emerge from the trees, build a fire, and then move on. I had to mark them on team work, preparedness, safety, completion, etc. And let me tell ya. It was a hard job. Buuuut, I guess somebody had to do it!

Dd loved looking for treasures in the lake.
She spent a lot of time constructing a lady bug habitat. Do you see him there at the bottom of picture?

England 2004

Looking through the web site for Englefield Estate got me nostalgic for the trip that we took as a family to England in 2004. I'm looking forward to going back again when the children are older. This was Christmas time, and although it's quite chilly everything is still beautiful and green. Adrian tells me of his childhood days when he would climb these old trees, and of living above this store.

Wild Life

The wild life in Jasper is, of course, always a pleasure. The big horn sheep were beautiful to see.
It's exciting to see bears. This, unfortunatley,was the best shot that we took. May-be that's because we were too busy running away. Or at least that's what I felt like doing! Actually Adrian was trying to get closer...silly man! This bear was walking right through our campground. He went past our site and behind our tent. Ryan and Julia were thrilled. Afterwards we had many conversations on "what we would do if we came accross a bear in the woods".