Oh, Canada... How I love thee!

Greetings from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil formation!

Summer has just flown by in the blink of an eye and although I have had plenty of material to blog about, the time to do so hadn't presented itself until tonight.  As the men in the house are attentively watching the Vikings and 49ers on this warm Sunday evening I have been moving my iPhone pictures to 'the cloud' and reminiscing on the wonderful summer we have had.

With lots of hay to make this summer (which was a huge blessing for us), there were several short trips out of McKenzie county, but only one out of the state which happened to be an international trip and one that saw Pete and Brad stay home to make hay.

Kim, Jaden, Mom, Kyle and I went to visit Dad's sister Becky Hovet - Neuman and her family in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada the middle of July.  Growing up less than 2 hours from the Canadian boarder, I have visited the country many times and enjoy many Canadian built products in my life from our house (which was built in Manitoba and moved on site) to our barn (which was built on site, but all Canadian products) to our portable cattle panels to many of the clothes hanging in my closet to my favorite pair of boots.  I LOVE Canadian built THINGS and Canadian PEOPLE... who I have found to be friendly, kind, sincere, easy going, realistic and sound in their determination of what is and is not important in life.  I often think that the people (and the politicians) of the United States could learn many things from Canada.

So, without getting too far off point here when we were invited up to Drum this summer to visit we hopped right on that.  In addition to visiting the Neuman's and all Drumheller: http://www.dinosaurvalley.com has to offer, we also snuck up to Calgary and took in the last day of the Calgary Stampede http://ag.calgarystampede.com!  It was a great time and the boys had a blast.

The road trip up to Calgary proved to be too much...

At the Calgary Stampede - a military helicopter presenting the Canadian colors prior to the start of the final go of the Heritage Derby - worth $100,000 to the winning driver.

The Heritage Derby (Chuck wagon races) at the 2013 Calgary Stampede.

Jaden and Kyle taking in a kids class, Fossil Casting, at the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com
Becky's husband Andy (currently the COOLEST PERSON in Jaden and Kyle's life) is the Executive Director of the museum and made darn sure those two had a WONDERFUL two day visit to the provincial complex. 

Kyle excavating 'dino' fossils during one of his 'kid classes' at the R.T. Museum. 

Kyle and Jaden at the R.T. Museum.

Kyle and Jaden telling uncle Andy about their recent fossil excavation class and showing him their 'passports to the past'! 

'Cool' Kyle in one of the Jurassic display rooms at the R.T. Museum.  

Kyle and Jaden - an outlook point at the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum complex.

Kyle, cousin Leah, Jaden and Kim at the community theater's production of Oklahoma! 

Cousin Eric (as Curly) with Kyle and Jaden after the opening night's production. 

Eric giving the boys a behind the scene's tour... Eric was the lead, Becky directed and Andy helped with the set and lighting.

 
Oh Canada, thank you!