Canada part 1

You know when you put something off for a long time and it just gets harder and harder to make yourself do it?  That's the reason we went to Canada the beginning of August and I've had very few posts since.  Thus, the cliff notes version of our 10 vacation is going to be on the blog.  I rarely had my camera, but it's hard to sort through so many pictures.

We flew out fairly early in the morning, so the five of us went to Ft. Worth the night before.  We needed to be at the airport bright and early and didn't want to wake our crew at the crack of dawn, so we met the rest of the party at the airport.  Our friends dropped us off, and we unloaded our 4 huge suitcases, 3 travel beds, 4 carry on bags, and huge double stroller to begin our journey.  It didn't get off to the best start as they made us check our stroller at the gate before we went through security.  Hunter and I were left to wrangle the boys, our four backpacks, and all our tickets/passports/paperwork.  And the AC wasn't working.  Needless to say, we were happy to see Honey and Poppa and reinforcements once we cleared security.  We boarded soon after for the twins first flight.  We popped into the cockpit to get a pic with the pilot.  Clayton was pushing buttons like a mad man, so I hurried him right out of there.  The pilot just laughed, and I was praying Clayton hadn't flipped the wrong switch.  Hunter and I had to split up because we couldn't have 2 lap kids one row.  I passed Clayton off to Honey, got Benton situated with Hunter, and Caleb and I settled in for the flight with me.  They did great!

Caleb was also alarmed at all the buttons Clayton touched.

               

Thank goodness for technology.  Benton loved flying watching Dinosaur Train.

Just a mere 3 hours later we landed in Calgary.  Soon after an RV arrived to pick up the 20 or so Texans that flew up.  We were quite the sight piling in with all our luggage.  Let me stop here to explain that my Grandma is one of 16 kids.  Every 3 years we get together for a long weekend full of catching up with cousins, eating, laughing around the campfire, and lots of games.  There were over 200 of the 436 family members in attendance.  Crazy!  Our "branch" of the family is referred to as the "Texans" as the rest live in Canada.

We spent the first night just outside of Calgary in the countryside.  It was beautiful and cool outside.  My Grandparents and Michelle with her kids arrived soon after we did after driving up from Texas in the motor home.  If you want a good detailed summary, be sure and visit her blog about her memorable journey.  This was Clara's 5th birthday, so we had a party to celebrate her!  Keith and Sue were so generous to open their home, feed, and sleep our big group.  Love them so much!

tent mates for the next 10 days....went much better than I expected

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We woke up the next morning and headed to pick up our rented RV and get to reunion.  My pictures get pretty scarce from here on out!  We were all camped in two rows in a big field.  We loved just being able to walk down the row and visit!  The real party started when all the kids went to bed and it cooled off.

Our little travelers took several naps on the road

Benton and Caleb sport their Belsher shirts with the family crest and number on the back.

Clayton LOVED camping.  We ran away from us with glee every chance he got.

We had so much fun catching up with cousins we don't get to see nearly enough.

failed attempt at a pic with all our numbers

Girl GG was loving getting to show off her great grands!

We had a great reunion.  I left out so so much, but I loved getting to expose the boys to their extended family.  I feel extremely fortunate to have such a heritage.