The Vacation Is Over - Sort Of

Well it's back to work as of today after another couple weeks of holidays - most spent at Star Lake. I managed to squeeze in a great mtn bike ride in Ingolf with Pat for a couple hours - around 20kms I'm guessing and although I haven't ridden as much as I'd like - most of my rides have been good.

I've done some road-riding with my buddy Paul as well and actually did a 40km "Magic" Loop today. I hope to get in some more riding before the semester picks up in September - I made some adjustments to my mtn bike that have helped make it a better ride as well.

So what have we done as a family over the past number of weeks? We did a trip out to Edmonton/Calgary/Banff to visit friends/family/mountains which was pretty epic. The kids especially enjoyed the view from on top of the mountain we "gondala'd up" and hopefully gave them a good taste of future hiking trips up mountains.

We've done some work to our house - including a couple garage sales to help us simplify and simply get rid of some accumulated stuff. We still have more of that to do though - hard getting rid of possessions - not sure why though? It seems as soon as one gets rid of something we tend to replace it. It's the classic "fill-the-box-you-have" phenomenon that I see played out in rooms, houses, and even hard-drives!

I think spending time at Star Lake or in our backyard have been the most family-oriented & relaxing though. Amazing how the "great outdoors" does that - recharges you!

Grand Forks Escape: Canad Inn & Waterpark

We decided to do a family trip to Grand Forks (July 10-13th) because of our amazing exchange rate for the US dollar, do some shopping and check out the new Canad Inn & their amazing water park. We were not disappointed! Here's a few shots taken with my cheaper point & shoot Optio digital:Aimee enjoying Grand Fork's Canad Inn's waterpark - amazingly kid-friendly!

Chels & me shooting some hoops at one of the pools at the waterpark.

Some of the cool decor at the water park - sort of a "island theme" - very cool!

The family in the hot-tub - Zach is a little stunned apparently - not the most flattering shot but hey not all my pictures are amazing ha!

A shot of our arctic theme room for the kids - kind of cool as they had their own space as did we!

Chelsea modeling one of the bunkbeds - complete with amazing painted walls.

Aimee beside her favorite penguin!