Calgary temple update - about a year to go...

Apparently the Calgary temple is being built to such high standards that there will be nothing like it in Calgary.  It's delightful to watch it progress. It's been over a month since the last Temple post.  Here is what it looks like at sunset on July 31(from Helen's house) - with my new zoom lens (yes I weakened)

I can confirm that the temple won't be yellow, they will cover that up with stone :)

I can hardly wait for it to be finished!

I've been looking forward to this

Today was the last day of camp.   Being a camp specialist is a bit of a stretch for me - to say the least.  I have worked harder on this than any other assignment I've had for a long time.  Many sleepless nights, worrying about whether it would work out OK.  I said at the beginning that the key would be getting people involved that knew what they were doing!

Ken and Kara Reed were key to the success of camp - they do this stuff for fun and there is nothing they don't know about camping!  They were in charge of food and it was incredible.  We had pancakes, french toast, ham and egg muffins, taco's, steak and salmon....it was better than I make at home!!

We couldn't have put the iron rod together without Lara - she had seen it done before and was key to it's success here.  Actually building the iron rod on the day was all down to Ken for the rod itself and then Kathy for the other stuff....seriously, how on earth did Kathy pull this off with everything that's going on in her life?!

Elise managed all the crafts,  Marcy and Stephanie took care of the other activities, Lara seemed really comfortable with the whole camp experience, and had done so much to help get everything ready. Jody (who hates camping as much as I do) - was inspirational in the Iron Rod experience, and was a great leader throughout.

I won't lie to you - I'm glad it's over.  It's a strong possibility that I'll never get to do this again, but if I do, I will be better off for having gone through this :)

When I got home I did a little bit of grocery shopping, and then fell asleep on the Melchins deck until sunset. Delightful.

The Iron Rod

The big thing today was the Iron Rod experience.  This was months in the planning, hours in putting together and a couple of hours for the actual event.  It was worth all the effort.

The idea was to create a physical example of Lehi's vision of the tree of life - complete with iron rod, large and spacious building, filthy river and mist of darkness - The Bishopric and wives put it all together.  We had over 400 yards of PVC piping, attached to rebar (I didn't even know what that was until now!)  We put it through the obstacle course leading to a tree lit with little lights.  The fruit on the tree was letters from the girls parents.

We had to get rid of the girls while we were putting the route together, so we sent them to the wave pool all afternoon, while we started putting the rod together.  The process was quick, but delayed by a nasty hail storm (must get the car repainted!)

The biggest job was putting together the "large and spacious building" and the "filthy river" and the "tree of Life" - all of that took a little longer than expected, the building was equipped with a disco ball,  and a fog machine for the mist of darkness, and the tree was brought in (can you believe we couldn't find a suitable tree in the forest that we camped in!!) and we put strings of lights on each branch.

We kept calling Marcy and Stephanie and asking them to delay returning, so they went to Value Village and then for a Chinese buffet.

The end result was awesome.  We didn't even start until 10pm and it was gone 1am before we finished.  Bishop Steele was even there (still suffering from the effects of his broken leg and subsequent c-difficile problems) - we had some boys from the ward in the "large and spacious building" trying (unsuccessfully) to tempt the girls with crave cupcakes, facebook access, cell phone access etc)

When everyone had arrived at the tree Jody played the "Hold On" song, then had the girls come to the tree to take their letters, there were a lot of tears as they read their letters.  Then we had a testimony meeting and Colin invited everyone to say something, which was perfect.

It was cold, about 5C,  and when we finished just after 1am, we thought everyone would hurry to their tents to get warm, but they didn't, they milled around visiting and reliving the experience.  Perfect.  When we finished, the Reeds and our visitors took the whole thing down - I am so glad we didn't have to worry about that the next morning, but I did feel guilty driving past and seeing everyone working at 2am :)

This was an awesome experience that I know I will never forget, and I hope that's the same for the girls - there were so many parallels, that we could think through over the coming weeks, months  and years.

Well worth all the planning and worry!

Boot Camp, canoeing and lots of fun

We did the boot camp exercise at camp today, it went well and the girls seemed to enjoy it. This afternoon they all went out onto Sylvan Lake for canoeing (well, they didn't do much canoeing, mostly messing about and swimming - but I think they had fun!)  Ken had them sit in the back of the truck to get to the lake - it's a good thing that Ken suggested it, all the YW leaders would have considered it too dangerous!

...and then this evening, we had the impromptu team massage around the campfire!

Day one in the wilderness

OK - "Wilderness" is a slight exaggeration, but it seems like it when we sleep in tents.  Day one went well, the girls went on a hike and there was a downpour - We let the youth camp leaders make the decision whether to return early or continue, I was impressed that both groups decided to stick it out :)

Only 1 more sleep

...and not much of a sleep at that!  Tomorrow is girls camp; we are SO organized that I can't help thinking we've missed something obvious.  Someone had a flash of brilliance and decided to get the girls to come and deliver their stuff to the Church this evening....here it is...my stuff doesn't have my name on it - I'm pretty sure I'll never find it.

I was still up till 3am getting last minute things ready.  I will, of course, take photo's every day, but I will likely not be able to upload them until Saturday.  I'm going dark for the next few days - wish me luck :)

I've waited 15 years for this

After a lovely day at Alyson's lake home, we made the 4 hour journey home.  As usual we scoured the landscape for any interesting signs of wildlife...I've always wanted to see a real live bear in the wild, I've driven through the mountains countless times, and I think I'm the only Albertan that hasn't seen one....until now....

and there he was - larger than life and enjoying a little snack on the side of the road. One more thing off the bucket list!

This is a beautiful country

We drove out to Wasa lake after Church to see Alyson and Matthew.  It took about 4 hours to drive there and the whole trip was breathtaking.  What a beautiful country I live in!

The Williams home by the lake is delightful - gorgeous location, and even the weather was perfect!

I nearly weakened

I'm getting closer to giving in to buying the zoom lens for my camera.  I took Paul to Banff today and we took the gondola to the top of Sulpher Mountain, the views are spectacular, and I just KNOW I could have taken better photo's with a posh zoom lens. I saw one in the camera store in Banff, but I didn't give in.  However, I think I should have one for girls camp this week - don't you?!!

In the meantime, here are a couple of photo's with the boring old lens :)

I broke my promise

 I know I said I'd never eat again, but how is that even possible when we had to drive right by LIC's?  so we had a frozen yoghurt for lunch on the way to downtown.  I took Paul to do the downtown thing today - we did the tower, went through the mall,  and got drenched in yet another summer downpour.  We gave up at about 4pm and headed to Okotoks to visit with the Etheringtons - delightful

I'm never going to eat again

So I just love having family visit....I'm enjoying Paul being here from England, even though I haven't really spent much time with him because I've been at work - but it's important to make sure he gets to visit all the restaurants he particularly likes.  Tonight it was the Cheesecake Cafe's turn.  I haven't been there for ages, so we drove down to Chinook and had a delightful and WAY too big meal.  We even had dessert to take away.

I am dreading the scales tomorrow....this can't be good news!

unrelated...(except it was outside the restaurant) there was a cool and clean looking Z28 - I have no idea what that's like, but the owner clearly looks after it, so I think it must be important to him (I assume it's a "him"!!)

Play it again Sam

I feel a little guilty that my brother in law has come all the way from England and I have to abandon him to go to work, but I just don't have much holiday left - that said, I decided to take next Monday off, and we're going to go out to Wasa lake (with the Williams) on Sunday after Church and spend a couple of days there.   The weather forecast is even nice.

We went to LIC's again for ANOTHER ice cream (well, frozen yoghurt actually) - and they had the piano thing playing...its one of those early 20th century self-playing piano's - it amazes me how they even got this working - very cool....

just an i-phone photo, but you get the idea!

Armageddon

The weather was gorgeous yesterday and pretty nice this morning, but just before Paul arrived the sky turned really nasty and I got caught in a downpour just as I left the office to pick him up!  I was drenched.  We went to Joey Tomatoes for dinner and caught in another storm - but the upside was the intriguing clouds - just amazing

Independence Day

I took FIL, BIL and Arlan to the airport this morning, Arlan was accompanying FIL and BIL to Vegas and making sure they made their connection to Salt Lake - I'm not sure when Arlan will come home, but in the meantime - I am reconnecting with my independence, and here in one photo shows that I accomplished todays chores...watering the garden and taking the garbage out.  The big question is....can I sustain the effort over a few days :)

More importantly, I need to get back on track with my eating habits - which I must say have been pretty poor lately :)

Paul is coming for a visit tomorrow - I'm not sure that will be good for my diet :)

Eaten alive

It was a beautiful day today...almost got to 30C; Unfortunately I spent most of the day inside, but I wandered out to take a photo of the Citronella candles;  the whole purpose for these candles is that they are supposed to scare off the mosquito's - so can anyone tell me why I was eaten alive while standing right next to them?

Hi, my name's "Idiot"

I spent over $400 on tickets for "Wicked" for Arlan, Dad, Boyce and I - we were all looking forward to it, even Boyce - I have spent the last couple of weeks talking it up, I bought him one of those ridiculously expensive programs just so that he could get into it.  Well that worked, because he's been talking about it for the last few days.

Time came for us to leave, and we all dressed up a little, and then I got the tickets out...SHOCK-HORROR!!! The tickets were for the matinee, and we'd missed it :(  We went to the box office, just in case (even though I knew it was sold out).  Long story short, I played up the elderly father in law and handicapped brother in law and we got disabled seating on the main floor.

End result - a lovely evening (albeit it very stressful to start) that cost me about $700.  Money well spent.

10 points if you can see the planes

We were sitting in a meeting, and I heard the roar of a plane - it took me a few seconds to see that it was the formation air team going over, a few more seconds to work out I had no camera, and another second to realize I have one on my phone....the result is  a photo like this.   I can see the 9 planes....can you?

here is a close up of the same photo....any better??!!

Cowboys on every corner

Calgary is kind of surreal at this time of year.  People really wear cowboy hats and western gear, and it's normal...not dress up.   Business men wear cowboy hats to work, everyone wears denim and most people wear cowboy boots.

I feel like a party pooper - my western stuff is too big, so I just wore normal jeans and shirts to work.  I couldn't even find my pink cowboy hat :(

They served stampede breakfast at work today - nice.

Enough rain in 10 minutes to last the month

I'm not sure why I'm always surprised by the amount of rain we get in July...not that it rains all the time, but when it does, it's a deluge.  We had one of those storms tonight.  It's not so much "raindrops" and "rain hose"

Yahoo!!

You know you've lived in Calgary too long when you actually enjoy an afternoon at the rodeo...

Still life

I went to the camera shop to see what was up with my photo's from Saturday...it turns out that BOTH the SD card and the USB thing were broken.  So it looks as though I have no photo for Saturday.  So I bought new ones....they have sent the SD card to head office to see if they can retrieve anything (for $50!)

On the way home from work I bought more fruit....the best thing about summer is the fruit - I could live on this stuff (especially if it was dipped in chocolate:)

Weakened by technology

Still reeling from the missed photo yesterday, I went out in search of photo ops with a new chip - same camera.  Found a lovely spot where I got a photo of an old barn with the downtown skyline in the background...I kinda liked the old/new and farm/city feel.

Widget still not working, but I can see the photo on the camera - I'll add it later. In the meantime, I'll take a photo with my other camera so that I have a back up in case of emergency :) Either one or two will be added in the fullness of time!

Photo Fail

I took advantage of the super cool zoom lens that I borrowed from Tanya and took doezens of photo's at the community stampede breakfast.  I was helping mix the pancakes; we mixed them in big rubbermaids with big paddles - it was hard to get the lumps out; but we didn't get any complaints (but who would complain about a free breakfast?)  This afternoon I went to the girls camp site with Jody and Lara and took dozens of photo's there as well.

The camera was working fine, I could see the photo's - BUT when I got back to my computer and put the chip in the little widget thing - it wouldn't work.  Neither would it work in my other camera.  I am afraid to say I think all the photo's are GONE.  This means I have broken the chain in my 365 photo blog!!  Bummer.  I will take the chip and widget into the camera shop just in case they can retrieve it - time will tell

Kate says "hi"

We went downtown to catch a glimpse of Kate and William this morning, then got stuck there watching the rest of the stampede parade...I'm really not a parade kind of girl, but it was really quite enjoyable, it helped that the weather was nice and we had comfy lawn chairs.  Dad and Boyce (hereafter called FIL and BIL) decided to come with me, so we were somewhat limited with how far we could walk, but we found a decent spot next to the car park.

The much anticipated Will and Kate drive by was quick - and they were in a closed top car...but Kate waved at me and said hi to me...very nice of her.  I took about a million photo's - I wish I could spread them out over the coming week...but here is Kate....

...and a couple of my favourite photo's from the parade

I'm also trying something new.....here is a link to some other photo's I took today - I put them together in a little montage with music on youtube...let's see if it works!

Jeni's photo's from the Stampede Parade

HRH William and Kate...They're here!!!

Kate and William arrived in Calgary today and they flew overhead while I was driving home from work...I expect they were looking for me, but they'll just have to wait until tomorrow...

This evening I went to Cory Wildes baby shower - she had GORGEOUS twins....

Time flies!

Work has been quite delightful this week; people have been starting to take vacations and consequently I've had less meetings and more time to actually do my work.  I thought it would give me the chance to get out of the office early to meet Alyson for dinner - I had planned to leave at 4.30, but my client called a last minute meeting and I didn't get out until gone 5pm.  Then I don't know where the time went, before I knew it it was gone 9.30 and we were still sitting in the restaurant.  What a lovely evening....we caught up on everything from the kids to our jobs and everything in between.  Super.

...and of course a bottle of the finest Pellegrino!

Such a beautiful day

The sky is blue, the birds are singing, the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, the temperature is mid 20's.  Life is good.

I took a photo of the blue sky and this digger got in the way :)

Summer colours

It's official....Arlan Johnson has green fingers.  I swear these flowers wouldn't have survived if I was in charge of them...

The front garden is a blaze of colour - I just love this time of year!

That got rid of the mosquito's

It started off so well, the weather was gorgeous this morning, I walked to Church.  Lot's of girls were missing from primary this morning, no doubt because of the long weekend - but then we had the younger girls join us because another teacher didn't show up.

I took a few more photo's, I kinda like these ones, I could totally use these as generic photo's showing perfect primary kids...maybe I'll sell them to the Church and retire on the proceeds:)

The wind picked up this afternoon; but I still managed to go for a walk, and the good thing about the mini gale is that it blew all the mosquito's to Saskatchewan.

I need the remedial class

The highpoint of today was having a 1 on 1 training session with the guy from Blacks Camera's.  I think the guy was about 12 years old; and he lost me within about 2 minutes.  I did get a few good ideas and I really liked what he showed me about monochromatic photo's (apparently better to do it when you take the photo rather than changing it later) - so you may see a few more black and white photo's over the coming days.  I'm not in love with this one, but heck, it's early days :)

this is a little haystack (obviously) just up the road at Butternut Farm (at least that's what I think it's called!)

Happy Birthday Canada!

It was Canada Day today - and it was a practically perfect day.  The weather was perfect; I took Dad and Boyce to the Hawryluks for the traditional Canada Day breakfast (great food/great company) - then watched Andy Murray get trounced in the semi final of Wimbledon (ok, so the day wasn't perfect) - in between games I watched the Will and Kate Canada Day celebrations.  Then I took Dad and Boyce down to Lics for another ice-cream (this has to stop) - and then finished the day with my FIRST long (6km) walk of the season.

Lovely

Breakfast at the Hawryluks