July 8th, 2013 - Cardston, Lethbridge, Fort Macleod

Monday, July 8th we went to Lethbridge, Cardston and Fort Macleod.

We found this old park or fort, that had all kinds of old equipment.  Darrell was in heaven looking at all the old farm equipment.  There was even an old, large working saw mill.  No fences, no one around, so we walked all over the place.  Climbed up on stuff and had fun looking at old equipment.



Then we went to a place called Smashed Head Buffalo Jump.  Pretty cool place to learn about Indian history and culture in the area.  The Indian tribe there did not have horses, so they devised a way to corner the buffalo and get them to run to the cliff and jump off the cliff.  The Indians were waiting at the bottom of the cliff and harvested the buffalo.  One indian child was too close to the buffalo landing spot and got smashed, hence the name, Smashed Head.  They built a museum telling the history of the area, pictures of what the area looked like and how they used the buffalo and most of it's parts to sustain themselves.

 

Fort Maclead is an old Royal Canadian Mounted Police fort.  The fort was moved from it's original location along the river because of constant flooding, so they moved it in to town.  The fort and all it's antiques and memorabilia was fun to look at. They adversized that was the training ground for the RCMP and their horse patrol.

We went in to watch the RCMP riders do some exercises and patterns.  Pretty disappointing.  Their uniforms were dirty, ill fitting, leather was junky and they could not ride a horse.  Someone has turned this in to a tourist trap and the horse riding demonstration was a joke.  Looked like a bunch of high school kids that did not have much riding experience.  At times while riding in their formations, the horses were barely moving.  One girl fell off her horse twice.  Kind of embarrassing.

 

We stayed July 8th in Lethbridge, Alberta.

 

 

Canada!!

On July 5th, we departed for our trip to Canada.  The plan was to go to Mike and Cristal's for a few days and Pat and Darrell meet us in Idaho Falls and go from there.

On July 2nd the air conditioning went out at the house.  We had been having 105 degree days, so there was no way we could leave with no A/C.

Got a new furnace and A/C installed on the 4th and left on the 5th.

Spent a day with Cristal and Mike and grandkids, then left on Saturday for Canada.  We saw so many beautiful places and had a great time.

The first night, July 6th, we stopped in Missoula, Montana.  Always fun to look around and see the country side.

Missoula had this hand card carousel in one of their parks.  It was the number one thing to see in Missoula.  A man wanted Missoula to have a carousel, so he enlisted lots of volunteers and taught them how to carve the horses and animals for the carousel.  Hundreds of volunteers did all kinds of different things to bring the construction together.  There was a sign on the door going in to the carousel that they needed volunteers to learn how to maintain and run the carousel so they could help with the carousel.

There was a cool little gift store at the carousel and I bought a Christmas advent calendar of a Christmas tree. 

Sunday, July 7th in Glacier National Park.

 

First pictures, Glacier National Park.  It was beautiful!!  So much water, waterfalls and lakes.

We spent all one day in Glacier National Park.   After driving all the way through Glacier, and in to Canada, we went to the Canadian side of the park, called Winterton Park.  There was a huge hotel or lodge built there by the railroad many years ago.

Darrell spotted a bear down the hill from the lodge.  He saw something swimming in the lake and at first thought it was a beaver, until he started getting out of the water and it kept getting bigger and bigger.  Finally the bear was out of the water and he was impressive.

Saw some animals too in Glacier National Park.

This lodge or chateau was on top of the mountain at Waterton Lake, which is just over the Canadian border from Glacier National Park.

This is where Darrell saw a bear.  We were looking at the lake from up on the hill and Darrell saw something swimming across the little channel.  At first he thought it was a beaver, but as it started getting out of the water, it kept getting bigger and bigger.  It was pretty cool.


Spent the 2nd night in Pincher Creek.  Small little farming community, but still nice.  Lots of mosquito's.

New Entertainment Center

Ready to start another big project!!  Going to build a corner entertainment center in our basement.  We need space to store grand children toys, blankets and to house a TV.  We have a large "L" shaped basement with a pool table.

Scott and I moved the pool table a few weeks ago into the small part of the basement, but still plenty big for the pool table.  We will do the entertainment center in the corner, just as you go down the stairs.

Did quite a bit of looking on the internet for ideas for a corner cabinet and finally got started on it a couple weeks ago. 

We have a knee wall to deal with, but we will build the cabinet around the knee wall.  This corner piece is where the TV will go.  Planning on a 70" TV and then build wings that extend out each end of the corner.  To the right will be about 35 inches of cabinet, probably for all the electronics.  The sliding glass door is beyond that.

To the left will be about 95 inches of cabinets and shelves.  The door to the stairs is beyond that.

Doing the cabinets out of cherry.  And so the journey begins!!!

After building Cristal's entertainment center and hauling everything to Idaho, this will be a breeze.  I have had to make several fixes or adjustments with Cristal's entertainment center, but this one, I can just run to the back yard if something needs fixed. 

Tatum J. Funk 6-28-2013

Probably the best news of the summer is the arrival or Jordan and Korni's baby.  Jordan is my sister Pat's youngest son.

They  go to school in Logan but are home in Murtaugh working for the summer.

Korni was overdue, so she was induced Friday morning.  By Friday night, no baby, so they did a "C" section.  Tatum arrived Friday night, around 10:00 PM.  Big, strong, healthy and lots of hair!!!

My sister Pat, with #13 grandchild.

 Daddy Jordan and Tatum





Tatum on his way home Sunday, June 30th.

Shop Time, new accessories

Last year for Christmas, we bought a huge dust collection system.  It took me several months to get it assembled and set up.  Since then it has been collecting dust, just not the way it was intended.

My sister Pat gave me a gift certificate to the Grizzly store, which is the maker of my table saw.  Used the gift certificate to buy an over arm blade guard dust collection attachment for the table saw.

When I got home from camp, spent some time on Friday, assembling the over arm blade guard and getting it set up, balanced and connected to the table saw.

It sure looks good.  Now I just need to connect that to the big dust collector.  That is the big dust maker in the shop, so once I get that set up and connected, I should be able to get others connected and get the shop vacuum working.

Girl's Camp 2013

From June 24-27, I went with the Young Women in our ward to Girl's Camp.  We went to a cabin of a member of our ward by Huntsville.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Green grass, trees, lots of shade and the North Fork of the river.

We loaded up on Monday and got to camp by about 11.  Set up tents, unloaded the trailer and had lunch.

We did a service project in the river of moving a bunch of rocks along the banks of the river and then we floated the river.  It was a lot of fun.

Did a hike one day, crafts and then spent all day Wednesday on Pineview Reservoir with boats and float tubes.

We had 29 YW go with us Monday and several different ones come up during the week to spend a day or two with us.  13 leaders went and spent most of the week and others that came and went.  We also had 3 Priesthood up there all the time, plus others that came and went.  The Bishopric was with us Wednesday on the reservoir.

We had a great time.  Great YW and ward members.  Could not ask for a better ward!!!

Manti Pagent

On June 20-22, we went with Mike and Cristal and kids to Manti to see the pagent.  We have done this several years.  We camp in the camp ground right below Manti Temple so we can walk to and from pagent and not fight with traffic.

We eat a great turkey dinner down at one of the ward buildings, swim at the Manti City pool and of course do S'mores every  night at the camp fire.

Kyra and Cristal



This year was extra special as our oldest granddaughter, Myka was able to go to the Temple and do baptisms.  I had cleared some names from my family history and Myka was able to do 6 baptisms at Manti Temple.  Nice for Myka to do that, but also extra special to do family names.  While doing family history on Sunday, the names Myka was given to do already had the date and Manti Temple in the ordinances.

While Mike, Cristal and Myka were at the Temple, Kenyon and Myles and I went for a hike.  We tried to get up above the Temple on the hill.  We got almost even with the spires on the temple.

Kenyon