The Augustine's Camping Adventure!
We packed up the kids and what seems like half the house too and headed to the mountains for a long weekend of camping. We were greeted with clear blue skies and warm temperatures...but that was all to change during our first night. Around midnight we were all woken by a horrendous thunderstorm. I always forget how thunder in the mountains just rumbles and grumbles and shakes everything and everyone. We were all snuggled up in one sleeping bag looking up and waiting to see if the torrential rains would penetrate through our tent roof. Luckily we stayed dried and all settled down after about 20 minutes and soon we all back in our own sleeping bags trying to keep warm and drift back off to sleep.
The restless night was worth the beautiful clear skies the following morning and spectacular reflections in the now calm Kananaskis Lake.
After a warming and delicious oatmeal breaky we headed out for a walk and some mandatory rock throwing.
This one was a little heavy to throwing but Rory was quite proud of his 'big' muscles!
An early evening walk in cooler temperatures meant we were digging out our warm hoodies and toques!
Our first campfire with the boys was enjoyed by all - Cam especially loved to watch the fire and hear the crackle of wood catching fire.
A couple of restless and chilly nights were too much for our little Cam and he decided to have a little snooze in the afternoon with mum in the hammock!
We were all quite sadden to see the destruction of the June flooding. This was the main crossing for the bike/hiking pathways out of the campground. Many sections of the road into K-country were also washed out by the floods and temporary gravel sections were created to have access to the area. The waterline of the flood was also present along many of the creek areas - and in some places it was almost as high as myself. Very hard to comprehend the force of the water that carried trees from upstream and just dumped them where ever they got stuck on other bits of debris.
We made the most of it as we love this part of the mountains and still enjoyed bikes (even if it meant going up a huge hill) to get unto the pathway system. All was rewarded with ice cream at the general store!
Hanging out with daddy throwing rocks and learning how to do 'kippers.
Rory could spend hours throwing rocks into the lake - wait we did spend hours throwing rocks and walking along the lake. It was a very different camping trip this year - more just chilling out at the campsite. I forgot how hard it is to cook, clean (with no running water at the campground-thanks to the floods) and keep your site food/garbage free (due to the frequency of bears in the campground). But I absolutely love it and would do it everyday if we could.
As for the rest of our days this summer we've been busy playing in our pool, going on family bike rides and day trips into the mountains too. We've really been enjoying our backyard this summer. We put in a lot of work last year and more this year to make our yard safe and fun for our boys.
I'll leave you with this parting shot of the 'meadow' at the Peter Lougheed Centre. There has not been this much water here in over twenty years - again due to the floods. What a spectacular site the flood has created!
We hope you are enjoy your last few days of summer - I'm sure it won't be too long before we see the first snowflakes fall!! We are seeing a few leaves starting to change already.
