A GREAT HOLIDAY

The Erickson Family in 1956
(Mom made the shirts for this camping trip to Banff)

We left home on July 21 and got back on August 7 so I have a lot of catching up to do!  This time I will start at the beginning.

We usually use Alan's Dodge Dart when we travel in the summer but the amount of stuff that I was taking along changed that!  We switched to my Ford Escape as that could handle the excess!  I won't go into detail about THE LOAD.

We left the farm on Friday morning, July 21 leaving behind very hot and dry conditions after one inch of rain for this growing season.  We gave the garden a good watering and Gerry and Clare kept it alive while we were gone.

Gull Lake, SK was our destination for the first day, our favourite "Bed and Breakfast" place, the home of Alan's sister Donna and Cam Lock.  We have stopped there many times on our way to Calgary as it's about half way from the farm.  It's now for sale as they are hoping to move to Saskatoon as soon as their house sells.

After a good visit we left after lunch on Saturday and headed for Cypress Hills Provincial Park where the sixth Erickson Family Reunion was taking place.  We love the Hidden Valley campground where there is room for 11 camper trailers.

We don't have a camper so we checked in at the Cypress Inn and found room 209.  After we were settled in we drove to the campground where all the action was taking place as campers arrived and set up in their chosen spots.  Rylan pitched his tent up the hill and had that spot all to himself!  I didn't venture up to get a close look.  

Fun on the slip and slide
(Rylan's tent is between the trees on the upper left

We joined Laurel, Greg and family for supper and enjoyed chicken and potatoes on the BBQ along with lentil salad.



On Sunday morning Alan and I had breakfast at Ivan Eng's restaurant, then headed to the campground.  There were lots of welcome hugs as several more families arrived. In the evening, we gathered for a roast beef supper with a great variety of potluck items to go with it.  The meal was topped off with sour cream rhubarb pie (seven of them!) that Sandra had made.

We enjoyed some lovely music from Mareena and Gavin's son, Rylan. For Christmas 2015 he had asked for a cello.  Now what 12 year old boy has that item on his wish list?  He had taken piano lessons and cello music appealed to him.  So his wish was granted and he became devoted to playing the cello.  We were so impressed with the beautiful music that he played for us after only a year and a half of lessons and lots of practice.  I told him that someday we'll have to pay big money to hear him play!  

Well, I've got a start on this blog so now I'll take you to tonight, Aug 10.  Alan and I just got back from Estevan.  I had a haircut at one, we did some errands,  dropped in at Nancy and Graham Shirley's and ended up having supper with them before heading for Boundary Dam, just south of the city. Saskatchewan Express did an outdoor concert, Oh Canada, which celebrated Canada's 150th year in song and dance.  We especially enjoyed seeing our neighbour onstage, Levi Stepp who is Daniel and Tina" (Durr) second son, going into grade eleven.  He was featured in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and did a super job of his solo part.  Here's a picture of him in this group of ten singers and four dancers.  He's the third from the right.

It's time to say Good-night.  I'll do more updating tomorrow.