Alberta, Alberta, where ya ben so long? (Joel's roadtripalogue)

Renee likes to stop at all the statues - as you'll see.
"Rocky Taconite"  Silver Bay, MN
(Joel: "Do we really have to stop and do this in Silver Bay? What if we see someone we know?!"

a muskie - Deer River, MN

Renee and kids pretending to swim alongside a large unidentifiable fish entrance to a bar - Deer River, MN.  Met some Harley riders who were also stopping at every statue.  Joel was OK with stopping at statues after that.  

I like that smile!

a dead deer - Bemidji, MN

Paul Bunyan of course  - Bemidji, MN

...and his blue ox of course - Bemidji, MN

our kids are fun

Northern Pike - Erskine, MN
(I grew up in Erskine Alberta and my last name is ...)

Wow - a field of sunflowers!

Sad sunflower for Eva's mom

Park where we camped for free in Culbertson MT
(North Dakota failed miserably in the statue department)

stump bear - Culbertson MT

Coronoch the horse in Coronoch, SK where we stopped for lunch and God provided a gazebo when it started raining!

Edouard Boupre, the giant of Willow Bunch, SK

Daddy wearing his 14 year old Willowbunch "Home of the Giant" T-shirt,
with Joshua and his brand new Willowbunch "Home of the Giant" T-shirt

One of the Snowbirds - Moose Jaw, SK

A moose in Moose Jaw next to our first Tim Horton's stop

Snowman - Kenaston, SK
(we were just looking for a bathroom in a hodunk little town when we found this great snowman with a goalie stick!)

Mountie - North Battleford, SK
(Renee came to Canada 11 years ago looking for a Mountie but got me instead.  I wonder what she is thinking in this picture)

Barbed-wire Bison "Don't Fence Me In" (clever) - North Battleford, SK

Bathrooms at a petting zoo east of Lloydminster.

Turtles!

a camel!

"Hi sheep!"

Don't they remind you of Timothy and Emmy from "The Little Lamb"?

Rachel's name means, "Little ewe lamb of God"

Rachel "You smell funny!"
Sheep  "You smell baaaad!"

Joel gets lonely for his 4H steer 'Oscar'

Who da goat?!

Now that's a cool chicken!  Maybe that's the kind that laid the egg in the next picture.

Pysanka - Vegreville, AB

Pysanka = Ukrainian Easter Egg (they're not usually this big!)

These were nice times.   

Rachel discovers tastebuds!
I don't know that there are too many people in the world who can see their own tastebuds! 

Caboose - Vermilion, AB

A Hippo.  A Hudson.  Some playground somewhere.  

Elk - Vegreville, AB

Sausage - Mundare, AB
(Unfortunately the enormous perogi that would've gone so well with the sausage was too far off the Yellowhead highway to make a detour)

Hudson's favorite thing to do when we were not in the car:  Find another car and drive it himself.

Eva's Ride - one of the reasons we went to Alberta when we did, to be a part of the benefit ride for Ronald McDonald house in memory of our friend's daughter Eva.  

That's a lot of kids!  Even without Eva and Emily.  We had a real blessed three days with the J family although I had only known M and A treeplanting 12 years ago and Renee and A had only connected on the internet in the last couple years.  The kids had a blast together and the mothers had some healing conversations.  

A hearty Alberta breakfast: oatmeal, Saskatoons picked at our campsite in the back of the J's property, and leftover perogies!

Kayaking on the J's dugout.
I love the Peace country skies

Farmer Hudson

Samuel and Rachel

Corn on the cob over the fire

Tailgate party

Madelynn and Vincent (Charming kid - but not too sure about being on a horse with a girl)

Joel and a trumpeter swan - Grand Prairie, AB

Bison and Mountie Boots - Whitecourt, AB
(Renee frantically took this picture while we rolled through an intersection)

How could we drive through Edmonton and not stop at the largest mall in North America?
Sorry Minnesotans, Mall of America has nothing on West Ed.    

...this one scared me when I was a kid.

The Mindbender and Joshua

Cousins in Blackfalds!!!  We camped with my parents near my sister and her husband and their 4 boys.  Their town has a spray park which doubles as a bathtub for sticky little campers.   

Cousin Kaleb

Rachel's pig gets married to Kaleb's Mickey Mouse and gives birth to Madelynn's teddy bear.  

My sister and newborn Isaac

In Sundre at Mike and Terry's cabin and personal golf course.

With our family friend Terry at their cabin in Sundre where I sometimes worked in the summers.   We got to toodle around in Mike and Terry's 4-wheeler, going back into the bush looking for wild horses.  

Joshua (8), Rachel (6) Kaleb (5) Madelynn (4) Caius or Lucas (4) Lucas or Caius (4) Hudson (2) Isaac (2wks)
OK Renee says its Caius then Lucas!

Beautiful skies and my beautiful wife.

This is the spot by YWAM Turner Valley where God told me to marry Renee.  Now look what has happened!

Scrambling up a mountain at Blue Rock

This was a little stressful for Renee

The Alberta Vontrapp's.  Hudson's got the alto.

I don't know if she's trying to be cute or just is.

Cowboys!  I'm sure Hudson was just about to dig his heals into Mommy's ribs and say "Giddyup!"

Sheep face at Sheep Falls

One of Joshua's highlights was lighting the fire in the morning.  

I like camping!

Lewis and somebody Clark and somebody and a dog (Gotta brush up on my US history)  - Great Falls, MT

First Nations warrior dude - Great Falls, MT

A visit with Danielle, Sully and Hans...

...and Luke if it weren't for the fire he was fighting on the mountain behind their town.  

Native American - Red Lodge, MT
Atta go MT on the statues!

A Montana cowboy with a Montana attitude in Rockvale Montana

Joel thinks he's being funny by trying to make it look like his arm is being eaten by a triceratops statue.  Triceratops were herbavores.  And its a statue.   Forest Park, MT

Whew!  Especially when the last 1085 miles are done in 22 hours.  

Joshua's License Plate Game:

39/50 states

9/13 provinces and territories

I got through this whole post and realized I only had one picture of the reason we went to Alberta - Nana and Grandpa!  We had a wonderful time with them and other friends and family.   We enjoyed letting the Lord and not our agendas lead each day.  We were blessed just to have the time off to be together and have fun as a family.