Fairmont vacation

On Wednesday, June 23, my family took Bryn to the airport and said farewell to her until the end of next June. She's going to be the new director of a preschool in Heliopolis, Egypt. She decided to leave before the date she had to be there by so that she could get used to her surroundings and get some training before the current director, a girl named Ana who I think is from California, left for home. It was sad sending Bryn off, but I know she'll have a great time in Egypt and have tons of pictures and stories to show and tell when she gets back.

Two days later, my dad, Ty and I set out for our annual vacation in Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, a five-hour drive northeast. My mum stayed behind for a few days to look after my grandma who had to go back into the hospital a week after getting out. (She's been having mysterious pains in her abdomen that the doctors can't figure out.) Fairmont was awesome, as usual, except for missing my mum and Bryn. Since there's no Adventist church for at least an hour in any direction, Dad, Tyler and I spent a quiet Sabbath morning and early afternoon having our own church service and making lunch.  Then in the afternoon we went on a hike up the road to the hot springs, spent some time exploring the old Indian baths, and then hiked down a trail back to our villa. Just as we got back to the resort, we noticed three deer-shaped objects lying in a empty building lot between two houses. Ty discounted them as fake deer, but I wasn't convinced and walked closer. Sure enough, they were three quite real and quite unafraid young deer, who got up when I got near them, but just strolled around nibbling plants once they were on their feet. Dad noticed their antlers were still in velvet. It was a nice Sabbath surprise.

Indian bath house

Ty relaxing in the hot spring-fed bath

View across the valley

Deer in velvet

My dad returned to Kelowna on Sunday night to attend a funeral and brought my mum back to Fairmont after it was over on Monday. Throughout the rest of the week, we went boating in nearby Windermere Lake, visited both Fairmont Hot Springs (developed, requires entrance fee) and Lussier Hot Springs (natural hot spring pools beside a glacier-fed river, free), enjoyed the views of the Purcell and Rocky Mountains from our villa porch and had a relaxing family time.

Admiring the Rockies

When our awesome week of vacationing was over, we headed back home where we enjoyed hanging out with my Auntie Sandy (my mum's sister) and two of her kids, Conner and Alex.  They had arrived a few days before from St. Georges, Manitoba and stayed in the Okanagan Valley long enough to visit my grandparents and our family before continuing their journey to the Fraser Valley to see their other set of grandparents/parents-in-law. My dad offered to take them on a boat ride and so this afternoon, about half an hour after unloading our stuff from the truck, we picked them up and headed out to a local lake for a few hours. We were greeted with some strong winds and lots of waves, but we still had a great time with the relatives and a few daring souls even braved the chilly early-summer water.

Enjoying a protected cove

Eating and talking

Wet cousins on a boat

All in all, we had a very enjoyable week of relaxing and then fellowshipping with relatives!