We flew into Kalispell, Montana where my parents live. We enjoyed reuniting with my sister and her little girls, and my brother and his fiancee. We spent the afternoon out on Grandpa's boat.
The next morning we drove up to Alberta, Canada to my grandmother's house in Lethbridge. My other brother and his wife met us there. We ate lots of good food, played games and ventured out to Henderson Lake park for some of that beautiful Canadian air.
Canada has the best parks. The equipment was newer and the trees a bit taller, but it is the same park I went to as a little girl with my grandpa.
We paid our respects to Grandpa Brooks
and then spent the evening with some of the aunts, uncles, and cousins dining on Chinese food.
The next morning we went out to Uncle Greg's acreage and marveled at his amazing garden. We picked buckets and buckets full of raspberries.
Then off to Park Lake for the Tolley Family Camp:
We enjoyed great food all weekend, campfire tales, swimming in the lake, and catching up with my cousins (I have 26 cousins on my dad's side!)
The kids became friends quickly and enjoyed games, races, and prizes.
We celebrated Grandpa and Grandma Tolley with a birthday cake in their honor. If they were alive, Grandpa would have been 100 this year and Grandma would have been 90.
Uncle Verl showed us how to make rope.
And of course, it wouldn't be a real Tolley event without ice cream, especially Canada's specialty: Tiger ice cream (orange with black licorice). Uncle Cal had a freezer full of 3-gallon pails - an unlimited supply available 24/7.
After camp, we went out to Fort Macleod (where I grew up) and visited the family homestead in Orton.
And the really old family homestead (where my dad grew up)
And the new oil well... that we all hope will fund an amazingly exotic family reunion again in a couple years. ;-)
