Reunion I: Wapta Falls

By Saturday night, June 29, 2019, most of the family had arrived in Golden, B.C. for our family reunion.  Camille's family needed to stay in SLC for a special Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, so they arrived on Monday.

We were delighted with our two condos.  They were high on the mountain, next to the Golden ski resort, spacious, rustic, and beautiful.  Mike was in charge of accommodations--finding condos for us to choose from, arranging for payment, and even fiddling with the locks when we at first couldn't get in!  He did a great job.

 We gathered often in the "great room" for the candy bar game, auction, and other parties.

 Spendlove reunions have great food, and this kitchen made making those delicious meals easy.

 The bedrooms, including this one where Dave and I stayed, were also comfortable.

Golden is a ski resort an hour southeast of Banff, and much quieter.  "Boo the Bear" is listed as one of its main attractions (and we did visit Boo the Bear).  It is in a valley between two spectacular Canadian national parks--Yoho and Banff.

Our first order of business, on Saturday night, was dinner and birthday parties.   I mixed up a meal of spaghetti with homemade sausage sauce.  After dinner, we celebrated Thomas’ first birthday with cake and ice cream.  Thomas took whole handfuls of his cake and wiped the cream frosting all over his face as he ushered it towards his mouth.

 We also celebrated Bryce's 16th birthday with cake and candles.  Driving, dating: Bryce can now do it all!

 On Sunday morning, we attended Church at a “twig”—branch of a branch—in Golden.  Sister Liska moved to Golden 1 ½ years ago when her husband lost his job in Calgary and couldn’t find a job anywhere else.  They had to travel 60 miles to go to church at another branch in Fairmont, B.C., and so they asked the stake president to let them open the shuttered chapel and begin holding services again.  Two families were the initial branch, and they have now grown the group from five members to fifteen.  I asked Sister Liska how long her family would stay in Golden, and she said, “Until He doesn’t need us,” pointing heavenward.  The Liskas' ancestors came from Czech Republic, so we had lots in common,  since Lisa's son, Grant, was recently a missionary there.

As Dave said, “You know it’s a small ward when the visitors are the Sacrament Meeting speakers.”  Dave and Jonny both spoke, emphasizing their experiences with Canadians.  Jonny told about the Canadian workers at Deere, as well as the things that created his faith.  Dave then told about his experiences as a missionary on Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada, including helping it through the first stages of growing from a tiny branch to a robust branch, or even a ward.  A Brother Anderson then mentioned how touching he found Dave’s testimony, since he had been converted to the Church in Nova Scotia by young missionaries at about the same time Dave was a missionary on PEI.  When Brother Anderson was converted, Nova Scotia was also a very new area for the Church.  We sang two national anthems with the branch--"O Canada" because they will celebrate their national federation day this week, and "The Star Spangled Banner" for us, since we will celebrate the Fourth of July.  Heidi accompanied us on the piano for "The Star Spangled Banner," after the pianist said, "I don't know that song."

 After Church, the Spendloves changed into levis and sports shoes in the Church bathroom, and then went on a hike to Wapta Falls, in Yoho National Park.  The falls were wide and lovely, gushing down rocks into the river.

Jenny squatted on stones near the river, letting Thomas stand with his feet on the wet stones.  Jonny took Henry and Sam closer to the falls, where they could feel the spray.

 The hike to the falls was lush and lovely.

Since we were halfway to  Banff, we decided to keep driving.  We wandered through the quaint town and had ice cream at “Cow’s”, an ice cream chain Dave and I loved in Charlottetown, PEI.  We stopped at Cow's a couple more times during our reunion, and each time there were long lines.

Then, it was back to our condo in Golden, with the last bit of the journey passing across Dogtooth Bridge.