The Smith Clan

Here's the whole Smith clan with one more in the oven --- Aunt Sarah's oven, not Krista's.

Pirates & Princesses

While we were at Fairmont we had a "Pirates and Princesses" party for all the kids on the Smith side of our family. The girls were the fair princesses and the boys were the rough and tough pirates. They started off with a treasure hunt. As they followed their treasure map, they searched for clues and treasure in places like this phone booth. They also had to watch out for the sharks (Uncle Ben, Kevin, and Papa) who were trying to get them.


Their treasure hunt eventually led them to the racquetball court, which turned out to be Pirate Joe's (aka Uncle Jonathan) pirate ship! He had even brought a special treasure chest just for them. Of course, Pirate Joe had stories about his adventures on the seas and a hook in place of one hand.


The kids love Pirate Joe, who has shown up at each of our last two Smith family gatherings. Poor Uncle Jonathan always seems to miss seeing Pirate Joe, though.


At last the treasure was released from the treasure chest....


Young Pirate Silas decided to show off his sword fighting moves.


While on Pirate Joe's ship, the kids got to play some games. First off was a game of Pirate Pirate Princess (you might have played a similar game before called Duck Duck Goose).


They also played Musical Islands (maybe you've played Musical Chairs before).


Of course no party is complete without some cake. Aunt Amanda pleased the masses with her new cake decorating skills. Here's the Pirate ship cake sailing the seas with the faces of each of the Smith family on it. Nice work Aunt Amanda!


There was also an island cake with a treasure chest on it full of treasure.

Fairmont Hot Springs

Our last week in Canada, we headed into the mountains for a week-long get away with all of Krista's family. Our destination was Fairmont Hot Springs in British Columbia.

Along the way, we drove through the beautiful Canadian Rockies.


We stopped in Banff to look for some coveted treats....


One important treat to find was fudge. They have really good fudge in Banff. Silas liked giving high fives to the friendly black bear at the fudge place.


That bear was fake (at least no longer alive), but we did see some real wildlife as we drove. Kira was the only one in our vehicle to spot these elk on the side of the road. She has eagle eyes. Way to go Kira! We came back around to them so the rest of us could enjoy these creatures as well.


The views along the way and while we were in Fairmont were incredible. We enjoyed every minute of it as we don't get to see mountainous scenery like this in Niger.


None of us missed seeing the group of 20-30 mountain goats on the side of the road near Fairmont.


How could we? The group of mountain goats had sent their crossing guard into the middle of the road to make sure we didn't miss them.

We all had a great time just being together and playing together. The kids went sledding and swimming. They also did crafts 3-4 times during the week run by the place we stayed. The adults had fun too. We played lots of games and enjoyed the hot tubs at the pool and the hot springs. There's nothing quite like sitting in a hot tub outside in the middle of a snow storm. We also tried our hand at darts and racquetball. The guys headed off one night to go night skiing after a fresh snow fall of 6 inches of powder. We were all smiles. We even walked away afterwards injury free.