back at it, perhaps

Hello. Yes, I guess you could say I stopped blogging. I am hoping to start again. Summer is our busy season here at camp and the camp blog is the one I centered on keeping updated.
In mid-July we went to Abbotsford to see Heidi, Andy's oldest sister, and bro-in-law and Tristan, their son. That weekend Andy was also the best man in a friend's wedding, Daryl Klassen. I stayed in Abb. a week and got to see some old friends, have a very painful dentist appointment, go to 'Dance Blast' (dance aerobics - so fun) at the recreation centre (used to go all the time), visit my Wellunscheg grandparents (Grma recently back from hospitalish place), and go swimming with Sarah and Grandma Abrahams (Judy). Sarah had just been getting used to the water at the public seasonal pool here in Princeton, having actually gotten in the water for the first time in over a year (so exciting for me as I love swimming. I think seeing her cousin go in water helped, when they were here).
We had all the summer staff over for ice-cream sundaes at the end of the 'staff weekend' mid-summer. I shared a song with them and it was fun to have them all in our house.
I've been sick twice, we had my whole family (minus Steve Klassen) up for a family vacation, we've been preserving lots (I ran out of jam in the spring so have been making lots this summer), doing camp stuff like attending chapel, meals doing wrap-up stuff (encouragement notes, Chinese meal, movie one night), I drove to Penticton one day and
picked up fruit on the way back in Keremeos.
Sarah and I attended a free lunch at a new Family Centre our town has, meeting up their with a friend and her kids.
One day we picked peaches and plums together as a family, and we just returned from a family vacation with the three of us to the Crowsnest Pass in Southern Alberta. We went for the 50th anniversary of Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp (CLBC), and then did more camping in the area on our own. Very fun. We spent the first night on the way there at a motel in Castlegar to save time and get to the reunion faster. We left our house that day around 4:30 pm. The first night we were at CLBC I had so many good conversations with people I told Andy I had more significant conversations in that evening than I feel I've had in half a year (except for with my Moms and a few other people). Even though we'd been out of touch, we picked up and connected right away - these people I talked too. Andy and I worked at CLBC for 4.5 months when I was pregnant with Sarah. I got to participate in a night hike to the border (the camp is very close to the BC/Alberta border).
We had fun doing all sorts of things with Sarah. We camped at Lundbreck Falls after Crowsnest, next to the Crowsnest River where Andy fished, Sarah played and I just relaxed. One day we went to Waterton Lakes National Park (my favorite day) and saw bison, elk, deer, a blonde black bear and a black black bear, many magnificent mountains, did a small loop hike around part of a red rock river canyon. We had showers at the park (a highlight) and I washed some undies by hand in a sink, Sarah played at a great playground with Andy while I walked around and we took pictures on the same hillside that we were at with my folks while I was 9 months pregnant.
On the way back from Lundbreck we spent one night in a cabin at Crowsnest and had lunch with some people just finishing a term on staff there. That was great.
Oh, bears. Yes, at CLBC, one morning we walked to the dining hall and everyone milling around outside waiting for breakfast to be served (they had a huge tarp set up for eating under) was looking at a mother bear and her two cubs in a tree. They eventually came down later when all the people went to the other side of camp for a session and they scared them away with shots (the ranger people). A few days later they relocated them.
Lundbreck falls had 'bear in area' signs up so we had to be really careful with food, smelly stuff, let even dish water/hand washing water drain into a tub and dump that down the outhouse toliet and keep food in our trunk.
When we stayed at CLBC in the cabin a couple people there told us they had just seen a bear run past as well.
We took the trip home in 2 days which was marvelous (didn't feel so wasted when we returned home). We camped near Christina Lake on the way home. Since being home Andy has been a whirl-wind preserving pickles, making crab-apple jelly, zuchinni relish and butchering one more rooster (things are quieter now with the cocodoodle-doing). I've done a bit of laundry, helped clean kitchen, went to the Fall Fair with Sarah where she enjoyed the 4-H animals like guniea pigs, rabbits, and chickens (ours would win prizes I am so sure, they are beautiful...maybe next year we'll enter them). She says she wants a rabbit. We saw 3 girls combing their rabbits and when we showed A. a picture of that when we came home she said, ya, 'like I could do that.'
Don't know exactly what we are doing/giving her for her b-day on the 19th. When do kids start riding bikes? We have one I found at a garage sale, but it may be too big, and we mainly have gravel everywhere here. That's all for now.