Community Happenings

We've been extremely thankful for the very active community here in Sparwood. The community has a wide variety of programs for kids of all ages and for parents too.

Thursdays we started to attend the reading hour at the library. It's specifically designed for 3 year olds so Spencer is right at home. This past Thursday Spencer got to hear all about dogs. He even coloured a picture of a dog and got to meet a dog at the group. The teachers there are great with him. Too bad his attention span is so short! Mommy actually gets the hour off to do whatever I want!!!!

On Friday mornings there is a 'parent and child meet and greet' at the community center. It's held for a little more than an hour. All the kids come to play on all the fun things and play with the toys and the parents come to gab and drink coffee.

I've had the priviledge to meet a number of great ladies in the local area. One gal has a son just about Spencer's age and it looks like Spencer's going to have a great play buddy. A lot of the gals are in to scrapbooking too so it's nice to meet someone else who understands my addiction... LOL!

Spencer's favourite part of the Friday morning is riding around on the many trikes....

Today is Todd's last day to work and he has the next 4 days off... Yippee!

Dirt Roads and Buffalo Wings

Yesterday we ventured down the LONG, pot-holey dirt road at the end of Elkford. Our goal was to get to the end of the road (approx. 70km) and then walk the 1km trail to the lake there. No such luck! The road was in pretty bad condition and we only made it about 40km... and it took us 1.5hrs to travel that far... and then another 1.5 hours back.

Here's a photo I took on our journey on the dirt road from H-E-double hockey stick! (and this was the GOOD part of the road!)

Today we ventured to Pincher Creek (an hour from home) to purchase a new computer (mine has some major things happening to it!). Instead of returning home immediately, we decided to venture on to....

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is in Alberta and it is considered a world heritage site.

The interpretive center is built right into the side of a hill. Here are Spencer and I at the entrance to the center.


The center is an education forum in Alberta that talks about the Black Foot Indians and their hunting tradition of herding buffalo over certain cliffs to kill them for food.

We entered the building and saw a 15min video about how the natives herded the buffalo over the cliffs. The history and story is amazing!! Spencer sat and watched the whole thing without a peep.

The short version of the story...
The Indians created funnel shaped runs along the plains above the cliffs using branches and piles of stones ("cairns"). The buffalo found the piles of stones and branches un-nerving so they stayed in the center of the 2 rows of "cairns" and the cairns funneled the herds down the narrowing buffalo runs and eventually they fell off the cliff to their deaths.

Some of the displays in the center were amazing! This was this one scene looking up about 3 stories from the bottom floor of the center. The 3 buffalo are being shown as just about to be herded off the 3 story cliff.


As part of the educational story, you actually get to go out and stand on the actual site where the Indians herded the animals to the edge of the cliff. According to research, this particular buffalo jump has been used for over 5000 years. The last known use of this jump was only 150 years ago.



And to show just how big some of these animals can be.... Spencer decided to pet this one!! Okay... so it's a stuffed version but look at the size of his head!!!!

We had a great day investigating the center and then enjoyed the snowy trip home to BC. We now have about an inch of snow on the ground here in Sparwood.

We Live Close to Eden

We ended up driving to Lethbridge hoping to connect with someone who had a part for Todd's car. No such luck on that part!!

So after we galivanted through Lethbridge for the day, we decided to take the long way home and took a drive to Waterton Lakes National Park. The park is in the south western corner of Alberta and is part of the Glacier National Park on the Canadian side.

We arrived quite late into the afternoon so we had limited daylight hours left so we first drove around the little inhabited area of the park. They had a series of houses, lots of cottages, a few hotels and lots of camp sites.

We drove downtown and down to the docks and we saw our first few black tailed deer. Apparently they are used to all the tourists because this female approached the car without a thought. Apperently.... they like pretzels too!!!


We drove farther and out towards the camp ground area. This was the view from the pebbly beach along the camp ground area off the down town area. The water was COLD!!

This was the male black tailed deer that was was with the 2 females above. He was just resting in the grass and Todd was able to get within 10 feet of him to take this photo.


This is Spencer and I fooling around on the beach. The boys were having a rock throwing contest to see who could make the largest splash.


Just as nightfall was really taking hold of the area, we found this pretty site.... Cameron Falls. There was a series of walk ways all the way up both sides but with being so dark we decided to save it for the next time we visited.




I can't wait to go back to Waterton Lakes National Park!!

Just like Daddy....

Well after a whole day of a little boy saying that he didn't want to go trick-or-treating, I finally bribed him into his costume... he's dressed up like a driver from the mine!


We got him the little hard hat one weekend in Lethbridge and I altered to say "Elk Valley Coal" on the back and EVC on the front. I made him his own mine badge to wear with a little picture of himself on it. We dressed him up with "muscles" made with Daddy's socks, a plaid shirt and a little vest and jeans.

We waited until Daddy got home from work since Spencer refused to go out without Daddy.

We walked next door to Deanna and Frank's, our neighbours and he got a special apple treat. Then we loaded into the car and drove to the Rec Center and parked in their parking lot. We walked around the neighbourhood in the area there. Spencer ended up getting a whole bag of candy with only walking around a few houses. He had a good time and enjoyed spending time with Daddy and I.

Happy Belated Halloween!