Van Orman Family Reunion

This has been a busy week, so I will start with our family reunion. This year was the 2nd Annual Van Orman Family Reunion. My parents, brothers, and their families all went up to Kananaskis in Canada. Tyler and I drove to my parents’ house on Wednesday, that way we had a day to buy and prepare food for the meals we were in charge of, and also not have to do so much driving. On Friday morning we drove up to my brother Ryan’s house to pick up the trailer we were going to be using, and then continued on our way to the campground. This trailer was enormous. It had two queen beds, two double beds, shower, toilet, kitchen, plasma TV, DVD player, etc. Pretty much the only way I will camp.

We got to the campground at about 4:00, so we unpacked and set everything up and cooked dinner. My brother Warren and his family came about an hour later than us. After dinner we just hung out by the campfire and cooked some delicious pies.


On Saturday we went on a walk around the Upper Kananaskis Lake. It was so beautiful! Kananaskis Country is so breathtaking. There are tall trees everywhere, lakes, waterfalls, etc. It’s so calm and peaceful…minus the mosquitoes.

The walk was easy, so we brought all the kids (Hunter—8, Ally—3, Grace—4 months). Ally was obsessed with binoculars. She SLOWLY walked almost the entire way looking through binoculars. Luckily we weren’t in any real hurry. The fast walkers past us by, and then some of us just walked with her and laughed. It was funny. She kept saying she saw things like fish and snakes. I don’t know how much she actually saw. Half the time she had them on backwards! But she’s 3 and absolutely adorable.



We tried to take pictures of her during the walk, but she didn’t really want to have her picture taken. We tried, anyway.

There was a waterfall part way through our walk that we had to take pictures of. It was huge and stunning.


Then we stopped and threw rocks into the lake. Warren and Tyler were pretty good at skipping them. Ally just liked to make big splashes!

Some of us just sat, watched, and rested.


After throwing rocks, Ally wanted to build a tall tower. Tyler helped her build it, and then she put the finishing touches on it…sand.


When everyone was done building, and throwing rocks, we went back to have lunch. After lunch my brother Jordan and his wife came. We played some games, and hung out until after dinner. After dinner, we went to one of the Interpretive Programs the campground puts on. They teach about different parts of the wildlife in the area. The one we went to was called, “Kung Frog—Legend of the Pond Master”. It was basically about amphibians. At each of the programs they have audience members help out. So at this one, Ally got to hold up a sign (although it really ended up being Ryan and Nicole), Hunter threw some sort of poison at one of them, and Jordan and Tyler got to dress up for the dating game. There were three different amphibians for the frog to choose from. Tyler was a frog, Jordan was a toad, and the other guy was a salamander. Well, naturally she chose Tyler and they got to go and mate. They came back with 2,000 eggs! If it hadn’t of been with a frog, I might have been a bit jealous!





On Sunday, my mom deciding that we weren’t doing enough, so she sent me, Tyler, Jordan and Cyd on a hike up to Elbow Lake. I have to say it was pretty brutal. It was basically straight up the whole way there, and then very very down on the way back. Luckily they had a bench to rest on the way up and down. Once we got there it was really nice. The Lake was completely still, and had the most beautiful reflection of the mountains and trees in it. We had to stay a while and take pictures. Jordan and Cyd have a fancy camera, so it took them a while to set it up. But once they did, they got some amazing pictures. Unfortunately, mine wasn’t as fancy, but hopefully these will do.



We spent Sunday night playing games with the adults and the kids. We spent quite a while playing play dough with Ally and Hunter. Cyd is quite the professional play dough creator, and she made some beautiful nails for Ally, lips, cupcakes, finger puppets, and a lot more. Ally and I were both impressed! I can mostly make snakes and worms. Hunter was also really good at this. He made a perfect starfish and a rainbow. He may have a future in the play dough industry… The rest of the night was spent being entertained by Ally, and trying to get baby Gracie to be happy. That was a challenge.







On Monday, Mom, Dad, Tyler, Averley and I took a bike ride on a 14 km trail. From the beginning it is very up, so we just got dropped off at the end and rode fairly easily back down. There were some ups still, so it wasn’t completely for pansies, but definitely not for the tough guys. After the ride, we ate lunch and watched Ally take pictures of everything. She only dropped the camera once, so that’s impressive.

After lunch, Tyler and I left and started the long 12 hour drive back home. We got back just in time to wash a few loads of clothes and head off to a concert (me) and another family reunion (Tyler). More to come on those later, I’m too tired…

To see more pictures, you can go here.