Spring Family Weekend

Many years ago my family started the tradition of getting together for a weekend in the spring. Originally this was an opportunity to get my Dad out of the city with his kids and grandkids.  I'm really glad that we started the tradition while Dad was still around.  In later years it was a bit of a challenge to get my Dad out with us, but we always made a point of doing it.  For the past few years, since Dad is no longer with us, we've kept the tradition going.  With all of the grandkids getting older and becoming involved in various activities, and striking out on their own, I can see that this is going to become a challenge to keep going.  This year was no exception as we quickly learned that dance recitals of my girls, as well as various other commitments of their cousins, would be in conflict.  We eventually settled on a date in late May.  This forced us to cancel a couple of reservations and re-schedule to a new venue.  In the past we have usually managed to get together in Jasper.  That was the plan for this year as well, but with all the schedule conflicts we had to relocate to a different venue.  We eventually settled on a private ranch west of Calgary.  This architecturally unusual location was north of the Bow River Valley, not far from the Ghost Reservoir.  The house was very modern and up to date, but somewhat unusual.  It consisted of two separate buildings, connected by a covered patio.  One building housed the kitchen, living room and a large bathroom.  The second building housed all of the bedrooms.  We didn't strike out on any great adventures but instead spent a low-key family weekend together.  This may be one of the last times that all of us are able to take part.  My oldest niece and nephew are now of the age where they are setting off on their own.  My niece Amelia just completed her first year of university here in Edmonton at the UofA.  My nephew Samueal is about to set off to Ontario to start his first year of university this fall.  Hopefully we can continue to find time to get together with the whole family at least once a year.

I managed to get out and wander about a little with my camera a couple of times over the weekend.  It was a nice place, but fairly isolated and remote.  There was not a lot of particularly interesting photographic subject matter within close proximity but I made the best of it....