Southern Alberta rellies

Did I mention that we met a lot of relatives? No? Really? Well, this is the last of them. I promise.

My cousin Steady lives in Taber with her husband, DrD. Their two girls are both pretty much grown by now. River was home, but not Ire (I think she's off studying somewhere??) After a nice supper, Steady took us to the stables at the north end of town where River has a horse. Of course, Mustang - and Button too - were keen to ride. So River saddled him up and led the kids around the paddock.





The previous day we'd had a gathering of Laoye's siblings and their offspring at his youngest sister's home in Coaldale. Laoye is from a family of, originally, 10 children (well, 11 births but one died in infancy before they came to Canada). Two died as children (aged about 6 and 16). All but one of the surviving eight are still alive - and it's the youngest who died some six or seven years ago. I won't bore you with pictures of everyone, but here are some of the key people (but I didn't seem to get a picture of Aunt Peace, who hosted the gathering!).

Laoye's oldest sister (age 85): Laoye's oldest brother (age 82 and still living on the farm):
Laoye's youngest surviving brother (age 70) (his twin sister was one of the two siblings who died in childhood):
Two of Aunt Peace's children, my cousins:
Mustang and Mustang! (My cousin's son has the same name as Mustang, so I'm calling them both "Mustang" even though I think he has a rather un-mustang-like personality! We have yet to meet another girl with her name; most of them are boys.)
Mustang, Button, and another second-cousin. More second-cousins:
From Taber, we headed up north down a secondary highway that led us to my cousin Pal's farm near Gem. Actually, it was Pal's former husband who was my cousin. He died 13 years ago of a heart attack (can it really be 13 years?!?), when their four kids were just 7-14 years old. By now the kids are grown, two are married, one engaged (Pal already has three grandchildren!), and just Laughter is still at home. Pal remarried two years ago, to another farmer. We met him for the first time and he is a great guy. A long-time bachelor, he has embraced Pal's kids as his own and, according to their grandmother (Laoye's oldest brother's wife), brought a stable influence to the family. Good on you, Sunny!

Pal & Laughter:Laughter, Pal & Sunny:
Button giving Pal a hug (have I ever mentioned that he's a real hugger?):