In Which a Story is told and the Author Gets A Little Silly

This is a brief and not entirely dull story of a young family and their summer adventures (For the Short Version, read the "Short Version" at the bottom of the post).
A young family by the last name of Gage, found themselves in the unusual, but unfortunately not uncommon position of having a leaky dishwasher. They woke up one morning to find that the dishwasher had decided to stop working properly and no amount of coaxing would persuade it to resume it's duties. There was so much water that had leaked from the dishwasher that frogs and ducks from the local lake had heard there was a new pond at the Gage's house and decided to see for themselves. After explaining to the ducks and frogs that this was not a new pond but simply a dishwasher problem, Rebecca and Colby decided they should solve the problem of the leaky dishwasher. Colby quickly made some calls and soon Rebecca and Jackson were off to visit the Great Nothern family in Canada while Colby thought it might be best to go to school and study while the leak was being fixed.
As Rebecca and Jackson's plane took of, Colby wondered what they would do in Canada.
They went to the Calgary Stampede! Could you imagine the look on Rebecca's face when she learned that she could ride "The Zipper" (which is her most favoritest carnival ride in the world)? Well, luckily for you, you don't have to imagine too hard. Her sister took a picture of it!

Baby Jackson was quite happy that his mommy went on The Zipper but could only say, "Bah ger", which probably meant "Hope you have fun on your most favoritest ride." Jackson was left to be spoiled by his great-grandparents and his great-great-grandma. Being a polite baby, he thought it was rude to refuse their gifts and attention. He smiled and politely said, "do da da", which probably meant, "Oh, thank you. You don't have to do all this for little me." He got to spend lots of time in his kiddie pool playing with Nana's cooking utensils and generally just being cute.

Meanwhile, Rebecca, Annelisa and Jared were all haivng fun at the Stampede and were slowly introducing themselves into the Canadian culture. You see, this must be done with delicacy and tact. So they decided to join the hockey team, the space program and the Royal Canadian Mountie programs in order to gain their trust.

Poor Jackson, while usually being very kind and quiet, was reaching his limits of being without mommy. He tried to put on a good face and even tried to pass himself off as a rodeo rider to get into the Stampede! When he was refused entrance he said, "ma na", which probably meant "Darn!"

Rebecca was missing Colby so much that she began to pretend that Colby was at the Stampede and had already ordered deep-fried Oreos (which her younger sister did not approve of) and had eaten half of them when she remembered that Colby was still in California. He was working hard and dutifully leaning about the medial dorsal cutaneous branch of superficial peroneal nerve, which is actually a fancy name for something else.

Luckily for Baby Jackson, Grandpa Bryce was able to rescue Jackson and Jackson took Grandpa Bryce for a ride in the backyard on the lawn mower. Bryce was so excited and Jackson even let Grandpa Bryce "drive" the tractor. As Jackson steered the tractor around the tree he said, "do na nee nee", which probably meant, "Doesn't Grandpa Bryce look proud of himself that he's driving the tractor 'all by himself.'"

Finally, Rebecca and Jackson were united once more at the end of the day, each of them a little more "Canadian."

On the way home, they both fell asleep from so much fun and were dreaming of California once again.

Epilogue
Jackson, Colby and Rebecca went home together after their summer adventure to find that they dishwasher was repaired, and everything was set right.

*Short Version
While we were in Canada, Jackson got a mild case of the chicken pox, learned to walk and stand up on his own and is now a real pro and got two new teeth! Colby was floored