Herald photo by Ian Martens Donovan Kinahan and Tara Degenstein drive the horse team of May and Katie as they pull a wagon load of families as part of Family Day activities at Fort Whoop-Up Monday.

Jamie Woodford
Lethbridge Herald
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Seated at a campfire, 10-year-old Kael Miyashiro eats a hotdog with his mom while taking in the sights at Fort Whoop-Up's Family Day celebration when a meandering goat walks up to him.
"Look mom, there's a goat!" he exclaimed.
Miyashiro was just one of many children spending time with their families at the historic site.
"It's fun," he said. His favourite part of the day was trying out maple syrup on a stick from the Sugar Shack hosted by the French-Canadian Association of Lethbridge.
Although Family Day was a great opportunity to spend quality time, Miyashiro said his family gets together often.
"We have dinners together," he said, adding the family also goes ice skating and visit the museum.
David Vair was also enjoying the fort's activities with his adult children and his grandkids. He said spending time with his family is important and they try to get together as often as they can, "and it's a lot of fun, too."
"The kids grow up so fast, so you got to spend time otherwise the time is gone and you haven't done nothing with them," he said.
Carly Vair agreed.
"You always have your family," she said. "Friends come and go, but to have a good relationship with your family, spending time together because when you're adults, you miss each other a lot.
"We try and do as much family stuff as we can."
Susan Roberts was also spending time with her grandkids at Fort Whoop-Up and had plans to check out the Helen Schuler Nature Centre later in the day.
"It's all about memories," she said.
"We're very impressed with how much Lethbridge and the area have today. A big thanks to Lethbridge and whoever puts it all together because it was a lot. It's really nice."
Across the coulees at the University of Lethbridge, Sherry Burwash and her family attended the first ever Play Day.
"We were here right at the start and we'll be here right to the finish," she said. "I think that (Play Day) is a great idea. The people who got together to do this for the families of Lethbridge really did a fantastic job, and it's very successful."
She said that spending time with family is always on her agenda especially in today's busy society, so she makes sure to plan sometime every weekend.
"I feel that we don't get to spend enough time with our families anymore. It's nice to have a day where you can stop and spend time together."
The pirate-themed event attracted droves of people including Tammy Firth who was grateful for the time to spend with her family.
"Sometimes you're just so busy and so it's nice to have one whole day that you can dedicate to your family," she said.
Mark Slomp also makes family time a priority.
"We always take advantage of every weekend and holiday like this to spend time with our kids. It's important," he said. "It's great that the province does this to provide the opportunity for families."
John Siewert recently became the father of twins and took advantage of Play Day to spend some time with his toddler son.
"We just had twins . . . so I was able to slip out with out two-year-old," he said. "We try to get out and go swimming and do different activities. It's just nice to have the day off and spend it together."