Next up was Canada Day long weekend! We debated going camping for the weekend but decided that with our big road trip coming up, we'd stay home and enjoy being around home. We headed to the Legislature grounds to take in the celebrations. It's always fun to see everything going on at the Legislature - stage shows, music, the Canada Day road race, pancake breakfast (which we missed!), dipping the kids toes in the fountains, bouncy castles, etc, etc!! Fun to see all of the patriosim and everyone celebrating our wonderful countries birthday :) After the leg, we decided to visit Whyte Ave for lunch and some window shopping. It was a beautiful day and we found ourselves doing more than window shopping at the Wee Book Inn. Lots of books and DVD's purchased! After leaving the book store we came across Sand on Whyte and enjoyed seeing all the cool sand sculptures. We contimplated going to the fireworks but were all pretty tuckered out so we relaxed at home and went to bed at our usual times :) It was a great Canada Day!
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| #canada150 #albertalegislature |
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| #sandonwhyte #canadadaycuties |
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| Boating! |
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| Dinner at the Stecyk cabin! |
Pedalheads bike camp started on July 4th. We usually do the morning camp but couldn't get in to the morning session this year, so had to do the afternoon session which in the end actually turned out better! It was nice not to have to rush out of the house in the morning, instead we were able to sleep in and take our time getting out of the house. The kids love bike camp although Blake was a bit disappointed that he couldn't ride to the river valley from this years location. We'll have to go back to the other location next year where they get to ride the river valley!
On the morning of Friday the 7th Cal and I headed to his Sin7 race in Crowsnest Pass. We didn't get far ... after a few hours of various stops in Nisku, we were told that our trailer axels were bent and would need replacing. We had friends who were staying in our trailer so after a few phone calls, a stop in Red Deer for some food and a cooler, we arrived in Crowsnest Pass, planning to sleep in our friends tent! A few hours later Cal receives a text ... our friends truck broke down and they needed Cal to pull their trailer. So off we went! We had to miss the dinner but we got the trailer to the campsite and were offered a bed in that trailer! Bonus ... I wasn't a fan of tenting in the first place, lol! If you're keeping track, the group was down one trailer and one truck. The race began at 7 am Saturday morning. It was a grueling, HOT, HOT day. Runners were dropping out left, right and centre. We could see helicopters circling over the mountains, landing and flying back out with what we could only assume were injured runners (this was later confirmed). Two of Cal's teammates had a really tough time, taking hours longer than planned on their leg. One of the teams runners said she laid in a dried up creek bed for hours. Crazy, crazy conditions for such a long run. Long story short, Cal's team ran out of time and were disqualified. Cal still completed his leg of the race, which makes me so proud of him. 24 km in the mountains, most of it in the dark. I was so glad to see him cross his finish line (well, it was pitch black so I couldn't see him but I could see head lamps and when I figured out it was his head lamp I was very happy!!)! Now to add one more loss to this odd weekend, our friends tent was destroyed. The tent pole went right through the middle and made a big hole! What a weekend!! Despite all the set backs, we had fun with Cal's NP and OMC friends - a lot of laughs and a lot of stories we will never forget!!! Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids :)
This brings us to our biggest vacation yet!! 22 days on the road - I may have to break this trip into separate post's ... stay tuned :)
xo
Tracy
