Canada Day - Trip to Raymond

We started off our annual trip to Raymond for Canada Day by getting up far too early and running in the 10k race. I usually run it by myself but this year, Bethany and John decided to join in the fun(?). We posed for a lovely pre-race photo when we looked all fresh and happy.

At almost exactly the halfway point of the race, there's a killer hill. This is John cresting the hill.

And then Bethany followed not far behind.

And here I am.

In the finishing stretch less than half a kilometre from the finish line, this is a 13-year old girl pulling ahead of John and Bee, sprinting for the finish line.

They finished together with a great time at less than 59 minutes. My goal is to run it in that time next year.

With my ankle injury last summer, I ended up gaining some weight since last year's race and the extra pounds made a big difference - I was five minutes slower this year.

John sporting his race swag, a super cool bandana. He looks like he barely broke a sweat!

That afternoon, we went to Waterton even though the weather was blustery and cold in the mountains. After a picnic lunch, the kids had fun playing along the shore of the lake and riding a surrey up and down the road.

I think Ella and Aiden look like siblings here more than first cousins.

Everyone was too cold to want to climb Bear's Hump (where it would be even windier than at Emerald Bay). So, we went for a small hike near Cameron Falls and then we drove up to Cameron Lake and hiked around the edge of the lake for a while.

We did not see this bear on our hike, this picture was taken from the car on the drive up to Cameron Lake.

On Monday, we decided to go and explore the hoodoos at Writing-On-Stone park.

The next day was Canada Day so it was time to enjoy the Raymond Parade.

At the Walker dinner, one of the Walker cousins shared her fantastic balloon animal talents with the kids and made all kinds of fancy creations. The horse Amelia is holding has a bridle and its tail has been cut into a fringe and then she made a matching one for Maira with mirrored colours.

That night, we waited until dark and drove to the Stampede grounds to watch the fireworks.

Connor's tenth birthday

My sweet Connor turned ten in June. We celebrated his birthday with a family dinner. He chose pizza and watermelon for our meal with lemon meringue pie instead of cake.

Then on the actual day of his birthday, we sang happy birthday to him again with just our immediate family and he got a giant apple pie this time.

Maira is a pro at using her Rainbow Loom and she made a cobra bracelet for Connor for his birthday.

Jess and I surprised Connor with his first iPod. He hadn't asked for one so to increase his surprise, Jess wrapped it up about in about ten layers so the gift started out big but kept getting smaller and smaller until he finally figured out what it was. It was quite entertaining for everyone. This photo gives you an idea of all the wrapping that had been around the iPod.

Then we all went out to the theatre to watch How to Train your Dragon 2.

A couple weeks later, on the last day of school, he invited some friends (as well as Maira and Hudson) to come play at Launch Pad, a trampoline gym, with him. Jess was in Victoria so these pictures are from my phone so I had a hard time capturing the kids in action without getting a bunch of blurs.