Camping at Elk Island 2015

We went on a quick one-night camping trip to Elk Island in July. Shae and Maira stayed home so it was just us and the boys.

We were delighted to find that there's now a company renting canoes on the lake. We went out for an hour and saw lots of minnows and giant leeches (biggest we ever saw, yuck!), and all kinds of birds including pelicans and cranes.

They caught all kinds of interesting creatures off the side of the dock, including a leech:

Canada Day 2015

We made our usual trek to Raymond to celebrate Canada Day this year. It was just a quick visit and Shae had to stay behind because she's working this summer teaching swimming lessons at a city pool.

After the parade, Jess took the kids outside of town to try shooting his BB gun. They used shaken up cans of cola for their targets.

Then we stayed up for fireworks before heading home the next morning.

Scout Hike

Now that he's eleven, Connor gets to move up to Scouts, which he's very excited about. His first activity was spending the day out at Elk Island Park on a very hot and sunny day in June.

They did geocaching, hiking and some frog catching.

Connor's 11th Birthday

We were in the middle of replacing our flooring on the main floor when we celebrated Connor's 11th birthday so the house was a disaster and things were busy but we still had fun celebrating with family.

Happy Birthday Connor! We sure love you lots and forever.

Maira's Run for Mayor

Maira decided to enter the race for School Mayor this year. She was vying against 18 other candidates and didn't quite get enough votes to win but I was very proud of her for wanting to contribute to her school and for the enormous effort she put into designing her posters by herself and writing her speech by herself. Well done!

This is what her posters looked like:

And here is her speech at the candidates forum. Unfortunately, I was the one filming her speech and I couldn't quite figure out the focus on the camera so it's pretty blurry.

Walk in the River Valley

On a warm June evening, we went for a walk in Laurier Park and Hawrelak Park with Spencer and Hannah.

Jelly Bean Tasting

It's been too long since I've updated. We've been doing house renovations and they have sucked up an enormous amount of time. We're not quite done yet so I don't have time for a long update but I thought I'd just upload these videos of Connor and his friends having fun trying "Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans" at his Harry Potter themed birthday party. Enjoy!

I'll post more pictures from my newly 11-year old son's birthday soon.