Trip to PG

We made our annual trip to Prince George this July. We were a few days late because Callie had camp for the Friday, Saturday night which meant we missed being there for Canada Day. Last year when we arrived GG had made herself a hat out of the local news paper. The paper included a full page picture of the Canada flag. When Carter saw the same thing in our local paper he decided he wanted to make one for her this year too. Our paper was a bit smaller so the hat wasn't exactly the right size but GG still loved it and wore it. Visiting with GG is definitely one of the highlights of our trips each year. She's 96 bu still sharp and we enjoy listening to her stories. She always has treats available to us and we did our annual trip down to McDonald's for breakfast. I push her in her wheel chair and we have a route that takes us along the smoothest path possible. Kerry and the kids referred to it as the jaywalking GG route. We also started and finished a 300  piece puzzle and started a 500 piece puzzle. Fun times.

The second highlight was the new kayak out at the lake. Kayak prices have come down a lot and Costco always has one each spring. My job this year from Kerry was to recommend Mom and Dad purchase one but they were way ahead of me and already had one. I enjoy the canoe but the nice thing about the kayak is that it can be moved down to the beach by just about anyone and is much faster. I enjoyed using it for looking for agots on the beach. I could get low to find them and didn't even have to get out to grab them. Just reached with my paddle.

Carter's highlight was his new fishing pole and tackle. He's been using a cheap one that he says was 'for six year olds'. It was fairly good for what it was but the line was starting to get old so we kept losing our hooks. I took him down to Canadian Tire to grab some tackle and our plan was to get a rod from Eric. He apparently had some virtually brand new ones from the transfer station where he works. I'm amazed at the kind of stuff people throw out.

We had some excitement while we were at the lake as well. I don't recall seeing snakes at the lake as a kid however I've seen them the past few years. This year there was a giant one at least three feet long. It was pretty fat so we think it was either pregnant or full. Jackson was not scared of it at all and followed it down the beach. I know it's not dangerous but there is still something scary about a snake. We kept him from picking it up as I'm not really sure what a 3 foot garter snake would do if you did. It was a short but fun visit to PG.

Canada Day Weekend

Ordinarily we are in Prince George for Canada day weekend however this weekend Callie was invited by one of her friends to a weekend camp on Friday night and Saturday night. It's church group themed but was intended for 'friends' so they know that Callie isn't well versed on what they are talking about. She did have to find her own bible to bring and learned how to find things in it. We haven't raised Callie or Carter with a particular religion and will leave it to them to decide if they are interested. For now we're teaching them to be followers of being 'good people to all'.

The event was held in White Rock near Crescent beach. We go there often but I didn't realize there was a camp there. It's nestled in at the end of the beach and is owned by the city of Surrey. Anyone can rent it and it's laid out nicely for groups of 50 to 100. Callie had fun and was glad she could sign up for the art portion. They each made a puzzle piece and Kerry and I could tell immediately which ones belong to her and her friend Caroline.

After camp we headed to the Surrey Canada Day festival in Cloverdale.

The highlight for me was drone racing. The participants have quad copter drones with cameras on them and wear goggles that give them the point of view of the drone. I always knew it was fast but I had no idea how fast. They cover the length of a hockey rink in under 2 seconds and there are spectacular crashes and lot's of excitement. 

We finished the day off with dinner from food trucks. I had fish and chips from a double-decker bus. If you want authentic fish and chips I highly recommend you buy it from a double decker bus.

Grade Seven Dance

This year is a scary one for Kerry. After 8 years of working at the same school as Callie, it was time for Callie to graduate. Next year she will be in high school. Kerry is the grade seven teacher so she organizes the grade seven dinner every year but rather than just hearing about it, I got to attend as well. The dinner is billed as an opportunity for the parents to see their kids get their year end diploma and have a celebratory dinner. It certainly is that however part of me thinks the kids would be just as happy without the parents there. Much of the evening is spent with the kids wandering around talking among themselves and admiring their dress up clothes. The girls get to wear pretty dresses and the boys are a mix of dress shirts and full on suits. It was exciting to see Callie go and get her diploma as well as an award for completing a specialized math exam. There is also a great slide show that Kerry puts together each year that shows all the kids baby pictures. This year she was able to sub out much of the work to create it to Callie and her friends. 

The evening ended with the grade seven band performing a number of tunes. Traditionally the only time I've heard the band has been at Christmas. This is after only about 3 months of practice. By waiting until the end of the year the kids are much more polished. I think they did about a half dozen songs and I was even able to recognize most of them. Callie played flute and her skills and dedication have amazed me. She practices nightly and has even signed up to take band in grade eight. This should allow her to travel. Previous classes have been to New Orleans. Congratulations on graduating Callie!

Fort Langley Field Trip

I'm lucky that my work is fairly flexible as it allows me to attend most of the kids field trips. In June Carter and I went to Fort Langley. Callie and I went three years ago and her favorite memory is of me taking a nap at lunch time. That wasn't an option on this trip because it was raining and rather than having lunch at the fort the kids had lunch at school and we left a bit later than normal. Fort Langley is one of only a few original historical locations in BC. We aren't a very old province and most of our historic locations were poorly built and didn't last. The fort is not all original save for one building that is a display for the fur trade.

There are about a dozen staff on hand in traditional clothes and they are quite well organized. There is a main person at the gate that sends everyone out to the various buildings on a treasure hunt. The kids get points for walking in a straight line, listening intently and for generally being good. This certainly helps my job as a chaperone. The buildings I like the best are the fur trade, cooperage (barrel making) and the blacksmith. We got to seem them light the coal forge which was much more technical than I was anticipating. The 'side draft' fire place looked like it was very efficient at heating coal to heat metal.

The last building we went to was the big house which was built for an anniversary in 1958. The kids got to re-enact the creation of British Columbia as a province. Carter got to be the judge and was very animated in his acting. Even the people who worked at the fort were impressed with how passionately he read his lines. The only thing we didn't get a chance to do was to pan for gold. Maybe we'll go back on our own to take in the full experience. 

Carter at Track and Field

Carter tried out for track and field again this year. It's a tryout process and you are grouped with the 3,4 class. This meant it was hard for him to get in last year but easier this year. We spent some time each day doing long jump at the school to prepare him. He successfully made it to the practice team for High Jump, Shot Put and Long Jump and was made a reserve for the Shot Put and Long Jump. They can only take two kids per age group per event so it's not easy to make the team.

Technically he didn't make the official team but he was allowed to be the backup for Long Jump and Shot Put. They say he doesn't have to keep showing up but he decided he wanted to continue and thank goodness he did. One of the boys for Shot Put didn't show up for most practices and Carter was getting better with each throw. They picked him at the last minute to attend and compete against a team mate and 30 other kids from across Surrey. His first throw was average for him but on his last throw he threw it almost two feet farther. This was enough for 7th place for the large elementary schools in Surrey. Way to go Carter!

Callie's Dance Recital

Callie had her annual dance recital at the beginning of June this year. This is a little later than normal which may have been caused by the fact that there were four dance nights instead of just two. Ordinarily we only have to go one night with the other night being for a different studio owned by the same person. This time, depending on what you were in you could have had your kid in all four nights. We were lucky enough to only have to attend two of the nights. We only see Callie once per year so I was going to see which ever show she was in.

Callie started the year in four different dance styles. Lyrical, Ballet, Jazz and Hip-hop. About half way through the year she decided she had had enough of Hip-hop. It's a less structured dance form and I believe Callie wasn't happy with the choice of song they were planning on doing. She dropped out before they started planning the final dance for the recital so no harm to the group and the owner said that most dancers don't stay in hip-hop for ever.

The theme for this year was the Wizard of Oz and my niece Kristen dances at the same studio so she was also in a couple of the dances. She has improved a lot over the past year. Her two dance types were split over the two days so it was good that we went to both recitals that we did. Callie had one dance on one night and all three dances on the other night so we could have just gone to the one show. But as I mentioned, with only one chance to see her per year I was glad we got a bit more dance recital time.

Callie's three dances were very well done. I always like to see how she compares to the other dancers in her group and she always seems to be near the top of her class. Her ballet is progressing nicely and she was allowed to go into Point. This is the ballet style where you spend some time on your tippy toes. It looks quite painful but I watched some of the older girls and they don't spend a lot of time on their toes so I don't think she'll be too damaged. You need to reach a certain skill set to attend this and she went to get her fitting in June and some starter classes as well. I'm very proud of how she has kept up with the dancing. We just thought it was cute when she was little. Who knew she would still be doing it 8 years later!

Jordan and Karla's Visit

In April, my brother Jordan and  his wife Karla paid us a visit from Saskatoon. The first thing on our agenda was taking in a White Caps game. We aren't big soccer fans so we would not typically decide to go on our own but Jordan is a big fan and times his visits to the games. Last time we saw the Women's world cup and this time it was a regular season game. My lack of soccer awareness came to light when it took me 5 minutes to realize I was cheering for the wrong team. In my defense the white caps are supposed to be blue and white and were a dark blue that almost looked back.

Once I figured out which team was which we were somewhat disappointed as the White Caps didn't seem to be having their best game. They lost 2-0. It would have been a much more exciting game for me if I had't figured out which team was which.

On the Saturday we spent some time at the Vancouver art gallery. There was a showing by Takashi Murakami called 'The Octopus Eats It's Own Leg". Another benefit of having people come visit you is that you go to things you wouldn't ordinarily make time to see even though they are in your own town. This artist has some very large scale pieces. I enjoyed seeing the process that goes into creating them. There is an army of assistants meticulously going over each piece in multiple colors and layers.There were also a number of sculptures. The biggest one  was over two stories high. I looked closely to see that it appears to have been created in sections. (I was most interested in how everything was made.)

Once Kerry found out that they were coming she checked the local run schedule to see if there were any events. Jordan plays soccer but hasn't done a formal run before. Karla on the other hand is constantly in events. The run that was available was actually a beer crawl. A large number of craft breweries have opened up in Vancouver in the last decade and this run went from brewery to brewery allowing for sampling along the way. Carter and I dropped them off and spent some time wandering around the area of the final brewery. Another area that we would not ordinarily go to but was fun to explore.

We finished the weekend off with a trip to the Cactus club. We had received a gift card from my parents and we were also able to transfer some PetroPoints into gift cards. I think we've been collecting them for 20 years so it was good to finally have something note worthy to cash them into.

It was a fun weekend being tourists in our own backyard.