24 Hour Stop Over + Keith Urban

To start off the marathon Canada trip, the Scows stopped at our house for a quick visit and then headed on to Edmonton. They arrived early in the morning and we were able to go to an awesome Stampede pancake breakfast. It was put on by the people who fight forest fires so it was all about fire safety.

It was a very long wait for pancakes! The lady behind me had a timer going and I believe it was somewhere around 35min! We came at the peak time. 

 Good thing I grabbed a plate even though the pancakes were far from gluten free cuz the boys were starving and ate my pancakes and sausage!

 Putting out forest fires. 

 Checking out the helicopter used for picking up buckets of water to dump on the forest fire. 

 The boys made themselves "useful" by weeding and watering my garden.

One of the best parts of Muffy's visit was that it fell on July 7 which means it is 7-11's birthday and you can go get a free small slurpee!!! Yeah! Here is to you 7-11. Thank you for many chicken wings, slurpees, beverages, chips and 5 cent candies. I will forever love you! And Tim is carrying Oliver. Unfortunately this was the only picture I got of him while he was at my house. He is sure getting big and is so cute!

After slurpees we hit up the park and then went home to enjoy an episode of Star Wars. The next morning we went to Lulu lemon and then went to my wards Stampede BBQ. It was lovely to never pay for food the entire time Danielle was here. Thanks for visiting. Hopefully next time you come there will be a bit more room!

After Danielle left Tim and I went back to the Stampede and rocked out at the Keith Urban concert. I have loved him since forever. In grade 9 I actually made a slide show about him for a computers project. I didn't get a very good mark because I should have chosen someone with more depth. Jokes on that teacher cuz Keith Urban is amazing. Once on stage he sang for almost 2 hours straight. I sang to all the songs and am pretty sure I almost lost my voice. Thank you Tim for surprising me waaaay back at my birthday with all those tickets. I am kind of sad that they have all been used. It was fun. 

Wright fun in Canada

Bryan and Shauna Wright made the trek from Utah for the first time. It was a pretty busy week but we managed to squeeze in a lot! Bryan, Brandon, Josh, David and Tim started the fun by hiking Sulphur Mountain in Banff.

In the evening we enjoyed a delicious hot dog roast. The next day was spent at the Calgary Stampede. With a group of 11 people it was tricky to decide where to go and what to see but we did manage to navigate the crowds and see some good stuff.

 The evolution of the bike was pretty cool. They had motorbikes, quads, snowmobiles and pedal bikes doing some pretty crazy tricks. 

 The kids picked the craziest rides to go on. In the photo above Adam, who is 5, managed to meet the height requirement for the ride. His face was priceless and just pure terror the entire time. He is in the second seat in the back left corner. 

I also loved the super dogs!! It was a very cute show with very well trained dogs. Maybe one day Wrigley will be a super dog... 

 This kid is such a stud and loves to dress like a cowboy. He has apparently worn through a couple pairs of cowboy boots. We got him a cowboy hat and a Canadian bandana to complete the look.

The Wright's live right next to a park which was super nice for playing tag, flag football and filling your shirt with rocks.... 

 Went to Lake Louise! I must admit that this is the first time I have even been to this iconic Banff landmark. It was very pretty and lovely to walk around and dip in your toes.

 The kids thought it would be a good place for a swim but turns out glacier run off is way to cold to actually swim in!

I took them to my favourite place for poutine. They were in love with this Canadian favourite. 

Other activities included swimming at the wave pool, sleeping in, visiting and playing mahjong. I am glad they made the trek to Canada because it was very fun to have them. Please come again and hopefully we will be able to make it to your house in the Fall!

Canada Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!! I am very proud to be Canadian and love my Country. I had to work a night shift on June 30 so I slept away the first half Canada day. When I woke up Tim and I went out for lunch at our favourite location, The Noodle Box.

Love me some spicy peanut noodle box!! I have tried the other kinds but nothing compares to this one. While enjoying lunch, the waitress told us she had two tickets to the Airdrie Rodeo and nobody to use them. We were more than happy take them off her hands. I think rodeos are kinda fun and was excited about this as it was a beautiful day.

 It was a little bright for Tim's Asian eyes :) Tim's favourite part was the mutton busting. It was hilarious to watch the kids. I loved the bull riding even though nobody managed to stay on for an 8 second ride. I was shocked to find out that this was Tim's first live rodeo.

In the evening we went out for dinner with the Wrights. It was such a lovely day and couldn't have asked for a better Canada Day.

Raymond 10K

Tim just can't be stopped and loves trying to improve on his time. We took a quick trip Welling to run the yearly Harlan Taylor Memorial 10K. I have very fond memories of running this as a relay race when I was little. Each person ran 2 km and my mom usually ran with me during my leg. 

I was lame and ran 5km (but I swear I ran the entire time, even if it was a very slow pace) and Tim ran 10km. His time was 50 min 56 sec! Timmy is getting pretty speedy! We also talked the Dudley's into running 5km. It was to enjoy the sunshine!

The rest of the time down south was spent with my mom and Paul. We enjoyed lots of popcorn, mowed the lawn and sorted out spices. We went to the movie, "The Railway Man", very touching. Of course my mom fell asleep but was ready to go get some ice cream after the movie. It was fun to get out of the city and enjoy a weekend at home. 

Calgary Half Marathon

After months of training and approximately 40 lbs in weight loss, Tim ran his first half marathon!!! I am so proud of how he has made healthy changes in his life. This healthy change came about when I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I was having a hard time committing to going gluten free and didn't care that I now had an increased risk of stomach cancers or autoimmune diseases such as MS. I told Tim that by eating a crappy diet and having a family history of heart disease, he shouldn't be eating sugar but wasn't fixing that so until he made changes I wasn't going to either. Tim managed to commit to counting calories and eating healthy which meant I had to go gluten free. I am so grateful for my husbands support and now we are both pretty healthy!
To prepare for the half marathon we went to the Cynthia and Ryan Kershaw's house to carb load. Ryan has been a great friend to Tim by encouraging him every week at church and even went out running to be sure that he is using the right technique to run. (Who knew there was a technique for running!) It was crazy how Ryan out ate Tim.

A half marathon is 21.1km or 50 000 steps! Tim finished in about 2 hours and 5 minutes! Way to go Timmy!!