Dad’s Summer Visit

For the first time, Dad is visiting when there isn’t any snow on the ground! He’s been here after Thanksgiving and at Christmas, but never when things are warm, sunny and green.

He flew in on Thursday night, just before 10 pm. Ian and I went to the airport to pick him up, because Tammy and Miranda got back late from their BCC ladies’ ride and we weren’t going to greet him with half the family smelling bad. 😁

Friday morning, when Tammy and Miranda went to the orthodontist, Ian, Dad and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Then we had a lunch out on the deck. It was starting to get hot, and we were expected to meet up with Sepideh and her family at Arbour Lake. We thought about begging off, but went and were glad we did! Sepideh had managed to snag one of the gazebos so we had shade, and the lake was neat.

Ian and Ilia played in the sand, building a sandcastle, and we went for rides in paddleboats.

Of course, there is a reason that Ian’s all wet in this photo. I encouraged him to jump into the lake when we were in the middle of it. He was wearing a life jacket, so that was fine until he tried to get back into the boat. He couldn’t haul himself out of the water, and I couldn’t get enough leverage to pull him in. So we “towed” him back to shore where he scrambled onto the dock with Tammy’s and Miranda’s help.

We came home and recuperated for a while. We barbecued some burgers, and had an impromptu “early birthday” for Ian, who will turn 11 later this month. Tammy had baked a carrot cake that was delicious.

Then Tammy and I dragged ourselves out to yet another event. You can tell that she and I are generally introverted. This event was the Bow Cyclists Club Stampede Social. Tara had managed to swing 30 tickets to the Wild Horse Saloon’s Stampede Tent, which is another sort of Stampede event that Tammy and I had not sampled until now.

It was crowded, with loud music and expensive drinks. But for all that, we had a great time. It was too loud to carry on conversation, so it was either stand around and drink, or get in the mix and dance. Knowing Tammy, we chose the latter!

There was a live band (Steve Arsenault Band) and a DJ in the space between sets. The dance floor was crowded, but we had a great time bouncing around for at least an hour and a half.

We didn’t stay too late, and were home by 11:00. Dad and the kids had played some games in the evening: Uno and Anomia.

Today, Tammy was off to work, and Dad, the kids and I headed for Drumheller. We went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Dad had never seen the hoo doos or the dinosaur museum. It was a great day for it. It had rained overnight, but today was sunny and fresh. Not too hot. The canola was in bloom.

The museum was crowded, but not nearly as much as it would be later in the day. When we arrived, there were about 20 people ahead of us to buy tickets, but when we left, the lineup was out the door and around the corner.

We took our time and looked at all of the fossils. Here’s Dad, Ian and Miranda ready to enter the “time machine” that takes you back to the Precambrian.

It was good. We were hungry by the time we were done. I’d made some bunwiches, which we took to the playground/picnic area.

Not sure what else will happen before Dad returns to Victoria tomorrow evening, but those were all of the major planned activities!