Tag: Life

Canada Fun

Yesterday was an excellent Canada Day. We started off by going for breakfast at our favorite breakfast restaurant, then headed out to Fort Rodd Hill for their celebration. Lots to see and do there, not that we ventured far from our blanket. For Rodd Hill is a beautiful venue and perfect for lots of people to run around and have fun.

They had a small medieval village set up there, and this guy was just getting his armour on. Looked like a complicated process.

We got there early enough to get a good parking spot, and to get a great place to spread out in the shade.

This watershed model is a great way for kids to learn about how our polluting actions can affect our surroundings. The demonstrators show how oil, herbicides, and fertilizers can make their way into out oceans. The kids have fun too by using the bottles to make it rain.

Here is my pirate daughter practicing her scowl. Very convincing!

Here is a happy pirate.

Then the big gun show was on.

The military people got ready, and so did we. We knew from last year that it was going to be loud.

I set the camera to some good fast settings and let rapid fire do its thing.

In this shot you can see the flame erupting from the barrel, and by the next one it had turned to smoke.

This sequence is the last shot of the day, and for some reason (maybe on purpose), the gun blew a perfect smoke ring.


Parade Swing

Saturday morning was the Buccaneer Day’s parade here in Esquimalt. We had all sorts of fun. We started off with a pancake breakfast at our house with some friends, then we all walked down to the parade route. The parade took a while to get to us, but we weren’t dissapointed. Pirates and booty abound in this parade. Aaarrrrr!

It’s a tight fit sometimes, but they managed to get through without hurting anyone.

Gotta keep hydrated with lots of grog.

Watch out for these guys though. They are good at stealing and plundering.

Watch where you cross or you may get accosted by this vicious biker gang!

The celebrities were out in full force.
Hudson Mack:

Piano guy:

The Mascot for the Salmon Kings, Marty the Marmot?

There were some fine pirate vessels as well.

What better way to end the parade time, than a swing at the park.


Midway Donuts

Sunday we wanted to go see the midway for the Tea Party. Actually, Sox and I really wanted some mini donuts, and we thought it would be fun for the kids too.

Sprout went on his first fair ride ever, and he had so much fun that he went a second time. He also played one of the games were you pick a duck that is floating by, and it tells you how big of a prize you win. He won himself a medium prize ( he picked a pink tiger), and won his sister a small prize (he picked an orange whale).

After the fun at the midway we got some donuts and went to play on the beach for a bit. Good family fun.

Of course I had my camera there and couldn’t resist some midway action shots. Not many rides were going yet, and the sun was high and bright. I left my polarizer at home too. Grr.


Detectors Linked

After we moved into our new house, we had an electrician come by and wire in some smoke detectors. The one in the basement is a combo smoke/CO2 detector.

Yesterday we had an opportunity to test them in the most glorious manner. Sox was blow drying her hair, and I think some dust dislodged from inside the dryer, hit the heating coil and burned. The downstairs smoke detector went off and started beeping. Then I head it talking “Fire …. fire”. The next thing that happened was the upstairs one went off as well. The two detectors are linked together. Cool!

Unfortunately for Yoshi he hates loud noises. Unfortunately for me the front door was open and he bolted. When I next saw him he was heading down the sidewalk away from the house, two houses down.

Racers Frustrated

When you have two young children, and you get time off from parenting, you always want to make free time count. Today there was a DH race out at the dump, and since I wasn’t going to be racing in it, I thought it would be fun to go take some pictures.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t block off enough time. I hiked up the course, and took a few photos along the way. A few racers went by, but then there was a huge break. I kept watching the time but it was quickly fading. I needed to be home because Sox had an engagement today too. Reluctantly I started heading down to my truck.

Along the way I talked with a couple other spectators, and one of them told me that there was a 10 minute break between the different classes of racing. 🙁 Sucky. Driving home I was extremely frustrated and angry. I had just wasted a couple hours, and hadn’t really enjoyed myself at all. Such a disapointment. Here are some of the pics I did take though.


Sand Sight

I finished off the sandbox yesterday. At 8 in the morning, as we were thinking about getting ready for swim lessons, Sue thought I should call the sand place and see what time they opened. They were already open, so I went and picked up a half yard of sand.

In the afternoon after assembling our new wheelbarrow, I hauled it from the truck and dumped it in the sand box. Success!

We were having some friends over for dinner that night, but before they arrived, Sprout was out playing and digging. After dinner my son, our friends two kids, and the neighbours daughter and her friend were all in the sandbox diggin and playing.

It was a glorious sight! All my worrying about a less than perfect sandbox flew away.

Here is the final construction pictures.