Oh Canada...

We are back from our yearly Canadian excursion. Andrew has renewed his Visa and we are good for another year. We enjoyed our week away from the craziness of home buying and selling, but today, was filled with Laundry and laundry and phone calls.

I will give you a quick summary of our trip. These are the highlights, if you ever make it to Manitoba, be sure to check them out:

Bird's Hill Park was our home base for the week. It's a provincial park about 10 minutes north of the city, a perfect location for all our comings and goings.
The week was very cool even for Manitoba summers. The daytime temperatures were only in the low 70's and the nights dropped to the mid- 50's. We were not prepared for the cold. In fact, each of us only packed 1 pair of pants. We decided to spent Monday afternoon at Pan Am Pool. This is where I taught swim lessons for several years and where Ben took his first lessons. Ben and I headed to the diving boards and the 3 meter tower. I wasn't sure he would enjoy it, but he was having a blast! Here's a photo of him on the way down
We spent some time on Monday afternoon at the Leo Mol Sculpture Gardens. He was a Winnipeg born artist. Winnipeg has a beautiful garden dedicated to his sculptures. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animal sculptures.
Tuesday we went to visit The Royal Canadian Mint. It was fascinating to see the process and to know how many other countries' coins are minted in Winnipeg. We also got to hold a bar of real gold. Of course, it was guarded by an armed security guard.
Wednesday was Canada Day and the City was crazy busy. We went to the Zoo, but just a note, Free admission day is the wrong day to go to the Zoo..... I did not even get my camera out, It was packed with people. We did see several deer at our campground, so here's my animal photos. 2 fawns following there mother into the trees.
And a Hawk of some kind was perched on the fire pit at a campsite close to the washrooms.
Thursday were drove to Brandon, Manitoba which is about a 2 hour drive. Interesting enough, Andrew met with a Client. He has been working on this job by phone and email, but was able to meet the CEO. After his meeting we drove to Spirit Sands Provincial Park. It is a desert like area in the middle of Manitoba. We enjoyed several hours hiking about the park.
Friday was finally a nice warm day. We drove up to Grand Beach with some Friends. The water was really cold, so most of our time was spent creating sand sculptures. Ben is posing next to his snake.
Saturday we headed home. It was a really long day in the car, but we listened to several Chronicles of Narnia stories to break up the boredom. Once the sun set, we were able to catch a few firework as we drove.

Try to our form, we celebrated both Holidays! Nothing is simple in our dual citizenship family.

Wow, that was a long post. I hope you enjoyed our trip summary.
Here's a small gratitude list after this week:
Safe Travel after many hours on the road
C.S. Lewis and his truly entertaining stories
Our tent-It's really cozy
Building fires
Roasting Marshmallows
Eating Smores
Andrew's Visa Renewal
Good Winnipeg Friends
Fond memories time in Winnipeg