Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Canada Day

I love celebrating my home and native land! I love that the Sunday before the 1st, we sing ALL four verses of the national anthem. It is truly beautiful.

This Canada Day was a lovely day with wonderful weather and my sweet family. The festivities started the night before. The town of Sidney does free cake and fireworks on the 30th. They're really for Sidney Days but most everyone just says they're for Canada day. We got there about ten minutes after the cake started being served and got in the long line. They started handing out napkins, which seemed like a good sign. Why would you give out napkins if you weren't going to have enough cake amiright? BUT about five people before us, it was all gone. I was so disappointed because I had told Oakley we'd get cake and got him excited and then there wasn't any. :( So, like any good mom (ha ha), I took him down to the store to get a cake replacement - two bite brownies. We enjoyed our brownies and some sour jujubes on the lawn while some lively Canadian band played. It was so much fun and so family focused. Then the fireworks began. Let me tell you how much I LOVE the idea of doing Canada Day fireworks the night before: you stay up late and then have a holiday so you don't have to worry about getting little sleep before work the next day. Brilliant. Emmett was mesmerized by the fireworks. He wasn't one bit startle or scared, he just watched them all so intently. Oakley was a little more hesitant about them but enjoyed them by the end. He still talks about them. "Works. Up. Sounds." :)

Oakley enjoying the music


The beautiful sunset over the ocean

"How many cheezies can I fit in my mouth at once?"

Canada Day itself was very chill and relaxing. We didn't do anything with crowds. We made a waffle breakfast since there were no free breakfasts in Victoria. Seriously, Victoria, you've got to work on that. Edmonton is beating your butt with free Canada Day breakfasts. Step it up. Anyways, after our nice breakfast, it was off to Aylard farm beach again to soak up some sun. It was the perfect day. Blue, blue skies, no wind, and the sun just bathing my skin in delicious warmth. The beach was surprisingly not busy and the water was surprisingly still freezing. So much for my plan to go swimming. Instead, Emmett and I found a small tide pool and hung out in there. And Emmett ate his first sand and sea weed. Yeesh, that kid is fast! Nearing nap time, a sweet stranger at the beach lent me one of those half tent  shade things so I could lay Emmett down. It was one of those tender mercies. Thank you again, kind stranger! Oakley was all over the rocks, exploring the beach and finding little treasures. I love that little boys can find treasure in the simplest of things. Life is so magical in the eyes of a little boy. He makes my life pretty magical, too. I was drawn in by the anemones again. I find them so fascinating. This time, I found a whole lot of them out of the water as the tide had gone down. I don't kno why, but I thought they looked really cool. After a nap and lots of munching, exploring, playing and mess-making, we packed up and headed home.

Canada colours!




So dirty!



He climbed up there all by himself!


Anemones!



I love this kid!

Those eyes!





Happy birthday, Canada!

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