Canada Day and Champion's 100th Celebration

This past weekend was Champion's 100th Celebration!  And part of it happened to fall on Canada Day!

The kids Canada Day t-shirts said "Made in Canada"

It was so much fun!  Friday, Canada Day, Jared and I took the kids in for the pancake breakfast and while Emry stayed with Grandma Debbie and her cousins Jared and I took the boys home to check the cows.  Well, when we checked the cows three of them were out!  So Jared and I herded them back into the field, it actually went quite smoothly, until we found out why they were getting out!  When we moved the cows down to the grass we didn't have the water hooked up yet for them, but because there is a slough through the middle of the field we knew they would be okay for at least a week.  Well, life gets busy and the water still hasn't been completely hooked up and there happened to be water sitting in the ditch on the other side of the fence where the ground was quite soft!  The cows started to push through this section of fence to drink the water and eventually lifted a post right out of the ground.  After Jared and I got the three cows back into the field we went home and changed and brought the Jeep and post pounder out to fix the section the cows had lifted.  When we got back there were two more cows out, we left these two until after we had the fence fixed.  We added some posts in between the existing ones to strengthen the fence and once the cows realized they couldn't push through anymore they wandered off!  Jared and I decided we had to do something about their water situation until the water was completely finished and hooked up so off we went again back to farm to see what we could do!  Jared put the 800 gallon tank onto the grain truck with the sides off and started to fill it, it takes just under 4 hours to fill!  We then drove it down to the sand with a rather large trough we borrowed from Buck and filled it for the cows!  Jared had to sing in the 100th Celebration Musical so we had to leave before we were sure the cows would find the water.  After the Musical we drove by the cows and they had just found their fresh water, they slurped that water down in no time.  Every night we have to bring the truck home and fill the tank, and throughout the day we have to go check the trough to see if it needs to be filled, the 800 gallon tank can fill the trough 4 times, still not quite enough for the cows in one day but because the slough is out there they are getting what they need!  Actually this is my job for the week while Jared is away at Helaman's Encampment!  It was fun learning how to drive the grain truck, I feel like I have become an honorary ranch hand!  So anyway, sad to say we didn't do much in town for the celebration that day!  We did take the kids into the fireworks that night at 11pm, and they were fabulous!  The best I had seen in a long time, whenever there was a little pause between blasts I was sure the fireworks were over, but every time I was surprised!  I felt like a giddy six year old oohing and ahhing with each explosion of colour in the night sky!

Buck and Arren with their "extra" child!

Uncle Jason and Armin

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect!  It truly was the best parade I have seen in a long time!

My Favorite part of any parade, the Bagpipes!

The Ladies of the Champion Post Office (Roxanne Middleton)

The Flitton Family Float

The Champion Congregational Float

Our Church Float--I Want to be a Missionary Now

The Champion School Float

Maryssa and Grandma Debbie

Emry, Grandpa Glen and Calum

Becoming Spiderman, and not too sure what to think about it!

Peek-a-boo!

Guess what Mom and Dad, the bunnies are for SALE!!!!

He keeps asking to have his spiderman head back on!!

All my mom's grandkids!

He won't use a soother, but he will use his big toe!

Grandma Debbie, Emry and Armin

Patiently waiting for the potluck to start on Sunday

Jared and Calum in the big tractor!

The next morning I was going to do the Family Fun Run but I wasn't able to because I had to get the church float ready for the parade and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to run, because honestly I haven't exercised or ran for so long I was sure I would die half way through, and then who would get the float ready?  Our church float turned out so nice, and the best part it was so simple!  Beverely and I went over to mom's and she used the cricut to cut out letters for us to glue onto black paper, and I asked the Missionaries to sit on the float with two girls and two boys from our ward (they were dressed as missionaries too!), Tanya helped me put balloons on the four corners of the trailer and Beverely and I found some old posters made a long time ago, that had pictures of members from our ward placed on a map of where they served their mission!  It really did look good and I was so happy we took the initiative to put a float in to represent our church!  Jared and Calum drove a tractor from John Deere, and Calum loved every minute of it!  Jared said by the end of the parade he could see people pointing and laughing at them, he wasn't sure of the reason until he looked down at Calum and instantly knew the reason why, he had fallen asleep and his little head was bobbing up and down, Jared said it was a good thing he was in a seatbelt or he would have most definitely been on the floor!  They both wore their yellow John Deere t-shirts and cameo shorts!  It was so much fun!

My Auntie Di with Armin

Best Buds!

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent doing fun things with the kids.  There was a Japanese Acrobat act, face painting and a petting zoo!  They had a blast, and so did we seeing their little faces light up with all that was going on!  It is a weekend I won't soon forget, and so much hard work was put into making it a real success!