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!

Experiencing the Other Side

Last week Jared and I went to "The Black Keys" concert!  It was soooo good, their band only consists of two members (for the majority of their songs--their newer album has two extra members added on!), lead guitarist and vocals and a drummer.  When I went online to get the tickets a couple of months ago I couldn't order any, but it didn't say anywhere that they were sold out.  I wasn't giving up until I had tickets or found out for sure that they were actually sold out, so I phoned ticket master.  The same thing happened when I tried to order the tickets on the phone except their was another option, the recording said to push 2 if you had any questions or needed further assistance, so I pushed 2!  Here I was able to talk to a live person not a recording and I asked her for two tickets to "The Black Keys".  She looked to see what was available and finally said there were two seats available in the wheelchair section.  I asked her if we would need a wheelchair to sit in this section, she said no but there is only one seat!  I told her I would take them! Well, the day of the concert finally came and Jared felt very strongly that we really should take a wheelchair just in case we were questioned and to have somewhere to sit!

Are we ever glad that we did take the wheelchair, our seats were not just at the end of a row but in a section specifically for people in wheelchairs, it was just a big space with no seats except for about 8 folding chairs leaning against the wall, if we were there to see a hockey game our section reminded me of the spot the players would sit for a penalty, we were right off the floor, a couple of steps up!  I hadn't thought about how I would feel sitting in a wheelchair when I had no reason to, but I didn't think it would bother me at all to do it, until I got into it that is!  I wouldn't say that I felt silly but I did feel like everyone was looking at me wondering why I was in a wheelchair.  I couldn't believe how nice people were though, Jared got so many smiles and people instantly apologized if they felt like they were in our way!  We didn't take advantage of having handicap status, it just seemed like people felt the need to give us special treatment.  We waited in line like everyone else to get through security only we didn't have to empty out our pockets, they just sort of felt around our legs and let us through the gate.  While we were in line to buy t-shirts, the man selling them saw us and waved us up to the front.  I can't really say that it is a line, because everyone just sort of crowds the t-shirt tables and waits until they are motioned forward, in all honesty though, we were a little ways back when we were motioned forward!  When we were leaving the concert one of the security guards asked us how we liked the show, he was very friendly.  I just kept wondering what people were thinking when they saw us, much the way I think when I see young people or people who physically look fine but are in a wheelchair.  The experience really gave me a deeper form of empathy towards those who do not have the full use of their bodies or their minds.  And going in the wheelchair, a wheelchair that Buck found in the dump for us when Jared broke his knee, was totally worth the experience of a fantastic concert!  I love going to concerts with Jared, his deep love for music jumps right out of his skin when he is surrounded by the loud heart thumping sound of good rock and roll!