More random happenings

Here are a few more things I wanted to post but haven't had the time to deal with.

Marion took us on a trip to Stratford to see the Sound of Music. We go every year, but this year Ron wasn't up to the drive or a musical. If you will notice in the selfie below, Parker actually agreed to come along! Without wi-fi!

He secretly enjoyed it. 

Stopping at Tim Hortons didn't hurt either.

Maddy got her hair cut for summer. Below are her before and after pictures. The bandana lasted until a minute after the photo was taken. She hates those things.

 

We took a few more pictures of Maddy while in the back yard a few days later. Here is her 'official' portrait, and she is smiling.

On the original, you can see how deep the engraving is in the phone number...

We also wanted a picture of Adam in his uniform in his final cadet rank, so he begrudgingly put it back on for us to take this picture. This is about a month after he aged out. He is now working as a civilian volunteer for his squadron.

Warrant Officer First Class Seidlitz

As we moved into June (and things didn't slow down) we also did hike #3 of the Bruce Trail. Hre's the obligatory start of the hike selfie. 

Bruce Trail gang selfie #3

This hike's highlight was going over the Welland Canal. Little did we know that an earlier highlight would be going over the old Welland Canal! Can't imaging many large ships would go through here - thankfully the newer canal seems much larger.

I was a little surprised that there were no signs warning of the danger of falling to our deaths. We stayed away from the edge anyway...

This was another interesting trail marker. Maybe this concrete structure would last longer than the trees.

Here is another trail marker, albeit a non-standard one. Glad we were prepared for unusual "white blazes", or we might have tried to go through that tick infested bush behind Maddy.

Just as we arrived to cross the main canal, the lift bridge went up. Thinking we would see a fantastic and large ocean-going ship, we were a little disappointed to see a tiny (by our standards) pleasure craft go by. Not exciting, but at least we got to rest and eat a snack.

After the bridge came back down, I took this picture through the railing and thought the water colour was interesting.

We also went by a few man-made waterfalls. This one caught my eye, so I took a shot with a longer shutter speed to blur the moving water.The next picture is with the shutter speed the camera wanted to use.

Longer shutter speed

Normal shutter speed

Which one do you prefer?

Just a typical weekend

Last weekend we dropped Adam off at cadet camp to begin his week of training and evaluation. All the staff enter at the arbitrary rank of Sgt. until decisions are made as to where these staff cadets will perform their duties for the summer. We received a text from Adam yesterday that indicated that he had been promoted to the rank of Flt. Sgt. (at the camp only - his rank is normally Warrant Officer Second Class). He is now in command of Training and Service Support for the summer. He will also be running the zipline for the thousands of cadets that come through the camp over the whole summer. Below is the last we saw of Adam as he headed away from the car to walk over to the intake area at CSTC Blackdown (Borden).

Adam leaving for camp

Wendy and I did a few hikes this weekend in the heat. We tried a few new locations and took some photos. The waterfall below was one we had visited previously, although we did find a nice side trail that took us a different direction and connected us to the Heritage trail (not far from the main loop where we usually hike).

Sherman Falls

An interesting pile of tree trunks on the Heritage trail

Although the trails were not great, today's hike seemed to be filled with wildlife.We came across a family of 4 deer on the Princess Point trail (near Cootes Paradise). The deer let us get reasonably close to them - they seemed very curious about us and not at all afraid. Maddy didn't notice them for several minutes - well, at least until one of them crossed the path right in front of her.

Curious deer

Not two minutes after the deer encounter, the trail we were following took us across the middle of an expansive and rather empty soccer field. The only sign of life was this medium-sized turtle. Seemed that it was heading for a very tiny depression in the field (it had a purposeful walk) where it could settle down and start digging in the dirt. Pretty unconcerned about us even with me taking photos. Wendy thinks it was preparing to lay eggs. Maddy wasn't sure what to think.

Soccer turtle

We did see a number of different wildflowers on our hike, but I will only bore you with this photo of a green teasel plant (Dipsacus fullonum).

Young Teasel plant

We've been trying to keep Parker busy to reduce the chance he will miss his favourite brother Adam over the summer (yeah, right!). Yesterday, he had a friend stay over to play video games and eat junk food - a typical teenager thing to do in July. We convinced them to go out and do something, then drove them up to the mountain in Hamilton to get some fresh air and to race go-karts for a while.

Parker taking the corner

They did 10 laps each in the very strong sun and brisk wind. Wendy and I were able to sit in the shade and watch their race.

Parker with the "Yeah, I'm cool" look.

Not so cool once the helmet comes off...