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?

Fans, fans, and fans

Maddy had quite the exciting weekend. After going on our usual weekend hike and seeing a myriad of dogs, squirrels, birds, and horses, she got home to discover that there was a lot to see in her very own yard.

Not a fan of intruders on her domain, she went berserk when she noticed that there were two very large and very real horses just out her front window. Kind of neat for her humans as well. They were apparently visiting the neighbours across the street.

Maddy, watching two horses on the street

The very next day she came upon a somewhat ruffled and obviously disoriented Robin - that small speck at the top of the photo below. Wendy went out to fan it away (it was able to fly) and Maddy promptly ran after to make sure it left her property!

Maddy, watching a ruffled Robin

Tonight, Maddy was standing at the top of the stairs showing us her new (dry) piece of rawhide (actually, the knot off the end of a rawhide). She got so excited when she heard Adam come home that she dropped it. That little piece of rawhide did a very slow-motion Plinko-esque dance downs the stairs and landed perfectly in the middle of her water bowl! Sadly, Maddy was never a fan of that bobbing for apples thing, so she sat there unable to solve the problem. After I took this picture, I retrieved the now very soggy little treat. She happily took it and toddled off to the living room to play with it, none the worse for wear.

Maddy, sad about her rawhide

The weekend for the rest of us can be summed up in three words:

Fan, Fan, and Fan.

Yup, three of them! Yes, we bought three ceiling fans for each of the boys' rooms and put them up (mostly Adam) over the weekend.

Tonight was Adam's last cadet Annual Review (he ages out of cadets before next June) at the arena in Dundas. It was certainly warmer than the last time we were there with Parker. We sure could have used one of those ceiling fans!

Adam received an Officer's award and helped to receive a gift from the Creer family (the broken propeller off our friend Susan's father's airplane). Near the end of the event, Adam presented to the squadron a metal cut-out of their logo (which he made at school).

735 Firebird Squadron

Adam on parade

Warrants receiving the propeller

Adam explaining the metal logo he made

Adam with his award plaque

Adam and his proud parents

Did I push the fan theme too far?  It did kind of define the weekend...