First, here is a picture of our farm's 5-legged calf that was born in the spring. It was still hanging around come summer, and the extra legg coming out of its shoulder didn't seem to bother it too much. Kevin hasn't seen it in the last while, but it is supposedly somewhere on out land growing big and fat with the other cows.
Brody has become a real chef and likes to help me make all of my baking. Here we were making pancakes for dad one morning and he did a great job of mixing the batter.
I found him like this one afternoon after I had left him briefly. Apparently it's more comfortable to golf in the nude. He figured out how to strip out of his pants and diaper at the beginning of the summer, but thankfully has only done it a handful of times.
Canada Day was fun, as always, in Raymond for the parade. We love that dad gets the day off to come play.
Brody took a while to figure out how fast he had to be to actually get any candy, but was doing well by the end of the parade. I heard the word 'candy' every day for the next month after this exciting event.
Me and Brody! He's not a big fan of looking at the camera.
We discoved quite early this summer that Brody reacts more severly than normal to mosquito bites. Unfortunately, one of his first bites was on his forhead, and the swelling spread down to his eye. This is how he looked for a few days after the bite.
We had fun with lots of the cousins while Kevin's sister, Lisa, was up for the beginning of July. We enjoyed a day at Writing-On-Stone as well, and Brody was especially excited to hang out with his new cousin, Ainsley. I forgot to take a picture of her, but she is adorable, and Brody loves her. Brody thought it was great to swim around with his cousins in the river there.
Stirling's celebration, Settler Days, was a lot of fun this summer. The family was involved in the family softball tournament. I was lucky enought to have an excuse not to play this year, so I wouldn't embarass myself with my lack of ability to throw a ball. Elena played with Brody while I watched Kevin and the rest play. We didn't win this year, but we'll make sure we bring it again next year.
Lots of the family participated in the Striling Parade. We decided to let Brody catch candy because he was pretty excited about the candy and I didn't imagine he would be too happy to throw it to other people.
The rest of the Nelson kids rode of the family float with the bull, or on their own horses. Brody sure got a lot of candy when this float passed by us!
Grandma Bennett came out with Grandpa and helped to monitor the candy eating throughout the parade while I took pictures.
Brody and I convinced dad(Kevin) to get on Gracie's horse to take Brody for a ride once the parade was over. I've only seen Kevin on a horse three times in my life, and so I'm hoping that we convince him to ride a bit more in the future to teach us how it's done.
The August long weekend was our Smith Family Reunion (my mom's family) in Fairmont, B.C.. We started the day with a lunch, and then my mom organized a pinjata for the great grandkids. They loved it. Here is Kim's oldest boy, Zach, having a go at it.
Next, we played a few games. One of the things that was planned was a Smith Family's Got Talent competition. Dad was one of the judges and got to wear a plastic head cap. We all had a great laugh. It took a while after he took it off to get the line to disappear around his head.
Mom's talent was a reading of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". She asked some unknowing family members to volunteer as helpers. This is what it looked like...
While their heads poked through the sheet, other family members acted as the character's hands to do what the story told them to do (put on lipstick, drink water, shave, brush teeth, eat pudding, etc.). Poor Dave... :)
We also had a family competition of "Minute to Win It", with a lot of fun activities. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here is one of Kevin picking up skittles with a straw and organizing them into cups for each color.
Brody really enjoyed the day.
Bennett Family Photo. Welcome to the family baby Blake! We're so glad that Kim was able to come with him so soon after he was born. What a sweet baby.
Smith Family Photo
We always make sure we spend a day at Wasa Lake when we go to Fairmont. Brody was especially excited to be able to have Dad around to swim with. He loves playing in the sand, and got really good at swimming by the end of the week.
What a fun week we had. I will miss seeing all of my cousins for another two years.
I'll update you soon on the rest of August and the other things we've been up to.
