Summer Vacation 2011 Week Three

Week Three kicked off with our annual community Stampede breakfast. This is always a great start to our Stampede week. There is the usual breakfast offering of food, a live band and a bouncer set up beside the park for the kids to play in. As always, the organisers did another great job!

Then we were off to the Calgary Stampede for a day of fun. 24 rides were ridden, DaddyJ managed to join us near the end, much “fair food” was consumed, barns were visited, demonstrations watched, new and exciting things learned at Agi in the City and the kids even pulled 130+ lbs working as draft horses!  

Of course, we wish that our trip this year could have included some time with NAng & CasAng but BabyAng had other plans for NAng this week. Hugs and hopes to take it in with you 3NAng’s next year and a HUGE thanks to my 3J’s for the awesome day at the Stampede!

Following our trip to the Stampede, we headed down to Nanton to spend the day with AuntieL, CousinR and CousinC. We met at Chainlakes Provincial Park to see what the campground was like and test out the park. It was a nice way for the kids to burn off some energy. My favourite part was the cousins hanging on the spinner, it was like we had hung them up to dry on the clothesline! LOL

Next we were off for some delightful lunch at Ken’s in Nanton. We enjoyed some great War Wonton Soup, dumplings, green onion cakes and spring rolls. It never ceases to amaze AuntieL and me how great small town Chinese food can be.

After lunch we went to the Nanton Candy Store http://www.nantoncandy.com/index.html . Next it was time for us to visit Ultimate Trains http://www.ultimatetrains.com/layout.php where we marvelled at the outdoor display of all of the miniature trains and rode on their new train ride which tours the property. Strangely, despite how much older all of the kids are then when we first visited, they are still all just as interested visiting this fantastic attraction in Nanton. As always, I highly recommend a visit here, it is worth the drive, the admission and change to play with their trains.

After the trains we were off to see the planes on our Planes, Trains and Automobile tour of Nanton! The Bomber Command Museum of Canada is an outstanding stop in Nanton, http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/ . We enjoyed learning more about Canada’s roll in WW2, touring the Landcaster Bomber they have on display and watching the recruitment videos. In fact, I am sure that I would have signed up if I had seen one of those videos back in the day. The highlight of visit was the knowledgeable young man who led out tour. He presented the information in a factual way that did not glorify what the plane had been used for (bombing, killing, destroying etc) while making it all very interesting. The kids especially enjoyed using the flight simulator and sitting in the SnowBird jet!

The day was wrapped up with some time at the playground and slurpies. For our second summer "Cousins Exploring Small Town Alberta" it was a great success. Nanton offers quite a bit for visitors to see, learn and enjoy less than two hours south of the city! Cousins R,C,J & J give 8 thumbs up to Nanton. I can not wait to see what next year will bring on the CousinsExploringSmallTownAlberta adventure.

Friday, included a yummy trip to Cora with our dear friends MomB & BendyP. All three kids gorged themselves on waffles and crepes while the Moms caught up on the details of BPnS trip to Italy. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.

Saturday included an adventure with one of our cars being towed to the dealership, a chance for SparkJ to celebrate a birthday with a bowling buddy and the first annual Cricket Family BBQ and Kids vs Parents match. There was delightful food, hilarious games, a close match where the kids barely won and fantastic opportunities to socialize with the other families. This will definitely be my highlight of the Cricket season of 2011.

Week three was jam packed with exciting adventures. The theme of the week was "What a great way to spend my day with people we all adore!"