Were we ever THIS busy??

People typically associate larger centers with more to do; I know I always have. The problem we always had in Vancouver was that we never did very much because of the hassle factor...too many people, not enough parking, fear of losing the kids in a huge crowd, kids not being able to see because of all the people, the time it takes to get anywhere, yadda yadda yadda. Since we have moved to Trail, however, it has been one busy weekend after another, one festival or event after another and I can honestly say that there have been no hassles and no stress. Everything is 5 or 10 minutes away from home, there is always TONS of parking and the crowds here aren't nearly as ominous as those down the coast (Kootenay-speak for "Vancouver"!).

A few of our highlights (and some pictures)...

Teck Cominco's 100th birthday party:
Apparently, there were 4000 people in Gyro Park to celebrate and, for a town of 7000, that was considered pretty darned great! They had all kinds of stuff for everyone to do and fantastic entertainment. The girls especially liked Norman Foote and Jordan even braved the big crowd to get on stage and sing with him....needless to say, we have a new CD to add to our collection! Oh, and her hair looks the way it does because it was spray-painted hot pink and backcombed in the "Funky Hair Tent"... hopefully she won't cultivate a fondness for that look. Talk about ring around the bathtub!! We also saw Canadian Idol runner-up Theresa Sokyrka and she was absolutely terrific. We spent 6 hours there (unheard of for us), so it was a raving success needless to say!


This past weekend, was the Festa Italiana. A little bit more like an excuse to eat corndogs at 10:30 in the morning than a true "festa", but there you go. Friday night we took the kids to see their very first fireworks display. I am not normally a big fan, but we had such a good time and it was terrific fun to see their awe. The added bonus was that they were finished by 8:00, so bedtime was not too far delayed! Saturday morning we got them revved up for the Parade of Masks. Keep in mind, Jordan's parade experience to date has been limited to the nearly 90-minute long Canada Day parade in Richmond with dozens of floats and "paraders", elbowing her way to find a seat on the curb and walking forever to even get to the venue. This parade started (without blocking traffic even) and when the 25 or 30 masked singing Italian ladies walked by, Jordan was left looking up the street behind them for "the rest of the parade". Obviously not what she had had in mind. We did manage to go around the block and catch them a second time, though, and this time, one of the ladies gave Jordan her mask. That took the sting out of the 30-second parade!

Saturday evening saw us at the Warfield Family Picnic complete with BBQ, three legged races, potato sack races, egg on spoon races and lots of fun with the kids.


Sunday Mike was helping Pasquale with all the wine grapes that have started coming in, so I took the girls down to Gyro Park again for BC Rivers Day on the mighty Columbia! It was a really good event with quite a bit for the kids to do. Jordan tried her hand at the climbing wall and we decided that there was good reason that rock climbers don't wear flip flops! Then the kids just hung out and played in the sand for a good hour before we decided to hit Nonna's for some cookies and a visit on the way home. A good sleep was definitely had by all on Sunday nite!!


At any rate, we are happy and busy and enjoying things here. If we were bored, though, it could only be our own faults!!