Levi's First Cross Country Race

Levi decided to join the cross country race team at school this year. On Wednesday, they had their first 1.5 km race.  It was rainy, muddy and cold. Not the best conditions for a race!

Levi and his buddy Henry:

Off they go!

Levi did really well for his first race. Way to go Levi!!

Arriving at the finish line:

Last Beach Day

After school on Thursday, Debbie and I took our kids to the beach for one last "beach day". It was 30C and beautiful! I wish summer would last forever....

Back to School 2017

Back to school! Yay! After an amazing summer, we are all sad to see the fun end, but looking forward to a great school year.

Grade 3, 6 & 9.... here we come!

Recap of Summer

We don't want summer to end!! We had the BEST summer... Europe, lots of beach & pool days, every weekend at the lake boating, tubing & skiing, and lots of family time. 

So sad summer is over.

Jakob's 14th Birthday - UPDATED

Jakob was so happy that his official license came in the mail:

14!!!

How did that happen??

Jakob had a great day celebrating his 14th birthday. We started out the day with breakfast at IHOP and then Jakob and Michael went to the driving range. 

In the afternoon, we partied with the family. It was a great day celebrating Jakob!

A couple days after his birthday, Jakob went and got his learners license :)

Happy birthday Jakob! 

Cliffs of Moher & Galway - July 5

More exploring and castles ahead!

 Our first stop was the Bunratty Castle. It was pretty big with lots of gardens and area around it to explore.

This castle we were able to climb to the top.

Next was the Cliffs of Moher on the west side of Ireland. This was one of my favorite places that we visited. The cliffs and scenery were very beautiful!

Little bit of a scary path, right on the edge of the cliff!

Close to Galway was Dunguaire Castle.

We couldn't go into this castle, so we just admired it from the outside.

Across the street from the castle was this cute thatched roof house. It looked straight out of a fairytale to me. There was an 80 year old man climbing on the roof to repair it and I'm sure he knew what he was doing, but I was a little concerned for him.

After we checked into our hotel in Galway, we went for dinner and ice cream. We walked up and down the streets, watched street performers and window shopped for a bit. I really liked Galway, it was my favorite Irish city.

Cork & Dingle Peninsula - July 4

From Cork we drove west to Ross Castle. Only one castle on this day!

The castle was on a lake with beautiful gardens and surroundings:

More narrow roads...

and tight tunnels along our drive.

From Ross Castle, we continued west to the coast. 

Inch beach, just south of the Dingle Peninsula. It was cold and rainy, but still a beautiful spot.

We were freezing!

We drove along the coast around the Dingle Peninsula, lots of cliffs and little beaches along the way.

So misty and cold!

Unfortunately, we couldn't see much, but what we did see was beautiful.

After a long day in cold, rainy weather, Jakob's HUGE pot of lamb stew was perfect :)