A Trip of Triangles

We decided to change things up for the May long weekend this year. There's been a rather big change in our lives since my last post. Pete has left Claude and will be taking the summer off before embarking on a new career adventure in the fall (which is still to be determined).  We are looking forward to a fabulous summer of camping and exploring new territory.  We feel incredibly fortunate to have another summer off together while the kids are still young.  We plan to make the most of it and will blog as we go (so stay tuned).

Pete's summer off began in mid-April and he decided that 3 weeks was enough time to train for the "Golden Triangle" 3 day road bike challenge through the mountains that his Dad participates in every May long weekend.  It's a total of 320 kms over 3 days (day 1: Castle Junction to Radium, day 2: Radium to Golden, and day 3: Golden back to Castle Junction).  Despite the flat landscape of the Prairies, he managed to train on very windy days and was hopeful that the wind resistance would prepare him for the mountains.  Thankfully he was right!  We drove to Calgary on Thursday May 15th, and Sue, Josh and I woke up at the crack of dawn the morning of Saturday May 17th and saw the bikers off at Castle Junction.  Sue and Ethan met them at the finish line 3 days later and they were still smiling.  Mission accomplished!

Aldo and Pete ready to set off.

1 km in and still smiling!

Sue and Josh posing with some elk in Canmore after dropping off the bikers.

Nonnie, Zia and the rest of us hang out in Calgary together over the long weekend.  We met up with Aaron, Laura, Cailyn and Alexa Bois (good friends who used to live in Saskatoon) on Sunday at the zoo and had a nice visit catching up while we checked out some animals.

Nonnie with her grandkids watching the penguins waddle in for lunch.

Leah with Alex and Cailyn.

Josh, Leah and Mom on the Dinosaur Walk.

The other part of our "Triangle Trip" involved me.  I've been contracted by Ipsos Reid to conduct a number of studies and had to travel to both Calgary and Edmonton for meetings and presentations.  The timing of Pete's bike triangle worked well with me completing my work triangle.  The day after Pete was home, we said goodbye to everyone in Calgary and headed up to Edmonton for some West Edmonton Mall fun before my big client presentation on Thursday.  We spent Tuesday at the waterpark and Wednesday on the rollercoasters.  What a difference a year makes!  Leah was fearless and tackled all the waterslides and rides she was tall enough for.  She loved every second of it, and we loved being able to stick together and ride all the rides and slides together!  I didn't take any pictures at the waterpark and only snapped a few quick ones on the rollercoasters.  We were too busy having a blast!

My crazy family on one of those churn-your-stomach spinning rides that I gladly sat on the sidelines for.

Posing on the merry-go-round upon Leah's insistence.

On the first level of the rope course.  Leah, Josh and I were happy to stay on that level...

...Ethan and Pete, however, went right to the top!! Eek!

All in all, we had a wonderful week completing our various triangles.  We picked up the trailer yesterday and are now busy cleaning and outfitting it for the mother of all road trips that will begin in mid-June.