No pressure

This post is dedicated to my most loyal reader.  You know who you are. :)

Today is October 25th. That means 9 weeks until Christmas. So I guess it is perfect that it is snowing outside today. The Old Farmer's Almanac is forecasting a colder than normal winter with higher than normal precipitation snowfall levels. How convenient I finished these socks and I'm almost finished a second pair. A funny thing happened when I was knitting these socks. The colours were so random that I decided I wanted to socks to be random too - as in not matching. I planned to just start knitting the second from where the first left off and have two matching/mis-matched socks. But the Knitting Gods had other plans and they ended up matching perfectly. I should have bought a lottery ticket...

In other news... I went to Vermilion two weeks ago. For those of you who don't know anything about Vermilion, (ie. myself) here's a little info:

The Vermilion River Valley was anciently inhabited by the Beaver and Cree First Nations people long before it became a trading post for the Northwest Company. Nestled on the banks of the Peace River, it is named for the orangish/reddish colour of the clay which composes the banks of the river. Lakeland College is there as well they have a rodeo there every July. It was a nice friendly little town - in the middle of nowhere and practically in Saskatchewan!!!  Can you say "road trip, anyone"?  The reason we went to Vermilion was because Erica qualified for the provincial cross-country meet at the city qualifiers.  (You might recall last year's city finals...)

Any idea how much fun it is to photograph your five-year-old jumping a two-foot fence while waiting for your sixteen-year-old to run 4 km?

So back to Vermillion...

The course was very hilly, and Erica underestimated the length and came in 46th out of 117 with a time of 20:40 for a 4 km - and she was hardly puffing. She did great, but we both felt she didn't run her best race. Still it was a good experience and an honour to make provincials in a city of a million people...


Driving into the sunrise



Preparing for the race...

Just a little charming pastoral scenery

A strong finish



Can you lift 5000 lbs?  Erica can.



PLUS, we got to see Vermilion AND stop at Vegreville for a gander at the world's largest Easter egg!  What, haven't you always wanted to see the world's largest Pysanka? Read all about it here.