Canada Day Ducks

Rachel and I spent the 1st of July, Canada Day, at BYU. My friend from High River, Courtney, invited us over to her apartment to help her make perogies in preparation for her Canada Party that evening.

The last time Courtney and I made perogies together was about 5 years ago when we were roommates at BYU. We've been in three wards together: Calgary Parkland, High River, and some odd number BYU ward. We were only roommates for 2 weeks at BYU, but we did go to church together, and found the time to make perogies once, as well as some other adventurous recipes for a couple little freshmen to try out.

We had an okay chat together while Rachel was awake--and I didn't do too much helping during that time. Rachel insisted on sitting on my lap or clinging to my leg the entire time. We dropped potatoes multiple times. Rachel kept pulling on my arms while I was trying to peel them, so they were skidding across the floor left and right. I even dropped a few into the garbage can. But don't worry, we rinsed them off and boiled them, so any ickies they picked up were gone by the time they went into the food.

Eventually I gave up trying to help, and nursed Rachel to sleep. She slept on Courtney's floor for over an hour! We had a wonderful chat together while she was asleep--and I was able to do a lot more helping!

Three hours later, we had finished the perogies (all but boiling and frying them) and Rachel and I left to explore BYU campus.

We went to the duck pond first, because it was close. It was actually our second time going, since we had met up with Uncle Patrick in the morning before going to Courtney's house. Rachel was happy to go back to see the ducks because she didn't think we stayed nearly long enough in the morning.


She had a blast chasing the ducks around. I think the ducks enjoyed having her chase them around. Sure, they act all flustered when people chase them, but deep down inside I think they enjoy the attention. They only run away as fast as whatever is chasing them. If they really wanted to get away they would run and hide. Instead they run fast enough so they stay just ahead of Rachel. There was an older child at the pond chasing ducks as well. They were probably about three years old so their balance was better than Rachel's and they were able to move faster. The ducks also stayed just ahead of them, as if asking to be chased more.

Rachel loved running after them! She would growl and laugh and run faster than her little legs could carry her. She would have walked right into the pond with them if I would have let her!


There was a man at the park feeding the ducks from a box of Cheerios. He would throw a few in front of himself and the ducks would flock to him and then he'd toss a few Cheerios in Rachel's direction and the ducks would flock to her. We'll have to bring some bread or something next time we go because she loved having the ducks so close. What a nice man to share his duck food with us!

Rachel also found some park benches and had a wonderful time crawling underneath them, banging her head multiple times and getting filthy dirty.

Ouch!

When it was too hot to be outside anymore we went to visit the fish tanks on the first floor of the WIDB. Rachel enjoyed looking at all the fish swimming around and we both enjoyed the break from the heat.

At 4:30 we met up with Daddy and Rachel showered him with hugs and kisses. It was so cute! We went home, ate dinner, and changed Rachel's clothes before heading back to Courtney's house for her party, which was really fun even though we couldn't stay long due to the bedtime of a certain little lady.

We were the first ones there and then Megan, a girl from Courtney's Y group, showed up. We chatted for a bit and then Uncle David showed up. Next to come in was Geoff, who worked for me in Special Collections, and his roommate. A little later Amy and Melissa Fletcher, who were also in the High River ward with us, showed up. Then some girls, who we thought we had no connection showed up, until one of them heard that we were going to Egypt, spoke Arabic, and had named our baby Rachel.

"Do you know Rachel Cannon?" she asked, "She was my roommate! You're Eric Torrie's cousin!"

And on and on and on the connections went. That is just a typical Canadian (well, at least Southern Albertan) party for you. Everyone knows everyone through someone. It was pretty funny.