Better than Christmas

I'm a girl from a small town in Southern Alberta that is either loved or hated. There really isn't much in between. If your from this town you most likely have the same pride in it that I do, however if your not you probably hate it for one reason or another and you think that you are completely valid in your hatred towards it. However in this small little town there are a few things that we are good at doing, such things as...producing good sports teams, producing good fans for the sports teams, being well hated in both these areas, but I would say that the one thing that we are amazing at is celebrating July 1st. There is no better, or bigger day in Raymond Alberta Canada than July 1st. Its not only Canada day for us it is our "heritage" days as other towns call their celebration. And in fact I actually found out this year that there are some people who hate us for this as well. They think we "take over Canada day" like what..? I didn't really understand what this kid was talking about but apparently Raymond is a Canada day hog, I don't know. However people travel from all over the globe to come home for July 1st. If you were raised in Raymond there isn't much that can keep you away on this day.

To start this day of festivities out there is the legendary parade. Now to most people this parade seems a little lame, and well they aren't wrong in their observation of this, some years it is a better parade than others but well its tradition and not going is not an option. After that parade there are various activities going on around town, there's the famous Raymond Stampede home of the 1st stampede, Calgary lies when they claim to be the first. But I think that the one thing that makes this day so special to everyone is the time that they get to spend with their families. No matter where you look on July 1st in Raymond there are family reunions everywhere.

For my family July 1st is always celebrated with the best BBQ. Its one of my favorite and most looked forward to things of the year. Like every other year since before I was born we went and reserved our spot on the street to insure our spot at the parade, we had our BBQ at mom and dads, this year I succored a few friends to come out for the celebration and took a took them to the rodeo. They are from the city and had never seen an actual live rodeo. It was pretty fun to go to. For some reason no one brought a camera with them to the rodeo so there are actually no pictures to prove that this actually happened.

To end a celebration off right Raymond does fireworks. So of course I couldn't let my friends not have the full true Raymond experience and we hung out til it was time for the fire work show. I was pretty impressed with Raymond this year. They did a pretty decent display of fireworks. So to sum it up, July 1st was yet another successful day in Raymond. Can't wait til next year to do it all again.

Here are 4 of my FAVORITE boys in the entire world. Starting on the right is Brock and then Zane, then Paxton who looks like he is trying to get unstuck, and then Rhett. (Zane, Rhett and Brock are Kelly's kids, and Paxton is Alisha's. For those of you who are not familiar with my family they are my 2 sister's kids) I am a proud auntie of 4 amazing little boys. I have decided that I don't need a man in my life with these kidos around. I have 4 boys who have no choice but to love me what more could a girl want? This is the only picture that my sisters could get of their kids with Rhett actually not pulling his shirt over his head. He is kind of a strong willed child and did NOT want to sit on the couch for pictures.

Me and Paxton chillin waiting for the parade to start. (this is probably the only picture of me on July1st and it really isn't a good one)

A few days before July 1st I was off work for holidays and headed up to Sylvan Lake to visit my sister Kelly and the kids. While I was there we did a ton of stuff. I got to watch Zane play in his last soccer tournament of the season. Me and my sister made a bet to see who could lose 10 pound first and the loser buys the winner a shirt. Since we made this bet every morning that I was there she dragged my butt out of bed and tried to kill me by making me bike up the biggest hill in Sylvan Lake (she is worse than Jillian off biggest looser). The first day she got me up to go with I literally was chanting I HATE YOU (towards her) in my head as she is yelling down the hill at me (due to the fact that she made it up first) you can do it just count 1,2,1,2. So while she is yelling 1,2, to me I'm yelling back in my head I HATE YOU! By the time I got to the top I felt like I was going to die. I wanted to puke and get off my bike and tell her to come get me in the van. However, like I said before she is worse than Jillian and she made me ride all the way back to her house. The down hill was way worth it tough. But by the time I was done my visit up there I actually biked the hill 2 times in one morning. It was a pretty big accomplishment.

I came home to Raymond with her a few days before July 1st and I had promised my 2 oldest nephews that I would take them to go see "How to Train Your Dragon" It is such a cute movie I recommend it to everyone! They had both already seen it. Zane loved it again or so he told me and Rhett, well he fell asleep again like he did the first time. Poor little guy he was asking me half way through, "Auntie when can we go home? I want to go home now." So I bribed him and told him if he was good I would buy him a toy when we were done. And the next time I looked over he was asleep. After the movie we went to Boston Pizza with a few of my guy friends and I think I may have given Rhett 1 to many glasses of chocolate milk because when we were almost done he went crazy hyper. It was so funny. He is a hoot when he is hyper. I had to take him to the bathroom and the whole time he was singing to me. I got serenaded with the ABC's and twinkle twinkle little star, along with the other women in the bathroom. I don't know if they appreciated it as much as I did though.

On the way home from Lethbridge with the boys I had probably my favorite conversation with Rhett of my life! It went like this...

Rhett: Auntie look there's a sign

Me: Your right Rhett, what does the sign have on it?

Rhett: It has an R like my name

Me: It does have an R like your name.

Rhett: Yup H, E, T, T

Me: Wow Rhett your so smart! I didn't know you could spell your name.

Zane: My name is spelled Z, A, N, E,

Me: Yup that's how you spell it

Rhett: Zane how do you spell Brock?

Zane:B, R, O, C, K,

Rhett: Auntie how do you spell your name?

Me: My real name Rhett or auntie?

Rhett: Your real name

Me: K, I, N, S, E, Y, Rhett did you know that my real name is Kinsey, not just Auntie?

Rhett: (said with the cut test voice I have ever heard) Kinsey, hmm

This conversation carried on for a little while with Zane spelling various things for me, and then my favorite part of the conversation,

Me: Zane do you know how to spell Grandma?

Zane: Oh that's easy... G, R, A, M, pause....

Rhett: Zane space bar?

Me: Laughing under my breath at how cute this kid is

Zane: um...

Rhett: Zane...space bar?

It was SO cute and Zane realized he wasn't too sure how to spell Grandma and asked for some help. Sorry if this story was boring to read but it was one of my favorite memories of Rhett and I wanted to remember it.

-kinsey