Happy Canada Day!

I was looking forward to today because I always enjoy the chance to visit the church I grew up in (Edmonton Vietnamese Alliance). It was great to see some familiar faces, to say hello, and get updates. It's been a while since I've spoken as much Vietnamese as I did today! I'm a little rusty- I'm actually surprised I remembered as much as I did. After church, we went back to our good friends', Peter and Thao's new home (Jason helped them move yesterday) so Gracie could nap. I went to IKEA (love that store!!!) with some of my girlfriends, while Jason got a chance to play Nintendo Wii with Peter. My brother, also named Peter, and his girlfriend, Teresa, (pictured above) drove up from Calgary to spend some time with our family. After we went out to dinner, we went home and got Gracie ready for bed. It was great that Peter and Teresa got a chance to read Gracie her night-time story.

The people I spend time with here in Canada didn't really do anything out of the ordinary to celebrate today, so to feel somewhat celebratory with it being Canada's birthday and all, Jason and I headed out to Edmonton's river valley for a fireworks show. It was nice! They were supposed to start at 11pm, but the sun hadn't fully gone down yet, so it actually was past 11pm when the fireworks started. Tons of people came out to see them, and just being a part of the crowd really made it feel like we were celebrating! Happy Birthday, Canada! Now if we can only figure out how to celebrate 4th of July here in Canada... By the way, I had my second bubble tea today!