What are we celebrating?

Today is a Civic Holiday in Canada. I don't know what that means, except that everyone (or almost everyone) has the day off work and it's right smack-dab in the middle of summer. Does it derive from import vehicles? A break from driving a Honda? Or maybe FOR driving a Honda? We don't, by my parent's do...so we get a break by association? Is it like 7-degrees of separation? Everyone, everywhere knows someone who drives a civic...so we all get a holiday.

One time, my mom was driving (in Eastern Canada somewhere) and she was driving a Rambler...I've never ever seen a Rambler or heard of one, except in the telling of this story. She was following someone else who told her it was "Rambler Days" which meant you could go through all the toll bridges for free on that day, if you drove a Rambler. She thought this sounded awesome. So they approach the first toll and the guy waves her through...awesome! Next toll...waved on through. Awesome. 3rd toll and she tries to just drive on through, but the guy stops her, and looks at her as if she's crazy. You DO know what a toll bridge is, right? She rolls down her window and 'all-knowingly' she 'reminds' him that it's Rambler days and that she's supposed to get through free...he's never heard of Rambler days. (I picture Toll-bridge workers to be much like border-crossing officers...not much of a sense of humour). The friend that she was following (who is not driving a Rambler) has pulled over on the side of the road and is busting a gut laughing at her for being so gullible. Apparently he had been paying her toll all along, and then left her to herself on the last one. Hardy Har!

A Civic Holiday is much more exciting than Rambler Days. We get the whole day off work. That's awesome. So what did we do with OUR civic holiday?

We drove our Toyota Corolla all the way to the beach and lounged for a few hours. A lot of families from our branch were going, so we decided to join in. Picnic lunch packed in our cooler and away we go. (After a few minutes of Skype with my mom). It was gloriously sunny, hot, and crowded. We picked a corner of shade, parked our stuff and headed out in the water. Not sure how much lunch the kids actually ate, but they were not complaining.

Bro. Prete, a member of the District Presidency, was there with his wife and grandsons. They shared their picnic table with us, and he also brought his fishing gear and let Lucy and Max each catch a fish. Seriously, he's like a grandpa away from home. He's so sweetly soft-spoken and patient. He was one of the men that showed up on Move-in day to help us unload and he learnt the kid's names right away and hasn't forgotten them. He says hello to them every Sunday and calls them by name. And now they are huge fans because he has a fishing rod (two, actually), bait and tackle, and he's willing to share.

They each caught a couple of fish and got to throw them back in. Well, Max touched the fish...Lucy wouldn't. But if you look at the pictures, you can see that after Max touched the big one...he got the heebie jeebies. They also kept one in a bucket for a while to look at closer, but he quickly jumped out of the bucket and back into the lake.







We came home all sandy and tired again and ready for a quiet evening in our cool basement. Movie-night? Probably.

By the way - all the civic talk was a joke...you got that right? If you really want to know what the origin of the Civic Holiday is, go to Wikipedia. (Basically after Canada Day, we just couldn't wait all the way until Labour Day without another holiday...so we just stuck one in there).