Life's good.

New music, New destination tomorrow. Almost home :) Life's good.

I leave for Minden Ontario tomorrow for National Championships on the Gull River with the famour John Hasting's. We also have a scheduled stop to paddle on the Ottawa! I have not had the opportunity to experience this quite yet but my chance is upon me and I am very excited.

The weather has been a little muggy these passed two days but it doesn't bother me all that much. It's still bloody hot outside so who cares.

I am looking forward to paddling on the Gull but I am also even more excited to return to the condo and sit on that lovely couch of mine that is awaiting my arrival.

Hope my bum print still exists ;)

Hope all's well

Aj

Last member!

Jessica arrived safe and soundly last night so the Tayler's house is starting to get full. Although Jess had only been in Ottawa for around four hours, we had still managed to find ourselves wandering around in the Westboro LuLu Lemon last night. It's only been one night and we are all glad to see each other.

We wacky and wild plans set out so the next few days should be filled with laughter and good times.

Today we plan on going paddling then coming back home and getting ready to go see Great Big Sea at the bluesfest!!!!! I am so excited!

Hope all is well.

Aj

OTTAWA

Well I am finally back in our nations capital.

Although I had a not so good time at worlds, I will never forget that first run and how good I felt after it and how solid of a performance it was.

With a boost of morality and Kathleen's positive energy, this is going to a good lead up to nationals. Jess will be joining us tomorrow night as well so its gonna be some solid girl time. Uh oh.

For the next few days I will be training with Jamie and his group in Ottawa which I am looking forward to. Its a good group of kids. Should be good.

I am really excited for nationals and I am going to crush out as much training as I can. I am going to be more prepared for nationals then I have ever been for any race in my life.

I have never felt so good being on a paddling trip. With Connor's reassuring words from how I did in France it gives me an extra boost to push harder then I ever had. After nationals I plan on jumping right into AEROBIC LOOPS! These loops will not stop until February either. I may have made Junior National team in two years but who knows how long it'll take to make Senior National Team. I have to build my fitness, and strength. It's going to be a long road ahead, but I am prepared to start that path.

Hope the crappy weather in Alberta isn't ruining summer to much

Aj

Tomorrow

Well the big day is tomorrow. Junior World Championships qualification runs.

I set a goal two years ago to be sitting right here in France to race. Now here I am and I can hardly believe it is happening.

But it is happening and I need to grasp the fact that I did the work and now I'm here.

I don't plan on expecting myself to make it semi's or finals, I am just going to make it out of the qualifications and say her I had a good run.

And plus it's all about the team runs on saturday anyways! hahaha

Anyways, the race starts at 9:30 am local time and I go at about 11 I think. So if you wanna check out the live results go to www.123result.com and select live timing and streaming for Foix France junior world champs and then select the k1 mens qualifications ht. 1 category and you'll be able to watch!

Hope all is well

Aj

Dear

Dear Homesickness,

Its been awhile.

The top two photo's are from Chateau De Foix, the middle two are from Chateau De Migilo and the last one is from the drive to Andorre! Just a couple of my favourites!

Enjoy!

Aj

Past Few days

Sorry my blog viewers that I have fallen a few days behind on you all! I will try and squeeze in the last few days on all the exciting things we have done.

So the new photo headline on the blog is Chateau De Foix. It is a beautiful castle and from the top towers , it has an even more exquisite, three-hundred and sixty degree view of all the surrounding valleys. Apparently the castle has been there for more then one-thousand years. Obviously, the castle that currently stands is not the original. The castle itself has jumped between a roof for a king and queen all the way down to a prison, and is now a museum. Inside the castle there is small displays and plaques that explain the significance of that part of the castle. Their is even a display with some old weapons and keys that would have been used around the 11th-16th centuries. I will attempt to get some photo's up ASAP! This time I will actually attempt!

The other day the Americans came over for a Canada day bbq. It was a good time had by all! We played ping pong, enjoyed titanic amounts of food and then cooled down in the pool! It was a great success for a great country. We were supposed to go celebrate the 4th of July today with the Americans but apparently it got cancelled last second as the Americans managed to partially burn down their cabin with fireworks. Silly Yanks. Hopefully they still have a great time tonight and no one gets in to much trouble!

Today we had the day off and we managed to get a lot down! We went to a village called Niaux which is just outside of Garrabet, which is just outside of Foix where we are staying. In this village is two interesting historical sites. One is Chateau De Migilo and the Prehistoric Cave drawing site of Niaux. The chateau was not quite as magnificent as Foix's but we still managed to capture some great shots and good times. The cave was quiet something else as well! Some of the paintings date back to 11,000 BC!!! Thats old! And some looked like they were drawn yesterday. We were not allowed to take photo's inside the cave but again we still got soem great shots of the view. Then after the caves we had lunch a sandwich bar then went to the GO KARTS!!!!! They were awesome! It was so much fun! The Kart's we were in could go 60 k's an hour! But the faster ones could go 90...Thats a bit much. Inbetween times that we went we could watch the pro's that were training for Formula 3 racing. WHAT AN ENTHRALLING THING TO DO EVERYDAY! Yeah right. I was getting bored after our second 8 minute time slot.

But it was a great day! We are now just relaxin and enjoying the last bit of the day.

Anyways I must dash off. I hope everyone in Canada has a great day like I did.

Aj