June 27, 2013

Preschool Graduation and a Great Big Flood

Our wonderful Cara completed
preschool last Thursday.  The children did a concert for everyone in the evening.

 They sang some great songs with great actions!
 This one goes "My God is so Big so Strong and so Mighty! There's nothing that He cannot do - for you!"
One of Cara's favourites!
 I love this pic since it looks like the teacher asked them a really hard skill testing question!
 Angelic Cara.
 She was in a hurry to graduate!  She ran through and got a Bible.
 On a mission to get back to her seat.




Checking out her stuff (with Nana and Howie holding the girls).
 Cara and Leah <3 br="">
 Cara and Mrs Chandler
 Cara and Miss Amy
 The girls with Nana and Howie!
 Family photo!
It was raining pretty hard on and off Thursday.  Little did we know what was coming.  Turns out that while we were at Cara's concert the first communities were being evacuated because the river was coming in fast!
 Friday the city was flooding.  State of Emergency.  Daddy was sent home from work at 10:30 (not that he works near the river but the city was asking everyone to stay home and off the roads).
We went on a walk (between rain showers) to the park near us that overlooks the highway which was practically empty.  That only happens in the middle of night here.
 The girls just liked running around in the rain.
 It was cold and right after this started a big downpour.  The river was rising.  The first day of summer.
 Friday evening after supper we went to Tom Campbell Hill (a park near us that overlooks the city/zoo area).  The normally busy road here was completely shut down.  It was a bit eery.  Through the trees we could see the swollen river.
 Cara found a stick!
 The kids looked at a bug on a rock while Daddy looked toward Harvie Passage (a turn in the river that has a weir).  Not something you would normally see from this area.
 Close up of Harvie Passage.
 Then we went down to Rotary Park.  A park that is along Centre Street that we usually go to for its Spray Park and playground.  From that vantage point we could look west upriver.  The bridges you see in this picture are pedestrian bridges that link downtown to Prince's Island Park (the floating trees you see on the right side).  That is the park the city usually holds Canada Day celebrations in.
 A look across the river onto a flooded downtown street.
 The Centre Street Bridge.  The lower deck (that people drive on) is almost submerged.



Flooded Calgary.
*stole this pic from Twitter
 This is the Calgary Zoo.  That is a hippo swimming in a flooded African Savannah building.
The zoo has been damaged quite a bit.  It is really sad.  I am very glad that we had just visited the zoo the weekend before.  Hopefully we get to go visit again soon (it is currently closed for at least two weeks).

The water has gone down and people are cleaning up.  So many neighbourhoods have been affected along the 2 rivers that go through Calgary.  The Stampede grounds and the Saddledome were flooded and they are working around the clock to clean those up and repair them in time for the Stampede to begin on July 5.
We are so happy to live on a big hill high above the river.  Many of the places we love to go have been flooded and we look forward to visiting them again after the mess is all cleaned up.






1 comment:

  1. That hippo made the news...in that he was swimming out of his usual pool and they had to lead him away from the glass. Crazy! Glad you're all safe and sound...and dry. Congrats to Cara on the graduation. Hugs to all!
    XO Sarah

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