The Canadian Open - Sunday

Sunday - The Final Round!

I was a little annoyed coming into Sunday's round - the man that organized and scheduled the standard bearers for the week, told us that he was going to give us an early group (people low on the leader board) because he preferred to give the prime groups to the people that showed the most commitment...ummm, remember how we're from Belleville?!?!  So, we had to get up REALLY early on Sunday morning, and I was expecting to go out with a group I wasn't all that excited about.  But, we got to the course and found out that the tee times online didn't exactly match up with things at the course, so I would be going out with Trevor Immelman and Matt Hill!  I was pretty excited about the idea of spending the morning with Trevor :)

Here is the Facebook status I posted as we waited for our tee time in the volunteer tent...

Bad News: I had to get up REALLY early today.
Good News: I have a date with Trevor Immelman today!

As Curt and I sat waiting, the organizer came over to ask if we would mind switching groups - he knew I was excited about my group, so he was hesitant to ask, but the people that were supposed to go out ahead of us were held up on the shuttle bus.  I agreed to switch when I found out I would get to be with Hunter Mahan's group!  

So, on Sunday, my group was:

Hunter Mahan (an American), 

and  Miguel Angel Carballo (an Argentinian).

Hunter played pretty well on Sunday, unfortunately it was a little too late.  He hadn't played well in the first three rounds, and there were a few too many double bogies on his scorecard.  We had two guys walking with us as player security, and they had been with Hunter all week...one of them commented that he made more putts on Sunday's front nine than he had made all week!  He shot a 66 on Sunday - big improvement over the 72, 69 and 71 from earlier in the week.

Miguel played really well too, especially on the front nine where he shot -5!  And, he eagled the seventeenth...the third eagle for one of 'my players'!  Unfortunately, he had a couple bogies on the back too...but, he still finished with a 65.

And, Curt and I after the final round...with our signs again...

And, me with my sign and the signed golf ball Hunter gave me after the round :)

The good thing about going out with such an early group was that we were finished just as the top groups were starting to tee off.  So, we grabbed some lunch in the volunteer tent, and then went out to find a spot to watch.  We didn't want to follow one of the top groups because we had already done enough walking!  So, we parked ourselves on the ninth green (less crowded than the 18th), and watched.

Once the final group came through, we decided it was time to head home...so, we didn't get to see the winner, Scott Piercy, hoist the trophy...but, we didn't really mind, we had seen enough for the weekend!

The Canadian Open - Saturday

Saturday was a little different at the Open.  Curt and I didn't have a volunteer shift...Curt actually asked to have this day off so we could attend his cousins wedding, but, I decided not to attend the wedding.  So, Curt got up bright and early Saturday morning to head back towards home...he had to meet someone to go over a work project, and then he was off to the campgrounds for the wedding (yes, the campgrounds...his cousin was getting married at the family camp-out).

I stayed back and hung out with my brother for the morning, and when Nolan got back from swimming lessons, he and I set off for the day!  Our first stop, Ikea - it was a pretty quick stop, Curt and I had picked out a bed frame online, I just had to pick it up.  But, I couldn't go to Ikea and not go through the showroom and warehouse...although it's a little harder to do that when you've got a four and a half year old with you!

Once we were done at Ikea, it was off the the golf course - I was very excited to take Nolan to his first PGA event! :)  Nolan fell asleep in the truck on the way to the course, and he was not impressed when I woke him up...luckily, he was excited to get on the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the golf course - and the shuttle bus was just a school bus, he takes one every day to school?  Oh well, at least he was happy!

Nolan sporting his foam finger on the bus ride...

Once you got in the gates at the golf course, there was a 'fan experience' area - Golf Canada had an area for kids to make a few little chip shots, so Nolan gave it a try. 

Watching his shot closely....

He only got to hit three balls, but one of them went pretty close to the hole.  The best part of this was when the guy asked him what way he held the club (left or right), and Nolan told him that he didn't know because 'Papa is going to teach me next year' :)

The next thing we had to do, eat icecream, of course!

After his icecream, we walked towards the ninth hole to find a shady spot to sit and watch for awhile.  As we walked past the driving range, one of the volunteers gave Nolan a range ball, which he was pretty excited about.  That golf ball ended up being a life saver that afternoon!  As I watched golf, Nolan played with the golf ball :)  ha!  I would watch a golfer hit a shot, and then watch Nolan 'hit' his shot (kick the ball) closer to his 'hole' (a spot in the tree trunk we were sitting under).  Nolan was so well behaved though, when the golfers got the green, I would tell him to be very quiet so he didn't disturb them...and, he would either stop to watch, or continue playing his little game quietly.

Overall, he wasn't quite as excited about the whole thing as I had hoped he would be :)  He's the ultimate sports fan, so I thought he would be into it...but, golf is obviously a lot slower paced than hockey, and slow paced is not ideal at his age :)  But, I still loved that he came with me...it was great to have a Nolan and Auntie Boo day.

On our way out, Matt Kuchar was standing outside the clubhouse signing autographs!  And, although Nolan had no idea who he was, I took him over so that he could have Matt sign his foam finger.  We hung out by the clubhouse getting autographs for awhile after that...and, important lesson, players will ALWAYS stop to sign something for a really cute little kid!

I couldn't get him to look at the camera (my phone) because the sun was right in his eyes :)

You can see the golf ball he got in his left hand.  Ken Duke signed it for him, but he insisted on carrying it after that...and, his hand must have been a little sweaty because most of the signature rubbed off.

And, one last picture on our way out...

So, day three at the Open was great too...in a totally different way than the first two days!  Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for letting me take Nolan with me :)

The Canadian Open - Friday

Day Two at the Canadian Open was AMAZING!

I had a great group:

Tim Clark (a South African, although they introduced him as an American on the first tee?),

Bo Van Pelt (an American),

and Harrison Frazar (an American).

Note: all images found via Google Images; Tim and Bo's pictures are from their 

second round at the Canadian Open. 

And, I thought that I saw good golf on Thursday....but, what I got to see on Friday made Thursday look like nothing!

The group started on the 10th hole, so they played ten to eighteen, and then one to nine.  When we got to the second hole (so, the groups eleventh hole), Tim Clark eagled!  And, I went to the washroom and missed it :(  There were some port-a-potties conveniently located just off the fairway, so I set my sign down and ran over....as I stepped out and went to the portable sinks to wash my hands, I heard a big cheer and looked over to see Tim do a huge fist pump in the fairway...I knew right away what I had missed.  After the eagle, Tim started getting a lot of extra attention...and, he birdied two more holes after that, so there were a lot of camera men and TV crews following the group.  He was looking at possibly breaking the course record too (had he birdied one more hole, he would have been -9)...but, parred the last three holes and ended up tying the record at -8.

Bo Van Pelt also had a great day and played really well!  And, he was kind enough to eagle the ninth/last hole, so I got to see an eagle!  It's obviously not as cool to see on camera as it was in person, but here it is...

I was literally just behind the camera guy that shot this footage :)

Unfortunately, Harrison didn't play as well as Tim and Bo...but, he still finished -2, so he made the cut and played the rest of the weekend!  I obviously still enjoyed watching him play, especially because he was in one of the groups I carried for back in 2008...I specifically remember him, it was the Wednesday of the Pro Am, and Harrison was really friendly and talkative during the round, which was great.  He wasn't as talkative this year, but it wasn't the Pro Am either, it was Round 2, the real deal!

A picture of Curt and I, with our signs, after the round...

So, all three of these players made the cut, and two of them were in the top ten...unfortunately only one of my players from Thursday made the cut, William McGirt, but he was in the top ten too! 

The Canadian Open - Thursday

In 2008, Curt and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Canadian Open when it was being played at Glen Abbey Golf Club, in Oakville.  That year, Curt worked the laser on one of the green side towers, measuring the distance of putts.  I was a standard bearer, the person who walks with a group carrying a sign showing the players scores.  Even though it rained, A LOT, that year, we LOVED our experience.

The following year, the tournament was back at Glen Abbey, but Curt and I were in California, so we couldn't be part of it.  And then last year, the tournament moved out to the west coast for a year.  BUT, this year, it was back in Ontario, and Curt and I were back as volunteers!  The tournament was held at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, in Ancaster - a course right around from the University I attended, Redeemer!

So, Wednesday night, we left for Acton...we stayed with my brother and drove back and forth to the course.  Thursday morning, we had a nice relaxing morning hanging out with my sister-in-law Krystle, and my nephew and niece, Nolan and Abby.  But, things got pretty busy after that, and we were in and out the rest of the weekend.

This year, we both volunteered as Standard Bearers - Curt enjoyed doing the laser last time, but, our schedules didn't match up very well when he did that - so we started and finished at the same time, which was great!

Thursday, we went off with groups just after 1pm.

My group was:

Cory Renfrew (a young Canadian),

Alexandre Rocha (a Brazilian)

 and William McGirt (an American).

Note: all images found via Google Images; only William's picture is from a round at the Canadian Open (his 2nd round).

All of these guys were great to walk with - none of them were overly friendly, but they weren't rude either...they were just focused...they were trying to make a cut after all!

And, after the round, Cory was even, Alexandre was +2 and William was -7.

So, needless to say, William played GREAT golf...and it was a lot of fun to watch him!  I think what I was most impressed about was how he recovered out of the rough...he was so good in fact, I started to wonder if he was hitting driver into the rough on purpose!

Unfortunately, Alexandre wasn't playing quite as well....he wasn't playing bad, he just couldn't get a break.  His caddy, Danny, was really friendly throughout the round, and at one point (just after Alex missed a short putt), came up to me and said "come on Mary Beth, we need some good energy!".

During the round, I had one other volunteer who walked with the group - the walking scorer.  This person has a handheld device to keep track of what clubs the players are using off the tee, and where each stroke is taken from tee to green.  On Thursday, I was with a man from Toronto - Frank - and we had a great time together!  

I only made one mistake during the round :)  I'm not sure how it happened, but I left Cory at 'even' on my scoreboard, but he should have been at '-1'...I think it was only like that for one hole though!  As the round went on, I noticed a few people following closely, and I assumed it was Cory's parents and either siblings or family friends...towards the end of the round, I apologized and joked with them about my mistake :)

Cory made a mistake of his own too though - at one point, he went around the corner and into the bush to 'use the washroom'...but, he didn't go to a very appropriate spot...and, I came around the corner and we almost had a VERY awkward moment :)  The golfers and their caddies all had a good laugh at that...I probably just blushed!

The weather forecast wasn't great for the day, but it seemed like we were going to get the round in and stay dry.  And then it started to rain when we got to the ninth tee!  By the time we got to the middle of the fairway for the players' second shot, it was POURING!  I stayed to the outside, by the ropes, and one of the volunteers marshaling shared his umbrella....and when I got to the green, a few spectators shared their umbrellas as well :)  But, I got soaked running back to the volunteer tent!  Not a big deal though because I had a change of clothes in my bag.  So, the timing of the rain was great, and I will hardly even think about the rain when I remember the weekend!

Garden Update

About a month ago, I posted about the vegetable garden I planted.  For those of you who missed that post, or you forget what it looked like at the point in time, here is a picture from early June.

And, here is what the garden looks like today!

(Keep in mind, we've had extremely HOT weather this past week, so I haven't done any weeding...and yes, there are still LOTS of weeds in and around those 'spare' hostas!) 
The far end looks a little different, right!?!?  Those are tomatoes, NOT weeds!  You can't even see the plants in behind them.  I may have gone a little overboard with tomato plants...so, for all the family that is coming to visit in August, be prepared to eat tomatoes!  :)  Just kidding, we're actually thinking about making salsa - sounds good, but we'll see if it happens.

And, just to prove that those aren't weeds, here is what we're starting to see...

Cherry Tomatoes

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Green Peppers

And, cucumbers!

Now, I made a mistake when I originally planted my little veggie plants - I only planted one pea plant, ooops.  I was told by a co-worker that one plant would not be enough, and that I should add a few more; when I told my mom that I only planted one plant, she laughed at me!  But, I never got around to getting back to the store to buy a few more plants.  And, today, I noticed that the pea plant did in fact have some pods on it...but, the plant is pretty brown, and I think I've lost it.

They're brown, but there are pea pods on this plant!

So, there you have it, my first veggie garden!  I have to admit, I was pretty excited today when I took the time to look at each plant, and I saw that they were actually producing vegetables!  It really couldn't have been any easier.  Next year, I'm going to go bigger - I definitely want to add some carrots, and we'll see what else I can think of!

2012 Camping - Part 2

In yesterday's post, I started to recap our weekend of camping...I got as far as Saturday afternoon and realized the post was getting really long, and it had a lot of pictures.  So, here is a second post recapping the rest of the weekend.

Saturday evening we always have a big communal meal - the organizers brought hamburgers and sausages, and everyone else brings a salad or dessert.  So, needless to say, we had a GREAT meal!

Once everyone was uncomfortably full from dinner, it was time to have our noodle car race!  Well, the cars didn't actually race, we put them down the ramp one at a time - it was more a test of durability, and some cars did better than others!

First, a group shot of all the noodle car creators.  Not a great picture, but still fun!

Isaac's car mid-motion.

And, after everyone had their chance on the ramp, these two were named the winners...Curt's 'car' (which looked more like a Ferris wheel) went the furthest...and his cousin Anthony's car (which looked like a pick-up truck) won for 'best looking'.

After the rain, and in between the noodle activity of the afternoon/evening, people spent lots of time at the water.  The water was pretty cold (it is Lake Ontario after all), so no one really stays in the water for a long time - it's more enjoyable to spend short amounts of time in the water getting refreshed.

Whenever we were near the water, Luke spent most of the time running in and out of the water, only ever getting up to his knees wet :)

Josh enjoyed swimming the most when the older boys were in the water too!  His favourite was when they went out to the sandbar to play Frisbee.

Saturday night was spent around the campfire, of course!  I have to admit, I don't really enjoy sitting around a campfire...I feel like I shouldn't admit that.  But really, it's BORING!  So, I usually don't last that long...Curt on the other hand, he'll sit by the fire for hours.

Sunday morning we had a simple little worship service - we sang some hymns, had a little children's story and then Curt's cousin James, shared about his recent missions trip to Mozambique.

Here are the littlest kids gathered around Aunt Laura, who talked to them about friendships :)

And, after church, as some people had lunch and packed up to head home, Curt's cousin Joel, pulled out his kayak.

Luke and Noah helped him take his supplies to the water.  I'm sure you'll notice how dirty Luke is in this picture...he was like that most of the weekend...most of the little guys were that dirty...true boys and hardcore campers!

And here, Joel is getting ready to head out into the water and demonstrate a roll-over in the kayak.  He had a lot of helpers! 

Of course most of those little helpers had to have their own turn in the kayak too!

Isaac is still a bit small for the kayak, and he had a hard time paddling...Joel had to make sure he didn't drift away :)

While I was down at the water with the boys, Curt was packing up the trailer, so we were on way home by mid-afternoon.

I know this got a little long, and I'm sorry if you were incredibly bored.  But, I know that next year when I go to post about Wielemaker camping, I will enjoy reading these posts and remembering this years activities.  That's exactly what I did before writing these posts, read the posts from the previous two years...and, I was reminded that two years ago, our challenge was frisbee golf!  I had already forgotten all about that :)

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end of the post!

2012 Camping - Part 1

This past weekend, Curt and I went camping...and as of right now, it is our only planned camping trip of 2012.  Now, if you know me or you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll know that I don't love camping...but, Curt loves it....so, I go....and, I have come a long way...so far in fact, I would say that I 'like' it.  And, I will admit, I did enjoy myself this past weekend! 

This camping trip was the annual Wielemaker camp-out - that's my mother-in-laws side of the family - and it was at a Christian Conference Center in nearby Grafton (that's a fancy title, really, it's just an open field on the shore of Lake Ontario...it has two sheltered areas and a small building with toilets...it's VERY simple!).

It is very scenic though...

Conveniently, Curt and I both had Friday off, so we were able to start the weekend early!  We spent the morning packing and getting the trailer organized - it was nice not having to rush around Thursday night, or after work Friday, getting organized and rushing to the campgrounds.  We left home just after lunch, and pulled into the park around 1:30pm...we were the first to arrive, so we picked a good spot and dropped off our trailer. 

And then it was off to the golf course!  We played at Shelter Valley Pines - the course used to be a nine hole course, but they opened another nine holes this year - and, the new nine holes were really nice!  It's a challenging little executive course, with a lot of elevation change and some new blind tee shots.  We played the front nine with Curt's cousin Tim, his friend Andrew, and another cousin, Cor...(Cor is actually Curt's mother's cousin, what does that make him to us?)  Yes, we played as a fivesome, but only for the back nine when Cor joined us. 

We didn't get back to the campground until about 8pm - by then, most of the other families had arrived, so we said our hello's and then got to work setting up the trailer and unpacking things.  Curt got the fire started and we made ourselves dinner - grilled cheese sandwiches in the pie irons!  Yum!  And, once the fire had been started, people started gathering around it, so we were there for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, we woke up to gray skies on Saturday morning.  Curt and I started to set up our dining tent, thinking we may need it for shelter from the rain, but we didn't get very far before the rain started!  Most people made for their trailers or the shelter area, Curt and I just crawled back into bed and got a little more sleep - so, no complaints here!

The rain didn't stop until close to noon, and by then, we were all ready to get out from under the shelter!  This years organizers, Aunt Laura and her family, organized the challenge for this year - and, they challenged us to make a car out of noodles, and then race it!  ha!  It provided hours of entertainment, and was good for all ages.

Our oldest nephew, Josh, and his finished product.  Notice the steering wheel - I think he was the first one to include that detail!

I got to help Noah with the hot glue gun!  Yes, we used hot glue guns while camping - it's great when an aunt and uncle have a generator!

Luke - do you think he's having fun?

And, of course, Curt got in on the action too! 

It looks like he is stealing ideas from his Aunt Eleanor in the picture :)  That's not the case, he was actually giving her a lot of guidance!  She was taking it pretty serious, and was asking lots of questions!

There was also a few other games for the younger kids...

Including a water balloon toss, of course!

Look at Luke's face in the picture (he's the little one in red shorts)!

And, a sack race.

And, that brings us to Saturday afternoon...and, the end of this post.  Sorry, this got VERY long.  My brother and sister-in-law weren't able to be at the camp-out this year due to a death in Sarah's family (my mother and father-in-law brought the boys), so, I took A LOT of pictures to share with them...and, I had a hard time narrowing them down for the blog :)

Come back tomorrow for Part 2, if you can handle it!

Canada Day Weekend

Well, we're wrapping up another long weekend - Canada Day weekend!

We didn't really do anything special this weekend, nothing in honour of Canada anyway...we're not very patriotic around here I guess.  I think there were fireworks in town, but we had our neighbourhood fireworks back in May, so we didn't feel the need to go this weekend.

Saturday morning, we went to a few garage sales, but it didn't last long because the ones we stopped at were horrible!  We stopped at a few and people really only had a few items out, and it was JUNK!  And, while we're on the subject of garage sales...we had a garage sale last weekend (part 2, because the first time we tried, it was rained out).  So, just as we pulled the last table out of the garage at 8am, it started to pour...I was sooo mad, and knew then that I would never have another garage sale!  We covered our tables with plastic (again), and waited out the rain...luckily, it only lasted about 20 minutes.  After that, it was a beautiful morning...and, although it was a little slow, we had a pretty good turn out.  The most popular seller was, again, the duct tape!  But, we managed to get rid of some of our more random stuff this time too.  I think we probably ended up making about $100 after the two sales, so that's not too bad.   A lot of work for $100 bucks though :)

So, back to the garage sales on Saturday morning, after a few disappointing stops, we redirected and went to Home Depot - one of the things on our 'to do list' this weekend was to do some painting, so we went to get our supplies.  We spent the rest of the day turning one of the bedrooms in the basement into an office for Curt and Three Hills Engineering.

I'm going to do a whole post on the process, but here is a little sneak peak...

Early on in the process...

We had talked about doing a few different things on Sunday - golfing or going to the beach - but, we were mid-way through the painting, so we ended up staying home to get it done.

It was a beautiful day though, and I felt bad about spending so much of the weekend inside, so I went out to do some weeding.  And, I am pleased to give you an update on the veggie garden...all of the plants are doing well, and, there is a beefsteak tomato (very green) and two pea pods right now!

And, today, we were able to get out and really enjoy the weather - we went golfing!  I had set a goal for myself, I wanted to break 50 on at least one of the nines...I shot 50 on the front and 50 on the back!  Ugh, kinda frustrating, but at least I'm consistent?!?

Anyway, that's just a quick little recap of our weekend.  And, like I said, more to come on the work we did in the office.