Every year, just before school’s out for the summer, I ask my girls to come up with a list of activities that they want to do over the break for when they aren’t away at camp. I love seeing all of the ideas that they come up with – sometimes they choose things that we have done every summer for the past few years (like a day trip to Santa’s Village, Canada’s Wonderland or Wasaga Beach) and every once in a while they will surprise me something new.
Don’t tell the girls this…but it’s also my way of making sure that I’m not always the one having to come up with ideas when we’re having one of those “I’m bored…what can we do today” kind of summer days.
A few years ago I decided that I was going to make up my own summer fun list. After all, why should the girls get to have all the fun? I’ve always wanted to complete an obstacle course (not the kind that your kid builds for you in the back yard kind of obstacle course – been there, done that – many times already) but a professional course and something where I wasn’t going to injury myself in the process.
I found one that looked like it would be a lot of fun and that I wouldn’t have to spend months training to participate. Foam Fest is a 5 km, 22 obstacle course for people of all ages and abilities that is run in both Canada and Australia. Some of the revenue earned is donated to charity and in 2019 the Make-a-Wish-Canada foundation received $102,000.
The cost per entry depends on how far in advance of the race date that you register and you can sign up as an individual or part of a team. I wasn’t about to complete this course by myself so I had to find someone else who wasn’t afraid to get her hair all messed up, wear a silly costume and get wet, foamy and full of sand. The first person I thought of was my friend Ann Marie. We met when we were figure skating moms at the rink and a few years later ended up volunteering to organize the year end skating show (if you’re still friends after putting together something like that, you’re going to be friends for life). She was in and we decided to invite her daughter Grace and my daughter Reese to join us as a team.
Besides having fun on the day of the race, we also get together a few times before the race to plan out a few things. We decide on a team theme and costume ideas over lunch or dinner. Then closer to the date we shop for clothing and accessories and we usually get together one more time to put the finishing touches on our costumes.
It’s not a good idea to bring your cell phone with you while sliding down large wet inflatable slides, crawling on your belly in the sand along the beach or falling into the water on the inflatable tire obstacle, so we took advantage of the secure bag check and left our car keys and phones there before the start.
The pictures below were taken by the Foam Fest photographers that are situated throughout the course (you can access the digital copies online, at no charge, usually a few days after the race).
We all look forward to this event every year. It’s a 45 minute drive to get there so we usually stop for Tims on the way and then after trying to dry ourselves off and change into regular clothing at the end (despite still being covered in sand) we stop for lunch on the way home. It’s a day where I can dress in costume, laugh my head off and have fun with just the girls.
2020 would have been our fourth year participating in Foam Fest and we were disappointed when we found out recently that all dates in Canada were cancelled this year due to Covid-19. We will be back at it again though in the summer of 2021.
We are looking for suggestions on what our team theme should be for next year. If you have any ideas please let us know in the comments section below.
is a Canadian lifestyle and travel blogger, sharing stories, information and resources about family travel and everyday family life.
