Vacation Part 3

This post has been a long time coming.  We’ve been very busy, and I just haven’t been able to find the time to put up another blog post.  But I didn’t want to miss telling you all about our trip to Centre Island (Toronto), so I’m finally resorting to just a  quick post with a bunch of pictures.

Friends of ours had suggested to us that when we were in Toronto we should check out Centre Island.  And am I ever glad we listened to them.   This place is perfect for kids our kids’ ages.  For weeks after we came back to Ottawa the kids asked when we were going to go to Centre Island again.  We had such a great time.  Here are a few of the (many) pictures we took….

Checking out the view on the ferry ride to the Island. 

B and I riding the chair lift across the Island.  Notice my seemingly happy expression in spite of the fact that I did not enjoy the ride at all.  I’m not a fan of heights, and despite the fact that the chair didn’t look that high up from the ground, when I was up in it, it seemed a lot higher.  B on the other hand loved the ride. 

As did the girls (A in this picture) and DoT…

Don’t you think every car should have two steering wheels?

  Hey little brother!

Riding the rails. 

And, of course, there was the always popular merry-go-round.

Finally, after learning my lesson with the chair lift, I made DoT take all the kids on the Ferris wheel.  First A and B…

Then E…

I zoomed in for this picture, from at least 20 metres away.  How does she always know when I’m taking a picture, and manage to mess it up at the last moment?…  

Okay, so that’s all I’m going to say (show) about Centre Island.  For anyone out there with kids between 2 and 8-ish, I’d highly recommend it.

Coming soon… a post about what’s happened in Ottawa since we got back.

Summer Vacation – Part 2

After the cottage we headed to Toronto for a few days.  Day 1 was a trip to the zoo.  The kids were pretty impressed with the animals we saw, even though it was very hot and we were there most of the day.  Here are the most popular animals we saw (yes some are dad’s favourites)…

 

 

Spot the loudest animals in this picture (hint: there are three of them)

 

Hey wait a minute!  These elephants aren’t nearly as big as they looked a few minutes ago…

 

Don’t worry tiger – the fence protects you from our kids…

 

 

How come the orangutan can wash windows but our parents can’t?

 

I don’t believe it either A, but dad claims it swims in the water..

 

This polar bear could backstroke with the best of them

 

We’re the star attraction!!

 

Thankfully the kids didn’t realize you could get camel rides – dad wasn’t keen on that idea

 

 

These animals were more fun to ride, although they kept turning left all the time…

 

These are the only animals mom and dad would let us bring home – they said “no” to the tiger…

Vacation 2010 – Part 1

For the last two weeks, we have been vacationing.  We started off at our annual cottage week in Grand Bend, Ontario.  For the last ten years or so, my family has rented a ‘cottage’ (really more of a house) and all congregated next to Lake Huron for a week.  As always, we had a great time again this year.  I think our kids would happily spend 24 hours per day at the beach.  E spent a lot of the time just running up and down the shoreline.  B and A alternated between the water and the sand.  And DoT and I mostly sat and enjoyed watching.  :-)

 

They also spent a lot of time as super-heroes….

And being with cousins, and aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas was pretty great too…

There are lots more pics on my flick*r account, so head on over there if you’re interested in them.  (Send me an email, or leave a comment if you want me to add you as a ‘friend’ to view the pictures.)

Also, after viewing all these droopy-drawers pictures from the last couple of weeks, I just ordered one-piece swimsuits for the girls.  :-)

K…

Happy Family Day, E and A!

It’s been a busy time for us lately… the girls’ birthday was on June 27th, then Canada Day on the 1st and the girls’ Family Day on July 2nd. 

On their birthday, we went strawberry picking at a local farm here (Proulx).  It’s become a tradition that every year at around this time, we meet up with friends for a morning of strawberry picking and fun at the farm.  This year it had been raining a lot the week before we went, so it was very wet.  And the berries weren’t very good.  But the kids had fun anyhow…

Then after the strawberry picking we came home for birthday cake…

And the best part, for the kids, I think, was licking the candles.  Although the first time he did it, B stuck the wrong end in his mouth.  :-)  Good thing they had blown the candles out first. 

On Canada Day we went to park not far from our house.  I thought rather than try to head downtown to Parliament Hill, where I knew there would be too many people (over 100,000, I’ve heard since), we’d go to a local park where I knew they had Canada Day events planned.  Well there were still way too many people.  The girls really wanted to ride the merry-go-round and the Ferris wheel, but the lines were so long we’d have had to wait over an hour I’m sure for either one.  So, instead we paid too much money for them to have (their first) horse ride.  They all enjoyed it, but all the way to the car they still complained about not getting to ride the Ferris wheel. 

And then, Friday was Family Day for the girls – the anniversary of the day we got them.  It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since we first met E and A.   The time is going way too fast.   So here are this year’s pics (yes, there are two of each of them… I can’t decide which of their referral photos I like best.  Must be the chicken suits – I’m sure they’d make anyone look great) …

If you are interested in looking at the photos from previous years, check them out here…

2009:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

2008:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-referral-day.html

2007:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2007/07/happy-uh-gotcha-day.html

My work has finally lightened up a bit, thankfully.  I’ve been very, very busy at work right up until yesterday.  Last week , E drew a family picture that she gave to DoT… I was conspicuously absent in the picture.  :-(  I guess my family may be feeling a bit neglected.  Oh well, I should be around more now, and hopefully the blog posts will pick up to prove it.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far, and keeping cool somehow.  We’re in the middle of a heat wave in Ottawa, with temperatures feeling like 38 or 39 degrees with the humidex.  I’m really looking forward to heading to the cottage in a few weeks in Grand Bend.  For any of you reading who are in that area, think about dropping by for a visit.  We’d love to see you.  Send me an email if you think you can make it, and I’ll give you dates and directions.

Bye for now.

K…

A quick update

Hi again,

Just wanted to give a quick update since a lot has been going on here lately.  Firstly, I can’t believe I didn’t mention this awhile ago, since it is big news… B is out of diapers.  Yeah! ! Well, during the day that is (he still wears a diaper over night).  About a month ago our caregiver decided it was time, and introduced potty training.  I must be oblivious to the signs that kids are supposed to give you to let you know they are ready.  Because I saw no sign B was ready, and yet it really only took a couple of days for him to leave diapers behind, so he clearly was (ready).   I can’t tell you how excited I am to have no more kids in diapers.  :-)

In other big news, the girls got bikes today.  Their birthday is in two weeks, and we had already told them they were getting bikes for their birthday, so when we picked up the bikes today there just really didn’t seem to be a point to trying to hide them (yeah, good luck with that if we even had wanted to hide them) until their birthday.  So, they had their first ride today. It was a short ride (at least shorter than they wanted).  By the end of it they were starting to get the hang of it, but they will need some more practice yet before they truly master it. 

When we decided to get the girls bikes, we started looking around at them in stores and everywhere we went B was very enthusiastic about the bikes.  We told him many times that he was not getting a bike, but somehow I doubted that that little bit of information had truly made it into his brain.  Well, despite my fears, B handled it better than expected.  He made it clear he expected one too, but got over it pretty quickly.  And while his sisters were out learning how to ride a bike, B contented himself with playing with bubbles…

 

Happy spring everyone!   Take a moment in the next week or so to truly enjoy the long days, because they start getting shorter again in a week.

K…

Has it really been a month?

Okay, I know I`ve been neglecting this blog.  Sorry, but all I do these days is work and sleep.  My work is crazy busy these days and I find myself putting in a couple of hours of work every night (at least) after we get the kids to bed.  Finding two minutes to blog has been difficult.  And it`s not likely to get any better for at least a few more weeks.  So, don`t look to this blog for too many updates in the near future.

For now, I'll just stick a picture up, since I know that's what everyone comes for anyhow...

Sorry, see you in a few weeks.

K...