Trip to Chicago

For our third and final trip this month (it's been a busy month!) Ryan and I went to Chicago from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23 while the kids went to my parents house.

The purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine who now lives in Chicago. As neither Ryan nor I had ever been there before, we figured we'd turn a one-day wedding into a long weekend so that we'd get a chance to do some sightseeing.

Unfortunately, for reasons I don't know, six days before the wedding, my friend and her fiancée called it off. (I've since talked to my friend by e-mail and she's doing 'ok', I guess.) So, Ryan and I were left with the decision -- three days before we're scheduled to leave -- whether to go or not. In the end, we decided to go -- after all, we had non-refundable flights, the time booked off and the sitter's booked up. So we went.

And we had a great time.

We got there on Thursday afternoon and just wandered around downtown near our hotel. For those who know Chicago, our hotel was right on Wabash in The Loop, meaning it was right next to the El and we could walk to just about anything downtown. And over the next four days, we did a lot of walking.

That afternoon, we wandered around Millennium Park and Grant Park before finding dinner and drinks.

The next morning, we wandered over to the Chicago Tribune building. It was built in 1925 and it quite beautiful. And, in its wall are stones from famous landmarks all over the world -- Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China, the White House, Edinburgh Castle, etc. And one such stone we found was from Miraflores Locks in Panama. This gave us quite a laugh, because six years ago, when we were in Panama, we drove around for a long while in search of this lock. We gave up, having never found it. So now, we've touched a piece of it! Later that morning, we went on an architecture boat cruise up the Chicago river. Chicago has a really fascinating architecture -- something that interests us both. The tour guide explained the story of all the buildings along our route. It was really interesting. It was also incredibly hot as we baked in the 95F sun on that boat.

That afternoon, instead of going to Navy Pier, as we had planned (we decided it was just too hot), we did a little shopping along the Magnificant Mile and then headed over to the Sears Tower (or Willis Tower now). It was interesting, but when you live in the Toronto and have been up the CN Tower, it's all the same. It even has a glass floor-type thing like the CN Tower, except, in this case, it's called the Ledge and it's a glass box that sticks out from the side of the building.

On Saturday, we walked out to the Shedd Aquarium but got there to discover it was an almost two hour wait just to get in to buy tickets. So we nixed that idea, and instead rented bikes and rode along the waterfront for a couple of hours. Chicago has really beautiful waterfront trails (about 18 miles worth).

On Sunday, we had tickets to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field. And although the Cubs got smoked (the final score was 16-5 for Atlanta) it was a lot of fun. Watching a game at Wrigley Field is nothing like watching a game at the SkyDome. It's much more intimate and it's not showy -- there's no big screen or music playing. And the field is right there in the middle of a neighbourhood. So much so, that the four-storey businesses across the street have put bleachers on their roofs and people buy tickets to sit there.

As we were childless for the weekend, Sunday night (as did the other nights) involved a drink (or four).

We flew home on Monday afternoon and now it's back to reality. A month of vacationing was a lot of fun -- but it's nice to know we don't have to unpack, do laundry and repack again.

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A week at the cottage

On Aug. 7, we left town for a week at the cottage in Sundridge. We rented the same cottage as last year (which is on the same property as the year before).

The weather for the week was almost perfect, which means we were out on the beach and swimming in the lake every day. We had only a little rain, on Sunday afternoon, but we still managed a quick swim that morning.

Both kids are now tall enough to walk all the way to the dock unassisted -- which is about 100 ft out. We would always go out there with them, but it gave them a lot of confidence in the water to know they could do it themselves.
And of course, once we got to the dock, they'd both want to jump off anyway! By the end of the week, Austin was jumping off on the deep side (with a lifejacket) and swimming back around the dock unassisted. Alex too would jump off the dock into your arms, but she'd quickly tire of the game and prefered to jump and play in the shallower water.

Austin has also been very excited by the idea of going fishing, so we bought him a little fishing rod and he and Ryan went fishing off the dock one afternoon. They caught absolutely nothing -- not even weeds -- but the boys seemed to enjoy sitting out there for over an hour. Another day, they went out in the canoe with the fishing rod -- but still, no fish.

On the Tuesday, we packed the kids up and drove to Bracebridge (about an hour away) to go to Santa's Village. It's a cute little amusement park geared at the under 10 crowd and it was a lot of fun. We visited Santa and his reindeer and went on lots of rides. They're pretty lenient with their height restrictions there and as such, Alex was able to go on everything -- even the little mini roller coaster (something she'd never get away with at Wonderland). She LOVED it!

We stayed all day (and it was really hot that day) and by the time we got back to the cottage at 8 p.m., we had two very tired kids.

Other than that, we stuck pretty close to the cottage this year. The property we stay at is fantastic and the kids just run around (and run themselves out) all day long. And since the weather was beautiful all week, we spent most of the time on the beach.

A note about the ducks this year -- only one duck came around to be fed early on the week. We were eating lunch at the time, so we tossed pieces of an uneaten hot dog bun to it. When it returned a day later, it decided Alex's toes would be lunch and took a nip at her! Austin chased the duck away for hurting his sister and it never returned.

Oh, and one last note. When we left on Saturday morning, we went to Orillia to visit Great Nana and Austin and Ryan fished off the dock for a little while that afternoon. They got 4 fish! They threw them all back, but they were pretty excited.

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More camping photos

I just thought I'd share a few more camping photos and one last story that I forgot to mention in my previous camping post.

All 16 of us, tired, dirty and packed up to go home

The kids playing with empty boxes as the rest of us packed.

Kid shot!

Family shot!

On our second night there, as we sat around the campfire after the kids had gone to sleep, a pack of raccoons started circling our sites. I'm serious when I say both of those -- a pack (there was about 4 or 5 of them) and circling (they kept coming closer and closer, then darting across to the other side and then inching closer again). All of this was happening while we were sitting on our site.

Then, suddenly, they burst into our kitchen area and while one or two of them rummaged around, three of them started drinking the leftover cooking oil that was in a pot on the ground. Literally, they had their face and front paws in the pot of oil!

The next night, as we were again sitting around the campfire, only one raccoon returned. He jumped up on the table, quickly found the bag of unopened pitas that we had forgotten to put away, grabbed it and took off. All of this while we were watching from 15 feet away.

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Annual camping weekend

This past weekend was our annual camping weekend, although for those of you keeping track, it wasn't over Canada Day weekend this year. Earlier this year, when the sites had to be booked, the group decision was made to move the trip to the August long weekend. This was made partly because of possible conflicts with Canada Day for some families but mainly to see if we could trick the weather gods into giving us better weather. After all, the theme of the last three camping trips was rain or cold...or better yet, both.
The change of weekends trick worked as the weather was almost perfect. I say almost because it was a little chilly the first night, but nothing extra clothes and blankets couldn't solve, and it drizzled for about 5 minutes on Saturday. That's it. Other than that, it was warm and sunny. And best of all, just warm enough -- not hot and humid as it has been most of the summer.

Once again, this annual trip was a four-family affair -- the same four families that went on the original trip four years ago. Except now, we've grown to a total of 16 people -- 8 adults and 8 kids between the ages of 15 months and 10 years (with the majority of the kids being under the age of 5). And once again, we were at Balsam Lake Provincial Park, near Lindsay.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, set up and then immediately took the kids to the beach. Over the course of the weekend, more beach trips followed with one on Saturday and two on Sunday. The water was beautiful and really shallow, which was great for the kids to play in. Alex prefered to play with the sand toys at the water's edge but Austin was right in there most of the time.

Our friends Rob and Vone brought their bikes this year, so one afternoon we borrowed them and took the kids on a bike ride through the park.

Other than that, our days consisted of hanging out at the campsite while the kids ran around; eating good food and relaxing. We had a campfire every night and let the kids stay up one night to roast marshmallows.

Needless to say, both our kids completely crashed the minute we put them in the tent every night for bed.

In all, a fantastic trip! There'll be more pictures to follow -- we did some group and kid photos on someone else's camera.

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July update

We spent most of July enjoying the hot, sunny weather and keeping busy. Here's what's been happening since my last update:

Strawberry picking

One weekend morning at the end of June, I took the kids strawberry picking. This year, we managed to pick more than we ate and once again Austin was meticulous about picking only the perfect strawberries, whereas Alex was more interested in picking as many as she could, as fast as she could and then declaring that she was 'all done'. We picked 8 or 9 pounds of strawberries and made a batch of jam and strawberry/rhubarb crumble from the fresh berries. The crumble was delicious, as is the jam -- although it turned out more like syrup than jam!

Canada Day
On Canada Day, we took the kids to the Tall Ships festival at the Harbourfront to check out the boats. We all had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day to be down by the water. The boats were pretty cool and the kids enjoyed wandering through each one.

That afternoon, we met up with our friends' Rob and Vone and their kids to go to Woodbine Park in the Beaches for the Canada Day party and concert. We hung out just long enough to see Glass Tiger (yes, Glass Tiger) and then headed back to their house for dinner. Then around 9:30, we all headed out again for fireworks.

Needless to say, by the time we got home at about 11:30 p.m., the kids were both fast asleep in their car seats.

Swimming and Day camp

The first two weeks of July were swimming lessons time. The lessons were every morning. Austin ended up with a private lesson because no other kids were signed up for that class and Alex and I did the parent and tot swim during the same time.

The week after that, Austin went to all-day Kindercamp for one week. The camp was in the same place as his preschool. He loved it and came home every day completely exhausted. During the week, they visited the fire station, went to a splash pad and even went on a field trip to the Royal Ontario Museum.

While Austin was off at camp, Alex and I spent some girl time at the splash pad, the park, the zoo etc.

Everything else

That's really everything that's been going on over here lately. It's been so hot most days that the kids and have spent many days at wading pools and splash pads, just enjoying the warm weather. It sure is nice after the summer we had last year! Here are some other new pictures.

This past weekend, we were camping (separate post and pictures to follow soon) and next week we leave for the cottage.

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