August update

Alright, finally a chance to get up-to-date. Here's a rundown of the rest of our summer.

The kids and I kept busy for the last three weeks of the summer. I had quite a lot of work to do, so we got into a routine where they would entertain themselves for a couple of hours every morning and then in the afternoon we would do something all together. Some afternoons, we would simply go to the pool, run errands or play outside. But we did manage a few big trips -- one to Whittamore's Farm for an afternoon, one to a kids' water park and one to the ROM to see the dinosaur skeletons and other things.

Although the ROM has a permanent dinosaur exhibit, over the summer, there was a special dino exhibit as well. Both kids (and mom) thought it was pretty cool and then we really enjoyed the rest of the museum. Austin had been there once before, two years ago with camp but Alex had never been there. And I don't think I'd been there since before Austin was born! So in all, a good day.

On Thursday, August 30, we drove to Shelburne, Ontario to visit my grandmother in the nursing home and, with my parents, went to a nearby fish farm with her to go fishing. Austin had been wanting to go fishing all summer so I figured it would be a good idea to combine that with a visit with great-grandma. This way the kids wouldn't get bored sitting around a nursing home.

They had a great time -- Austin caught two fish and was really into. Alex liked the holding the fishing pole and reeling in a fish part (she caught one) but didn't so much like the idea of holding a fish! I don't really blame her, I don't like holding them either!

Jamie and Scott's wedding
On Saturday, August 25, Ryan's sister Jamie got married just outside London. We headed for London the day before, where Alex and I joined 'the girls' for manis and pedis. Then, in the late afternoon we helped set up the venue for the reception.

Saturday was HOT and sunny -- a great day for an outdoor wedding. The wedding was lovely and the bride looked beautiful and radiant. (And Scott, you cleaned up pretty good too ;->)

The kids partied at the reception well into the night -- with Alex crashing on her auntie Krista's shoulder at about 11:30 p.m. At that point, Ryan drove the car up next to the hall (the wedding was at a pioneer village, so the hall wasn't very big and we had the whole property to ourselves) and we put her in her carseat to sleep. Around 12:30, Austin finally started to fade so we put him in his carseat where he promptly fell asleep.

Needless to say, they both slept until almost 10 a.m. the next day!

A visit with a cousin
On the day after the wedding, there was a family gathering of my family. My cousin and his wife and my other cousins, his son and his fiancee were in town, along with my aunt and uncle. (They all live in the U.S.). So, although we only got to see them for a few hours, it was a really nice visit and it was so nice to watch Austin and Alex play with their cousin (second-cousin technically) Carson. He's 3 and they all got along really well.

African Lion Safari
On Sept. 1, we all went to African Lion Safari for the day. The main attraction -- the drive through -- was fun, but much to the kids' dismay, no animals jumped on our car.

The highlight of the day was in the other part of the Safari, when we were at the Birds' of Prey show. Austin got picked as a volunteer and got to hold out his arm as a Red-Tail Hawk flew down  and landed on his arm. He was absolutely thrilled!

The rest of the day was spent at the other shows, in the water park area and checking out the other animals. It was 7:30 p.m. by the time we left!

There you go, now I think you're all up-to-date. Now the kids are back at school and life is back to (more or less) normal.

Here's a slideshow of the photos from the rest of the summer.

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First Day(s) of School!

For those of you who didn't see the photos on Facebook -- here's Austin off to his first day of Grade 1 on Tuesday:

And here's Alexandra this morning, off to her first day of Junior Kindergarten!

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Cottage vacation

On July 28, we returned to the cottage in Sundridge on Lake Bernard -- but this time, for the first time, we went for two weeks instead of one.

Taking the longer vacation was a great idea and we had a wonderful and relaxing time. The weather was almost perfect every day until the last two days. Even on the days where clouds and rain were predicted, it seemed to clear up by mid-day. And all the hot, humid weather we'd been having down here in Toronto all July only found its way up north for two days. Otherwise, it was just sunny and warm.

The kids loved being able to swim every day. And that they did -- even on the two last days when it was cooler, rainy and/or cloudy -- they still jumped in for a minute before running back up to cottage and taking hot showers!

The water level was quite shallow this year -- so both kids could easily touch all the way until the dock (which is about 100 feet from shore). So they ran and played in the shallow water all time. When they weren't in the shallow area, they were both jumping off the dock into the deep end -- Austin even getting up the courage to dive in.

One day during the first week, we found a hiking trail about 30 minutes away and hiked for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful, secluded trail and we all had fun.

One day during the second week, we drove down to Bracebridge to go to Santa Village for the day. We had been there two years earlier, but figured it would be fun to do again. The kids had fun riding the kiddie rides, playing in the Elf Island park and of course, visiting Santa.

Over the August long weekend, our friends Rob and Vone and their kids Lilo and Isla came to stay with us for two nights. We hadn't told Austin and Alex that they were coming and they were both VERY surprised when their friends simply 'showed up' one afternoon! For two days the four of them had a blast running around while the four of adults enjoyed a beer or four. 

The biggest news of the two week vacation is that Alex learned to ride a two-wheel bike. It happened early in the first week. You see, to get four bikes on our three-bike car rack, Ryan removed her training wheels and bungeed the bike to the rest of them. He had every intention of putting the training wheels back on once we got to the cottage. Well, Alex had other ideas.

She insisted on trying to ride without them -- and basically proceeded to get on the bike and ride away. That first day she fell several times -- often only getting 20 or so feet before falling and once even falling in a ditch! But nothing would hold her back and by the third day, she was a superstar at it and we took a family bike ride 2 kilometres into town to go to the playground (and of course, 2 kilometres back). That's our Alex!

I leave you with a slideshow of some of the photos from our trip and a video of our superstar bike rider.

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