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.