Slip, Splash & Slide

After living here for almost 11 years and catching glimpses of the Marine Life show in the mall here and there we finally decided to take the kids for Easter Monday. It was so fun! We had front row seats and had to resist reaching out and touching all the cuteness in front of us. The kids LOVED it.

Waiting for the show to start (the kids are making "silly" faces)

Doug the Penguin (who happens to be a girl)

The Sea Lions were highly entertaining

After the show we went and checked out the under sea caverns. The kids loved watching all the fish, sharks and sea turtles swim around (I bet JA could have stayed there all day)!

Trying to get brave enough to touch the sting rays

Loving the Sea Anenomes and star fish

More penguin time before one came out to visit

After a stop for ice cream cones and playing a little too close to the water fountains in the mall, we left for home mostly dry and very happy!

Botanic Gardens

T had one of his "fun fridays" off of work so we thought we better take advantage of one of the last gorgeous days of fall. We have never been to the Botanic Gardens before but have talked about going for years. The kids were free and we had a "two for one" coupon which was a bonus.
The gardens were simply gorgeous. I loved breathing in the smell of fall leaves and the kids loved running around, exploring, watching squirrels and throwing arm loads of leaves in the air! AL has become a bit of a budding photographer and took pics every chance she got (I only wish I had a second camera to take a few of her holding such a big camera!).
The Japanese Gardens were so peaceful.

We had a great time exploring on our way to the tower on the far side of the gardens. (The perfect place to play Repunzel)

We will for sure go back to check out all the flowers in the summer and are excited to see the Luminaria display in December! Perfect fall day.

Corn Maze - Double Take

We have been having a fabulous long weekend. We enjoyed a gorgeous hike with the kids, through the river valley on Saturday afternoon and then a great date later that night. Sunday always feels like one of the busiest/exhausting days of the week (although I am certain it is supposed to be a day of "rest")so it is always a treat to have an extra day added onto the weekend!
T actually has the entire week off but is committed to working hard on the basement for most of it. After he spent a good chunk of time working away we headed to the Corn Maze for the first time ever.
We had so much fun. They had the hugest "pillow jump", corn train ride, bike track, petting zoo, etc to make the maze that much more fun. We spent a couple of hours enjoying all the festivities and completed the 1st out of 2 phases of the maze but it was pretty HOT and busy and the kids were exhausted by the end and we ended up carrying them often. We headed home for a few hours and then decided we might as well go back for the evening and enjoy our day pass to the fullest. T's sister came with us and we had the best evening, the crowds were completely gone, the air was nice and cool and the kids were full of life and loved running through the maze deciding what direction we would go next (let me tell you that you sure do go in circles when 2 and 3 year olds are directing you........lol). I managed to charge my camera battery (which had died the moment we got there earlier) and caught a few pics when we went back for a double take.




{ think every Dad I saw on these cars was having even more fun then the kids!}

The Perfect Picnic

We have loved having picnics all summer long; picnics in the yard, at the park, the play ground, at the lake and even a picnic for Grandma on her lunch hour. Today however we had a picnic that takes the award for the "Perfect Picnic"!
T was home today so we decided to do something a little out of the ordinary. After the kids were done swimming lessons we packed up and headed to "H____ Park" down in the river valley.
It is no secret that I am not much of a camper (although I am certain I could enjoy trailer camping for sure). We haven't been brave enough to take our kids out camping yet so they have missed out of the best part of camping........wiener roasts!
That changed today.
We found a great picnic site in the trees just up from the river and set to work teaching our children how to roast wieners and marshmallows and make smores. They loved it (and so did we).





After our picnic was done and our campfire was out we headed over to the pond and rented a couple paddle boats. So fun! The kids loved seeing all the baby ducks up close.



We finished off our afternoon with a stop at the playground. Seriously just the perfect picnic day!

Taking a stroll down Sesame Street

Today we had the chance to take a trip back in time and stroll through Sesame Street! T had the day off so we headed to the Science Centre to check out the Sesame Street Exhibit (thanks to our dear friend for the free passes).
The kids had the BEST time.
They spent hours playing on Sesame Street (with a break for a picnic lunch in between) and really couldn't have been bothered by the rest of the science centre for very long.

The biggest hit by far was Mr.Hooper's store. The kids had the best time loading up their shopping baskets with groceries and then weighing their items on the weigh scales and ringing up their purchases at the cash register. I seriously got a kick out of watching every child in there; no matter their age every child knew exactly how to use the register, pretend to scan each item, swipe a card and pretend to print a receipt!




The other highlight of the exhibit was the obstacle course. The kids had just the best time.


Thanks Sesame Street for giving us a "Sunny Day".

Family Reunion

Do you ever find that the more time that passes after an event the harder it is to blog about it??? That is kind of what is happening here and this family reunion only took place this past weekend.......lol!
T's family are big on having reunions pretty much every August long weekend. We haven't been to all of them but the ones that we have been to have been huge and well attended (I guess that is what happens when you have such a big family).
I honestly didn't hear much about this reunion until the week before (my first clue) but we decided to pack up and go to it so we could see T's 93 year old Grandpa and his Dad.
Long story short; when we arrived at the town hall in Cherry Grove we realized that this reunion was going to be a bit different then expected. T's Grandpa was there, 8 of his 9 children, us, T's brother, wife and 6 kids and only a few others! As it turned out there wasn't anything planned other than the food. I made a quick stop at Walmart and loaded up on sidewalk chalk, bubbles, balls, playdoh, markers, paper, etc to help entertain the kids! (Thank goodness there was a park behind the hall to play at)
On Saturday afternoon we escaped the town hall and headed to the beach in Cold Lake. We lucked out because there were some town festivities going on which included bouncy houses, balloon animals, face painting, snow cones, etc. The kids couldn't have been happier! All I have to say after my attempt to go swimming is that Cold Lake is COLD (duh).
Despite the weekend being completely different than expected we had a great time visiting with the family that we wanted to spend time with the most. AL had just the BEST time playing with her cousins whom we have missed since they moved away in the fall.

A few pics:

Playing ball with Grandpa's dog


Hotel Sleeping


Cousin S and some chalk time


Park time visits


Lunch time


Flower face paint and flower balloon bracelet


Snow cones and deep thoughts


Boat rides


The H Men (T, JA, T's Dad, a distant relative, T's Grandpa)


A picture of a picture (take a close look at T.....#99 on the right hand side!) I love you Honey, but what are you wearing?!?!?!


Cousins


Hooray for family time.

Road Trip

*Warning: long holiday post..........you may want to scroll*

We just got back from one fabulous week of holidays! We really had just the best time. The thing that made it even better was that exactly 2 years ago we took the exact same trip with our kids (6 & 18 mths old), they got insanely sick and to say the least the trip was a NIGHTMARE. We haven't ventured far from home the past two years out of pure fear! Now that we have had some splendid success we are excited about all the holidays our future holds.

We packed up the van (including Grandma in the back seat) and headed out to the beautiful Okanagan Valley in BC. The kids were AMAZING the entire trip. We had found the perfect older motel to stay at in Kelowna. It was a sweet 80's reno motel that surrounded 5 acres of playground, pool and patios right in the city. (Perfect for our little people). We lucked out with a sweet deal online and got a 2 bedroom place for $99/night ($250/night as of July 1st). My Mom came with us and stayed with my Granny at her place. It was so nice to have an extra hand; we even managed to ditch the kids and go out on a lunch date one afternoon.


On our first full day in town we lucked out with amazingly gorgeous weather. My Uncle and his girlfriend entertained us for the day at her family's place on the lake. The kids played on the beach, we went out in the boat and toured the lake and had just the best day with family.





The weather wasn't quite as perfect the rest of the week (lots of cloud) but it was still nice and warm for the most part.
We spent lots of time at the beach playing and dreaming about the day we can retire and do that every day! We got a nice surprise one day at the beach when out of the blue my cousin came and sat down on the blanket at the beach right beside me. As it turned out my cousin and his wife were working in the area and we just happened to be at the exact same beach they came to eat their lunch at. They were sitting just a few feet behind us when they caught a glimpse of T and came and surprised us! Fun.




The kids had the best time at the spray park one day.



We had the best time playing in the indoor pool. We had the place to ourselves most days. It was so fun to see the kids go from being timid of the pool at the start of the week to jumping in and wanting to swim on their own (with a life jacket of course) by the end of the week.

We enjoyed lots of time with family. (We sadly weren't able to squeeze in time with all of the family)



We headed out on the Kettle Valley Steam Train one day. It was a great 90 min. trip through the valley surrounded by vineyards and orchards. My Granny had a great time reliving childhood memories of riding the train when it was in operation. Little JA was in heaven every time the whistle blew! Alysha loved the singing Banjo player.




On the trip home we stopped at the Enchanted Forrest to stretch our legs. It was Freezing there but the kids had a blast looking in all the tiny houses! It sure helped burn some energy for the 12 hour day of travel.



We really had just the best time and I am dreading switching out of holiday mode and back into normal life! Can't wait for our next holidays.