Life's A Beach

Up in Cottage Country.

We just got back from a sun-filled week at my in-law's cottage with the entire family. Normally, we fit the entire clan in a mere 1200 sq ft . . . but this year a new cottage was built and we had two cottages to spread out in.


We had a fantastic time canoeing and kayaking, games on the beach, cliff jumping, playing on the lilly pad, exploring nearby islands.

And, while the adults relaxed on the beach, the kids spent endless hours finding sea creatures . . . and acting silly. In the evenings, we spent more time on the beach and in boats . . . and of course had campfires with S'mores!

At the Park

We were taking some shots of Jayden for his up-coming baptism . . . so I thought I'd snap a few of the other kids too.

Jackson . . . he's a tough one to catch on camera. So quick that boy is!

Avery . . . if you haven't had enough of her from the previous post, here is some more!

And little Liv. Poor thing. She had a fever of 104 that day! (Hence why I gave her the paci.) What a trooper . . . it was pretty hot out too.

Avery

It's been a while since I've really pulled out my camera.

Not that I haven't pulled it out. I have a fair amount of files that haven't even had a second look since being uploaded . . . but they have been more impromptu than planned. Therefore they are kind of a "what you get on the fly" with three kids, a dog in tow and one kid in your other arm.

But the other day I thought I'd take a few quick shots of Liv and Avery.

Here are some of Avery's.

What can I say about Avery these days . . . I think we once touted her as the angel child. Now . . . she might be bordering the devilish side of the heavens. She hasn't napped for ages, but still keeps up with the boys late at night. And, never one to miss out on parties, she seems to wake up with (or now, without) Liv through the nights. That leads to a cranky, whiny, shrieky girl.

If anyone has figured out how to combat this phase, please leave a detailed "how to" in the comments.

Fortunately, she still displays the fun, good natured kid we love . . . at least half of the time. She is very helpful when watching Liv. She is always trying to carry her places or enlist her for tea parties.

She has a new friend who moved in on the corner and they play at least once daily. If not more. This little girl will be in her class this fall so I have a feeling we will see even more of her, if that is even possible.

Her favourite toys these days are dolls (like shoes, can a girl REALLY have too many?), her kitchen set, and bubbles.

Avery is really excited to go to school in September and during the orientation day in June I had to pull her away kicking and screaming. As for me, I will have mixed feelings about her being off to school every other day. It will be nice on my ears to avoid the screeching, but I will miss my little Avery.

Fortunately, I still have Liv to keep me company.

Where Have I Been

I know, internet, you have missed me so. (Or I should hope you have at least noticed my absence.)

It's not that I don't care. Or that I have nothing to report.

Quite the contrary.

SO much has gone on the past month, or few months in fact (as I have learned I forgot to post about Christmas!).

Well, I fought for a week to get grass.

And then I fought (and still do) to keep it . . . with this crazy heat wave.

I cleaned out our garage (really, I did, even scrubbled the floors, got rid of A LOT of junk, and painted all the walls with a broken brush and crappy paint). I also messed up the garage with yard sale item collections, our patio furniture that still has no where to go, and hoses and mud. I suppose a before picture would have been best to show that we could barely even find a place to walk through the garage, and now we can at least see the floor in most areas.

I cleaned out Brad and my closet. Again, a before photo would have done more justice, but it was worse than the garage. Minus the mouse poo. (Thanks to brining in the trooper when they did the first coat on our drive last October, mice who had been living in its engine were brought into our garage. Fortunately, they seem to all be gone, but their remains, well, remained. In the garage.) Really, each of our closets are about 4 ft x 6 ft and we could no longer set foot in them with junk that we still hadn't put away from moving day and Christmas.

(So there is still some work to be done. But seriously, they were jam-packed with junk and I had four kids at home and one of them would not let me put her down for one minute. You try doing this one-handed!)

I (re)painted the master bathroom. I first painted it a celedon, but switched it out for a much calmed colour, ballet white. So much happier now.

I brave grocery stores with four kids on a weekly basis.

I brave soccer nights, three times a week.

We've been to amusement parks, the cottage, friends' and family's places.

We've been really, really, busy.

Atlantis: The Pools

Now I'm really sifting though old photos! I read a post with the beach shots stating that there were just too many vacation photos to put all in one post . . . well, really there are WAY too many!

Here's a start for our FEBRUARY vacation in the Bahamas!

The pools were probably our favourite part. Okay, maybe everything was our favourite part. Truly, breakfast was pretty amazing. And the beach. And kids' club. Well . . . this post is on the pools.

We were fortunate enough to be at the hotel that has special access to it's own pool . . . that wasn't shared with any of the other hotels' guests or cruise guests. The kids' LOVED it. They could have splashed around in it for the entire five days, but we were mean and forced them out to use the beach, the water slides, "lazy" river (though nothing was lazy about it since it had giant rapids and water slides on it), and the water playground.

Here is our pool. We really didn't mind sitting here with the kids every day, the view was just spectacular. And, no one was really using it. (Maybe 2 other families for the entire stay.)

The water playground. Kids had lots of fun here on the water slides, and Avery's favourite perch was by the water gun.

The rest of the pools in the whole campus were almost empty too. We certainly picked a good week to go. None of the water slides had any line ups and the "lazy river" was pretty well empty most of the time. Even with the "dreaded" cruise ship guests, there was hardly anyone there.

Our little Liv. Such a cute little ball of white flesh! I just couldn't resist the last photo, of her rolls! She got a tan everywhere but in her rolls so when she came home she had white streaks between her tan!

Add that to perfect weather and it made for utter paradise. It's no wonder that we still talk about it and yearn to go back . . . and it's almost August!

Christmas 2010

As I've been turning some attention to my photo back-log . . . I've realized I've forgotten some important events . . . like Christmas 2010 (or the boys' birthdays from 2010 too!).

I apologize for not editing any photos, but obviously I might do better without it until I catch up!

Christmas 2010 was very pleasant. Grandma from Calgary came to visit. Everyone seemed to get everything on their list (well, except for the iPhones and iPads that the kids had asked Santa for!).

Mrs. Claus thought that the boys could use a Wii, to give them some controlled indoor movements (seeing as we didn't have a yard and boys, well, they get restless). Unfortunately, she didn't realize that Wii was merely a wrist motion and not the full body workout she thought. So, Dad went out the next week and purchased x-box connect. It was a pretty fun system, even as president of WAX (Wives Against x-box), MAX (Mothers Against x-box), WAGS (Wives Against Gaming Systems), and MAGS, I found myself loving it. Especially the dance game. (We had such fun with Templemans on Christmas day with Ted and Meg's copy!)

Other great gifts included a kitchen set for Avery and Liv to share, thanks to Santa. It probably took him, er his elves, a really long time to put it together Christmas Eve.

Avery got her mermaids and Jessie doll, as well as Littlest Petshop Collections; Liv got some new bath toys and blocks, Jackson got lots of Bakugan and a Star Wars light sabre for the Wii, and Jayden got Lego and another Light Sabre.

As far as Brad and I were concerned, this was the first Christmas that we really "surprised" each other with gifts. He got me some video games and I got him a filled-pancake pan. I think perhaps in the future we will go back to the "I'll buy my gift from you" routine.

Jayden and Jackson both got house coats from the Big Man in Red, while Grandma from Calgary made sure that Jackson did indeed get his snuggie.

Guillermo got a brand new coat. I just couldn't resist upon seeing it at the little dog stand in the mall. So fitting for his personality . . . and the neighbours certainly got a kick! (The coat says, "Security" on the back and has a "Paw-lice" badge on the arm.)

For me, I was very satisfied to have finally gotten a new, fake tree. Though it was a little tough setting up a 9 ft tree by myself, it was SO much nicer than the lame trees we've had in the past, and all the needles to clean up.

After presents, we had a lovely brunch with my parents and then headed off to Brad's sister's for Christmas dinner.