Summer 2008

It's hard to believe that our summer has finally ended.

In some ways, I don't feel as though we did anything spectacular.

And, we really didn't. (Except for Europe, but that was technically in Spring.)

Brad started working just about as soon as he had his diploma in his hand. That meant that any family vacation time--outside of Templeman Cottage Week--was out of the picture.

But we did carve out a few days of the summer for fun around home.

We bought a season's pass to the local amusement park and had many great days there. There is something to be said about having a season's pass. It seems like kids don't make it for longer than 2 hours and it was really nice to be able to leave when we needed to--guilt free.

Some of our memorable moments:

Seeing the difference between the boys in terms of how they viewed rides. Jayden liked the "safer rides" and of course loved "Bumper Cars." However, he was such a cautious driver that he would wait, swerve, or avoid any other cars coming in his direction. We usually found him driving around the outside of the track, always looking around for other drivers.

Jackson, however, will not be getting his driver's licence until he is at least 21. He would look around for other drivers, and then put the pedal to the metal and ram into them as hard as possible. When he recovered from the crash, he would look around again for someone else to bash into. When the ride was over, he would stand up triumphant in his car and point at everyone else, yelling, "I won you! I won you! You lost."

When it came to roller coasters, it was much of the same. We took Jayden on his first "big" roller coaster and he went white. He decided that five was too young to go on such a scary ride.

Jackson, we had to sneak on because he was just under the height restriction. Naturally, he loved it. And wanted to ride it again, and again, and again. Not only that, but he started pointing out to the adult roller coasters and begged us to take him on them. As we left the park, they had a three-person bungee ride and I had to take him out kicking and screaming, "I want to go on that ride!!"

The most ironic moment of the amusement park? One day we were on our way out and the boys wanted to play a game. We picked one that said "winner every time" in the kiddie section.

It had a 4x4 blue game board with holes every 6 inches, just large enough for a ball to sit in it, without falling through. In each of the four corners was a small pink triangle. To play, you got three balls to throw onto the game board. If your ball landed in the blue, you got a tiny little hacky sac, but if it landed in the pink (which was really hard) you got a large stuffed dog.

So, we bought three balls. Jayden went first and landed in the blue. Jackson went next. It landed on the blue, but then kept going, rolling all the way around the game board until finally, it landed right smack in the middle of a pink triangle. Our little boy who walks into walls, spills every single drink, and drops just about anything he holds . . . won without breaking a sweat.

Brad finished off the game, thinking it was going to be easy to repeat Jackson's win.

Unsuccessful, we ended up buying another three balls for him and Jayden to try to win another dog. Again, all three balls landed in blue. The game keeper started to feel bad for giving Jayden a little hacky sac when his little brother had this big, cool dog so she asked if he would like to switch his prize for another dog.

So very nice.

Cottage highlights of the summer included:

The kids playing with their cousins on Grandma and Grandpa's beach. They loved to splash around in the water, testing out the new skills they learned at swimming camp. We also put on a pirate's treasure hunt on the beach and that was a hit too.

Mom and Dad enjoyed some tennis and spa time, in addition to relaxing on the beach with the kids.

It was nice and quiet since this year dogs weren't invited. However, it was hard not to think about poor Guillermo (sitting in a tiny kennel in the "Happy Hound Hotel" amidst all the pitbulls) and how much he loves the cottage--and how we wished he was there.

(This thought especially crossed my mind as we had several kids in high chairs who were experimenting with gravity and tiny, chopped up pieces of their meals. In the past, we never saw traces of this because the furry vacuum cleaners would take care of it right away. This year though, there were certainly traces of it. Smushed traces of it after the other kids would accidentally step on it.)

One of my summer highlights, was day camp for the boys. What a productive week I had. Jayden went to art camp where he experimented with all sort of art mediums--from clay, to water colour paint, to making his own puffy paint. They even went to the museum for a day to admire some mater artists. Jackson was placed in a half-day "Mini-Adventure Camp" where the activities were so "top secret" he couldn't tell me anything about them. I did see some craft projects come home and heard that they went to a splash pad.

One of our favourite things to do was go to parks and picnic. We found some really beautiful parks along the lake shore that we enjoyed and frequented. Most of the ones we went to had splash pads for the kids to cool off on.

The summer ended off by going to a farm to do a corn maze and pick up fresh vegetables and driving down town to watch an air show.

The air show seemed a bit of a waste for our kids. They didn't really care. All they wanted to do was play in the dirty sand and mud.

Our Top Five:

Highlights:
5. Discovering a "Cold Stone" imitator 25 minutes away from home.
4. Spending time with extended family, including at the cottage. (Of course Guillermo would have to differ and say that this was his low light since he was sentenced to the "Happy Hound Hotel." )
3. Swimming lessons and camps.
2. Picnics at the parks.
1. Amusement park days.

Low lights:
5. Wasting time on house hunting. We've been on the fence about whether to buy or keep renting, where to move to, etc.

4. Cleaning out our garage. It wasn't fun, but I must admit, it was nice to see it all organized finally.

3. Brad's commute. It has started to get to him and he has just barely begun.

2. An attempt at the drive in. We tried to see "Batman" at the drive in. Since it started at 9pm we figured the kids should fall asleep in the car. Just in case the boys had extra energy we brought along a portable movie player for them and set up a comfy place in the back for them. After ten minutes of: "I need more popcorn!" "I need more candy!" "I need a drink!" "Whaaa!" "The movie stopped." "Arf, arf." (Of course, we had to bring Guillermo.) "Why won't our movie work??!" "Whhaa!" we packed it in and left. It was an unfulfilled way to lose $40.

1. Taking the kids to the air show, trying to convince them to stop playing in the dirt and sand, taking Jackson to the disgusting bathroom--twice, and then having to retrace our steps because we lost some articles of clothing on our way back to the car.

I think the kids enjoyed it, and that's what counts. Fortunately we have a few more years before their expectations will be high.

(Keep checking back, I will add more photos as I get them done.)