Week 6 Day 7 - Thursday, June 25th, Zoo day and a storm!

Thursdays are the Zoo days! Today was no different. The weather forecast was hot and a 60% chance of rain in the afternoon evening. It was so hot when we left we had down all the windows in the trailer (I’m sure you can see where this is going)

Anyway we headed on our way. We got there shortly after 9:30am and went into the zoo. We had our normal ‘first snack’ as soon as we got in there and waited for Lori and Logan. Today Kevin was home so he got to have some bonding time with Keaton.
Our traditional “In-case-you-get-lost” photos:



*Kyler




*Quinton

Once we got there we headed straight for the only splash park in Toronto that is open (due to the strike) and we were a bit early so we hit up the washrooms and changed the boys. Here’s some shots of us waiting for the doors to open:



*The Splash Park!




*Everyone waiting, and asking Auntie Lori why it’s not open yet.




*A peek inside, the water is running to flush the systems for a bit before we get in there.




*Kyler waiting (again an “In-case-you-get-lost” photo)




*Lo’s ICYGL photo




*Q’s ICYGL photo

When we got in Q headed right for the slide, right after his brother actually. Kyler LOVES the slide but Q just went because his brother was; at least I’m pretty sure. Here’s what happen after that:




*Down he goes




*Almost there




*Crap water!




*and he slips!




*Trying to climb back up the slide.

I had to put the camera down and run in and get him. Silly boy.

The rest of the boys running around:





























I put the camera down and went with Q. After Mommy got wet (thank goodness I was in my swim suit!) he went more willingly into things. We had a great hour in there with the boys.

After the splash pad we went for super. There were about 4 or 5 schools there today (odd with it being the last day of school and everything) so it was good to go early. By the time we left the lunch area was PACKED!

We walked over to the Zoo mobile (choo choo) and did our normal last ride before we headed out.



*Our three boys




*I Love this shot of Kyler




*Lo being a cutie.

I asked the attendant if we still go in the rain. (Just before we got on Kevin called Lori to tell her a storm was coming and Arnold texted me and told me the same thing) Their response was yes in rain, no in lightning since it’s basically a big metal box filled with propane. Make sense. I did snap these at the African stop:










We kept going but at the Americans stop (2 before ‘home’) we had to leave the choo choo. The lightning had gotten way to bad to be in there. So we all went and hid out in their little area there. It was some serious rain and thunder and a lot of lightning. We got the boys a snack of a beaver tail and they loved it. The extra sure was a *great* (hahaha) idea while stuck in a small area.



*This was our little friend while we were stuck in there




*I kept trying to take photos of the lightning. I never managed to get them right on time. But this gives you an example of how quick we were. This was before the lightning.




*And after. It was SOOO close but never right on it.




*Well wouldn’t you know it, over 300 photos later I managed to get this photo,




*and this one! Cool hey?




*When I came back under the waiting area the boys had found my cell phone had music! Luck Logan! They were dancing! I missed taking a photo of Q break dancing!

We headed home right after this and it was crazy what we found. When we drove into the camp this is what the first site looked like:




When we got to our trailer (I’m sure you remember the statement at the top about my windows being open and no rain scheduled to come until the afternoon/evening?) everything was SOAKED! I was almost in tears and I called Arnold. I managed to get some change to do laundry and I cleaned everything up the best I could. We went upstairs and got the laundry started. Auntie Kristina really loves us! She said we could come over and do some more laundry. We brought over the towels I had used to clean up and a few other things. Seriously it was crazy how much got wet! Everything from my knitting, the computer, the beds, the sheets, the clothes, a library book, my own books, manuals, everything. I was so upset.

We did the laundry while the boys slept in their ‘bed’ in the van (some not so wet blankets made that up for them). Then we went to Auntie Kristina’s and Uncle Tim’s to do some laundry and to have supper. We ordered pizza and hung out. The Dads took the kids downstairs and they got to play outside with their soccer balls. They had a blast! Kristina and I managed to get the living room cleaned and the kitchen. It looked much better after the kids were horrible in making a mess.

By the time we headed home it was about 10:30 or so. We got in and checked and everything was basically clean so we made beds and the boys went right to sleep. I hate rain!

Here’s how I dried the boys mattress and bed area:

Week 6 Day 2 - Saturday, June 20th - Mall time!

We woke up this morning to rain.. again. So Arnold and I spent about 1 hour figuring out what to do with the day. The kids got some cereal for breakfast and I kept checking things out. I was able to find a few things to do (and a million other websites for nice days). We ended up just going to the mall. We checked out the Pickering Town Centre. It was really cool. A lot of stores I didn’t think they would have, and yet they are missing some stores to make it ‘complete’.

The boys and I all got there and I got the stroller out of the back of the van. Arnold loaded up the kids and booked it into the mall while I finished closing it up. There was so much rain! We got inside and started to check out what kind of stores they had and reminding ourselves of what we *needed* compaired to what we *wanted*. There was a Children’s Place, Please Mum and a Gap Kids. All were having sales! It was so hard to not go into them. In fact I told Arnold to not let me into them!!

We were walking around and checking out things and we got some good treats:


The boys found some Popcorn for their snack (after our lunch in the food court)




I got a snack of chocolate covered strawberries. Wow were they good but $$$




I also found a book that my friend has that I love. The new version was released last year and we found it at Mastermind!





Then we came home for nap time. The boys took one just fine and Arnold picked up some of our wet clothes for last night at Auntie Kristina’s house and went upstairs to the dryer to get them dryed out before we got mould on them.

While he was up there I did some work in the trailer and caught up a *bit* on napping. When Arnold got back we went to work getting things a bit more organized and ‘usable’ in the rain! We put the tarp over our trailer, but not the same way as before. This time we put it pointing out! We gained an awning! We put the BBQ and the table under the tarp so we could do supper without rain. Then Arnold and I moved the picnic table under the Gazebo and I wiped it off the best I could and finally got to use my whole set of tablecloth and bench covers! It was exciting for me, sad I know!

Once the boys got up we headed out to the grocery store and got some food for supper that night and some for the next. We had seasoned pork, sliced potatoes and cream corn for supper. It was really good.

After supper we did a quick walk to the washrooms then back home to bed.

Week 5 Day 6 - Wednesday, June 18th - R/O Soccer and games!

This morning Arnold headed off early to work again to meet us at Soccer for supper. The boys and I hung out for a bit until they really really wanted to go and see Nana and Papa’s bus (sorry guys!). They booked it over there and found Nana still in bed. We sat and visited for a bit then I got the boys to come over to our trailer and get dressed while Nana did the same thing and Papa got breakfast ready. Nothing but the best for our boys (bacon and eggs). They were so excited! It also helped that we brought out the kites for that morning. There seemed to be just enough wind to make them get off the ground. Kyler had so much fun! We had bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. RIGHT before we had breakfast mom hurt her back. This sucked! She was now a bit more limited to what she could do. We all had breakfast then the boys went into the bus to hang out for a bit. Once we were done (BTW we ate late so this is around 9:30 or so) I went and finished getting ready and we took Nana to Shoppers Drug Mart to get some things she needed for the trip over the boarder!

While we were there we also picked up some things for supper that night. Our goal (Auntie Kristina and mine) is to have a ‘sub’ night every Wednesday before the games. I was hoping to get some serious food figured out but with the weather playing ticks (raining and looking bad all day). We got the buns and some chips and a few other things then off we went home. We played for a bit more then had some lunch (sandwiches and popcorn ending with homemade cookies from Nana). Once lunch was over the boys and I headed back to the trailer and it was nap time. They needed to sleep before going to soccer.

I spent most of nap time doing some serious looking online about the weather, calling the soccer office (that didn’t do anything for those reading), and checking to see what was going on. I finally called the coach and she told me she wasn’t bringing her daughter (she didn’t want her to get sick) but was coming herself.

We left around 4:15pm or so and headed out. We stopped at the Library to pick up 2 new books and 2 new movies for the kids. Then we drove over to McDonalds by the park and had a nice relaxed supper. Arnold met us there and had lots of time to get changed and get ready for a wet game. We left in what would have been a fine ‘normal’ time but because no one was on the field do to rain it was super early. We got K dressed for his game and waited. Eventually we got out of the car (like 2 to 3 minutes before it should have started) and my dad, who can talk to anyone, ended up having the main coach from the opposite team talk to him. He said let’s call it due to rain and so we did. We packed up and left as did everyone else there.

I felt so bad for my parents. They came to see a game and it got rained out! We stopped and got some milkshakes and headed back home. We had a great games night instead! It was a lot of fun. Arnold and I found all our rainy day games and brought them to the Bus and we played them there. We brought the kids back to go to sleep around 8:30pm or so.

Arnold and I stayed up and were watching an episode on my computer when we got a text saying to call my mom. It turns out their trip the next day that they thought would take 4 hours would take 8 hours. They had to leave super early. So we wouldn’t get to have breakfast with them but that’s ok.

We headed off to sleep shortly after to the sound of rain.

Week 5 Day 2 - Saturday, June 13th - Lizards and swings

Today was a BLAST! We fit so much into the day and had so much fun!

This morning we got up and got started on bringing some laundry upstairs. We filled up the bike trailer and Daddy got his first experiences on doing laundry and bringing it upstairs with 2 kiddos. We went up and started the washers and Arnold played with the boys and I had a nice shower. It was great timing.

Once I had gotten out of the shower and got dressed the boys were playing around on the swings and the laundry was just about done. We got to play for about 10 more minutes then we loaded up the trailer with clean clothes and were on our way back to the campsite.

We loaded up the laundry line, umbrella, back laundry line and the gazebo to hang all of the clothes and sheets we had just done! Then we loaded up the car and headed out for our day.













We were off to the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) for a Lizards production! It was for Members only. You had to register a bit in advance (I did about 2 weeks ago) and we got to look at a new exhibit. It was all about Lizards and snakes. It was kind of like the zoo but in a small area, and only a few animals… so not really the zoo. Anyway, here are the photos from it:





































































We also got to check out their new Spying exhibit. That one was really cool. For some reason my camera crapped out on a few shots but here is what we got:

























Then it was time to go. We got to play outside for a bit before heading off to the car:
















We went off to go back to the campsite. However with it being lunch, and us not having anything in the house, we stopped at McDonalds to eat and play in the playplace. Then we went to No Frills grocery store and got a few things there and then to Reeds Dairy where we got our first milkshakes of the week and some more milk. When we got home we asked everyone to have a nap. I got to chill out on the hammock and the boys watched a George movie for a bit.

This is when Arnold decided it was time to have some fun. Here’s what the rest of our afternoon looked like:







































**This is where I decided I didn’t want to do *all* that work so I used the stick that DH used to throw over the tree and made a swing!







**Here’s the real one!











During this time (since it took a bit) we managed to get a few more photos of random things:


This is the campsite next to us. They were a group of girl guides. The mom, daughter and boyfriend team from the day before just set up part of the whole group. It was crazy how many people there were!

DH and I found a caterpillar. It was great fun. I took a few photos then we shared it with the boys. They had a blast with it. Well until it moved on Kyler’s hand then Quinton freaked and K wasn’t too fond of it anymore.






Here is the ‘man’ of the house getting supper ready:





Shortly after supper (doesn’t it look good!) we were cleaning up and found Q like this:



We had a little campfire again that night. The boys went off to bed a bit easier and Arnold and I got some more alone time with the campfire. We had cookies and hot chocolate and stayed out there until about 10:40. It was nice.