Our Trip to Ripley's Aquarium

It all happened rather spontaneously.  I wanted Nory to visit the aquarium because of her underwater/water obsession and Phil was reluctant to take the whole family because of Juliet's hatred for the car.  So, I recruited/begged a Kindergarten teacher with a "GO WITH THE FLOW" attitude to make the aquarium dream come alive!  If my girl Sara can handle 30 little ones for 10 months of the year, 2 little ones (plus ME!) for 8-ish hours should be a BREEZE!  (Love you, SARA!!!!!! xo)

Here we are at the start of our journey, post-Tim Horton's and pre-"BUT ARE WE THERE YET?!"  The start is always such a happy time ;)

Sara drove like a rockstar to Toronto and we actually got to have some adult conversations while the girls played with Shopkins in the backseat.  Even the traffic jams on the DVP or the confusion of finding a parking spot didn't ruin her stride.  ALSO, she purchased our tickets online (brill!!!!), which bought us the privilege of skipping the extra long queues at the aquarium entrance.  GIRL'S GOT SKILLS ;)

Some initial thoughts about our arrival:

1)  YAY!  We're here!
2)  Where's the washroom?
3)  Every single day camp in the region has the same idea as us, on the same day as us.
4)  GO WITH THE FLOW (as discussed in our pre-game pep talk).

We made our way through the first few exhibits with Nory saying "I WANT TO SEE THE SHARKS" every five seconds.  (How many times does 5 seconds go into 30 minutes?  HAAAA!!!)  We were all SO THRILLED when we finally spotted them!!!

"Eeee!  YAY!!!!  Ohhhh!!!!  WOW!!!!!  LOOK!!!!!!" - Everybody

The never-ending tunnel of sharks (with the slow-moving sidewalk!) was super impressive, although the girls seemed most impressed by the crawl-through tunnel before our lunch break.  AGAIN!!!!  AGAIN!!!!!  AGAIN!!!!!!!  Look at those two brave girls up there :)

After lunch (which we ate on the floor, as per our "go with the flow" motto), the girls played on some equipment, touched some crabs, awed at some jellyfish, and then shopped at the gift store.  Nory got two baby mermaids for both her and Juliet, along with a National Geographic book about sharks.  Neither of the girls slept a wink on the ride home, but MANY WINKS were had by Nory overnight.  It was a busy day for our shark-struck three year old!

A big thank you to Sara and Adele for such a fun (albeit slightly crazy) outing!  Upon reflection, going with the kindergarten teacher and her five year old niece was a much better option than forcing smiles out of Phillip, while chasing a 1.5 year old through an impossible sea of people :)

NARRATING the CAMERA ROLL...

^^^  Over the long weekend, these four turned the "jungle" in our backyard into an actual garden.  (Don't tell Uncle Dain that we might decide to get rid of this garden completely...)

 ^^^  Juliet LOVES flowers and has become quite the petal-picker.  We always find random petals in her clothes and she's often carrying one around in her hand :)

^^^  Here's our new coffee table and swivel chair.  These were our 6th anniversary purchases :)

 ^^^  Left Side:  Juliet's little hand beside Coco's big paw.  Right Side:  Nory slaying "dragons" at Nana and Grampy's.  We are so lucky to have a puppy to play with in Canada!

^^^  On a day where he was scheduled to hang out with the Nornado and I, the word of the day on Grampy's iPad was "tohubohu".  I think the iPad might be EVEN SMARTER than we thought...

^^^  Sometimes Nory surprises us and has the BEST TIME EVER playing in dirt.  I think Juliet is showing her how much fun it can be to get messy :)

^^^  Can you see her?  Juliet?  Sitting happily in her garden, doing her own thing across the yard from everybody else...

 ^^^  A sneak peak into what becomes of our backyard throughout the day :)

^^^  Our Nature Girl!  Fishing with Grampy and early morning gardening with the neighbours!  She doesn't get these passions from me, I tell ya.

^^^  The girls learned all about inchworms with Nana last week!  Bugs.  Another interest arising from elsewhere.  HA!

^^^  I love her and all of her expressions :)

^^^  Phil came home from the grocery store with SIX JARS of KRAFT PEANUT BUTTER.  He just gets me.

RAINY DAYS are (sometimes!) the BEST DAYS :)

The plan was to sit on the front porch and watch the storm clouds roll in.  But then it started to drizzle.  And then it started to rain a little more.  And then, suddenly, it was POURING RAIN and both girls were running around in the front yard with Phil.  

Once the rain calmed down, the fun continued as these three hooligans ran through the big puddle left in the driveway...

Funny that our very favourite memory (so far!) of Summer 2016 is, perhaps, THIS ONE.  You know you're right where you should be when a rainy day becomes an extravagance - even to the BIG KIDS!  (Although, I have a very fond memory of that time we found a giant puddle in Kuwait.)

P.S.  I've been working on writing this baby since 8 a.m.  You could say I've had a few interruptions throughout the day ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANADA!

After days of BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT weather, it only made sense that Canada Day would bring stormy skies ;)  Thankfully, we saw the forecast the day before and made a last-minute, nearly bedtime decision to get the kids dressed in their Canada Day outfits and take pictures in the park.  There was no way I was going to let their adorable RED AND WHITE GEAR go to waste.  NOOOOO WAYYYY!

I'm surprised we were able to rally the troops at the hour that we did, but whenever you throw the word "BIRTHDAY" into the mix, the girls respond routinely well.  And it REALLY, TRULY was for Canada's Birthday!

There's also this picture of Juliet that I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING ABOUT:

Check out that form!  That's Olympian material, right there, you guys.  GIVING IT HER FREAKING ALL!  She's the best.

The following day, on Canada's REAL BIRTHDAY, we kept with tradition and headed to Nana and Grampy's house on the lake.  For the third year in a row, we have gathered here to make a FAMILY POUTIZZA (poutine pizza).  It's an all-day, HARDCORE affair, which means I lose interest quickly and don't help in its preparation at all.  I did, however, try it for the first time this year.  KUDOS to the chefs!  It was SOOOOO DELICIOUS!

There was also a brief hour or so at the lake where it didn't rain and so Grampy and Nory hit up the dock for some fishing.  They were a big success, too!  WAY TO GO, FISHERMAN and FISHER-GAL!

To finish the day, we bundled up and walked to the park to enjoy some ALMOST-RAINED-OUT-COMPLETELY festivities.  After warming up with some Tim Hortons and time back at the house, we ventured BACK OUT (GO TEAM!) to take the girls to their first official fireworks show :)  WOOT, WOOT!!!!!!!  They both loved it :)

Side Note:  I love that picture of Nory and Phil up there.  SO DARLING.  SO, SO Darling. 

We hope you had a happy Canada Day wherever you were!  You can check out our previous Canada Days below........

Canada Day 2011 (Running in Thunder Bay with the Guthrie Family)

Canada Day 2012 (Hanging out with Uncle Graeme in Toronto)

Canada Day 2013 (Canada Day celebrations in Peterborough)

Canada Day 2014 - POUTIZZA was INVENTED and I failed to blog about it.  Huh?!

Canada Day 2015 - Two kids.  Ages 2 and 6 months.  Ah-hem, NO BLOG POST.

Since I've Been Gone!!!!! (Kelly Clarkson is AWESOME and so are all of the visitors we've had since the last blog post.)

First there was Uncle Casey, who is a member of our Kuwait Family.  He slept over for two nights (YIPPEE-YA-HOO!!!) before heading back to the States for a friend's wedding.

Then, we FINALLY got to meet BABY SIMON and see Aimee and Patrick for the first time as "Mommy" and "Daddy".  It was so exciting!  Those two are PARENTING NATURALS :)

After Simon's visit, we had ANOTHER SIMON VISIT!  This time, we enjoyed some water play in the backyard.  As you can tell, Jet's love affair with babies has continued :)

The following day, SIMON CAME BACK AGAIN (HOORAY!!!!!) so that Nory and I could join him and his Mama on a Costco run.  Although we had a fabulous time, something tells me that Simon finds Nory to be a little more.....ummmm.....NOISY than her sister ;)

After seeing Simon THREE DAYS IN A ROW, we decided to mix it up a bit and welcome our dear Mama Cairo for a cup of coffee on her way to Collingwood.  She is a lady that ALWAYS MAKES TIME to see her people.  If you think our summer is busy, you should hear about hers!

Then Bubby arrived for her 10 day visit :)  She came with a tickle trunk full of fun crafts and activities to do with the girls!  We are so lucky to have her here for so long! :)

As it turns out, the father of our Kuwait "Little Sister" lives a three minute walk from our house!  Which means we get to see "Auntie Alex" whenever she goes to her Dad's house for a visit!  The other day we got to meet her Dad and her sister.  It was lovely getting to meet these important people :)

Lastly, as per Canada Day traditions, Uncle Dain is here from Toronto for the long weekend.  Nory stole him the entire first morning, claiming the backyard was for a "TWO PERSON PARTY".  Juliet took a little time to warm up, but has been much more interested in her Uncle Dain since she discovered his superhero strength!  #airplanerides

The month of July is bringing us a bunch of new visitors and we can't wait to make memories with them in the weeks to come!  A big thank you to everyone for making our summer full of LOVE and LAUGHTER! XOXO