Great Wolf Lodge

Grammy and Papa took us to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Ontario. We had a great time together as a family!

Owen checking out the outdoor portion of the water park from the balcony of our room

You can't go to a hotel without doing this...

Great Wolf Lodge has a gathering every evening in the lobby where the kids come dressed in their pajamas and the animals talk and move and put on a program. Then one of the staff members reads bedtime stories. The girl who read the stories while we were there was great...very dramatic and funny.

Aiden enjoying storytime

the outdoor portion of the water park

pictures of the inside

Grammy and Aiden enjoying the shallow end of the wave pool

Aiden had a little too much fun

Owen enjoyed the little slides

We had a great time! Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Centre Island

One weekend while we were in Canada we went over to Centre Island. We had a lot of fun walking downtown, riding the ferry, and riding the rides at Centreville.

The kids took their bikes to Centre Island so they got to ride them in downtown Toronto and onto the ferry

dowtown Toronto

a view of the city from the ferry

the ferry

Centre Island has an amusement park in the middle of it for young kids. Owen had a great time because he could ride all but two of the rides...and he did!

It was Owen's idea to ride the ferris wheel....he's such a daredevil these days!

a rare picture with me in it!

Owen was dying to ride this waterslide and enjoyed every second of it!

There was also a petting zoo on the island that was a lot of fun (Owen wore his bike helmet all day...even though we said he didn't need to)

the island was so pretty and the weather was perfect

Our little daredevil was dying to ride the roller coaster

The last time I was at Centre Island was 8 years ago when Chris and I were dating and I visited Canada for the first time. It was nice to go back years later as a family of 4!

Birthday Party

While we were in Canada, my nephew Jacob turned 7 and had a birthday party with all of his friends. It was at a fun playplace that had slides, toys, things to climb in, air hockey, pizza, etc. Owen had a great time playing with Jacob and all of his friends!

the birthday boy blowing out the candles

you can't go wrong with bubbles!

Thanks for inviting us to the party Jacob! We had a great time!

Terrible Twos....the last hurrah

One of my biggest worries about our trip was taking Owen somewhere for such a long time that was Owen-proof. Stairs, breakables, no child safety locks....all I could think of was how much trouble he would get into. He really surprised us and only had two incidents over the entire trip. One....I caught on film.

We all stayed in Ashleigh's room while we were there so we had a lot of stuff in one room including Aiden's diaper bag. I was in the bathroom next door drying my hair and thought Owen was playing with the box of toys that he had in the bedroom. So, imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner and saw this:

yep....that's Owen kneeling beside Aiden's diaper bag covered in baby powder.....

...and that's Owen lifting the heat/air register and scooping the baby powder down the vent...

baby powder+2year old+ceiling fan+open window = enormous mess!

the view of the diaper bag after the baby powder hurricane

It took a shop vac..towels...mop....wet cloths...and several loads of laundry to clean that mess up!

Toronto Zoo

We've had a busy fun-filled summer so I've seriously neglected the blog. So, I'm attempting to pick up where I left off with out trip in Canada. We had the opportunity to visit the Toronto Zoo while we were there. It was colder than we expected that day so we had to grab some blankets and bundle up. It eventually warmed up a little more and was a nice day. Here are some pictures from our day at the zoo:

riding in the Zoo stroller....notice Aiden sleeping bundled up behind Owen

checking out the zebras

Owen overheard Chris and I discussing the camel rides that were available. So, he got it into his head that he just had to ride the camel that day. We've been down this road before and paid for tickets for him to ride various animals and then he chickened out so we didn't really think he would do it. All day he talked about riding the camel so when we got ready to leave we thought we'd give it another shot. Chris paid for the ticket and gave it to Owen and he just marched up the steps to the attendant, handed her the ticket, and hopped on the camel. He had the best time riding the camel and even smiled and let me take his picture. Of course, he had an epic meltdown when it came time to get off the camel, but we were proud of him nevertheless!

checking out a bronze alligator

Owen in a cage....where he belongs most days!

checking out the antelopes

sweet Aiden

checking out the animals

We had such a great time at the zoo and got to see some pretty cool animals. Owen loved every minute of it and still talks about riding that camel!

a day in the park

We visited the neighborhood parks often while we were in Canada. Here are a few pictures from one of our trips:

Chris and Owen flying a kite

We count ourselves blessed to be able to have the summers off to spend with the boys making fun memories. This summer has definitely been one for the record books!

Summer 2010

We've had a fun-filled busy summer so far which began with a month long trip to Canada. We had the opportunity to do a lot of really fun things with family and friends while we were there. One of the first things we did when we got there was go to a MLB game. We saw the Toronto BlueJays vs the NY Yankees. It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from our fun day:

Ashleigh and Aiden


Owen enjoying popcorn and the game

a view of the field

Owen cheering for the BlueJays

a proud Chris with his boys at the game....notice they are both engrossed in the game and oblivious to the fact that their picture is being taken!

I've taken 1200 pictures so far this summer so there will be MANY more posts to come! Stay tuned...