Monday, July 3, 2023

Weekend: cottage

We went to Dad and Pat's cottage this weekend. It was a wonderful trip!

We went up Saturday morning.  We got there a little bit before the Nathan and family.  We played some games and got settled.  Everyone else got there at lunch time, so we had lunch and then the kids started to play.  And they played.  And they played.  Most of the time was spent down at the beach, making water runs to catch foam.



We also taught Dad Space Base.


The next day was similar.  The kids played in the sand a ton.  There were a few additional excursions: kayaking, tubing, and fishing.  Games were played.  There was a big rainstorm in the late afternoon, after we had finished everything we really wanted to do outside for the day.




We left after dinner.  It was a very relaxing trip and the kids played together well.  It was nice to catch up with everyone too.



Friday, June 30, 2023

Friday: LEGO sorting

I put a lot of work into keeping our loose Lego collection under control.  It usually isn't very difficult; 15 min/day while watching TV often is enough.  (We also have family basement clean-up every few weeks and the kids put the sorted Lego into the correct bin.)

Joshua and I were talking about something and he mentioned that when he goes other places he usually doesn't play with the Lego because he can never find the piece he's looking for.  It takes too long to build anything.

And that made all the work worth it.  They spend so much time building (very interesting) contraptions I'm happy that we found a system that works for everyone.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Thursday: morning

Joshua and I stayed out and about for the morning.  We helped Cheryl, went to the library, and got a cookie.  We had some extra time so we wandered around downtown.  He played briefly in the fountian.

We had lunch at Centennial Park before rock climbing.  The boys ate so slowly.  Also, Grey Bear snuck into Joshua's lunch.  I expect its because Grey Bear hasn't gone on an adventure in a while.
 




Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Wednesday: screenshots

It ended up being another air quality day.  The alert was extended through Friday midnight, but I guess we'll see what happens.  It was a little bit worse than yesterday in the end, with 203 AQI

I was giving a donation and the platform asked for a tip.  A tip!  I usually hate the service fee, but this was a bit much.


And a screen shot of a real life paper:  A Venn diagram between Joshua and Ben.
Joshua: kid, Joshua, own bed, likes cats.  Both: boys, family members, fun.  Dad: adult, Ben, shares Ben, likes penguins



Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Tuesday: air quality

Today we ended up having a severe air quality day; I'm not sure I've been in one this bad.  It was due to some forest fires in Quebec.  The air was more than hazy all day and it smelled faintly of smoke.  The values peaked at 199 AQI around 1pm



Monday, June 26, 2023

Monday: birthday party

 We had Isaac's (half) birthday party today.  It wasn't big, just the grandparents.  But it was special.





vacation Monday: Typhoon Lagoon

Today we went to Typhoon Lagoon!  Since we were riding all the rides we don't have as many pictures as a normal day because we relied on others.

Joshua was one of the first people up every day (and the other person went out for a run).  


We got there at the right time: a bit before the opening but not much.  There was also some shade to wait in which was ideal as it was already hot at 10am.

The start was a bit crazy.  We had to stand around in the sun for about 10 minutes and it didn't go well.  Then our party got separated (and we didn't have all phones) as we were trying to find a shady spot.  Katy found a great spot and we all found each other fairly easily in hindsight.

Ben had spent some time figuring out our plan for the day and told us we should start with the MisAdventure Falls.

Then we did the water coaster.  Isaac rode by himself and I rode with Joshua.  There were three different coasters; over the course of the day we did them all.  Banana was the most exciting one, but you could ride by yourself only on coconut.  They were definitely Ben and Isaac's favorites of the park.

After this there was a large section were we were separate from others.  There were some non-raft slides that we did (storm chasers?).  I liked the middle one the best because it felt a bit longer and went through a dark section.  The one on the left was boring and the one on the right was fine.  Ben and Isaac took a brief detour to a different slide that was only a steep drop in the dark and came back with poor reviews.  It was splashy and Isaac couldn't wear his googles.  It made Ben's back all red and was really bumpy.  I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do that one anyway, so I was glad they had checked it out.

We had lunch next.  I had packed a lunch for all but Ben, who trekked all the way to the other side of the park, waited a long time, and then trekked back.  We were finished eating by the time he was back, but just barely.


We hit the wave pool next!  The kids were so excited about this.  They enjoyed a few big waves so we kept going a little deeper.  Then both of them went under poorly at the same wave and they were done.  Luckily, Ben was coming in at that moment so the boys stayed in a little longer too, albeit quite a bit shallower.  Ben and Ryan went way up to the front and enjoyed riding a few really big waves, although I don't think they got the gigantic wave.



We found some friends at the wave pool and hit the remainder of the tube rides.  There was one that started slowly and got faster; I really liked that one.  It wasn't a thrill ride by any means, but it was fun.
Then we started going around on the lazy river.  Joshua and I went in a tube together and I was lazing it up.  Suddenly Joshua is screaming almost bloody murder...he had been stung by a bee.  I found it rather odd because the bee must have seen him and gone right to stinging as there was no movement from Joshua ahead of time being scared by the bee.  I tossed the bee away and then I pulled out the stinger.  We stopped by the lifeguard station because Joshua was still crying, although at least not screaming anymore.  Long story short, Joshua and I visited a very nice first aid station but didn't get to see the waterfall on the lazy river.

It might seem like that was the beginning of the end, but we were getting close to being done anyway.  We had our dole whips, because that's really the best medicine for bee stings.  We went down a few more of the first rides.  The lines to everything were really good throughout the day and I think the longest we waited was 15 minutes.

Dinner was Mexican.  Since we were flying Southwest, we all got two free bags.  Laura loves the no-salt chips that can only be found at Meijer, so I brought a suitcase full for her.  I had a really fun time with it. :)  (Turns out it was good to have that extra bag because we bought quite a few Legos throughout the trip.)



The kids got in the pool after dinner (slightly surprising all the adults) and enjoyed the arcade room.


Once the kids were asleep we played Space Base with Heather.