Easter weekend 2010

This year's Easter brought some amazing weather. With temperatures reaching 28°C, we spent the entire weekend in shorts enjoying the sunshine and a bug-free outdoors.

Every visitor that dropped by my parent's house was greeted with several demonstrations of Amber's new hay bale jumping trick. One by one the guests filtered through - the Shepstones, the Weirs (and one Corrigan-soon-to-be-Weir), the Fifes,... it was a steady flow. Luckily this dog is eager to please. She didn't even flinch when the landing bail dwindled down to about half its original size thanks to everybody feeding it to the cows. Do they ever stop eating?

After the dog tricks, guests were divided into groups - some received pints on the back deck and others were treated to rides on the pet cow, BBQ. Thankfully the groups were selected on age and not random draws.


Walks were a pleasure given the lack of mosquitoes and black-flies. Even the low lying swampy bits were surprisingly bug-less. And if the earsplitting racket being made by the frogs is any indication, it just might stay that way.



Finally Easter morning arrived and we all raced out to find chocolate eggs. The race was mainly against the heat of the sun before it melted everything and we had to hand out straws. Good times.

Warsaw Caves hike

Sunday morning we decided to take advantage of another stellar weather day and head out to Warsaw Caves. The actual caves were still a little too cold and ice filled to do any spelunking so we stuck to the hiking trails.



Everybody enjoyed themselves and we'll have to make an effort to return for some spelunking once the caves warm up.

Thanksgiving in P'boro

After a dark and dreary drive down a seemingly continuous stretch of construction littered highway riddled with radar guns and flashing lights we finally arrived in Peterborough. Capital of the Kawarthas. Home to one dead turkey and... well... us... at least for the next 4 days.

We had a busy schedule. Friday night was dinner with the Angevaares at Gerti's, Saturday was moe. in Toronto with Twig and Sue, Sunday was the Norwood fair and Thanksgiving turkey, and Monday was back on the road to Ottawa. Throw into the mix some hiking, apple picking, pie making, more visits with friends, and that about stuffs it full to the brim. Good times.







And yet more fall fun when we arrived back home.

Christmas Break 2008

Another year come and gone and once again we find ourselves making the Christmas day drive back to Peterborough to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. This year was pretty much the same as any other except with a few more photographers clicking away to help document the daily events. Yep you guessed it, Santa dropped off a new digital camera for both the kids and even Mommy. Having just received a new camera for my birthday, I opted for the new 1.5 TB external hard drive that will soon be used to store all of these photos. Needless to say the new toys were a big hit on Christmas morning.

Dinner this year was hosted by my aunt Sharon and uncle Wayne while the food was prepared (for the most part) by cousin Amy and her husband Will. Paula and I had some very yummy memories of a delicious turkey dating back to Christmas 2001 when dinner was last held at this address and we're happy to say that this year's turkey did not disappoint. It was cooked to perfection. Well done guys!!


snow ...... no snow
Shortly after Christmas day the rain started. We had just received a few centimetres of snow the day before but then the temperature swung up to 10 degrees and the rain started falling. By the next morning nearly all the snow was gone and we were looking at green grass and lots and lots of mud. Yuck. No holiday skiing or tobogganing this trip.

We did manage to get this group shot on the hay bale before all the rain washed away the snow. The kids had a lot of fun with Amber as she raced up and down the bales jumping over them as they lay sprawled out like cars at a Monster Truck rally.




This was Amber's first Christmas and as such Paula and the kids decided to get her a present. A nice red nylon squeaky bone. Well she loved it for about 12 seconds before she chewed a hole in it and started to rip out the stuffing and Opa took it away from her. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.


After Peterborough it was off to Bowmanville to visit friends. It was an incredibly short and busy visit (sistas Lindaloo and Jilly were also hanging out) but as per usual, it was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast shooting videos with their new camera.


Happy New Year everyone!!


This sunset photo was taken on Christmas day along hwy 7 on our drive to Peterborough.

Peter-patch road trip

This weekend was an impromptu road trip to Peterborough. Family, friends, good food and good times.

Friday night we hit the town with my cousin Rob and his lovely wife Connie for dinner at Gerties on Hunter St. Food was awesome. We all ordered something different and we all enjoyed our meals immensely. I for one can't wait to try something else off the menu.



Saturday afternoon was a hot one so we all hit the new splash park at the Peterborough Zoo - myself included. It was refreshing and fun although somewhat stressful as I had to dodge the little water rats at every step. The worst was the kid that decided to go off his Ritalin and take over the water gun for the day. He wouldn't give it up until his Grandpa came over and told him (more than once) to let the other kids have a turn. Thanks Gramps.

After the cool down we decided to go raspberry picking and then over to Reid's Dairy for some Loonie Shakes. Yummy.



All weekend long there was a busy mother Robin feeding three hungry mouths. The nest was just above the light to the front door so we got to see all the action. Occasionally we were were squawked at for coming too close to the little ones but hey, I was willing to take the risk for this great pic.



Check out the spiked hairdo on this one.

Makin' memories.