Camping Fun

Well we finally made it out camping last week! Each summer, we try to get to Emily Provincial Park, which is out near Peterborough. We love the sites, the beach and the very clean showers and bathrooms (well... I love them. Chris would be happy with a private spot in the woods, I think).

I had planned on taking tons of photos and that didn't happen. Not sure where the time went, but in looking over the pictures, I have one of the trailer, none of the campsite, about 10 of the dog, one blurry one of Alex... and that's it! How can I call myself a scrapbooker when I don't take some fun summer photos of Alex and us camping???

But even without a lot of photos to mark the occasion, we had a great time. Chris did 99% of the work getting the trailer ready, I did 99% of the work getting the groceries bought, the salads made, the meat marinated and food packed, and we were off! The weather was amazing, even though it was a wee bit hot (hot and sunny is better than cold and rainy). Chris thought I was nuts to have bought a new shelter for the picnic table/grill table, but it was a HUGE help. Kept me out of the sun, and if it had rained, we could have been quite comfy outside instead of being cooped up in the trailer.

Alex had tons of fun, and it was amazing for us to see how much more independent he is now. We ran into a really nice couple we'd met last summer, and he actually went down twice to visit them on his own to show them his new water gun and a bug he'd caught and put into a little bug keeper they'd given him. Granted they were only two sites over, but seeing him toddle off down the lane on his own was both scary and exhilarating. He also loved going to get water on his own at the water tap (again... only two sites over from ours). There's no way he would have done that last year, or probably even just a few months ago.

Strider also had a great time. We weren't sure how he'd adjust to being leashed at the site, or how he'd settle in the camper (we'd agreed not to let him get up on the beds). He had no problems being leashed, as long as we were sitting close enough that he could lie near us. He was a bit restless for about 45 minutes the first night we were in the trailer, but he finally did settle down and slept the whole night without destroying the trailer. He was great every night after that.

He had one little accident when he was running around with one of the dogs owned by the couple two sites over. They were romping around together and then the other dog ran a bit further away, and Strider tried to follow and ran full tilt to the end of his leash. He ended up doing a face plant, and bit his tongue in two places, but it only bled for a minute or two and didn't seem to bother him at all. I kept giving him ice cubes and ice water, just in case it was tender or swelling.

We're going to be camping next weekend with a bunch of other families at the Korean Culture Camp that's run every year by the KCCA. This is our first year attending as we always seemed to be away when it was run (last year we were in the Outer Banks and the year before, we were in Disney World), so I'm sure it will be a wonderful time.

Here's a couple of pictures of our camping trip... wish there were more to share!

The one photo I took of Alex... and it's blurry. I feel so bad lol.


Poor Strider... you can see the two spots where he bit his tongue :-(


The trailer set up... doesn't show our lovely new dining shelter, or the 'pee' tent, but you can get the idea that we're pretty comfy when we camp.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Some Summer Fun

The weather around here hasn't been the best for enjoying the summer. We've been trying to get out and do things and enjoy the backyard, but it still feels like summer hasn't really started yet.

One fun thing we did for Alex was sign him up for day camp. I did a bit of research and found a great day camp program in Guelph called Rainbow Day Camp. It's been running for many years and is staffed by some very fun and energtic (and patient) counsellors that are almost all university students (most from the University of Guelph).

Alex went for one week in July and he's there again this week for four days (short week) and he's really having fun. They play outdoors, go swimming, do crafts, have snacks, sing songs, etc.

Here's a few pictures of Alex on the last day of camp - they do a little routine for all of the parents each Friday, so Alex's group (the young ones) all did the Macarena!









Alex also had his first sleepover, with his friend, MacKenzie, from next door coming to stay with us overnight. We took them bowling (lots of fun), and then ordered in pizza for dinner. We'd picked up a video for the kids, so they then watched Bedtime Stories while enjoying some popcorn and candy. During the movie, MacKenzie's mom surprised the kids with sundaes from Dairy Queen, so I was amazed that the slept at all given how much sugar they'd consumed. We had them set up for a "sleep out" in our family room, and I slept downstairs on the living room couch while Chris was upstairs trying to keep Strider from keeping the whole house awake - thank goodness we still have the safety gate at the top of the stairs. I think Strider had a tougher time falling asleep than the kids did as he wasn't used to sleeping upstairs.



The last few pictures are some I took the other night while we were in the backyard hanging out after dinner. Strider and Alex just adore one another and Strider can usually be found following Alex around the house or the yard (and often stealing his stuffed toys and food).

Stressed out

Well, it's been a frustrating and stressful couple of weeks. I just need to vent a bit, so bear with me.

In the past couple of weeks, we've dealt the following:

- Chris and Alex were driving home from the grocery store and some lady "got distracted" and hit the side of their car. She was trying to turn left through the intersection and supposedly misjudged how close she was. Thankfully no one was hurt, but Chris' company car had about $4000 damage to it, plus we needed a rental while it was getting fixed. As it's the company car, the fleet company pays for the repairs and rentals, so we're not out of pocket, but it's been a major pain to deal with.
- After having to cancel two camping trips thus far this year, we finally had one that looked like it was going to happen. It was our big trip for the summer to our favourite provincial park and we were supposed to be away for five days. Last week we realized that we had nothing to tow our new trailer with as the vehicle getting repaired is what we tow with. Luckily the repair shop was able to complete the suspension work, so we picked it up yesterday and we'll bring it back after the camping trip so they can finish the body work.
- While doing some stuff to get the trailer ready this weekend for the trip this week, we decided to sanitize the water system as we hadn't done that earlier this year when we took it out of storage. Unfortunately, as soon as water went into the hot water heater, we realized there was a leak somewhere and the water went all over the place in the trailer. One bit of particle board was damaged by the water, but we got the rest mopped up really quickly.
- So now we had a trip planned, a car that was due to be ready on Monday and a leaky trailer and we had to wait till Monday to get in touch with dealer and find out if they could look at it.
- Chris dropped the trailer off in London on Monday afternoon while he was there visiting a client, and then we found out today that it will cost about $500 to fix as the hot water tank is cracked - and they say the only way that can happen is if water was in it and froze over the winter. We really worked hard to winterize the trailer before putting it into storage and we were sure we had it all figured out, but I guess we somehow missed a step - and it was an expensive mistake. We trust the dealership - so it's not as if they'd blame us if it was a defect with the tank. Hard lesson to learn.
- Then yesterday I went to print a photo for a new scrapbooking layout I did for a contest I'm participating in - only to find out my lovely, amazing, incredible printer wasn't working. I need to figure out what's going on with it, but again... it'll cost me money for new ink or maybe a new print head. (www.scrapping-fun.blogspot.com if you want to see the recent scrapbook layouts)
- Add to all of that that Chris' headaches are still bad, we have no idea if we can go camping again soon due to schedules and such, and we're just all a wee bit stressed out.

I'm still waiting for bad thing #3 to happen... I don't really count my printer as a bad thing (frustrating, but not huge like the trailer leak and car accident), so keep your fingers crossed that our roof doesn't blow off, or the furnace doesn't die on us.

Three-months to go!!!

Today marks the official three-month countdown to our cruise this October for our 10th Anniversary. It's hard to believe it's getting closer - time is just flying by it seems.

We'll be sailing on October 17 out of Fort Lauderdale on the Eurodam. We chose to go with Holland America for a few reasons, but key was that we could actually afford a decent cabin. We're in a Verandah cabin near the back of the ship on the starboard side (unless we decide to upgrade and move, which is unlikely).



Our itinerary is:

October 17 Fort Lauderdale, Florida (boarding at around 11:00 a.m. and departing at 05:00 p.m.)
October 18 At Sea
October 19 Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos
October 20 San Juan, Puerto Rico
October 21 St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.
October 22 At Sea
October 23 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas TR
October 24 Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Chris and I haven't really done a trip on our own since our honeymoon almost 10 years ago, so we decided to do something special for the 10th anniversary on October 23. Alex will be coming with us and he's very excited, even though I know he doesn't really have a clear idea as to what to expect with a cruise ship.

For the most part, we plan on taking it easy and enjoy the ship and the ports. No major shopping binges, and no huge excursions planned. We do hope to take Alex snorkeling in one of the ports, and do some sightseeing, but that's it. For our day at Half Moon Cay, we've reserved a private cabana for a little bit of luxury. Half Moon Cay is a beautiful small island owned by Holland America. From everything we've read, the beach is amazing and the sand is as fine as powdered sugar. The only downside is there isn't a ton of shade, and with my issues with the sun, the cabana was a good idea and lets us celebrate our anniversary that day with something extra special.

The cabanas offer a comfy place to sit, shade, fans, misters, some snacks and soft drinks and snorkle gear for the day, so we're very excited about it. Below are two pictures of some of the cabanas. We booked the Turquoise one as it's close to the kids area and bathroom and dining area, but it looks exactly like these pictures (other than the colour).




We have the flights booked (great deal out of Buffalo on Southwest) and are using our Airmiles for a hotel in Fort Lauderdale for two nights and for a car rental, so we're set for the basics of the trip. I still need to look into the excursions and ports to decide what we want to do each day.

It seems like it is still so far away, and yet it also seems like I'm running out of time to get things organized and planned! I'm sure it will be a great time for all three of us and hopefully I'll be able to update this blog somehow when we're on our trip.

New Blog

I'm in the process of moving the journal entries and photos from my old babysite over to this blog as it will be easier to update it with smaller updates and photos/slideshows.

Bear with me while I work out the kinks, please. Let me know if something on the blog doesn't show up for you or looks wonky at all.

I've been getting caught up with some posts and photos since I last updated my babysite (last Fall!!!!), so there's some new stuff, as well as entries and photos I brought over from the old babysite. If you find the photos are too small, you can click on them to enlarge them.

The last entry I did on the Babysite was in November 2008 (ACK!!!), so anything after December 2008 is new. If you look on the right side of this page, there's a list of the dates so you can easily jump to a specific month, or you can read backwards from this point until you're caught up to today. To 'expand' any of the months in the list on the right, simply click on the right-pointing arrow. That will expand that specific month and show you the posts for that month if you want to click on specific things.

I do apologize for taking so long to update the babysite but I've been working hard the past few weeks to get the content from that old site moved over here, plus I've been posting some updates from last December until now. My plan is to continue to move the older photos over to this site so everything is in one place, plus update this blog much more regularly, which is much easier here than it would have been on the babysite.

I've got a few slideshows added already for a some of the older posts, as well as on some of the more recent ones.

If you want to see any of the photos in a bigger format, simply click on it and it will open up a bigger version.

If you'd like to view any of the slideshows, here's a few tips:

- If you click on the little "play" button (a sideways triangle) in the middle of the slideshow graphic, that will start the slideshow.
- Depending on your computer monitor, the photos might be quite small. To make them bigger, you have two options. The first is to click the little 'expand/full screen' button that's on the bottom right corner of the slideshow. It looks like a little button with 4 arrows pointing to the 4 corners. Clicking on that will make the images fullscreen. The other way is to click on the photo itself and that will open it up in Flickr (the site I use to host the photos online). You will then see the "Set" the photo belongs to, along with a little icon that looks like a screen for a slideshow. Clicking that icon will start the slideshow for that set. It sounds more complicated than it is.

If you have any trouble viewing the pictures or anything on this blog, please let me know. Also, if you want help setting things up so you're notified when I update this blog, just let me know.

One last thing - you can comment on any posts, so feel free to do so as we always love to know that people are enjoying the photos and posts!

Thanks!

Picnic Fun!

Each year, a huge picnic is held in Stratford for families with kids adopted from Korea. The family that hosts the picnic has a gorgeous property south of Stratford, and they organize a picnic that is very popular each July.

We missed it last year (I think we were away camping), but we were happy to be able to attend this year. I think about 100 people were there and the kids had an amazing time. They have a pool, a playhouse, a trampoline and swings and they also also rented a jumpy castle for the kids to play in.

Alex had a great time seeing some of the friends he's made at other Korean events, and he just loved the playhouse/fort.

We are just so grateful for the connections we've made with other families who have also adopted from Korea. It's a pretty small community, but so many people are so supportive of everyone else, and it was also so much fun to see so many cute new babies and toddlers out at this event.

Alex in the fort:


Swinging on the tire swing:


A group shot with most of the kids:


The kids helping out during a cooking demonstration: