One Week till our Cruise!

We're leaving in one week... we're so excited.



Here's a picture and quote I did up for a post I made on the Cruise Critic forums. This is an aerial view of Half Moon Cay, which is a private island owned by Holland America. This will be our last stop for the cruise before we head back to Florida, and we'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary that day so we're really looking forward to it.

My walking lampshade

Strider has been having a bit of a rough week. Our dog breeder and vet had both recommended we hold off getting him neutered until he was 12-24 months old. Vets used to recommend getting a male dog fixed around 6 months of age, but some of that idea has been changing in recent years. With a slow-growing breed like a labrador, it is now recommended that you hold off getting a male fixed as long as you can so that they have a chance to really fill out - and they need the testosterone to fully mature. Both our vet and breeder said to only do this as long as Strider wasn't having any behavioural issues, and until recently, he's been perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, in the last few weeks, his hormones have kicked into overdrive a bit and he's getting a wee bit amorous with other dogs, which can cause other males to be aggressive, result in unwanted puppies, etc., so we decided to get him fixed asap. This was especially pressing as we're leaving soon on our cruise and he'll be in a kennel for 10 days, and we didn't want him to have to be kept separate from the other dogs.

So off to the vet he went - the surgery went fine, but the recovery hasn't been easy on any of us. Unfortunately, labs tend to be one of the worst breeds for fussing with incisions, etc., so he had to wear a 'cone' for a week, plus he had to be sedated for more than 5 days (at home) so he wouldn't do anything to rip the stitches or go nuts trying to reach the incision. At first, we just had him sedated for the day after the surgery, but he then kept trying to lick the incision, and as he had a big cone on his head, he ended up rubbing the edge of it against his, uhm, sensitive boy parts... so he was a bit tender.

Poor little bugger ended up on antibiotics, the five days of sedatives, a cream to sooth things, and reduced activity. He's doing amazing now and the stitches are due to come out in a few days and he'll be all healed by the time we leave on Thursday morning.

Here's a picture of the poor pathetic walking lamp shade - isn't he adorable though?

Backyardigans!

We took Alex to see his first "live" show and he had a great time. The Backyardigans did a show in Kitchener, so we bought tickets - we had amazing seats.

Here's a few pictures from the show.

First Day of Kindergarten

Well it's official! Alex is now in Senior Kindergarten. He's going to the same school, and also has the same teacher, so we're very pleased. It's a combined JK/SK class, so Alex will still have some friends from last year that are also starting SK with him, plus a bunch of new JK students.





I'd gone to do a bunch of clothes shopping for Alex as he's outgrown a lot of the pants that fit him in the Spring, but he's between sizes - so some stuff is just too small, but the next size up is too big. This is mostly because he's going from the "toddler" clothes (up to 4T) and is now into the "boy" clothing sizes, so it's a big jump. I'm also finding that he'll fit a 4T in some clothing lines, but needs the next size up in others, so clothese shopping is getting far too complicated for my little overworked brain. *grins*

We also got Alex a brand new snowsuit this year. Ever since he came home, we've always bought his winter gear at Please Mum (one of my fav stores). The first winter outfit worked for two years, then we bought one that he wore for two winters when he was 3 and 4. He's outgrown that one, so it was off to buy yet another jacket and winter pants, and once again... he's between sizes. The 4T fit him perfectly, but if he grew at all, he'd not be able to wear the set for very long. If I'm spending over $100 on his winter gear, I want to get some good usage out of it, so we went up to the "small" in the boys sizes. It fits, but it is a bit big on him, so hopefully he won't look like the kid from "A Christmas Story"

Korean Culture Camp!

Last weekend was the annual Culture Camp that is run by the Korean Canadian Children's Association (KCCA). Every year, they host a camp for families with kids from Korea and it's a great weekend full of lots of great times, wonderful food, amazing people and fun things to do. We've never been able to make it before - well, we made it the first year Alex was home when he was about 14 months old, but he ended up spiking a fever early in the afternoon, so we left early.

Each summer since then, we've wanted to go, but we were always away at that time. This year, we made sure our schedule was free so we could attend and we had a wonderful time.

Families can choose to come for the entire weekend, or just come for the day (or multiple days), but we choose to stay for the whole weekend. We had our trailer there and camped out with about 10 other families. As we didn't have to worry about bringing a lot of our regular camping gear, it was a bit easier to set up (Chris did it all while I was helping with registrations), and we were quite comfortable camping for the weekend. I felt bad for others in tents as it started raining in the middle of the night on Friday and it poured for hours. I'd even thought of going to get one of my friends who was camping on her own with her two boys, but realized they'd get wetter just coming to our trailer, and would be more upset being woken up so I hoped they were okay (thankfully they stayed 99% dry and pretty warm).

Alex had a wonderful time - he's still pretty shy with a lot of the other kids and adults, but he still had a lot of fun. They had a waterfight for the kids, magic shows, lots of games with the AMAZING volunteers, a fun show that the volunteers put on the first night, campfires, etc. Everyone working at camp was volunteering their time - and they are such incredible people. There were some of the KCCA volunteers there handling registrations, cooking all of the delicious food, organizing the games, setting up the Korean market, running language lessons for the kids and parents (so we could shop in the Korean market), etc. There were also tons of older Korean teenagers and young adults there to volunteer and help out with the kids and these people were just so incredible. The volunteers and other families made the weekend so great and we really loved our time there, and hopefully Alex made some friendships that will grow over the years as we continue to nurture these connections.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a movie (Going Home) that was made by a young man named Jason Hoffman. Jason is an older adoptee, and he made a wonderful and moving film about his decision to go to Korea to meet his birth mother, and also his birth sister. We were so lucky that Jason agreed to show this film at the camp, and also to do a talk on the Saturday night with some of the other older adoptees about their own feelings about being adopted, and seeking out their birth families. All five of the older adoptees who took the time to share their thoughts and answer our questions were just amazing and I was so impressed with all of them for opening up their hearts to us, as we all know that our own kids might be struggling with the same thoughts and decisions in the coming years.

We also met a wonderful family with two girls from London. Their daughters were two of the five who'd participated in the discussion after the movie and I was just so impressed with both of these girls and their parents. It still just amazes me how our decision to complete our family by adopting Alex would bring all of these wonderful and special people into our lives.

I also got to spend more time with some of my favourite people, including Zenny who organized so much of the weekend and the registrations, and Mrs Lee who coordinated the food for over 200 people for the weekend, and ran a very fun cooking class. Rachel was also there working with all of the volunteers, and Kevin kept everything running smoothly. Reverend Soh and Mr Hahn did such an incredible job as well. I can't name everyone as so many people were involved in making this weekend happen, but we are just so grateful to have opportunities such as this.

Here's a bunch of pictures from the weekend - I had some issues with our camera over the weekend, so thankfully I was able to get some pictures from Rosa Park and Allison Pezzack.

Zenny and some of the great volunteers


The volunteers put on a show for the kids


Alex and his friend Aiden watching the show


More of the show


Alex and some friends in a tree



Some of the great volunteers


Our friends' two boys, Alex and Derek


Jason, the amazing guy who made the documentary "Going Home"


The "money" we used in the Korean Market


Derek enjoying some of the Korean "ice cream" (very yummy)


Tim, one of the amazing speakers from the adoption panel


Senator Yohan Martin, from BC, came to speak to the group


Meaghan, Nicole, Jinoo, Tim and Jason during the adoption discussion


Enjoying the campfire with some fun treats and stories


Alex (with a green mouth from a lollipop lol) watching the drumming lessons


Learning how to cook bi-bim-bap


Enjoying the bi-bim-bap for lunch


One of the amazing families we met


Some of the wonderful volunteers


The kids on last day of camp


The families on the last day of camp


One of the volunteers in "tiger" mode


The Great Volunteers!!!


More volunteers


Alex and the cool gear he bought with his own money


Riding the new scooter he bought from Zenny

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.