back home and new look

Back from our road trip, tiring but a blast. Kids had so much fun and so did mom and dad!!! Have close to 200 pics!!!








Some mini-putt, some golf, some poney-riding and even some camel-riding at an awesome zoo, several waterparks and some small amusement park rides, some rock-climbing, some bungee-jumping, some luge and some mountain hiking, a day at the beach by a lake complete with a picnic and a canoe ride, family BBQS and some neat restaurants, watching the sun set sipping wine, some shopping and a new ring (yep, hubby got me an anniversary ring...floored me) and even a visit to Santa Claus. Ahhh, summer holidays, love it! But glad to be back home too.

Tried a new look for my blog, something more suited for the season, but lost lots of stuff...sh*t, will get to it some other day.

a swimming anecdote

As an addendum to yesterday's swimming pool post: the kids were racing back and forth down the length of the pool this morning. They had fins which made for some speedy races. Baby boy emerges with a huge grin and declares: "those fins are great: they make wind in the water!"

Also signing off for awhile. We are off on a road trip tomorrow: Montreal, Just for Laughs Festival, Granby Zoo, Santa Claus Village in St-Adele and then Mont- Tremblant.

Enjoy the nice weather and behave ;)

in the heat of the summer

This is where we've been hanging out lately. Either as a family or with friends for BBQ/pool gettogethers. Yesterday we were 14, today 9, tomorrow 12. Busy, busy but fun, fun.

Every summer is heralded by new milestones come pooltime. Went through those stages with big sis and now again with the twins. First it was the go in the pool with babies in arms and let them experience the feel of water. Then was the summer of kids in lifevests sitting in the stairs playing with toys. Then came the summers of arm floats and bathing suits with incorporated floaties. And now we have two cuties who like to swim in the buff, no PFDs of any kind, jump off the diving board, crawl the width of the pool, dive down nine feet to the bottom of the pool to retrieve pool toys, play with snorkel and fins...real dolphins. People ask me if they've taken any swimming lessons. Just once. Spending hours on end, from morning to dusk in and out, would hone anyone's skills.

And the best part is that I don't even have to go in with them anymore if I don't want to. So I can sit back, keep an ey on them and even read a little. Now if I could only get someone to bring me a drink ;)

Stay cool!!

how much can one cram in 72 hours?

Lots!!! With no kids around that is ;) So we pulled it off, both sets of grandparents took over for a few days and the kids had a blast. Meanwhile, we flew across the continent and had an action packed 3 days with very little sleep. Even though we had toyed with the idea, we forego the renewal of vows in a chapel for a helicopter ride which gave us an awesome aerial view of Sin City and brought us to the Grand Canyon where we landed in the valley and had a champagne brunch. SSOOOOO worth it. Back to our ultra luxurious hotel The Venetian to attend a convention, hit a few slot machines, view a few shows most notably Blue Men Group, attend a Biker's Ball where all attendees wore their choppers and danced to the sound of a 7 members rock/blues band and gorged ourselves with Southern food and enjoyed the Open Bar;), shook hands with Elvis in teh lobby of Caesers Palace, went to a very hip jet-set lounge where I felt very overweight and overaged but really enjoyed the fancy cocktails, walked and walked and walked to take in all the sights. lounged by the pool and yes nancy, indulged in some steamy hotel s*x right smack in the middle of the day :) What a way to celebrate 20 years of marriage. We vowed to return in 20 years if not sooner.

Funny thing though, after 3 days we both really missed the kids.




 

Hirundo rustica

Otherwise known as barn swallow or the lovely french term "hirondelle des granges". Nice birds and all but we've been waging a little war against them for the past few weeks. Don't get me wrong, we are bird lovers and have a few bird feeders and even erected a few bird houses for them. We've even harboured a few nests around teh house like Beachmama. But these have been causing some havoc here. Stubbornly enough, they decided a nest construction under the highest peak on our house would be a good idea. Their nests are made with mud so combine that with some p**p droppings and the windows all along that side of the house were getting filthy AND not an easy task to clean up either.

So they'd start a nest and we'd take it down with an unconventional method. Throwing tennis balls at it. After a few dozen tries, one would eventually hit it right on and destroy it. But the minute the nest was down, another one was started. The last attempt was a one in a million shot. If you look at the pics, look way up and into the nest you'll see one neon yellow tennis ball nicely settled inside the nest. Boy those birds were pissed! But mission accomplished for us. They've gone elsewhere for their construction project.