Birthday number two

Yesterday was my birthday, I spent most of the day with Clara shopping at the Wrentham outlets near Sharon, MA.  Not everyone would agree but for us it was a great day spent together.  We had one real goal, new gym shoes for Clara, beyond that we were just browsing.  Many hours later, Clara had some awesome, bright Pumas, an Aeoropostale Tshirt, a Tshirt for Leo and I bought myself a fantastic birthday dress and lovely little orange flats that match. 

We were late getting home which was a bit of a problem since Jon and Erin had a babysitter at the house so the adults could go to dinner and see the new Batman movie.  Thankfully it didn't really effect the evening plans too much and the kids all had a great time with their babysitter Sarah while we wined and dined saw Christian Bale talk funny as Batman.

Pretty great day all round. 

It is hard to maintain our blog when we are camping in state parks.  We haven't had much internet access since leaving Niagara Falls.  So, quick update:  We Left Niagara Falls and stopped in Buffalo, NY to visit the science museum there.  There was a special exhibit called Grossology (named after a series of books and tv shows) that we wanted to check out.  We learned all about the "gross" things our body does and soon after we'd finished learning about snot, farts, and poop Leo started showing signs of a fever :(  So, the virus that knocked Clara out for two days made its second appearance.  We loaded him up with tylenol and got in the car.  Our destination was Cayuga Lake State Park at the northern end of Cayuga Lake, one of New York's Finger Lakes.

Operation at Grossology

We set up camp with Leo lying in the shade holding on to the puke bucket aka the ice cream container that lives in the backseat.  We set up camp successfully and went out for food (Leo perked up for a late dinner). We came home, snuggled in to our sleeping bags and fell asleep only to wake up a few hours later with one of the most intense thunder storms I've experienced in a tent.  Thankfully the tent only leaked a little but despite that it was a pretty miserable night.

It turns out that first night was pretty much an omen for what the next several days would bring - rain and lots of it.  Luckily the weather was really warm in between rainstorms so it didn't matter that our tent and sleeping bags were permanently damp.  We planned lots of daytrips from and managed to see the Corning Museum of Glass, did some wine tasting, and tours at a couple of local wineries and checked out another Classic car show in Seneca Falls (totally by accident).  Despite the regular showers there was still time to hit the lake and play beach volleyball with some locals.

 In the grape vines

 Two little penguins at Penguin Bay Winery.

Grape picking machine

Glass sculpture at the Corning Museum of Glass

Kiddie pyrex at the Corning Museum of Glass

Distiller at Swedish Hills Winery

Swimming with the fish

Big News!  I learned how to swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I first swam in the pool at the KOA in Niagara Falls.  Now I am practising in Taghkanic lake with the fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The fish are very skinny and long and we saw a whole school of them swimming around us, they are not scared of humans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Magic

We are now at Tagkhonic Lake State campground.  We are camping here for 5 days and we have 2 days left.  It had rained a lot at our last campsite so we decided to buy some tarps for this site.  It seems like the tarps were magical because we've been here for three days and not a drop has fallen from the sky!  They are still useful; we use them for shade on our platform.

 

Tagkhonic Lake is beautiful. 

This morning we woke up and saw our cooler, it seems like a raccoon or squirrel had broken into it!  We are lucky we didn't loose much food because the cooler was almost empty.  The cooler is no use now as there is a big hole in the top.

Pig in the Middle

Pig in the Middle is a game for three people.  Two people stand apart with one person in the middle.  The person in the middle is the PIG.  Then you need to throw a stuffed tutu Angry Bird over the Pig.  If the Pig touches the Angry bird then the Pig turns into a regular person and the last person who touched the Angry bird is now the Pig.  It is kind of like Monkey in the Middle.  I played this game with some people that I met at our campsite in Cayuga Lake, NY.

Haunted House

I convinced my Papa to go to a haunted house in Niagara Falls. I was quite scared.  The haunted house was called: Dracula's haunted castle.  My Dad was laughing the whole time.  One time in the haunted house there was somebody who was copying me, for example I would say: "it is dark here" and then a whispery, scary, creepy voice would repeat my words.  My Papa insisted that he was not scared, but I bet that he peed in his pants that's how scared he was.

This post brought to you by McDonalds

All of today's posts are thanks to McDonalds free Wifi and air conditioning.  We are thankful for a place to cool off, recharge our batteries (literally) and get caught up with our blog.

The beach was hard on us all

Yeah, the beach was a tough place to leave...

But now we are in Niagara Falls and experiencing lots of new things. Most notably, camping in high heat with a feverish, nauseous, headachey girl-child :( It is okay now as she appears to be on the mend. We did manage to see the Falls and Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum before we started loosing her.

Sitting in the world's tallest man's chair

The Falls 

Soldiering on

Amelia 1, Marc 1

In Sauble Beach, I was jealous of Amelia's perfect hand stands, so I've been practicing them here in Niagara Falls.

Your move, Amelia!

She got ink done

Oh, I forgot to mention, I got a tattoo.  I got it in Sauble.  Don't worry, it is not a real tattoo.  It is sorta like a henna but it stays longer.  And this is so cool, it is Amelia's aunt Alex that did the tattoo.  She had a crayon with this special ink in it and drew her design on.  Here is a photo of my tattoo.

The Tattoo

A couple of days ago, I was at Sauble Beach and I got a tattoo from my cousin Cobus' mom Alex.  It took a little bit of time to draw and then I had to wait for it to dry.  Then I peeled it off and while I was peeling it off it hurt a lot because it was pulling on all my arm hairs!

Niagara Falls Camping

Hey, now we are in Niagara Falls and we are camping here.  But guess what?  I got sick!!!  It was terrible.  I am getting better so we can keep on with our vacation.  The camp site is beautiful.  It has an outdoor pool and an indoor one.  A playground as well. 

Here I am, sick and asleep, while Leo watches a movie.

The Caves

A few days ago, we went to visit caves.  We thought there was only one cave, but there were a lot more when we went on the side.

There's a true story about the caves.  There was a man who didn't want to go to war, so he hid in the caves and lived there in the winter.

We had to climb to get up here.

The cave is not as dark as you think.

Wiarton Willie

A few days ago I went to see Wiarton Willie!  He is a famous groundhog because every year he gets out of his hole on February 2nd to see if he sees his shadow.  If he sees his shadow it will be a long winter, and if he doesn't it will be an early Spring.  I saw the real Wiarton Willie, he was white and his eyes looked blue. 

This is a statue of Wiarton Willie.

Sauble Sunset Cruisers

Every Tuesday evening before sunset, all the classic car owners park their rides on the beach, for every one to admire and awe.

At sunset, the cars leave, only a few remain.

Tough guy

Gangsters

Classy!

My mom owned this car!  I'm not THAT old, right?

Beach Days

So, we've been at Sauble for almost a week now and the weather has been incredible.  We've been at the beach just about every day, sometimes twice a day!  Everyone is sun-kissed, sandy, and HAPPY.   The general routine goes something like this: wake up, snack, hang out, eat lunch, hang out, watch a gymnastics show, hit the beach, come home in time to make a late dinner (last night we ate at about 8:30), hang out some more, crawl into bed tired and maybe a wee bit inebriated.

Throw in some canoe rides, a day at daycamp, a visit to a country market, and a drive in movie, and that about covers our deviations from the regular schedule.

Yesterday we went to the water falls at the end of Sauble River and I jumped off of the waterfall into a pool of deep water.  It was a long drop, I had time to say in my head "oh my God, I am crazy" but it wasn't that crazy, it was more fun than anything.


Then, at night we went to the drive in to watch movies.  The first one was called Brave and the second one was called Rock of Ages.  The second movie was not too appropriate for young kids and I didn't really get it.  Amelia found it boring so she went home.  Leo and Cobus almost fell asleep but I somehow managed to stay awake for the whole thing.  At the end, when coming home it was 2 in the morning and I had to stay awake in the backseat because Leo was sleeping on me!


In total I had a great day!

The Big Waves

Today, I jumped in the waves at Sauble Beach.  Some waves were big, some were small.  Some were white, some were blue.  One wave would have covered me if I hadn't jumped.  The water was very cold.

Mad Cow

Have you ever been to a livestock market?  It's crazy!  You're afraid to scratch your nose in fear that it might be interpreted as a bid.  I don't think this cow would have fit in the Echo.

Freeeeee!

I didn't go to the beach with the gang this afternoon, instead I enjoyed a bit of quiet at the cottage and then decided to hop on Laura's coaster bike and enjoy the sun on my face and the wind in my hair.  It was just me, the road and the smells of Sauble Beach.  First I stopped at the pink and blue umbrella to visit with Marc and Adrian (Amelia, Clara and Leo were in the water), then I biked over to the Newbould cottage to see who was there.  I found uncle Frank and chatted with him a bit.  After hello the first thing out of his mouth was how much I look like my grandmother, he said I smile just like her.

The bike ride back to NewWaters was just as wonderful, a completely different experience from biking in the city.  Maybe next time I'll bike all the way to the Main End.

Fun at the beach is playing pirates with Cobus on his uncle's boat in the dunes.  Good times.

Canoe adventures

Last year, when we were here in Sauble Beach, Clara and I went on a canoe ride up the Sauble river to the water falls.  It was nice being just the two of us.  Clara talked the whole time and I never got a word in.  And she freaked out a few times because she thought she had seen a fish or a turtle swimming under the canoe.  It was very funny.

Today, I decided to make the same trip with Leo this time.  How different they are!  Leo hardly said a word.  He just paddled silently, watching the scenery, deep in thought.  I think I did most of the talking this time.  "Look at that heron in the tree!"  "Look at that turtle on the log!".  Silent nods of acknowledgement.

Two very different experiences, but in both I felt that we bonded.

Wow, we are already at the end of our first week of vacation.  It is time to re-pack the Echo (give me strength) and hit the road.  We managed to see almost everyone on our list in Toronto.  The raspberries in uncle Campbell's backyard were outstanding, meeting baby Samuel was surreal, hanging out with Kirsten not one evening but TWO was probably a first.  All in all a great start to our trip.

Laura shared Samuel with us on Saturday afternoon, he is such a little cutie with dark, intense eyes.  As with her cousin Olivia, Clara was enamored by the baby.  Leo also held Sammy for a little bit but when he started squawking, he announced her preferred sleeping babies.

Later on Saturday we were invited to Uncle Campbell's for a backyard BBQ. Clara and Leo ate appetizers of fresh raspberries then fish on the BBQ.  They were both quite impressed when Cam cut off the fish heads and plopped the whole fish on the grill.

Here we are with the car all loaded heading off to the beach!

Unique Monkey

This was the first time in a long time that I did the monkey bars.  I did them at the park in Ajax when we were playing Challenges.  Challenges is a game Clara invented.  One person challenges the rest of the players by giving them all the same physical challenge.  The challenge this time was getting form the bench all the way to the end of the monkey bars using only 15 steps on the ground.  When I got past the monkey bar part of the challenge, I couldn't reach the bottom!

At the Science Center today I learned that sometimes slaves were transported by boats in spaces as small and dark as a closet and many of them didn't survive the voyage.  I also learned that there are not many people like me in the world!  I did a test on the computer, it asked questions like: what colour are your eyes,  what does your middle fingerprint look like?  It turns out I am quite unique, only 7 people are like me!

Monster

 Oh no!!!  A monster captured me, it had huge hands and his tongue was sticking out.  Here is my last second alive in my true form.  

Vacations are for lazy sloths

Lazy sloth found in the wild.

10th Birthday!!!

It's my birthday!!!  We went to the science center.  The sport section was especially fun.  It was interactive.  I really liked the wheel chair race in the sport section.  After we came back home to enjoy a birthday party with: hot dogs, gluten free cookies and individual fruit sorbets.  The fruit sorbets were served in a cup made of it's own fruit.  For example: if you had lemon  flavoured sorbet it came in half of a real lemon.  Auntie Dorothy surprised me with a loud speaker for my MP3 player, it is purple!!!!

Tree climbing

Trees!!!   trees!!!   trees!!! I love trees... No, No, I addddore them I climb them all the time.

Clara

Day 2 of awesome family adventure

Just in case you haven't heard, we are on a 6 week family road trip!  This blog will be our journal while we are away.

We chose the blog title: Four Voices and an Echo last night sitting around the dining room table at Auntie Dorothy's house here in Ajax.  

We managed to pack 6 weeks worth of stuff into our little Toyota Echo and hit the road Sunday afternoon at around 4pm.  We'd hoped to leave MUCH earlier but  it turns out unpacking from summer camp, packing for this trip, and leaving the apartment in good shape for our tenants takes a lot of hours.  So, we had our first experience in being flexible before we even left Montreal.   Really though, leaving at 4 was fine.  We made it to Ajax by 10pm and the Clara and Leo were settled in their beds by 11pm.

Yesterday was a quiet day, we played at the park, napped in the shade of the backyard, and generally relaxed.  Clara and Leo have some recovering from Summer Camp exhaustion still to do but soon enough we'll be busy in Toronto.